Lyrics for What If as interpreted by EllieBelle

What If Lyrics
Here you sit on your high-backed chair
Wonder how the view is from there
I wouldn't know 'cause I like to sit
Upon the floor, yeah upon the floor
If you like we could play a game
Let's pretend that we are the same
But you will have to look much closer
Than you do, closer than you do

And I'm far too tired to stay here anymore
And I don't care what you think anyway
'Cause I think you were wrong about me
Yeah what if you were, what if you were

And what if I'm a snowstorm burning
What if I'm a world unturning
What if I'm an ocean, far too shallow, much too deep
What if I'm the kindest demon
Something you may not believe in
What if I'm a siren singing gentlemen to sleep

I know you've got it figured out
Tell me what I am all about
And I just might learn a thing or two
Hundred about you, maybe about you
I'm the end of your telescope
I don't change just to suit your vision
'Cause I am bound by a fraying rope
Around my hands, tied around my hands

And you close your eyes when I say I'm breaking free
And put your hands over both your ears
Because you cannot stand to believe I'm not
The perfect girl you thought
Well what have I got to lose

And what if I'm a weeping willow
Laughing tears upon my pillow
What if I'm a socialite who wants to be alone
What if I'm a toothless leopard
What if I'm a sheepless shepherd
What if I'm an angel without wings to take me home

You don't know me
Never will, never will
I'm outside your picture frame
And the glass is breaking now
You can't see me
Never will, never will
If you're never gonna see

What if I'm a crowded desert
Too much pain with little pleasure
What if I'm the nicest place you never want to go
What if I don't know who I am
Will that keep us both from trying
To find out and when you have
Be sure to let me know

What if I'm a snowstorm burning
What if I'm a world unturning
What if I'm an ocean, far too shallow, much too deep
What if I'm the kindest demon
Something you may not believe in
What if I'm a siren singing gentlemen to sleep
Sleep...
Sleep...


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  • 18 Comments
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EllieBelle
11-29-2004

Rated 0 
This is the first song I heard of Emilie's. Its so good, she writes her own lyrics and plays the instruments also... no ones heard of her though- go here to listen to her music http://www.emilieautumn.com/

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Poisoned desires
01-13-2007

Rated +1 
I think this particular song is telling the story of a girl who is a servant. Her lord seems to have a very low opinion of her, and these are her thoughts. She is telling him her her mind "What if I'm everything you thought I'm not?"

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Beau_Lolita
04-15-2007

Rated +1 
You know how most people try to relate songs to their own lives? Well to me i think this is about a parent who thinks their child is something perfect, just what they wanted her to be but then they realize she has a mind of her own although i think deep down they knew that all along but have chose to ignore it- "And you close your eyes when I say I'm breaking free
And put your hands over both your ears
Because you cannot stand to believe I'm not
The perfect girl you thought well what have i got to lose?" So whatever this girl is deep down they don't like it and refuse to accept her for who she is. Or maybe the same scenario but with a lover rather than a parent?

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Sparkle_motion
04-16-2007

Rated 0 
I absolutely love this song, it's so beautiful and I think anyone can relate to it! I always thought of it as someone doesn't give the real you a chance and rejects you based on how you look and who they think you are. Emilie's saying you can't judge things based on appearances and people aren't one dimensional!

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Ender666999
04-18-2007

Rated 0 
This song seems to be about a person who's being judged by people who don't even know her that well or bother trying. She asks them for their opinion about her, but not to find out about herself- rather, she is testing them, to see who they are by the answers they give. And no matter what they say or may think of her she is determined to stay the way she is, rather than change to suit another. This song is the last one on Enchant, and it is in my opinion the perfect way to end the album- the last few notes are so heartbreakingly beautiful that they'll stay with you long after you've heard them.

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_NotWorthLiving_
09-15-2007

Rated 0 
I think it's about being judged and forced to change against you will.

Unless you know someone, then you can't judge them.

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mbunky
10-25-2007

Rated 0 
I think it's about a couple. The girl feels trapped, and she's saying what if I'm not actually the girl you think I am. He's tying her down, without him she could be whatever she want.
This is my favorite EA song, everyone should listen to it!

