Singalong! Paper Bag by Fiona Apple

Back in my teenage-sadness years, I spent a lot of time hanging out with Fiona Apple.  She had the perfect mix of angst and clever poetry, wrapped up in a not-quite-perfect voice with a lot of feelings inside it.  Just what I needed. This song, in particular, grabbed my little heart and didn't let go. Something about that terrible, sad moment of disappointment encapsulated so well in what you thought was a dove, but was actually just a paper bag floating in the wind. I also LOVE the lines "he said 'it's all in your head', and I said, 'so's everything', but he didn't get it." It's just the best little succinct summation of the fact that everything we experience is in our heads because it's all filtered through (and often altered by) our minds, and so nothing is really objective and saying that something is all in your head doesn't write off the experience, it's just stating the fact of how we go through and understand life.

PAPER BAG

by Fiona Apple

I was staring at the sky, just looking for a star

To pray on, or wish on, or something like that

I was having a sweet fix of a daydream of a boy

Whose reality I knew, was a hopeless to be had

But then the dove of hope began its downward slope

And I believed for a moment that my chances

Were approaching to be grabbed

But as it came down near, so did a weary tear

I thought it was a bird, but it was just a paper bag

Hunger hurts, and I want him so bad, oh it kills

'Cause I know I'm a mess he don't wanna clean up

I got to fold 'cause these hands are too shaky to hold

Hunger hurts, but starving works, when it costs too much to love

And I went crazy again today, looking for a strand to climb

Looking for a little hope

Baby said he couldn't stay, wouldn't put his lips to mine,

And a fail to kiss is a fail to cope

I said, 'Honey, I don't feel so good, don't feel justified

Come on put a little love here in my void,' he said

'It's all in your head,' and I said, 'So's everything'

But he didn't get it I thought he was a man

But he was just a little boy

Hunger hurts, and I want him so bad, oh it kills

'Cause I know I'm a mess he don't wanna clean up

I got to fold 'cause these hands are too shaky to hold

Hunger hurts, but starving works, when it costs too much to love