I don't want to be the filler if the void is solely yours
I don't want to be your glass of single malt whiskey
Hidden in the bottom drawer and
I don't want to be a bandage if the wound is not mine
Lend me some fresh air
I don't want to be adored for what I merely represent to you
I don't want to be your babysitter
You're a very big boy now
I don't want to be your mother
I didn't carry you in my womb for nine months
Show me the back door

Visiting hours are nine to five and if I show up at ten past six
Well, I already know that you'd find some way to sneak me in and oh
Mind the empty bottle with the holes along the bottom
You see it's too much to ask for and I am not the doctor

I don't want to be the sweeper of the egg shells that you walk upon
And I don't want to be your other half, I believe that one and one make two
I don't want to be your food or the light from the fridge on your face
At midnight, hey
What are you hungry for?
I don't want to be the glue that holds your pieces together
I don't want to be your idol
See this pedestal is high and I'm afraid of heights
I don't want to be lived through
A vicarious occasion
Please open the window

Visiting hours are nine to five and if I show up at ten past six
Well, I already know that you'd find some way to sneak me in and oh
Mind the empty bottle with the holes along the bottom
You see it's too much to ask for and I am not the doctor

I don't want to live on someday when my motto is last week
And I, I don't want to be responsible for your fractured heart
And it's wounded beat and
I don't want to be a substitute for the smoke you've been inhaling
Well, what do you thank me
What do you thank me for?

Visiting hours are nine to five and if I show up at ten past six
Well, I already know that you'd find some way to sneak me in and oh
Mind the empty bottle with the holes along the bottom
You see it's too much to ask for and I am not the doctor


Lyrics submitted by Boonechic_21, edited by daniel1010

Not The Doctor Lyrics as written by Alanis Nadine Morissette Glen Ballard

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC

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Not The Doctor song meanings
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43 Comments

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  • +2
    General Comment

    I never understood this as a guy who was a drug user or a cheater.

    I simply saw it as a man who was dependent on Alanis and putting too much pressure on her to live up to these expectations (I cant be your mother, I cant be your other half, I cant be the food or the light from the fridge, I cant be your idol, I cant be the glue etc etc). All these things are "too much to ask for", and she couldnt be the doctor to fix everything that was wrong with him.

    And since she really cant be all these things for him, she asks "What do you thank me for", as if in a stance against being any of these things for him, so what else does he want from her.

    emlem25on June 01, 2008   Link

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