Examining the grammar of a song lyric

First off, let me just mention that my brother told me the other day that my blog hadn't been updated in over a month. I will remind him that my last post was dated May 22, and today is June 12. Three weeks is not over a month (and even if he doesn't count the weirdo "we make suicide beautiful" post, I do). So there.

Now, on to today's topic: grammar in song lyrics! Well, a particular song lyric, anyway.

So I was listening to Lisa Loeb's CD Tails on my way to work this morning. If you don't recall Lisa, her most famous single is probably "Stay," which was featured on the Reality Bites soundtrack. And if you don't remember Reality Bites, quite making me feel old. I'm only 24, and so, yeah, the movie came out half my lifetime ago, which--well, now that I think about it, I've lived half my life since that movie came out. Fifty percent is a lot. Lots of a lot.

Enters depression spiral at aging

Forces self out of depression spiral so that she can post on

One of the songs that I sit through on my way to "Stay," which remains my fave on the CD, is called "Sandalwood." It's a love song and features the line "Your skin smells lovely like sandalwood." I'm not quite sure what sandalwood smells like, but I can buy that it smells lovely. That makes sense to me. More confusing is the next line, "Your hair falls soft like animals."

Fanbase, I have checked the liner notes on this repeatedly, and what Lisa seems to sing and what's on the liner notes matches up. "It is indeed "Your hair falls soft like animals." This, I don't get. How does hair "fall soft like animals"? Not all animals have soft hair. Not all animals have hair. Mammals, sure, but I'm pretty sure sea sponges fall under the category of animals, and they don't have hair.

Then there's the falling bit. I've heard of hair falling across a shoulder, and hair falling softly, but falling softly like animals? Do animals fall softly? I certainly haven't researched the falling habits of animals, but again I would say that there are several that do not fall softly. Elephants. If an elephant fell, I doubt it'd be soft. And I would also say that there are some animals that never fall at all. Left in their proper habitats, I don't think those glowy-fishes that live way deep down in the sea ever fall. They don't surface, so how can they fall? They swim, and maybe float belly up when they die. That's it. No falling at all.

So what in the world can "Your hair falls soft like animals" mean?*

After much pondering, I thought that maybe Lisa had missed some of her punctuation in her lyric, and what she really meant was "Your skin falls soft, like Animal's" meaning:


I just can't come up with any other rational conclusion. There you have it. "Your skin falls soft, like Animal's." "Sandalwood" is written about a guy, or so I assume, but I can't say that if I were a guy, I'd be impressed.

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*I am aware that "Your hair falls soft like animals" could be a simile of some sort. But what's the point of having a simile that makes no sense? If you care to explicate the lyric, fanbase, or you happen to be Lisa Loeb or have connections to Lisa Loeb so that she can explain it, I'd be much obliged.