True beautiful one
What have you gone and done
I can see all your moves are new
Tell me what did that salesman do to you
That catalog replaced
The fine mind behind your face
No human trio can compete
When that three way mirror meets your eye
On a slow night
On a slow night
How you would walk the fashion mile
Hand me down and call it style
Your boots were scratchy black
Your hat was just a hat
The lips on you were plain
The better to a kiss sustain
On a slow night
On a slow night
What have you gone and done
I can see all your moves are new
Tell me what did that salesman do to you
That catalog replaced
The fine mind behind your face
No human trio can compete
When that three way mirror meets your eye
On a slow night
On a slow night
How you would walk the fashion mile
Hand me down and call it style
Your boots were scratchy black
Your hat was just a hat
The lips on you were plain
The better to a kiss sustain
On a slow night
On a slow night
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!
What have you gone and done
I can see all your moves are new
Tell me what did that salesman do to you
--The singer's acquaintance/friend (or something else once thought to be pure) is completely different from what she remembers. She's been perverted by the constant cues of what is normal, accepted, or even exemplary, given by media (salesman).
That catalog replaced
the fine mind behind your face
--She's become corrupted by the lifestyle imposed by major media, replacing what was once a good mind with the same sheep attitude everyone else is content with.
no human trio can compete
when that three way mirror meets your eye
--Narcissism. Self-absorption with being society's idea of perfect. When she looks at herself she becomes enthralled, further fueling her desire to fit in to the mold cut out for her by society. It's become cyclical now. She's told what to be, and when she sees her success it only encourages her more. The peer approval is like a high that no one else can beat.
on a slow night
on a slow night
--Here is where I'm undecided about the meaning. The slow night may refer to times past, when she wasn't so caught up in the fickle and fast paced 'norm', or it may just be talking about nights when she has no one to appease, allowing her to remove the veil of conformity she's decided to don.
How you would walk the fashion mile
Hand me down and call it style
Your boots were scratchy black
Your hat was just a hat
The lips on you were plain
The better to a kiss sustain
--And the last verse is the singer remembering how the subject used to be. She used to just live life and be herself, and to the singer she was a better person then. Her plain lips were better to kiss than the lipstick-smeared version. In other words, she liked her better before she became what everyone else told her to be.
on a slow night
on a slow night
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
Set in the 1890s, it concerns a naive girl from rural Wisonsin goes to Chicago to make her fortune. She meets a travelling salesman called Charles Drouet who eventually seduces her. She becomes his mistress, and in the process, discovers her love of fashion, constantly desiring more and more commodities. It's a meditation on human nature and burgeoning American consumerism and the department store phenomenon. The novel ends with her as a successful actress, having jumped from her affair with Drouet to one with a prosperous bar manager, who runs away with her only to end up homeless in New York, while she lives a life of luxury.
Even if it wasn't inspired by the novel, it always makes me think of that story, anyway.
"That catalogue replaced
the fine mind behind your face" - The industry has made her boring and unintellegent.
"Your hat was just a hat " - It was just a normal hat; not a gucci or prada hat. She has been taken over by fasion hierarchy.
The rest is more or less self-explanitory.
Walking the fashion mile is following the rest of the world, and the hand me down would be the thoughts of others, that keep getting recycled, and the originality and self-thought is gone.
This is just my interpretation of the song, but I do believe in a way it makes sense. The model analogy also makes great sense. Both are quite valid in my opinion.
The song itself is amazing. It's even better live.
I smiled when i heard this. Wicked song.
and wat is the significance of "on a slow night" ??
i get most of the song except for that :)