Siren

[Chilly]

i have it on repeat for days now... i just can't get enough of it... so what's your interpretation of "Siren"?

SIREN

And you know you're gonna lie to you
In your own way
And you know you're gonna lie to you
In your own way

And I lie some other day
You do
And you say girl
Know too well
Know the chill
Know she breaks
My siren
Know teenage flesh
Know the chill
Know she breaks
My siren

Never was one for a prissy girl
Coquette call in for an ambulance
Reach high, doesn't mean she's holy
Just means she's got a cellular handy
Almost brave, almost pregnant
Almost in love
Vanilla
Vanilla

And you know you're gonna lie to you
In your own way
And you know you're gonna lie to you
In your own way

And you don't need the light on
To guide you through the southern lands
Go said go, yes

[Koalapupu]

Hi Ana! This is one of the songs I'd really like to know what's going on in it. I love it, it's so powerful: melodically, rhythmically and lyrically (are those real words...). I think in my version of this she sings different lyrics, but I'll 'work' with yours!

My interpretation... I'll try! In a short way.

And you know you're gonna lie to you
In your own way
Here's a person, who might be oblivious to things, who might not want to face the truth or consequences. She fools herself by telling herself that she's doing the right thing.

And I lie some other day/ You do/ And you say girl/ Know too well/ Know the chill/ Know she breaks My siren
Know teenage flesh/ Know the chill/ Know she breaks/ My siren
Uh not so sure about this. Here we could have two girls, teenage friends, experiencing a first real close friendship with everything that comes along with it: the white and bigger lies, the closeness, the changing of bodies. The Siren... dunno about that. Breaking her power to make boys fall in love as the other girl is the winner in that field. What do you think? It also could be that it's two sides in one girl: a teenager who's still a girl but who has this siren growing inside her...

Never was one for a prissy girl/ Coquette call in for an ambulance/ Reach high, doesn't mean she's holy/ Just means she's got a cellular handy
Almost brave, almost pregnant/ Almost in love/ Vanilla
A description of this girl who's able to break the other one's Siren: she's assertive, sexual (coquette). Have no clue of the ambulance bit except that it feels powerful for me. Maybe in her "wildness" she's also hurt herself but still stands tall. She's ambitious (reach high) and has connections. She's still a girl though, not an adult - she might have risky sex (almost pregnant but somehow avoided it) and has almost fallen in love but not quite yet. A girl who isn't afraid of taking risks.

And you don't need the light on
To guide you through the southern lands
Go said go, yes

Here the other one approves of this girl (or the person lets her settle in inside her being). She's self-reliant and knows what she's doing, and the other one is encouraging this friend to go ahead and follow her dreams and her ambitions....

Sounding too far fetched? Tell me your take on it!

[Chilly]

man! i just love reading your interpretations.. i like how your mind works ;D

actually i don't have a clue what the song is about.. that's why i asked you...

although for some strange reason i thought that the song may be about an accident... car accident... don't know why.. but that's the first thing that came to my mind when i heard the song...

btw what does "prissy" mean?

[Koalapupu]

Thanks Girly!

This is something I took out of a dictionary for Prissy:
"Excessively or affectedly prim and proper". It reminds me always of some Jane Austen characters: these girls whose only hobby would be like knitting and they'd never talk back. Nowadays it would be someone who goes "Ewwww" when... I dunno, talking about sex or hearing curse words. Haha hope that helps you.

Hey I think that my first impression of the song was that it was involving an accident as well, but when I started to go into it, it kinda changed in my mind. But I can see the accident aspect especially in the "Never was one..." chorus. Like, an accident happened and now her life is on hold until we get to know how she pulls through: almost brave, almost pregnant, almost in love.

This song is great. Too bad I only have really crappy quality live-versions of it, but some of them still kick ass so much...

[Chilly]

i got my "siren" just few days ago (on friday)... and it's a good quality one.. too bad you don't live closer so i could borrow it to you... ;D although you DO live close...you're probably the closest member to me.. i mean finland is definitely closer to croatia than u.s.a so you could drop by and i'll give it to you

maybe the meaning of the song will change for me too in time... but right now i'm still on this accident thing...

but i like your interpretation too... i really do... you're one smart chick

oh yeah, one more thing: "know the chill" part makes me think of the chill, the cold that you feel moments before you die...

and "you don't need the light on to guide you through the southern land"... ummm... the light that guides you makes me think of the light at the end of the tunel that dying people see... but i'm not sure that even I agree with myself on that guiding-light-part...lol cause it doesn't really make sense...lol but that's just the first thing that popped in my head when i heard that part...

[wisewoman]

Hi there,
I think 'You dont need the light on to guide you through her southern lands' is a sexual reference.
I think this could be interpreted as maybe two women - a woman knows a womans body right - hence no light needed - OR i guess it could be about a man who knows 'her' well - so he doesnt need the light on either..
Just my thoughts..
Melissa

[Julie]

Here's Tori's description of it:

"The whole thing about Siren was I was asked to um, do this music to this film, Great Expectations. And um, when I saw the rough cut of the movie it was a bit of a different thing than it ended up to be. But point is, the scene that they asked me to do, um, when I first saw it, I was on the water and my concept of his character um, who was Ethan Hawke playing the part of -- they call it Finn in the movie. But it's Pip, right? That's the correct Great Expectations person. Anyway, I felt like those guys were on a boat fishing. And uh, they had had this grunge music there -- being a manly kind of thing and I'm like, screw that, that's ridiculous. If you're gonna do a manly thing on the water, go Polynesian, 800 years ago. Go into the sirens and do it correctly. I mean the Miller time and all the baited worms all this stuff from the great tackle shop -- blow that. Go and find the sirens, make your sacrifice, cut off a toe, do what you're supposed to. Be good guys. So I decided that it would make his character a bit more enriching if um, there was this mythological element of the sea creatures."
-- Tori; KFOG 104.5FM - Berkeley, CA, 10/8/99

"I didn't enjoy doing Great Expectations in the end because it got politically weird and people weren't forthright anymore. and, you have to understand something, having a studio tell me what to do after we'd made an agreement isn't what I considered having integrity. So, in my world, we have a team of people and we talk about things and we make decisions based on the creativity. And we sometimes have our hiccups and stuff, but musicians are sometimes just extraneous for film people and I don't see writing songs as extraneous. Obviously, it's not the center of the film, but there needs to be a level of respect and some film people forget that. When I remind them of that, they seemed quite shocked. When in actuality, I call it just bad manners."
-- Tori; AOL Chat, 09/29/99

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: Siren - Tori Amos

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