Apple Pills

[chris]

"Apple Pills" is a song that Justin wrote many years ago (8? 9?) which I love, love, love. I've long had a good first verse for it (at least I think it was), but never really made the push to finish it. And so tonight, when I should have been doing other things, I did. What do you think? I'm not sure if Justin remembers the subject basis of these lyrics, but I'm curious what everyone else thinks... not necessarily to divine what the song's supposedly about, but to feel if it the imagery works in general...

This is a work in progress.


Apple Pills

Every time there’s a storm
We retreat to where it’s warm
As she drops an angry pill
That settles into a watering hole
That’s awfully, awfully close to home.
It doesn’t seem like her
It doesn’t seem like her
She’s planted alone.
No, it doesn’t seem like her.
A night in a tree,
And an apple pill’s at work inside.

Autumn apples fall.
We bend down to pick them all
Take a bite before it's time
The taste is all I’m looking for
But the texture – the texture’s always there
It doesn’t seem like her
It doesn’t seem like her
The time isn't ripe
and it doesn’t seem like her.
Fallen from a tree,
there’s an apple pill at work inside.

(rockin' bridge)

Something fallen from my eye
Built a castle in the sky
A retreat to beat them all
Never as good as quite it should
And never – never quite as warm
It doesn’t seem like her
It doesn’t seem like her
The branches have broken
It doesn’t seem like her.
Far from the tree,
There’s an apple pill at work inside…

[ryan]

Chris,

Interesting words. I think the most helpful feedback I'd be able to offer would be my interpretation of what you've written. When writing lyrics, I sometimes wonder if I'm really communicating what I hope to communicate. I'm not so interested in whether people think my words are "good" or "bad." Rather, I want to know what my words make people think about. I want to make sure I'm not way off base, causing people to think about something that has no relation to my intent.

So, regarding Apple Pills:

Overall, I take the song to be about a guy who's taken aback by some harsh and perhaps all-too-truthful words issued in anger by his significant other. It strikes me that the "she" could represent any woman with whom the narrator has a relationship (mother, grandmother, etc.) -- but the way the song centers around this relationship, and the way the narrator seemingly retreats from the relationship in the last verse, suggests that they are/were lovers.

Every time there’s a storm
We retreat to where it’s warm
As she drops an angry pill
That settles into a watering hole
That’s awfully, awfully close to home.

The first two lines could be taken at face-value, until the next three lines suggest that the entire song will be metaphorical. What is an "angry pill?" Something hard to swallow, issued in aggression? Harsh words? An angry retort by a crossed lover? Because the "pill" settles into a "watering hole" that's "awfully close to home," I imagine that the narrator's lover said something which hurts him because he knows it's pretty true.

The refrain, "It doesn't seem like her," seems like a fairly plaintive statement, indicating that the narrator is fairly taken aback by his girl's harsh words.

I take the second verse to indicate further decay in the relationship:

Autumn apples fall.
We bend down to pick them all

Well, it's autumn. The most somber and reflective of seasons; the time of the year when we watch the world around us shrivel up. Perhaps the apples being gathered are the bits of themselves the guy and the girl are trying to reclaim.

Take a bite before it's time
The taste is all I'm looking for
But the texture -- the texture's always there

Does this suggest infidelity? The narrator is looking for a taste of something, and "takes a bite before it's time." This, to me, suggests that the narrator sleeps with someone else before his current relationship is really over. If that's so, then I guess that changes the context of the line, "It doesn't seem like her." It would mean, "sex with this other girl doesn't feel like sex with my girlfriend."

I see the third verse as the narrator's final retreat from the relationship. "Something fallen from my eye built a castle in the sky." The tears we shed today found our plans for tomorrow. The narrator, having been hurt, resolves not to be hurt again. He imagines a "castle in the sky" and retreats into it. But it's "never as good as quite it should (be), and never -- never quite as warm." He's resolved to live alone. And the final line of the song, "There's an apple pill at work inside," tells us that his failed relationship will always be a part of his experience, and may continue to shape the rest of his life.

So, that's the way I take it. My apologies if this interpretation is miles away from what you intended.

[Betterout]

Hey, Xopher, I dig the words. They're meaty. I played the song last night on my guitar for the first time in about ten years. I'd forgotten much of it. Ryan, you're an interpretive machine, man. A freakin' machine. I remember you once telling me your take on the song "Paranoid Android," which, at least up until that moment, had sounded to me a bit like one nonsense word after another. Have you ever considered a career in biblical exegesis?