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B100dredsummer
03-10-2008

Rated 0 
i agree with mbunky. the girl feels trapped and she feels like shes not getting everything out of life that she can because of her relationship. shes saying if you dont see what i can be then you will never know me.
i love this song.

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Gwagalagh
04-28-2008

Rated 0 
I heard this song and related thought of school. I think it's about a student who's quiet, and not as social as people would like. Teachers think their stupid, and students call them a loser, even though these people don't even know things as shallow as this persons interests. To me it's about someone accepting they will never be the same as their classmates and teachers, and they'll probably always be judged, so the best thing to do is act like themselves and stop trying to fit in. It's too bad if others can't deal with that, it's their loss.

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XXemmymuffinXX
06-26-2008

Rated 0 
I agree with Gwagalagh, the line "I'm outside your picture frame," seems to be her saying that she's too complex for the shallow minds of her classmates. Which I guess we can all relate to at some point.

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Tonyaka
07-06-2008

Rated +1 
I think it's about a girl who is labeled as something she's not and locked in a life she doesn't like. So she tries to break free but everyone around her refuses to believe she could be more than they thought. I really relate to this because I was originally miss goody two shoes and recently I find myself breaking out of the good girlness but everyone holds me down.

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MomoTheStrange
07-11-2008

Rated 0 
I have agree with Beau Lolita.

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Rhoda
12-26-2008

Rated 0 
Wow, its amazing that everyone has a different interpretation of this song!

It has a special meaning to me. I'm an atheist now, but I remember when I was younger, I was talking to my dad and I asked what if Jesus came back as a woman rather than a man, would anyone believe her? My dad said that Jesus would never come back as a woman because that would just be a cruel trick on everyone... But I just kept thinking, "What if?" Haha, so when I listen to this song, I imagine Jesus as a woman singing it to someone who doesn't believe...

It really just reminds me that I should never underestimate or judge someone, even if I think I know them really well.

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ADanceForTheBroken
06-25-2009

Rated 0 
To me this song reminds me slightly of the little-known female Nazi Viktoria Gottschalk, or 'the Mercy of Auschwitz.' She was known for her kindness towards the prisoners and even slept with Mengele in exchange for sparing them from various cruel tortures. I think "Here you sit on your high-backed chair" is a reference to Hitler. The "kindest demon" line describes her pretty well, and "What if I'm a siren singing gentlemen to sleep" might reference the times she was forced to kill against her will as part of a firing squad. If this is what it's about, the lines "What if I'm a crowded desert/Too much pain with little pleasure/What if I'm the nicest place you never want to go" are also particularly striking.

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darkfenix777
07-03-2009

Rated 0 
I love all the interperetations people have come up with, and all share the thought that the narrator is asking someone (a lover, parent, school mates, etc.) 'What if I'm not what you think I am?' Like where she mentions them sitting in the high-backed chair, indicating someone who thinks they're above everyone else, and that she, by being with them, is too. But because she likes 'to sit upon the floor', or prefers to keep her feet on the ground, she's saying that she's equal to everyone else, and that this person is too arrogant and ego-centric to accept that they are too. She doesn't like all these assumptions and expectations, and the only way to make the other put reality into focus is to break free from them.
Many of us can relate to this: wanting to break free from another's will or demands whether at home, or school, or with your significant other. To make them realize that things aren't what they want them to be, and they have to accept that.

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Rainie
08-13-2009

Rated 0 
This song is just amazing, I think everyone has had these feelings that poeple don't really know who you really are, so everyone can relate to it in some way.

I think it's, lets say a girl, who struggles with a false identity, because she's afraid that people won't like her if she is was she really is. But she really want's to be her own self, so she actually changes, get's the courage to be the one who her true self, but people won't understand, they will still think of her as the one they thought she was.

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Matt Holck
10-30-2009

Rated 0 
I like embodying my environments

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Glamourized
01-19-2010

Rated 0 
i always thought this song kind of went along with the rest of her kind of Victorian Theme. That it was about a man and a woman, (possibly a servant) and of course she's supressed and suposed to be proper and boring and the man is of a higher social (her master?) rank than she is and thinks very little of her.

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