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Unsent Lyrics
Dear Matthew I like you a lot I realize you're in a relationship
With someone right now and I respect
That I would like you to know that if you're ever single
In the future and you want to come visit me in California
I would be open to spending time with you and finding
Out how old you were when you wrote your first song
Dear Jonathan I liked you too much I used to be attracted to boys
Who would lie to me and think solely about themselves and you
Were plenty self-destructive for my taste at the time I used to say
The more tragic the better the truth is whenever I think of the early 90's
Your face comes up with a vengeance like it was yesterday
Dear Terrance I love you muchly you've been nothing
But open hearted and emotionally available and supportive
And nurturing and consummately there for me I kept drawing you in
And pushing you away I remember how beautiful it was to fall asleep
On your couch and cry in front of you for the first time you
Were the best platform from which to jump beyond myself what
Was wrong with me
Dear Marcus you rocked my world you had a charismatic way
About you with the women and you got me
Seriously thinking about spirituality and you wouldn't let me get away
With kicking my own ass but I could never really feel relaxed and looked tough
Around you though and that stopped us from going any further
Than we did and it's kinda too bad because we could've had much more fun
Dear Lou we learned so much I realize we won't be able to talk for some time
And I understand that as I do you
The long distance thing was the hardest and we did as well as we could
We were together during a very tumultuous time
In our lives I will always have your back and be curious about you
About your career about your whereabouts
I love it how this song shows that more than one person can mean a lot to you. Everybody can be special to you and your life in their own way.
I think the most important part of the song hasn't been mentioned- the title "unsent"- these are all things she feels toward her exes but would never have the balls to actually say to them.
As LE7 said, these are things that Alanis had in her head but never had the courage to express, so she wrote this song. Before releasing it, she called all of them and asked them if it was ok to mention them and most of them didn't know that Alanis had had feelings for them.
I didn't make that up, she told it on VH1 Storytellers.
"dear Nathan, we learned so much I realize we won't be able to talk for some time and I understand that as I do you the long distance thing was the hardest and we did as well as we could we were together during a very tumultuous time in our lives I will always have your back and be curious about you and your career your whereabouts"
This is the type of thing i would say an x that when we broke up it wasn't for the wrong reasons!
i love this song. every guy shes talking about i can place somewhere in my life. especially 'jonathon' unfortunately
Si alguna vez recibiera una carta de Alanis como alguna de estas, le darÃa una segunda oportunidad sin dudarlo... aunque tendrÃa que cambiar y mucho, jejeje
This song is brilliant as is the video. There's a nice range of emotion here.
Jonathan is someone whom I think a lot of us have come across at some point in our lives.
As someone who has let a couple of good ones go for selfish reasons, "You were the best platform from which to jump beyond myself. What was wrong with me?" really hits hard with me too.
This is my favorite Alanis song - as others have mentioned, the raw emotion is both sad and moving. I'm glad someone mentioned one of the guys in the song -- if the "Matthew" line was written to Dave Matthews, that would be really cool. It certainly fits.
I know she wrote "Jagged Little Pill" mostly about her relationship with Dave Cloutier (yes, the Full House guy). I wonder if one of the stanzas in Unsent is about him. Could the last one, "Lou," be a shortening of cLOUtier? It would sort of fit, contextually. And if she's using her exes' last names to be anonymous (ie. Matthew = Dave Matthews), that would make some sense. Of course, she's no longer bad-mouthing him like in JLP, but she does admit that it was a tumultuous time... Also, she was living in Canada, while he was filming Full House in California, right? So the Long Distance thing works, too. Hm. I wonder... anyone else have any light to she on this, or any of the other, guys?
Well actually i found that this song was quite interesting because i could relate all of the men she writes to in this song to men in my life. And the wierd part is that ALL of the men in the songs names have the first letter the same as the men in my life. I'll explain Matthew-Mark Johnathan-Jared Terrance-Tommy Marcus-Matthew Lou-Lee when i heard it i just new right away, it is anamazing song
also, i was just wondering if you could relate other songs to the men she writes to in unsent im figuring that You Oughta Know is about Johnathan, im just guessing tho...
that's really interesting about the dave matthews theory- it would make sense. Like was previously mentioned, i too can relate to some of the lines- particularly the verse about "jonothan" - "used to be attracted to guys who would lie to me", "plenty self destructive for my taste at the time" "the more tragic the better", I think loads of people have been like that at some point. One of her best songs- i never get tired of it.