"Paper Bag"
Single by Fiona Apple
from the album When the Pawn...
ReleasedJune 2000 (U.S.)[1]
Recorded1999
Length3:40
LabelEpic
Songwriter(s)Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple singles chronology
"Fast as You Can"
(1999)		 "Paper Bag"
(2000)		 "Parting Gift"
(2005)
Music video
"Paper Bag" on YouTube

"Paper Bag" is a song by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, released as the third single from her second studio album, When the Pawn... (1999).[2][3] The song earned Apple a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the 43rd Grammy Awards (2001).

Background and composition

Apple wrote "Paper Bag" following an experience in which she mistook a plastic bag for a dove. The event took place in Los Angeles following recording sessions for her previous studio album, Tidal (1996); Apple, reportedly upset at the time, was a passenger in a car being driven by her father.[4] Apple's lyrics are what she calls "extensions of her journal", many of which draw experiences from a rape and subsequent mental health problems, including disordered eating, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and complex post-traumatic stress disorder.[5][6][7] The lyrics in "Paper Bag" are about minimizing different types of pain, something that is reflective of the feminine experience, and resonated with girls and women in online conversations associated heavily with trauma and eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa, a different disorder than Apple's own. "Hunger hurts, but starving works" became a common, relatable slogan in disordered eating communities.[8][9][10]

AllMusic's Matthew Greenwald described "Paper Bag" as having a "loose, almost ragtime" melody and rhythm pattern, with an "up and down" chord pattern creating a "funky, looping feel".[3] The Record noted the "infectious" song includes "Beatlesesque horns".[11] The Boston Globe classified it as a "piano ditty" that "owes equally to Kurt Weill and Paul McCartney,"[12] while The Buffalo News noted that it "provides a more contemporary hip hop sound" than other songs on her album.[13]

Reception

Matthew Greenwald of AllMusic wrote that "Paper Bag" was one of the more accessible, "inspiring" tracks from the album. Greenwald appreciated Don Sweeney's horn arrangement, which he called "joyous".[3] In 2012, Bob Gendron of the Chicago Tribune opined, "A midst a backdrop of gently brushed drums, 'Paper Bag' highlighted an ugly tempestuousness at odds with its breezy cabaret melody."[14] In the "Rolling Stone Special Nineties Edition," the song was ranked as the 29th.[15] Rolling Stone Magazine ranked it as the 382nd greatest song of all time in 2021.[15]

The song is considered a "fan favorite".[16][17] It earned Apple a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the 43rd Grammy Awards (2001).[18]

Music video

Paul Thomas Anderson directed the music video for "Paper Bag", which features a blue-and-red palette.[19] Anderson and Apple were in a romantic relationship at the time.[20][21]

Usage in media

"Paper Bag" was featured in the 2006 film The Last Kiss[22] and the 2011 film Bridesmaids.[23]

References

  1. ↑ "Billboard". 17 June 2000.
  2. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King..." AllMusic. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 Greenwald, Matthew. "Paper Bag". AllMusic. Retrieved April 30, 2013.
  4. ↑ Lee, Dan P. (June 17, 2012). "'I Just Want to Feel Everything': Hiding Out with Fiona Apple, Musical Hermit". Vulture. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  5. ↑ Rudulph, Heather Wood (July 9, 2015). "The Secret History Behind Fiona Apple's "Criminal"". Refinery29. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
  6. ↑ Handler, Rachel (2020-04-17). "Allow Fiona Apple to Reintroduce Herself". Vulture. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
  7. ↑ Kornhaber, Spencer (2013-10-09). "Reminder: Fiona Apple Is Not Insane (and Neither Is Kanye West)". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
  8. ↑ Meeson, Fiona (2020-06-20). "EXTRAORDINARY MACHINE: FIONA APPLE AND FEMALE PAIN". Muse. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
  9. ↑ Orsini, Gisella (2017). ""Hunger Hurts, but Starving Works". The Moral Conversion to Eating Disorders". Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. 41 (1): 111–141. doi:10.1007/s11013-016-9507-6. ISSN 1573-076X. PMID 27761691. S2CID 21190344.
  10. ↑ Whitehead, Krista (2010). ""Hunger Hurts but Starving Works": A Case Study of Gendered Practices in the Online Pro-eating-disorder Community". The Canadian Journal of Sociology. 35 (4): 595–626. doi:10.29173/cjs7976. ISSN 0318-6431. S2CID 142904875.
  11. ↑ Ivry, Bob (November 9, 1999). "Apple Sounds Alarm to Potential Lovers". The Record. Archived from the original on February 16, 2013. Retrieved February 1, 2013. (subscription required)
  12. ↑ Anderman, Joan (November 9, 1999). "Apple Wraps Intimacy, Agony in Lush Sound". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2013. (subscription required)
  13. ↑ Violanti, Anthony (November 19, 1999). "Discs". The Buffalo News. Stanford Lipsey. Archived from the original on March 28, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2013. (subscription required)
  14. ↑ Gendron, Bob (March 20, 2012). "Fiona Apple's intense comeback show riveting at Lincoln Hall". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
  15. 1 2 Rolling Stone The Nineties Special Edition. The Rolling Stone. pp. 86–95.
  16. ↑ "For The Record: Quick News On Fiona Apple And Jon Brion, Sean Paul, Brooke Valentine, Incubus, Tommy Lee & More". MTV. August 22, 2005. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
  17. ↑ "Fiona Apple Receives Best Pop Vocal Album Grammy Nomination". Business Wire (Press release). December 8, 2005. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
  18. ↑ Reese, Lori (January 24, 2001). "Em Again: The staid Recording Academy courts controversy for their 43rd annual awards". Entertainment Weekly. ISSN 1049-0434. OCLC 21114137. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  19. ↑ Wickman, Forrest (September 13, 2012). "The Minor Works of Paul Thomas Anderson". Slate. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  20. ↑ Light, Alan (February 2000). "On a Wire". Spin. SPIN Media LLC. 16 (2): 64. ISSN 0886-3032. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  21. ↑ Cruz, Gilbert; Ebiri, Bilge (September 15, 2012). "The Master vs. Resident Evil: A Short Guide on How to Tell Paul Thomas Anderson and Paul W.S. Anderson Apart". Vulture. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  22. ↑ "The Last Kiss (2006) Soundtrack". Soundtrack.net. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
  23. ↑ Davis, Edward (April 15, 2011). "'Bridesmaids' Soundtrack Features Fiona Apple, Inara George, Hole, Blondie & Wilson Phillips". IndieWire. Snagfilms. Archived from the original on August 13, 2012. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
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