Like most songs on Cry Baby, I’d say the meaning is pretty transparent. The singer is walking alone and is being followed/pursued by a man in his car who, after failing to lure her to him with words and questionable promises, chases her and pushes her down. She screams for help but nobody seems to hear her.
Somehow, juxtaposing the childhood game of tag with the heavy experience of assault or rape makes it pack more of a punch than if she were just singing a slow, sad song about it, maybe because the “tag, you’re it” dialogue comes from the assaulter, giving us a (troubling) insight into his mindset on how he sees this as a game.
The references to having candy and wanting to cut her up and make her dinner also have a kind of child predator/Big Bad Wolf-y feel.
The way Martinez tells brutal, straightforward stories through the lens of a childhood theme is just brilliant. The entire album is like this and I love it! Melanie’s voice reminds me a bit of Lana Del Rey’s (Rey’s girly, breathy, Lolita voice as opposed to her deep contralto) but she imbues it with a rougher sound when needed, like the later part of this song when her voice loses that ultra-femme sheen and breaks into a more forceful, angry “Tag, you’re it! Tag, tag, you’re it!” Can’t wait to see what she’ll do next.
Like most songs on Cry Baby, I’d say the meaning is pretty transparent. The singer is walking alone and is being followed/pursued by a man in his car who, after failing to lure her to him with words and questionable promises, chases her and pushes her down. She screams for help but nobody seems to hear her.
Somehow, juxtaposing the childhood game of tag with the heavy experience of assault or rape makes it pack more of a punch than if she were just singing a slow, sad song about it, maybe because the “tag, you’re it” dialogue comes from the assaulter, giving us a (troubling) insight into his mindset on how he sees this as a game.
The references to having candy and wanting to cut her up and make her dinner also have a kind of child predator/Big Bad Wolf-y feel.
The way Martinez tells brutal, straightforward stories through the lens of a childhood theme is just brilliant. The entire album is like this and I love it! Melanie’s voice reminds me a bit of Lana Del Rey’s (Rey’s girly, breathy, Lolita voice as opposed to her deep contralto) but she imbues it with a rougher sound when needed, like the later part of this song when her voice loses that ultra-femme sheen and breaks into a more forceful, angry “Tag, you’re it! Tag, tag, you’re it!” Can’t wait to see what she’ll do next.