Bonfires

Album: Balm In Gilead (2009)
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Songfacts®:

  • Rickie Lee Jones wrote this song about Lee Cantelon, who she called her "Christian boyfriend." They had a long-term relationship that ended a few years before the release of Balm in Gilead. It's a very personal song for Jones, who makes it clear that she suffered in the breakup:

    You hurt me bad this time
    You nearly tore me from my mind


    Introducing this song at a concert, Jones said: "I got my heart broken recently. I wrote this song and it saved me."
  • When Jones sings that she will "Light the bonfires of hell," that's a reference to the religious differences between her and Lee Cantelon; he was a committed Christian, she was raised Catholic but struggled with religion.

Comments: 1

  • The Real Thing from Usathis is not actually correct though very inventive. the lyric says bonfires in hell because rickie is In hell, and she's gonna burn down everything that was. one of hte problems with AI and people today is they have no ..imagination no ability to understand metaphor. the only abiguous line is 'she layed her hair across your shirt'. what does that mean? It means she saw him with another woman.
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