Song Choice | Lyrics | Analysis

The song I've chosen to make a music video is Porcelain by Red Hot Chili Peppers.  The song's existing video is below.



This video is more of an abstract video, however I have decided to create a video with a narrative that follows the meaning of the song.

LYRICS

Porcelain // 0:10 –  0:13

Are you wasting away in your skin // 0:20

Are you missing the love of your kin // 0:25

Drifting and floating and fading away // 0:30

Porcelain // 0:35

Do you smell like a girl when you smile // 0:40

Can you bear not to share with your child // 0:45

Drifting and floating and fading away // 0:50

Little lune // 0:55

All day // 1:00

Little lune // 1:05

Porcelain // 1:15

Do you carry the moon in your womb // 1:20

Someone said that you're fading too soon // 0:25

Drifting and floating and fading away // 1:30

Porcelain // 1:35

Are you wasting away in your skin // 1:40

Are you missing the love of your kin // 1:45

Nodding and melting and fading away // 1:50

Little lune // 1:55

All day // 2:00

Little lune... // 2:05

Little lune // 2:15

All day // 2:20

Little lune... // 2:25

SONG MEANING

The song was written by Anthony Kiedis about a woman he met at YMCA in LA 1998.  She was pregnant with a child she couldn't take care of and struggling with a drug -presumably heroine-/alcohol related problem.  Her husband was also unable to properly care for the child.  

ANALYSIS

1 Porcelain    Are you wasting away in your skin?    Are you missing the love of your kin?    Drifting and floating and fading away	Line 2: referring to her drug and alcohol problem.  Implies that she’s rapidly losing weight or ‘wasting away’ –deteriorating- from the inside out.  Use of word ‘skin’ refers to ‘skin and bones’ as soon that may be all that’s left of her Line 3: Kin = family.  Maybe has lost touch/fell out/has been disowned, due to her struggle with addiction.  Longs for their love and support in a desperate situation. Line 4: Drifting = drifting through life without much thought, is a drifter.  Similar to driftwood, which floats from shore to shore.  Fading away = her conscience and presence are fading away.  She’s cut ties with loved ones.  She’s high/drunk a lot of the time.  Feels as though she’s slowly fading from existence.
5 Porcelain    Do you smell like a girl when you smile?    Can you bear not to share with your child?    Drifting and floating and fading away	Line 6: ‘Smell’ could imply that an air of naivety is given away when she smiles.  Despite her rough life, she has maintained a youthful expression.  Exaggerates how hopeless the situation is as she’s so young yet so troubled.  Line 7: She’s pregnant with a child meaning that everything she takes is shared with the baby inc drugs.  Can she resist her addiction to spare her child?  The posing of the question implies that the addiction has come so far that even her motherly instincts have the potential to be overcome by it.
Little lune 10 All day    Little lune	Lune = moon.  Metaphor for her pregnant belly.
Porcelain    Do you carry the moon in your womb?    Someone said that you're fading too soon 15 Drifting and floating and fading away	Line 13:  is heavily pregnant and looks like she’s a moon inside her.  Must improve life quickly to save herself and her child before she’s born Line 14:  people around her are noticing how rapidly she’s deteriorating.  A warning to her that she needs to stop the drug use to save herself and her child.
Porcelain    Are you wasting away in your skin?    Are you missing the love of your kin?    Nodding and melting and fading away	Line 19:  Nodding = is falling asleep or maybe even dying sat up after injecting heroine/becoming intoxicated.  Her head is nodding as she slumps over.  Melting = her existence is melting away.
20 Little lune    All day    Little lune..

In this song, all the words ending in ‘ing’ – used abundantly in the chorus – have similar connotations.

·         Drifting

·         Floating

·         Fading

·         Nodding

·         Melting

·         Wasting

·         Missing

They all paint a picture of loss, hopelessness, and desperation juxtaposed with apathy.  This describes her existence in general.  She was in a desperate situation, caused by behaving irresponsibly, before she was pregnant and now has the huge responsibility of another life to uphold.

  The orders in which these words are used have also made the song an extended metaphor for the speed of her deterioration.  At first, ‘drifting’ and ‘floating’ and ‘fading’ were used in the chorus.  These paint a picture of how she’s living her life; floating through existence like driftwood with no real direction.  Then, in the last chorus, the words ‘nodding’ and ‘melting’ may be painting a picture of her death or loss of consciousness, describing how she is deteriorating and ‘fading’ more and more quickly as her situation worsens. 

The title of the song is repeated throughout the song.  The word is used at the start of each verse, like he is addressing her.   Therefore, he is using porcelain as a metaphor to describe her.

‘Porcelain’ may be a metaphor for her fragile state.  She’s easily broken like a porcelain doll.  It may also provide a clue about her appearance.  She may be pale in complexion due to her poor health.