Song by song: SLEEPS WITH BUTTERFLIES

[♥Mary♥]

Impression, reactions, ramblings, love! Put it all here. ;D

[Monika]

"Sleeps With Butterflies"

Airplanes
Take you away again
Are you flying
Above where we live
Then I look up a glare in my eyes
Are you having regrets about last night
I'm not but I like rivers that rush in
So then I dove in
Is there trouble ahead
For you the acrobat
I won't push you unless you have a net

You say the word
You know I will find you
Or if you need some time
I don't mind
I don't hold on
To the tail of your kite
I'm not like the girls that you've known
But I believe I'm worth coming home to
Kiss away night
This girl only sleeps with butterflies
With butterflies
So go on and fly then boy

Balloons
Look good from on the ground
I fear with pins and needles around
We may fall then stumble
Upon a carousel
It could take us anywhere

I'm not like the girls that you've known
But I believe I'm worth coming home to
Kiss away night
This girl only sleeps with butterflies
With butterflies
With butterflies
So go on and fly boy


This song makes me feel exactly the way Northern Lad made me feel a few years ago, ironically I was going through similar situations. I guess I identify so much with the lyrics because it's how I see things as well. Like every other Tori song it can be interpretated in different ways. I've realized that loving means giving without expecting, and taking risks is my thing, but letting go is hard, & even though it's painful, sometimes all you can do is let the other person "fly" let them be, not questioning just hoping that they're happy, even if it's without you. The first time I heard this song I fell in love with it, and I'm really glad she picked it as her first single.

[redcloud]

So far the best one.

[HappyPhantom]

I love how Saburbia leads into this song so when I want to hear Butterflies I have to play Saburbia first. I love this song live too. When I've heard her performances, I think it's much better than the recorded. It's the little things like the tone of her voice in certain spots that make it come alive.

[orfeo]

I have fallen utterly in love with this song.

It's warm, it's tender, it's slightly sad (those lyrics about letting go, surely they can't be entirely happy?). The chorus sends shivers of pleasure through my spine almost without fail.

And to think I was worried about the Beekeeper album on the basis of sampling this song! It's like a beautiful rich lullaby urging to me lay down in a perfumed garden and cast my cares away. It will be alright. Just float and breathe slowly and deeply.

I still suspect I prefer Tori Amos to have a little bit of edge on her once in a while, but if this is a sign of the "flowers" she can produce... hand over the fertiliser!

[Chels]

I like this song but because it's the single I've heard it too much. Of course it's wonderful still but overplaying of songs is the worst thing ever...

[asoreth]

I love this song, because it's so femine and gentle. Besides "Sleeps.." was a first single and my first song from "Beekeeper" I heard.

[Julie]

I love "Sleeps with Butterflies". It's a very calming song and I love when she sings, "I don't hold onto the tail of your kite". It's so sweet/sad, it's like she's saying, "I won't hold you back."

This is my interpretation of it:

I have a very personalised interpretation of this song. I think the phrase "sleeps with butterflies" and the fact that Tori is saying she would only push him if he had a net is a sign that this person she sings of is a must-be-safe kind of person. Not taking many risks, staying away from possible trouble, being very kind-hearted and naive perhaps. They only sleep with good thoughts and have good dreams because their life is so-called "bliss" and/or without conflict.

[Koalapupu]

Ok, bear with me... I don't exactly know where this came from.

I was playing this song the other day. Previously I had thought "Aww, what a sweet love song". Now I thought "Wait a sec--is this about cheating??" Maybe I was affected by the Woody Allen movies which I've seen lately and they're all about infidelity somehow, but now that message stood out from this song, too.

"Are you having regrets about last night... Is there trouble ahead for you the acrobat?" This could be referring to the man balancing between two women--and now there might be trouble for him as he has taken a more serious step towards the other.

And when she sings "I won't push you unless you have a net" it sounds like she's saying that you know, I won't make you make any decisions about this until you are sure you can fall into something safe.

She tells him that she'll always be there for him to find her. She's waiting on the sidelines for him to make his move. She let's the boy go and do his stuff without holding him back, and apparently she isn't too worried about this arrangement.

I thought it would be funny to have the song be all sweet-sounding and then it to be in actuality from the view point of "another woman".

Just another interpretation! I think I'll keep on seeing it as a sweet love-song between two people who aren't terribly demanding as well as this version.

[veela]

when i first heard this song, before the album came out, i liked it but it wasn't crazy love... but then i heard a live version and fell completely in love with it... i have to agree with HappyPhantom on that one -- the live version is what did it for me. it just had so much more feeling. it was so, so sad...

i kind of agree with koala's interpretation but i don't think it's so much about cheating but just being "allowed" within a relationship to spread out a bit, give space, and trust that the other won't stray too far...

the part that gives me chills is "i'm not like the girls that you've known, but i believe i'm worth coming home to..."

i think he needs his space and it hurts for her to give it but she loves him enough to allow that and to be understanding... though she wants him to come back home eventually...

and i think to make sense of the whole thing, you have to look at her previous song references about butterflies (i.e. butterflies don't belong in nets; is it right, butterfly, they like you better framed and dried?).

"this girl, only sleeps with butterflies... so go on and fly, boy"

I think she's saying that she only gets involved with people whose wings are spread and can have an individual identity within a relationship (because that is what she needs for herself, too) and so she understands that he needs to do this and she is willing to give it to him -- she won't try to keep him in a net or framed and dried -- but that doesn't mean that it's not still a sad and painful thing...

[alltheliesofkindness]

the acrobat...