Ampersand

Dear God. this is the song she played solo when i saw them in april. she called it ten percent then. it was amazing, beautiful, witty...it had me in a bit of a reverie and so i mised most of the words at the time. my heart skipped several beats when i recognised the opening lines just now. where did you get the lyrics for this? if you have a recording, i will love you forever if you share it with me.

This is....beautiful to say the least. I really hope they play it this November, because when I saw them in May I dont think they did, you're very lucky espionage. I don't know any exact meaning but I supose it is some sort of self-reference. I love it, and find my own way to relate as usual. It lyrically reminds me of Girl Anachronism, accidents and such. Love me: http://www.wwwiii2.org/kevinmp3s/ampersand.mp3 This is where I got mine from. More than possibly the best band on the planet, it's great they're finally getting the attention they deserve so badly. Hopefully lots of riches too. xxx

thankyou. thankyou, thankyou, thankyou blackskieslullaby. i do love you. i'm shaking all over after listening to that. by the way, anyone who reads my 1st comment, ignore the 'ten percent' bit. i went away, calmed myself down and came to the conclusion that it was just me not having heard the word ampersand before and consequently turning it into a word i did know. when you say it in an amanda accent it sounds a little like 'empersent'. hence the misinterpretation.(i now know that an ampersand is an 'and sign', &) also i saw them in may not april but that doesnt matter really.

to me, the "fires" are break-ups, arguments, and the emotion that goes with them, so "flame-retardant" is not being affected by that. "...question how authentic they are/... "She just likes playing hospital"", maybe to do with people accusing her of being melodramatic and exaggerating her emotional wounds, and that she is becoming half convinced they are right... you're right, there are echoes of 'girl anachronism'.

To me, the part about "playing hospital" and questioning how authentic the wounds are seems like it may be about self injury. This is a common theme in Amanda's songs (Bad Habit, for example), and it seems as if it may hold true here, as well, even if in a minor way. It seems that she's been trying to pass off the wounds as accidents, and someone (probably someone she's "with") sees right through it.

ahh i have had a spot of realisation methinks.

I reckon this song is about being single and Im not sure exactly what her opinion on that is. For me the playing hospital is relationships in the sense of someone always getting into bad ones or getting upset over things. The headstones is just damning the relationship, his and hers is like the marraige and how its all done down even how they die together, no fun. So she aint living her life on the other side of an "&". Hmm maybe joint suicide?

I dont exactly know but for me its relationships.

this song is beautiful...

I think amanda is talking about being with someone who always threatens to hurt his/herself

when she says "That if I didn't love you then you had just one alternative" reminds me the most of it-because I used to have a boyfriend that would threaten to kill himself if I ever left him. "alternative" meaning death.

"And I may be romantic and I may risk my life for it But I ain't gonna die for you, you know I ain't no Juliet"

it reminds me of how I finally just gave up-and said, "go ahead and kill yourself if thats what you want. But i wouldn't die for you just because i can't have you"

there's a video of her playing this on her myspace page too. i can't remember the link, but there's one off the regular dresden dolls page.

i think its amanda's personal page that the link is on

i think she's referring to romeo & juliet. "No, I'm just gonna watch you, 'cause I'm not the one that's crazy" romeo and juliet were married after about three or four days after meeting. they died about a week after they first met. she's probably refering to the fact that she can't fall in love with someone so quickly to the point where she would die for them. "Your eyes full of ketchup, it's nice that you're trying" sometimes people use ketchup as fake blood. maybe he wanted to make her feel bad. juliet is always on the other side of the ampersand in the title of the play. maybe she doesn't want to always be second?

this is my favorite song by her. :3

My guess is that it has something to do with Romeo & Juliet. I think that what she means by not living on one side of an ampersand is that she doesn't want to forever be known as part of a duet. For instance, most people hear Juliet and think Romeo & Juliet, not just Juliet.