Songwriters often compose a first draft of their lyrics that is deeply personal, and sometimes this may strike the listener as offensive, or perhaps the censors as inappropriate.
I think this is one of those instances. Consider the lyrics:
Your love is thick and it swallowed me whole
You're so much braver than I gave you credit for
That's not lip service
Doesn't make all that much sense right away. Seems kind of retroverted like an ee cummings poem, right? Well, actually it probably is about "lip service", because she hints about him reciprocating on her and "holding your breath" in the next lyric. Following this with joyful harmonicas pulsating back and forth and it's pretty clear what's going on. Shift around some pronouns and fill in the blank (since "love" is often used as a stand-in for certain other words in pop music) and you get:
Your **** is thick, and I swallowed it whole
I'm so much braver than you gave me credit for.
Best friend with benefits, indeed.
Alanis isn't afraid to sing about raw sexuality, but I think with this song she or one of her producers realized she took it a little too far with her original lyrics for the 1990s.
Songwriters often compose a first draft of their lyrics that is deeply personal, and sometimes this may strike the listener as offensive, or perhaps the censors as inappropriate.
I think this is one of those instances. Consider the lyrics:
Your love is thick and it swallowed me whole You're so much braver than I gave you credit for That's not lip service
Doesn't make all that much sense right away. Seems kind of retroverted like an ee cummings poem, right? Well, actually it probably is about "lip service", because she hints about him reciprocating on her and "holding your breath" in the next lyric. Following this with joyful harmonicas pulsating back and forth and it's pretty clear what's going on. Shift around some pronouns and fill in the blank (since "love" is often used as a stand-in for certain other words in pop music) and you get:
Your **** is thick, and I swallowed it whole I'm so much braver than you gave me credit for.
Best friend with benefits, indeed.
Alanis isn't afraid to sing about raw sexuality, but I think with this song she or one of her producers realized she took it a little too far with her original lyrics for the 1990s.