The Perils of Florence...

I slept in this morning.  All the way to 6:00 a.m. before bodily urges had me rising.  Still warm and sleepy, I attempted to crawl back into my toasty bed, snuggled next to my husband but was foiled by  Florence.

No, I thought.  No!  You're going back to sleep!  You still have half an hour!  You can do this!   Don't let her in!  You're sleepy.  You haven't had caffeine yet!

Too late!  There she was - singing gleefully - my first coherent thought of the day.

You hit me once

I hit you back

You gave a kick

I gave a slap

You smashed a plate over my head

Then I set fire to our bed

Oh, this song.  This mind-worm of a song.  With its 2:04 of power and fury - signifying...   what?  Rissa and I sing this in the car.  At the top of our lungs (HAH!) as David generally looks on in horror.  Not at our singing, but rather, the lyrics we are so joyfully sharing, windows down, with passers by.  Every time I belt the words, my subtext - beyond the initial layer of - THIS SONG FREAKING ROCKS!!! - is - "It's sung ironically.  Please God, let her have recorded this song in an utter state of irony."  'Cause when this song grabs hold of you - of your very ovaries - it won't let go.  It's girl pop thrash at its best - a great hook  that you can't help growl out with Florence.  A song that demands you sing along, smiling and cackling at its fantasticness.

Yet it was only this morning that I actually researched the song - released in 2008 - but new to me since I had given it to Rissa in 2010 to encourage the female rock empowerment phase that all young girls need to go through.  Imagine my relief when I read that, no it wasn't, in fact, about a physically abusive relationship.

"Kiss with a Fist" is NOT a song about domestic violence. It is about two people pushing each other to psychological extremes because they are fighting but they still love each other. The song is not about one person being attacked, or any actual physical violence, there are no victims in this song. Sometimes the love two people have for each other is a destructive force. But they can't have it any other way, because it's what holds them together, they enjoy the drama and pushing each other's buttons. The only way to express these extreme emotions is with extreme imagery, all of which is fantasism and nothing in the song is based on reality. Leona Lewis's Bleeding Love isn't actually about her bleeding and this song isn't actually about punching someone in the mouth." (Florence's My Space Blog)

Oh thank God!  I don't even have to sing it with irony!  I can sing it embracing its expression of all-consuming passionate love!!  Nay, reveling in that!  I'll be able to explain when my 12 year old daughter shares it with friends.  I can point the horrified parents to the quotation and not be turned into a feminist pariah.  Phew!  That's a load off my mind.

Now that that's settled, I can I work out my burlesque cabaret number to Florence's cover of the Ludes' Girl with One Eye - such a tasty bit of Kill Bill-esque imagery - blatantly encouraging me to raise the eyebrows of our small town theatre-goers.  Oh there's a thought to bring a smile to a girl's face!