Lyrics for She's Falling Apart as interpreted by Tandia

She's Falling Apart Lyrics
They pull up their chairs to the table
She stares at the food on her plate
At the toast and the butter, her father and mother,
She pushes away

And they rise in the morning
And they sleep in the dark
And even though nobody's looking
She's falling apart

She gets home from school too early
And closes the door to her room
There's nothing inside her
She's weak and she's tired of feeling like this

And they rise in the morning
And they sleep in the dark
And even though nobody's looking
She's falling apart

They call her for dinner, she makes up a reason
She looks at her arms and she rolls down her sleeves
And her mother is starting to see through her lies
And last night her father had tears in his eyes

And they rise in the morning
And they sleep in the dark
And even though nobody's looking
She's falling apart

And we rise in the morning
And we sleep in the dark
And even though nobody's looking
She's falling apart

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MissMawee
06-12-2002

Rated 0 
This is a poignant song about teenage anorexia - and just goes to show how varied Lisa is in the subjects she writes about. Although the tune has a more melancholy tone than most of her work, the refrain will still get stuck in your head and you won't be in a rush for it to leave any time soon.
A summary of the lyrics: basically the song talks about a teenage girl who is secretly anorexic. The chorus "and they rise in the morning / and they sleep in the dark / and even though nobody's looking / she's falling apart" demonstrates how while we go on with our day-to-day lives someone that we know may be a victim of an eating disorder, completely behind our backs and unknown to anyone else. In the course of the song, her parents start to realize what is happening to her and are devastated by it. The song ends with a variation of the chorus that starts "and we rise in the morning...". Replacing the "they" with "we" puts us on a personal level into the song and refers more to our own lives and how the same exact thing could be happening around us.

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papercutdoll
07-23-2002

Rated 0 
I love this song... I can totally relate; ana tears me apart, but at some level she's one of the only things that holds me together. It's sort of a maladaptive coping mechanism. Ana is how I deal with my problems, but she is at the root of so many of them.

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SoICanBeMyself
08-01-2002

Rated 0 
this song is so moving because its so real.. it tells a story you relate to, even if you've never experienced anorexia yourself

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lovesbitch
08-01-2002

Rated 0 
She may be anorexic, but she's also cutting herself.

"She looks at her arms and she rolls down her sleeves "

She's falling apart, not only because of her anorexia, which is definitely part of it, but also because she's depressed.

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MissKrisss
09-08-2002

Rated 0 
I agree with bitch. . .
i love this song though, , I can relate..

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themrschasez
11-30-2004

Rated 0 
i agree with lovesbitch.

i was diagnosed with ana 8 months ago and ive been a self injurer for over 4 years.... this song is just everything i feel and want to say. Not the biggest fan of Loeb, but of this song most definately.

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kaleidoscopeeyes8
01-29-2005

Rated 0 
Maybe anorexia is not her main problem. Maybe she is so depressed and in so much pain that she cannot eat...

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edelweiss pirateLW
09-17-2005

Rated 0 
i went for the cutting her self angle myself but now the anorexia part adds so much

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rhcpf12
12-17-2005

Rated 0 
When I first heard it, I thought of the cutting firstly, but now the ana part does make sense too...

Especially because she mentions food or a meal twice.

Anyway, I love it...I think the general idea can touch those with depression, too...sometimes nobody's even looking and you're slowly unraveling.

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bitterfairy
02-03-2007

Rated 0 
i disagree with those of you who said she cuts. have you ever seen the arms of an anorexic girl? they're all bone. when people are trying to hide their anorexia, they wear baggy clothes so their bones dont show. she pulled her sleeves so that the bones wouldnt be visible.

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wtfyourface
04-07-2007

Rated 0 
bitterfairy, i disagree with you.... many people suffering with an ED are cutters as well.

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mightbeafool
05-03-2007

Rated 0 
I'm actually going to agree with bitterfairy on this one. I've seen pictures of girls who are anorexic and I have personal experience in the eating-disorder area. It's quite common for girls with eating disorders to wear baggy clothing to conceal their weight loss so that people who care about them won't force them to seek help and so they can avoid a confrontation. I never even considered the cutting angle.

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tamtam15
07-16-2007

Rated +1 
it's blatently about anorexia, practically every verse contains obvious hints
however, most lines have a double meaning

"she stares at the food on her plate...she pushes away"
is she pushing away her plate or her parents?

"she's falling apart"
refers to her mental stability, but could also mean her body; from starving herself, her body breaks down, everything falls apart

"she gets home from school too early"
i can't grasp this line
is she skipping school? if so, do problems at school contribute to causing her eating disorder?

"there's nothing inside her"
refers to her not eating, and her stomach being empty, which explains why she is "weak"
the double meaning could be that she is empty of mental strength because she is so depressed, she has no fight left

"they call her for dinner, she makes up a reason"
refers to her avoiding dinner, giving her parents a reason to why she won't eat, such as her already having eaten, or not being hungry

"she looks at her arms and she rolls down her sleeves"
means either her boney arms reveal her secret, so she hides them, or that in addition to her eating disorder, she cuts, as many ED sufferers do

the change from "they" to "we" in the last chorus changes from the girl's parents to us. we may not notice an eating disorder in somebody we know, no matter how close they are to us.


i think everybody should be open to different points of view. often, lyrics are meant to have a double meaning, and most song writers want listeners to take their own view on the song. there is basicly no wrong interpretation

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clevelandsteamer87
03-30-2008

Rated +1 
Bitterfairy was right I found an interview that explains the entire soung.


"SF: You mentioned in "Stay" part of the inspiration was a friend of yours. And there's a song called "She's Falling Apart."

Lisa: Oh, yeah.

SF: Tell me about that one.

Lisa: That was one that I wrote in Miles Copeland's castle in France with two other writers. And the idea in that case was instigated by one of the men, who's a writer from Nashville. He had somebody in his life who had anorexia, and he wanted to write a song about that. I thought that was a great topic, food disorders and eating issues, and depressed teenagers are a near and dear topic to me. And I thought that it would be really interesting to write a song like that.

SF: Sounds like she's even a cutter.

Lisa: She's not, but her arms are too thin. That's anorexia.

SF: Gotcha.

Lisa: Yeah, people hear it and they think, Oh she must be on drugs or something. But you still get the right feeling from the song, because those are all issues that are secret and hidden and difficult for families to deal with. They don't know what to do and when to take care of them."

the entire interview is here
http://www.songfacts.com/int/2007/12/lisa-loeb.html

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emmadoesthetimewarp
09-02-2009

Rated 0 
I'm close to tears everytime I hear this song.
It's so blatant, and so.. vague. Whatever it is, I relate to it and it feels good to relate.

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