My Pet Snake

Album: I'm Having Fun Now (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • Snakes are one of the main lyrical themes of I'm Having Fun Now, the debut album by Rilo Kiley vocalist Jenny Lewis and her boyfriend and songwriting partner Johnathan Rice. The pair were inspired by the image of the Ouroboros, an ancient symbol depicting a serpent swallowing its own tail and forming a circle. They explained why to Spin magazine:
    Johnathan Rice: We really like that image. There's so many definitions of what it represents. To us, it represents unity and satisfaction because the snake is eating it's own tail it can never be hungry and never want for anything. But I'm curious: does the snake ever run out itself to eat? Maybe not.

    Jenny Lewis: Well, the people that lived in this house before us were in their 90s and I've found that I have more in common with them than I do my peers. They left behind a lot of stuff, like a creepy old key with a skeleton key. I wonder what that goes to? But on the bookshelf was a book about Ouroboros and it sparked a bunch of strange dreams, which lead to a bunch of songs.

    Johnathan Rice: We both found ourselves dreaming about snakes, and then we'd be hiking in the mountains in L.A. and we would see a bunch of snakes on the trail.
  • Here are some more songs with snake connections:
    The Snake by Al Wilson.
    San Jacinto by Peter Gabriel.
    Muscles by Diana Ross.
    Trust In Me by Kaa the Snake.

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