She Bathed Herself in A Bath of Bleach

General CommentBeautifully written song.

To me it's about Domestic Violence, "she thought burnt skin would please her lover, to keep love alive and lust aside." I.e. she'll take anything from him just so the love remains and the sexual side of it is put off.

"The love she sought through faltering thought"... lovely line and shows that she's looking for this love that isn't even there.

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General CommentI read somewhere that this song (and some others that Richey wrote around this time) were about other patients he got to know at the mental health facilties he spent time in in 94/95

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General CommentBest song of the album.

I think it's about a naive girl/woman that's so blindly in love with a man that doesn't see that he threads her like garbage.

"Table for two, such a sweet delight
Whispers "I love you my darling" tonight"

these lyrics might point out that when he gone too far he just makes it up with a dinner and sex to make her forgive/forget everything that happened

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General CommentA lot of lyrics on JFPL deal with the imagery of bad relationships as torture. This definitely fits into that mold. It doesn’t have the religious imagery to go along with the suffering theme as other songs do, but it definitely equates emotional torture to physical.

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General Comment'Loved bathed her in a bath of bleach'

The use of 'bathed' suggests caring, considerate caresses- therefore there is irony in the fact the water is something as corrosive, destructive and poisonous as bleach.

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General CommentI think it's about a failed relationship without any romance on his half, and the girl keeps herself in it because she still loves him. Also possibly domestic violence..

And maybe, if as Yer Ma says, it's about someone he knew at mental hospital, it's someone who was so domestically abused that she was driven to insanity? Love bathed her in a bath of bleach?

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General CommentAre these the right lyrics? Only by what others have written and what I can hear, it sounds more like:

'The love she sought through faltering thought' -> 'Violence a sad truth followed with a' (works with the next lines)

'I brought you here' -> 'I'll brush your hair' (possessivness through seemingly kind, loving acts)

'But salmon pink skinned memories took care of' -> 'But salmon pink skinned Mary's still caring' (religious reference to the omnibenevolent Virgin Mary perhaps, seen as some sort of holy protector?)

Aside from that, the salmon pink skin could be about the raw, dark pink way beaten or burnt skin looks, going back to the domestic violence and the harmful bleach. Perhaps the abused women looks to female religious symbols for some kind of guidance or solace?

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