The lyrics are wrong. At the end, he says, "I can't stand the way you look at me in that dress... oh papillon, i might be alright, I guess."
Papillon sounds like it's just a nickname for the girl to whom, and about whom, he's singing. It doesn't necessarily harbor a deeper meaning. You can search for deeper meaning--like, it means butterfly in French--but I doubt there was much. As brilliant and creative as he is, I doubt he would both use that word in the song and name the song after the word unless it had a meaning that both he and the girl could recognize. I mean, listen to the song. It's angry as hell. He is clearly singing this so that the girl can hear it and feel bad about it. He's trying to remind her of how great they had it by throwing in his old nickname for her.
It's an incredible song. And live, it's even better.
The lyrics are wrong. At the end, he says, "I can't stand the way you look at me in that dress... oh papillon, i might be alright, I guess."
Papillon sounds like it's just a nickname for the girl to whom, and about whom, he's singing. It doesn't necessarily harbor a deeper meaning. You can search for deeper meaning--like, it means butterfly in French--but I doubt there was much. As brilliant and creative as he is, I doubt he would both use that word in the song and name the song after the word unless it had a meaning that both he and the girl could recognize. I mean, listen to the song. It's angry as hell. He is clearly singing this so that the girl can hear it and feel bad about it. He's trying to remind her of how great they had it by throwing in his old nickname for her.
It's an incredible song. And live, it's even better.