This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I had disengaged to avoid being totaled
I would run away and say good riddance soon enough
I had grown disgusted by your small-minded ceiling
To imagining myself bolting had not been difficult
Soon be my life
Soon be my pace
Soon be my choice of which you'll have no part of
Unprodigal Daughter and I'm heading for the west
Disenchanted daughter and this plane cannot fly fast enough
Unencumbered daughter hit the ground running at last!
I'd invite you but I'm busy being unoppressed
I hit the ground running although I know not what toward
I hit the town reeling forgetting all that came before
I felt primed and ready unsurrounded by the pawns
I felt culture shocked, but dissuaded, I was not
This is my town
This is my voice
This is my taste of what you've have no part of
Unprodigal Daughter and I'm heading for the west
Disenchanted daughter and this plane cannot fly fast enough
Unencumbered daughter hit the ground running at last!
I'd invite you but I'm busy being unoppressed
One day I'll saddle back and speak foreign adventures
One day I'll double back and tell you about these unfettered years
One day I'll look back and feel something other than relieved
Glad that I left when I did before no dear, you can't got the best of me
When I'd speak of artistry you would roll your eyes skyward
When I'd speak of spirituality you label me absurd
When I spoke of impossibility you would frown and shake your head
If I had stayed much longer I'd have surely imploded
These are my words
This is my house
These are my friends of which you've had no part of
Unprodigal Daughter and I'm heading for the west
Disenchanted daughter and this plane cannot fly fast enough
Unencumbered daughter hit the ground running at last!
I'd invite you but I'm busy being unoppressed
Unprodigal Daughter and I'm heading for the west
Disenchanted daughter and this plane cannot fly fast enough
Unencumbered daughter hit the ground running at last!
I'd invite you but I'm busy being unoppressed
I would run away and say good riddance soon enough
I had grown disgusted by your small-minded ceiling
To imagining myself bolting had not been difficult
Soon be my life
Soon be my pace
Soon be my choice of which you'll have no part of
Unprodigal Daughter and I'm heading for the west
Disenchanted daughter and this plane cannot fly fast enough
Unencumbered daughter hit the ground running at last!
I'd invite you but I'm busy being unoppressed
I hit the ground running although I know not what toward
I hit the town reeling forgetting all that came before
I felt primed and ready unsurrounded by the pawns
I felt culture shocked, but dissuaded, I was not
This is my town
This is my voice
This is my taste of what you've have no part of
Unprodigal Daughter and I'm heading for the west
Disenchanted daughter and this plane cannot fly fast enough
Unencumbered daughter hit the ground running at last!
I'd invite you but I'm busy being unoppressed
One day I'll saddle back and speak foreign adventures
One day I'll double back and tell you about these unfettered years
One day I'll look back and feel something other than relieved
Glad that I left when I did before no dear, you can't got the best of me
When I'd speak of artistry you would roll your eyes skyward
When I'd speak of spirituality you label me absurd
When I spoke of impossibility you would frown and shake your head
If I had stayed much longer I'd have surely imploded
These are my words
This is my house
These are my friends of which you've had no part of
Unprodigal Daughter and I'm heading for the west
Disenchanted daughter and this plane cannot fly fast enough
Unencumbered daughter hit the ground running at last!
I'd invite you but I'm busy being unoppressed
Unprodigal Daughter and I'm heading for the west
Disenchanted daughter and this plane cannot fly fast enough
Unencumbered daughter hit the ground running at last!
I'd invite you but I'm busy being unoppressed
Lyrics submitted by merchantpierce
Unprodigal Daughter Lyrics as written by Alanis Morissette
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Hi, Unprodigalvic --
To 'saddle back', very loosely, means to return. (Like an old cowboy saddles up to the bar in a saloon... Even if he's a stranger in town, but walks in confidently, showing no fear or concern).
So, for the song: To kind of casually stop in, sit down, and in a very relaxed but upbeat way tell (her mother, I've always presumed) all about the myriad experiences she's enjoyed out in the world...things her mother had told her she could not or should not do. So, not necessarily an overtly confrontational visit. But, also not assuming the posture of a prodigal child (i.e., one who went out into the world foolishly or without proper planning, and now needs to return home, hat in hand, prepared to grovel and beg their parents' forgiveness, <financial> support, etc).
In 'saddling back', she would be an adult coming round for a visit, more on terms of being equals with this parent (although, not necessarily in a disrespectful way)... An adult offspring who is indirectly saying, "hey, that life you said I couldn't or shouldn't live... well, I'm living it, loving it, thriving in it... And, you just couldn't have been more wrong". I picture her saying such with a lilt and a laugh... imaging herself very much more worldly and sophisticated than the more matronly mom who could only envisage the same life for her daughter in the latter's youth.
{Sorry this explanation is longer than the song, lol! I just love her, and her lyrics are very visual for me. ;) }