I read some new interviews Fiona did and she mentioned how she's realized how she's the only constant variable with each relationship that ends. This caused her to examine herself, and I feel like this song presents her as the catalyst for the werewolf she brings out of the 'super guy'. She's not blaming other people like she admitted to doing in earlier albums.
The werewolf/moon analogy illustrates how she sparks his dangerous werewolf transformation.
the shark/bleeding open wound analogy demonstrates that she lured him into her demise(decapitation).
The volcano reference is both intriguing and beautiful. Since he made an island of her, she was the 'lava that shot up hot from under the sea'. He isolated her, brought her to the surface and cooled her down but left her alone and motionless.
The chemical verse shows that they don't get along, 'you and me wouldn't mix' but she returns(to him or sensibility?) for the 'fiction of the fix' that provides an addictive, unrealistic, pretend fantasy. Their inability to mix also connects with the "we can still support each other all we got to do is avoid each other" lines since they can only get along when they're apart. When they're apart he's a 'superguy' until she's nearby and he 'gets a whiff of [Fiona]'.
I'm not gonna try to interpret the wishing well/bolt of electricity one that seems really open-ended. I can only relate wishing wells to the fictions/pretense that everything is okay/ignoring problems.
'Nothing wrong when a song ends in the minor key'
Pretending that things are okay when they're not 'major' problems, just 'minor' things that will go away.(omg get it? thank you piano lessons it's all worth it now)
In the pitchfork interview she said that the laughing children was inspired when she was playing the song as a fighting scene broke out on the movie she had playing on TCM. I think the screaming kids(originally fighting) is meant to create a sense of the werewolf as it attacks its victim on a full moon.
Here's the excerpt from the interview:
Pitchfork: What about the sound of children screaming on "Werewolf"-- it seems to come out of nowhere.
FA: I wrote that song while staying at my mother's apartment up in Harlem. Whenever there's a TV, I put on [Turner Classic Movies]-- I always have it on, while I sleep, whatever. I was recording myself doing the song for the first time, and a battle broke out in the movie that was playing. People were shooting and screaming. I liked it, but I couldn't use it from the movie, so I spent literally the next year trying to recreate that sound. I went to San Francisco for Halloween and I was hanging out in trollies recording people screaming. I would walk past a bunch of drunk people and be like: "Hey, scream!" But it would always sound wrong and stupid.
But on the first morning we were planning to record, I had just gotten out of the shower and I heard all these kids screaming-- there's an elementary school across from my house in L.A. I was like, "Oh shit, that's it." I threw on whatever was right there-- which I didn't realize at the time was a pair of pants that I was going to throw away because the ass was split-- and I ran out, half-clothed, carrying my recording thing. I was standing there looking like a crazy person, watching these kids. They were jumping with balloons between their legs, trying to make them pop. In the actual song, we had to take out all the balloon pops because they sounded like gunshots. But it was so perfect.
I read some new interviews Fiona did and she mentioned how she's realized how she's the only constant variable with each relationship that ends. This caused her to examine herself, and I feel like this song presents her as the catalyst for the werewolf she brings out of the 'super guy'. She's not blaming other people like she admitted to doing in earlier albums.
The werewolf/moon analogy illustrates how she sparks his dangerous werewolf transformation. the shark/bleeding open wound analogy demonstrates that she lured him into her demise(decapitation). The volcano reference is both intriguing and beautiful. Since he made an island of her, she was the 'lava that shot up hot from under the sea'. He isolated her, brought her to the surface and cooled her down but left her alone and motionless. The chemical verse shows that they don't get along, 'you and me wouldn't mix' but she returns(to him or sensibility?) for the 'fiction of the fix' that provides an addictive, unrealistic, pretend fantasy. Their inability to mix also connects with the "we can still support each other all we got to do is avoid each other" lines since they can only get along when they're apart. When they're apart he's a 'superguy' until she's nearby and he 'gets a whiff of [Fiona]'. I'm not gonna try to interpret the wishing well/bolt of electricity one that seems really open-ended. I can only relate wishing wells to the fictions/pretense that everything is okay/ignoring problems.
'Nothing wrong when a song ends in the minor key' Pretending that things are okay when they're not 'major' problems, just 'minor' things that will go away.(omg get it? thank you piano lessons it's all worth it now)
In the pitchfork interview she said that the laughing children was inspired when she was playing the song as a fighting scene broke out on the movie she had playing on TCM. I think the screaming kids(originally fighting) is meant to create a sense of the werewolf as it attacks its victim on a full moon.
Here's the excerpt from the interview:
Pitchfork: What about the sound of children screaming on "Werewolf"-- it seems to come out of nowhere.
FA: I wrote that song while staying at my mother's apartment up in Harlem. Whenever there's a TV, I put on [Turner Classic Movies]-- I always have it on, while I sleep, whatever. I was recording myself doing the song for the first time, and a battle broke out in the movie that was playing. People were shooting and screaming. I liked it, but I couldn't use it from the movie, so I spent literally the next year trying to recreate that sound. I went to San Francisco for Halloween and I was hanging out in trollies recording people screaming. I would walk past a bunch of drunk people and be like: "Hey, scream!" But it would always sound wrong and stupid.
But on the first morning we were planning to record, I had just gotten out of the shower and I heard all these kids screaming-- there's an elementary school across from my house in L.A. I was like, "Oh shit, that's it." I threw on whatever was right there-- which I didn't realize at the time was a pair of pants that I was going to throw away because the ass was split-- and I ran out, half-clothed, carrying my recording thing. I was standing there looking like a crazy person, watching these kids. They were jumping with balloons between their legs, trying to make them pop. In the actual song, we had to take out all the balloon pops because they sounded like gunshots. But it was so perfect.
full interview here: http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/8853-fiona-apple/
I didn't understand the lava/island lyric until you interpreted it. It's beautiful, thank you :)
I didn't understand the lava/island lyric until you interpreted it. It's beautiful, thank you :)
@lisasonoda a bolt of electricity put to a water makes it dangerous so you'd be making a dangerous wish; careful what you wish for....
@lisasonoda a bolt of electricity put to a water makes it dangerous so you'd be making a dangerous wish; careful what you wish for....