Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / The 'Jagged Little Pill' Singles: Behind The Hits [Highlight From Episode 298]

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The 'Jagged Little Pill' Singles: Behind The Hits [Highlight From Episode 298] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's go through the album's six singles. The album opens
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: with All I Really Want. It was the last song
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: written for the album. Glenn Ballad says, Alanis was really
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: spent by the time they put this song. Together.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. But that line about the sweater, you know,
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: the backwards inside out. They just thought that that was
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: a great opening to the album because that really was
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: like the question leading into the rest of the album
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: to come.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: The lead single from the album's track Too You Ought
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: to Know. A couple famous musicians appear on the track,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Dave Navarre on guitar, Flee on bass. Were they in
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the same studio at the time this was? I can't
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: remember the story. There was some connection.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was actually through Guio Siri, who knew he
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: was part of Maverick, so he knew Lee and Dave Redhutchley.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Peppers went not on two at the time, and I
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: think the idea was they were really trying to figure
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: out where to kind of pivot or put Alanis. You know,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: alternative radio was breaking at the time, it was super huge,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: and I think there was an idea that she could
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: find her footing in there, but they needed to have
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: this really strong Rock Backbone, and so those two of
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: course added to the album. And yeah, I think k
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Rock then was like, sure we should play this because
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: look who's on it.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Elnis thought about changing the lyrics at one point, but
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Glenn Ballor talked her out of it. Why did she
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: want the lyrics to be changed?
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I think she almost thought, am I going too far?
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Should I really be saying these things? And I think
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: she at a point had qualms of opening up as
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: much as she did, and that of course being the
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: first song, which was her decision, but I think she
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: had a moment to pause and maybe reconsider hand.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: In my pocket. She and Glenn were being hard on
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: themselves to come up with this song on this particular day.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: So Alanis decided to start write about whatever's on my mind,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: whatever I'm feeling.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that song is such a great kind of
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: snapshot of life in your twenties, all the contradictions, all
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: the weird ways life kind of confuses you. And it
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: was just what she was thinking about and a great
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: example of her stream of consciousness writing.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: And then you learn another huge crossover hit number six
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: on Billboard about life lessons and how they can be
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: hard pills to swallow, Alanis, she did swallowed some hard pills.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: When she arrived in La, she was robbed a gunpoint.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's weird. Alana's has been robbed several times in
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: her life. It's super strange. But the most pivotal was
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: when here she was this innocent Canadian fresh to LA
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: and got a stark slap in the face of reality.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: When she was walking home one night from the gym.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: She had two backpacks with her one head her jim gear.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: One had her lyrics in her notebook with the material
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: of Jagged Little Pill, and she was robbed at gunpoint
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: and she was on the ground and she was just
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: praying in her head, please take the one bag and
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: not my backpack with the lyrics in it, And thankfully
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: they did it.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Head over Feet when she wrote this, she was experiencing
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: a new kind of relationship.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so everyone thinks, you know, she was tagged as
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: as angry young woman when she came to the surface,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: because if you ought to know, and the passion in
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: that song, but there's so many emotions on this album
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: and Head over her Feet is really about feeling in
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: love and it was about a friend who had turned
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: into something more and it was just really pure emotion
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: about feeling very content with someone.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: You did mention ironic. This all started with something she
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: said while she and Glenn were having lunch.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, actually would meet for meals. It's how they would
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: start their sessions. They would just have a conversation, tea
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: food in a studio and that's how they would get
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: the sort of wheels moving and turning to start creating
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: the song for that day.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: And I had no idea she took so much heat
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: from the grammar police on the song. I really didn't
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: know who cares. The song's great. But yeah, she could
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: have called it coincidental, right if I know.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: But like it wouldn't have the same ring to it.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: But it's you know, she's been a good sport about it.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: She's redone the song for modern times. You know, she
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: did it during COVID about waiting for your Amazon package
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: to arrive. I mean, she's gonna