Sherry Fraser by Marcy Playground

Album: Marcy Playground (1997)

License This Song

Songfacts®:

The last single from Marcy Playground's debut album, this is song is about a real person. In our interview with Marcy Playground lead singer/songwriter John Wozniak, he explained: "Sherry was my first girlfriend. When I was 15, she was 16. She was my first true love. And still a very close friend. She did all the artwork for our latest record, Leaving Wonderland. She's a really terrific visual artist and also a great musician. She has a band called Two Ton Boa, which is really cool. I always tap Sherry for her ideas and her creativity, and I have for years. But she's since married somebody else and we haven't been together since 1993 or something. So it's been a long time, almost 17 years. Well, I guess for that age it was a long time. I met her in '87, and we stopped dating in '93. We remain friends and made music together. We wrote a bunch of stuff. She sings on the very first record that I ever did, which was the Zog Bogbean - from the Marcy Playground. And we wrote some songs together."
There are some Alice in Wonderland references in the lyrics, a theme that would recur in Marcy Playground's 2009 album Leaving Wonderland. Wozniak told us: "Sherry and I started experimenting with LSD when we first got together. I was 15 and she was 16 and we were tripping on acid a lot. And Through the Looking Glass was always both of our favorite book. And so it's part of it, I suppose. But the way I write songs is with a lot of imagery, and not necessarily a lot of direct meaning. It's all multi-layered feelings, like 'disco lemonade' (from "Sex and Candy") doesn't mean anything. There's no such thing. (laughs) It's a feeling."

Comments: 1

Lukey from Where Do You ThinkI think the song is interpreted by the listeners as a melancholic ode to that person that they rebirthed with preserved their innocence and lost it all over again same time and never seem to find that feeling again with anybody. The song refers to remembering your first love whoever that may be or your first friend on the playground better yet. Your first girlfriend you held hands with on the playground. That memory/'s The first boy who wrote you a sweet note. It's about the way we let go of what makes our lives feel beautiful. Sex money greed power control judgment and a lack of empathy are all staples of growing up in a world of numb cold rejection and no matter who you find in whatever physical sense that feeling of being your true self went away with that person. They are aa symbol and not ideally what the listener is needing in the song. More over as a symbol for somebody to truly love knowing them again. To value your heart with pure love

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Truckin'Grateful Dead

"Truckin'" was written as the Grateful Dead were starting their long, strange trip, settling into a life of constant touring. They rode busses and holed up in modest hotels to stay grounded.

IronicAlanis Morissette

The events described in Alanis Morissette's song "Ironic," like rain on your wedding day, are not examples of irony. Irony is the use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning.