[Ed. note: On Thursday, Ringer Films will debut the second documentary in its Music Box series on HBO: Jagged, which looks at Alanis Morissettes career and rise to fame in the mid-90s.]
On Friday, the most lacerating and lavishly acclaimed singer-songwriter of her generation released a bonkers 10-minute version of her best and most lacerating song. And you were tossing me the car keys / Fuck the patriarchy keychain on the ground, sings Taylor Swift, with her patented, elegant wistfulness that can cut through steel, on All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylors Version), a supersized reimagining of the deep-cut highlight of her immaculate 2012 album Red. Those are the first lines that deviate from the original, and the thrill of Swift dropping yet another f-bomb is undeniable, but the true genius of this song in any form is subtler, and sadder, and can be roughly summarized thus: You seem very well. Things look peaceful. Im not quite as well. I thought you should know.
All Too Well, at any length, is a delicate and devastating post-breakup killshot nonpareil, and for dedicated Taylorologists, it is the richest text imaginable. The affable-doofus actor widely assumed to have inspired the song, who no doubt had a lovely weekend. The dazzling accumulation of lyrical detail: the scarf, the refrigerator light, the performatively sipped coffee, the autumn leaves falling like pieces into place. The delightful patriarchy-fucking scheme (Red is the second album Swifts rerecorded so shell own the masters) at this projects core. (Also, shes currently selling a a F*ck the Patriarchy keychain for $20; living well is the best revenge, but monetizing your exs disingenuousness is a close second.) If youre vain enough, this song can be about anyone, anything. Its heartbreaking, its furious, its uproariously mean. But these are the new lines Im stuck on now:
And I was thinking on the drive downAny time nowHes gonna say its loveYou never called it what it wasTill we were dead and gone and buried
You never called it what it was. The tabloid prurience and gossamer savagery of All Too Well are crucial, but what makes the song an all-timer is an honesty so relentless it feels like empathyif not toward him, now, then at least toward them, then. Call it what it was. Thats it. Thats all she wanted from him. And if Swift, now, has to drag the guy on Saturday Night Live for 10 minutes straight to call it what it was back then, thats what shell do, not so much to make him feel worse as to make herself feel better.
Swift learned that lesson, in part, from Alanis Morissette, who is for sure the most lacerating singer-songwriter of her own generation and could always use more lavish acclaim. I was not writing to punish, Morissette says deep into Alison Klaymans new documentary Jagged, which premieres Thursday on HBO as part of Ringer Films Music Box series. I was writing to express and get it out of my body because I didnt want to get sick.
Morissette is talking, of course, about her 1995 thunderbolt breakthrough album, Jagged Little Pill, which sold more than 15 million copies in the United States alone and reigns as the second-best-selling solo album by a female artist in world history (behind Shania Twains Come on Over). She is talking, more specifically, about that song, You Oughta Know, the lewd, profane, electrifying, mystery-celeb-eviscerating nuclear bomb that a quarter century later remains as radiantly angry, as viciously detailed, and above all else as extremely funny as it did the first time you heard it. When I launched a podcast about 90s songs in late 2020, I couldnt think of a better song to start with. I must have heard You Oughta Know 3,000 times in my life at least, but I still laughed out loud at the line but youre still alive when I listened to it again yesterday. The Jagged documentary (which Morissette herself has criticized) is careful to celebrate the cleansing fury of You Oughta Know and a handful of other more combative moments on Jagged Little Pillvarious music-biz shitheads are righteously clowned on Right Through Youbut the movie also wants to reject the long-standing reduction of Morissette to a mere Angry White Female, as her first Rolling Stone cover put it.
Theres a kindnessits like this velvet kindness, is how Morissette describes her circa-1995 self as the movie closes. No matter how pissed off she is. Its like, theres mercy in it. Theres empathy in it. Theres hope even when the song is hopeless. Theres a little drag of everythings gonna be OK. No matter how horrible it gets.
