Blood Roses

I would hardly call it "nonsense"

the song is about a little known New Orleans prostitute named Rose (short for Rosalyn) who was reportedly into voodoo or the ocult; she disappeared and was found weeks later with her throat cut...animals had picked at her body...it was said her death was a payback from a curse she had placed on another... a friend of mine asked Tori at a meet and greet

This has got to be one of my favourite songs. The harpsicord was a good choice, played on piano or organ, the song loses, to a degree, it's passion and power.

Now the lyrics, they're great. <3 Obviously, and not just with Tori's, lyrics can be intepreted in several different ways according to your mood and such, so I will try to explain what the lyrics mean to me. To me, this song is about the darker side of love & sex etc.; being used, abused, and mainly just the hurt and bad things associated with love and attraction. One could take the song as just about some sort of relationship; we definately know there is a man in this relationship, and he's the antagonist. "He likes killing you after you're dead." "At least when you cry now, he can't even hear you."

"Blood roses, blood roses," - there is a repeated theme of blood throughout the song. The word "roses" on it's own sounds nice because we think of roses as things that are well, nice. XD; But when the word "blood" is before, we know something's gone wrong. The relationship's turned. I see the line "back on the street now" in two ways. One, as maybe the man figure in the song, he's a criminal or whatever, and now he's out, he's "back on the street." He's back to re-offend. And two, as the other figure in the song, recovering from what's happened, She(maybe?)'s slowly getting better, she's "back on the street."

"Can't forget the things you never said" - I think this is saying "well, you could have said you were sorry, you could have least tried to make amends, but you didn't." The victim is saying, she can't forget it if he never said it.

"And on days like these starts me thinking" - It's after what's happened. She's pondering relationships. She's pondering love.

"Chickens get a taste of your meat" - I take this as a "they're picking on you to make themselves feel big" sort of thing.

"You gave him your blood and your warm little diamond" - you've gave him so much, done so much for him...

"He likes killing you after you're dead" - ..and he doesn't care. But he knows you're weak, so he persists.

"You think I'm a queer" - I always think it turns into the sort of thing where someone gets creeped out when you like them. Even if it's a heterosexual attraction, where "queer" wouldn't fit so well.. I don;t think the word queer is used as in the homosexual/bisexual way though. I think it is just "I think you're weird" however "queer" could have been used because the first line of that part is "You think I'm a queer" and so the antagonist of the song has said that, and she's repeating it because it was not only offensive, but intolerant.

"I think you're a queer, said I think you're a queer" - And she's saying it back, she's saying, "no, you are. you're the queer - you're the weird one for everything you've done. you're the one with the problem, you're the one with the obsession." or whatever. She's firing the insult right back at him.

"I shaved every place where you've been boy" - "You disgust me. I'm getting rid of the skin where you've touched me."

"God knows I've thrown away those graces" - "I'm done with you, and possibly men. I've learnt my lesson."

"The Belle of New Orleans tried to show me once how to Tango" - This always strikes me as using some sort of magic, (voodoo is implied), for revenge. She learnt more at this point, more about love and vengance; "tried to show me once how to Tango."

"Wrapped around your feet, wrapped around like good little roses" - The roses he gave her wrapped themselves around him. She's perhaps dead; this is her vengance from beyond the grave. They're on his feet, so maybe he can't move...

The lines "Blood roses, blood roses, back on the street now" after this part makes me think that despite everything, it's just going to happen again. He's "back on the street" again. Other people are "back on the street." It's always going to happen.

"You've cut out the flute from the throat of the loon. At least when you cry now, he can't even hear you." - Most of my thoughts on this are about her literally cutting out her voicebox. After that, he can't even hear her if she cries. Maybe this could signify safety, with the part "At least." However it sounds like suicide too, slashing her throat. At least if she cried after that, he wouldn't hear her.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, Oh when he sucks you deep, yes, sometimes you're nothing but meat." - "C'mon, c'mon" and "when he sucks you deep" I'd say was about sex. Yeah, it's passionate maybe. But when it's over, she knows he thought nothing of it. "Sometimes you're nothing but meat." She's not important, not anything special, just another woman he's gone down on. She's no better than anyone else; they're all meat, she's meat. Her lover is meat.

In the LGBT community, young gay men are sometimes called "chickens", and those who are attracted to them (mostly older men)are "chickenhawks".

The lines "chickens get a taste of your meat" and "when he sucks you deep, sometimes your nothing but meat" could be references to oral sex.

I think this song is about a guy who is being objectified by younger men and doesn't realise it.

most people who perform circumcisions are female. i doubt very much that an elder male would be allowed to touch the genitalia of a younger female.

The first time I heard this song I knew exactly what it was about, and each time I heard it after it became more and more confusing. It's a song you can't expect.

"You know, when she says, I think you're a queer, well, I think you're a queer and I've shaved every place where you've been, boy, God knows I know I've thrown away those graces... it's very clear that the war has begun. You've just walked into the record and the war has begun. The blades are out. And she's become a piece of meat in her mind, she's willing to cut out her voice, she's willing to cut out the flute from the throat of the loon, at least when you cry now he can't even hear you. It doesn't matter who the people are, you know, and if you resonate with letting yourself go that far to be needed or to keep something going, well, do you need another pound of flesh? What do you need, what more do you want? And that's the point when I say, 'he likes killing you after you're dead.' So from the beginning of the record on it's really obvious that you're walking into not what is going on on top of the table, the conversation with the rose at the dinner of the couple, but what's really going on in the couple. Sometimes the man changes, but it's her story. It's her, who she pulls in to work this out with, and the men that defecate, the men who can't be enough, the men who aren't ready to embrace themselves so no matter how much you like them you can't go there because ... ...they're not yet whole.."

"'Let go and love,' fuck that shit! My heart is scarred. I have a tear running down the middle of it and I'm not ready to say, 'Let go and love.'"

"So many girls will come to me with tears in their eyes and scratches all over their wrists from self-mutilation, and I'll say, 'I actually do understand the obsession to be difficult.' I mean, I was in absolute horror that I allowed myself to be raped. Blood Roses is the on-the-knees version of that, the ripped-open veins and the blood dripping, going 'Why is it my fault now?'"

A friend of mine told me that she thikns that this song is about AIDS shrugs I think the line about the chickens getting a taste of your meat refers to female circumsicion... a practice in many African tribes (I think) where the clits of a young girl will be removed by an older member of the tribe (usually male) with a piece of broken glass or a rusty razor in order to keep the girl from being unfaithful to her future husband by making intercourse painful, also making childbirth difficult and creating a high risk of infection... When the skin is cut away, it will often be thrown to the chickens.

i have always love the intense sound of her piana and she sounds like she;s cleansing some deep pain that perhaps she feels for herself and for other women on the planet. Women who love women and midwife eachother were witches and this sisterhood was a threat to men and it still is in a big way. I love the speed in which she plays this tune and the deranged yet sane look she gets when playing it.

songs about rape send shivers down my spine.

I used to think it was about aids. but I am convinced now it is about her being taken advantage of.