I've always thought this song was a very personal one for Sheryl. I've read that there was a lot of animosity among the people who played on her first album, "Tuesday Night Music Club". Partially this was because it was recorded by a group of musicians who were getting together at the time to "jam" for fun and record various songs when the mood arose. Sheryl had tried to record her first album, but it was scrapped and the record label arranged for her to join into this group, with the intent that they use the songs she sang as her album. But they never told the group this, so they felt that their fun little sessions had been "hijacked" and several of them blamed Sheryl in the "industry papers".
With that background, I believe the "daughter he calls Easter" is Sheryl herself - she was "born on a Tuesday night" - a not-so-thinly-veiled reference to her first album's title. She also talks about being "a stranger in her own life", which could be a reference to feeling that what people were saying about her in the media wasn't true.
I have felt from the time that I first heard them that this song, along with "A Change Would Do You Good" are linked, and are her responses to all that had happened and all the bad feelings that these musicians who were so crucial to getting her career started now had about her.
I'm not going to claim that the song isn't about other things as well, but I think she's just expressing how all of that made her feel. It also works as a comment on the start of her career - always on the road touring - it's a "sea of anarchy", filled with stimulants like "coffee and nicotine" that keep her going from day to day.
I've always thought this song was a very personal one for Sheryl. I've read that there was a lot of animosity among the people who played on her first album, "Tuesday Night Music Club". Partially this was because it was recorded by a group of musicians who were getting together at the time to "jam" for fun and record various songs when the mood arose. Sheryl had tried to record her first album, but it was scrapped and the record label arranged for her to join into this group, with the intent that they use the songs she sang as her album. But they never told the group this, so they felt that their fun little sessions had been "hijacked" and several of them blamed Sheryl in the "industry papers". With that background, I believe the "daughter he calls Easter" is Sheryl herself - she was "born on a Tuesday night" - a not-so-thinly-veiled reference to her first album's title. She also talks about being "a stranger in her own life", which could be a reference to feeling that what people were saying about her in the media wasn't true. I have felt from the time that I first heard them that this song, along with "A Change Would Do You Good" are linked, and are her responses to all that had happened and all the bad feelings that these musicians who were so crucial to getting her career started now had about her. I'm not going to claim that the song isn't about other things as well, but I think she's just expressing how all of that made her feel. It also works as a comment on the start of her career - always on the road touring - it's a "sea of anarchy", filled with stimulants like "coffee and nicotine" that keep her going from day to day.