Periphery Lyrics

Lyric discussion by badpriestesss 

Cover art for Periphery lyrics by Fiona Apple

this song is about a dude who became distracted by the vapid (but fun) people and things in his (and Fiona's) social periphery - but!

she alludes to horses/horse racing a lot in the song - I can't believe no one has mentioned it yet

periphery = horses wear blinders so that they don't get distracted by whats going on in their peripheral vision

bite to bear = a horse bit is placed in the mouth to control the animal

celebrate your name = racing horse names are silly

have 'em forge you a pedigree = a pedigree is "the record of descent of an animal, showing it to be purebred"

run the races lame = ...

I don't appreciate people who don't appreciate = not sure about the horse thing, but I think she might be using "appreciate" to mean "increase/improve value with time"

You let me down = losing the bet (or maybe putting a horse down?)

More even-tempered air = he went for a calm, well behaved animal rather than a wild horse

Good family man = I think Family Man was the name of a horse in the Kentucky Derby years ago

I don't really know anything about horses but I was listening yesterday (for the thousandth time) and the horse thing really stuck out to me.

Song Meaning