Tiger

Album: This Fire (1996)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Cole unleashing her inner beast, free from the strictures of her small-town upbringing no longer contending with "sex-starved teachers trying to touch my ass."

    Cole was class president and a top student growing up in Rockport, Massachusetts, but she wasn't satisfied. "I wanted to break free from my self-imposed good girl expectations," she said in a Songfacts interview. "I was a bit of a repressed goody two-shoes, you see, and I needed to bust out of that in my 20s and I needed to rebel."
  • This is an important song for Cole, with a regular spot on her setlists. When she returned in 2007 after a seven-year absence with the album Courage, it included a song called "14," with the line, "The mighty tiger doesn't blink."

    Cole also used "Tiger" to open her 2016 live album This Bright Red Feeling, recorded at The City Winery in New York City. The album title comes from a line in the song.
  • The album title comes from a line in the song: "Where do I put this fire?"

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers

Bill Medley of The Righteous BrothersSongwriter Interviews

Medley looks back on "Unchained Melody" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" - his huge hits from the '60s that were later revived in movies.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Daniel Lanois

Daniel LanoisSongwriter Interviews

Daniel Lanois on his album Heavy Sun, and the inside stories of songs he produced for U2, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Dylan.

Julian Lennon

Julian LennonSongwriter Interviews

Julian tells the stories behind his hits "Valotte" and "Too Late for Goodbyes," and fills us in on his many non-musical pursuits. Also: what MTV meant to his career.

Max Cavalera of Soulfly (ex-Sepultura)

Max Cavalera of Soulfly (ex-Sepultura)Songwriter Interviews

The Brazilian rocker sees pictures in his riffs. When he came up with one of his gnarliest songs, there was a riot going on.

Harold Brown of War

Harold Brown of WarSongwriter Interviews

A founding member of the band War, Harold gives a first-person account of one of the most important periods in music history.