In The End

Album: Rabbits On the Run (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • Vanessa Carlton closes her fourth studio album Rabbits On The Run with this cyclical song, which she described to Artist Direct as a "never-ending rabbit hole," then added, "There's really no end to it; it just disintegrates."
  • Carlton explained the story behind the song to Artist Direct: "The sonic message reflects the philosophical message as well. It's a little prayer that I wrote for my brother who lost someone extremely close to him. She was a mother figure in his life. I just imagine her in this field turning into diamonds. I thought it was so beautiful that I thought the idea would comfort him. It's not just for my brother though; it's for everyone."

    It's unlikely Carlton's use of the word "prayer" was meant in a religious sense as the singer expressed in a live chat on June 7, 2011, that she is an atheist.
  • One of the inspirations for the album was Richard Adams' 1972 novel Watership Down, about a small group of rabbits that are unhappy in the warren that they're in and decide to break out. The book recounts the rabbits' odyssey as they seek a place in which to establish a new home, a sort of utopian society, encountering perils and temptations along the way. Carlton described the novel to us as a "kind of the emotional bible, and I did carry it around like it was a bible." Back in 1979 Art Garfunkel recorded "Bright Eyes" for an animated film made of Watership Down. It went on to become the biggest selling single of the year in the UK.

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