Miriam

Album: Little Broken Hearts (2012)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Lyrically, Little Broken Hearts details the phases of a bitter break-up and this song finds an angry Jones confronting the other woman who lured her man to cheat.

    The spooky track is one of several songs on the album that contain darker material than Jones has done before. "Obviously I care a little bit about what people think, but I try not to," she told Exclaim! Magazine "I feel pretty secure in who I think I am and what I know I do. It's not like I do anything crazily different [on Little Broken Hearts], just a couple of songs were a little mean. It's not like I'm such a bad girl. I'm an adult. I'm not a little kid... It's not like I'm pulling one over on people. I am a nice person."
  • The murder ballad appears to implicate a friend stepping out with Jones' man in her own home. However, Jones told Jam! Music the titular character is fictional and was inspired by songs like Dolly Parton's "Jolene."
  • The Philip Andelman directed music video features Jones floating alone in a boat in the middle of Texas' Lake Bastrop.
  • "'Miriam' is one of those songs people react very differently to," Jones explained in the Spotify commentary for the album. "Some people laugh, some people think that it's funny. Some people think it's scary and creepy and disturbing. I like that it's kind of creepy. It's supposed to be. We really milked that element of it in the recording process because musically it sounds just as creepy as the words are."

Comments: 1

  • JennyI absolutely love this song. I love how eerie it is and the lyrics kinda show that her spouse has done this before with the same woman and that she knows what she did. And that was the last straw for Nora. Also the music video is so cool and creepy with the dead body underwater at the end and also the blood on one of the ores.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Yoko Ono

Yoko OnoSongwriter Interviews

At 80 years old, Yoko has 10 #1 Dance hits. She discusses some of her songs and explains what inspired John Lennon's return to music in 1980.

Daryl Hall

Daryl HallSongwriter Interviews

Daryl Hall's TV show is a hit, and he's been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - only one of these developments excites him.

Vanessa Carlton

Vanessa CarltonSongwriter Interviews

The "A Thousand Miles" singer on what she thinks of her song being used in White Chicks and how she captured a song from a dream.

80s Music Quiz 1

80s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

MTV, a popular TV theme song and Madonna all show up in this '80s music quiz.

Divided Souls: Musical Alter Egos

Divided Souls: Musical Alter EgosSong Writing

Long before Eminem, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj created alternate personas, David Bowie, Bono, Joni Mitchell and even Hank Williams took on characters.

Song Titles That Inspired Movies

Song Titles That Inspired MoviesSong Writing

Famous songs that lent their titles - and in some cases storylines - to movies.