It is a profound compliment to You Oughta Know, truly, if it still crosses your mind whenever you hear another colossal Fuck Youtype pop song. Keliss Caught Out There. Pinks So What. Kelly Clarksons Since U Been Gone. Beyoncs Dont Hurt Yourself. Lily Allens Fuck You. Hell, CeeLos Fuck You. Hell, Rina Sawayamas STFU! Lucy Dacuss Night Shift or Brando. And of course, Taylor Swifts mighty All Too Well. (And Dear John. And Better Than Revenge. And Picture to Burn. And Mean. She calls it what it is a lot.) But dont forget that all of those songs are also hilarious, and arguably the best of them carry trace amounts of empathy, of grudging affection, of velvet kindness. Bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark, seethes Lorde on her 2017 album Melodrama, which cemented her as another master of the form. But what the best Fuck You songs supply, in addition to all that infectious seethe-along rage, is just a tiny sliver of light.
And all I really want is some patience, sings Alanis Morisette on the first chorus of Jagged Little Pills first song. A way to calm the angry voice. It is easy to miss that this record is primarily the work of a mistreated but phenomenally talented singer-songwriterrelocated to L.A. and teamed up with producer/co-writer Glen Ballard after a tumultuous and scarring run as an Ottawa-born teen pop starcalming herself down. The angrier she sounds, the more powerful and centered she becomes. The album touches on what she is not (Perfect), and what she hopes to be (Forgiven), and what shell definitely never be (Not the Doctor). But Jagged Little Pills best moments are anthemic and empowering while deftly avoiding the zillions of clichs the word empowering implies, even then and especially now. The first verse of Hand in My Pocket makes Morissette sound immortal by reveling in her vulnerability and, by extension, yours:
Im broke, but Im happyIm poor, but Im kindIm short, but Im healthy, yeahIm high, but Im groundedIm sane, but Im overwhelmedIm lost, but Im hopeful, baby
Its the line Im sane but Im overwhelmed that jumped out at me today, the 2,000th time Ive heard this one. (My previous listen, it was Im short but Im healthy.) Jagged the movie underscores what Jagged Little Pill the album is happy to remind you of, anyplace, anytime: The greatness of You Oughta Know notwithstandingand I hate to bug you in the middle of dinner is one of the funniest line deliveries in pop historyit took all 12 tracks, working in glorious spiritual unison, to make this record the colossus it became. (Even in the mid-90s, one song wasnt gonna sell 10-million-plus copies of an album no matter how great it was.) So: Head Over Feet for the lovers, the legitimately heartening You Learn if youre in crisis, and the tender waltz Mary Jane if youre hoping more killer lines will suddenly jump out at you (I hear youre losing weight again, Mary Jane / Do you ever wonder who youre losing it for?). It is certainly remarkable that Ironic, dismissed at the time as a lesser single with some linguistic issues, is now the albums most-played song on Spotify: That Its like rain on your wedding day is a broad, melodramatic image doesnt keep it from being a great one.
It is inevitableand an eternal testament to Morissette herselfthat youll hear her, at random, in other songs by other people until the sun finally swallows us all. (The best Alanis Morissette album released in the past five years, with much respect to 2020s Such Pretty Forks in the Road, is the Chicks Gaslighter. Start with Tights on My Boat if youre impatient.) And so it was for me, 48 hours ago, blown away by a superior (and twice as long) version of what was already my favorite Taylor Swift song. By all means, revel in the surgical viciousness of All Too Well (10 Minute Version): The lines And I was never good at telling jokes, but the punch line goes / Ill get older, but your lovers stay my age certainly jump out at you. But the song, and the songwriter, and the Fuck You Song pantheon overall, is so much more than the Fuck You part. Never forget the kindness, or the velvet. Taylor learned that a long time ago, and long before that, Alanis taught us all.
More:
Alanis Morissette, All Too Well, and the DNA of the Eff-You Anthem - The Ringer
- DNA Tests and Stranded Bodies: Ukraine's Struggle to Name Its Dead - The New York Times - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- Study highlights the role of dynamic DNA structures in memory consolidation - News-Medical.Net - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- Two identical-looking athletes with same name get DNA test to see if they are long-lost siblings - UNILAD - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- Patitz Awarded NSF Grant for Research on DNA-Based Nanostructure Research - University of Arkansas Newswire - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- DNA on bandana leads to arrest of suspect in 2010 Indiana County robbery case - WTAE Pittsburgh - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- DNA recovered from wine bottle leads to arrest of burglary suspect - WGN TV Chicago - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- Junk DNA from Three Perspectives: Some Key Quotes - Discovery Institute - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- Flipons: The discovery of Z-DNA and soft-wired genomes - Open Access Government - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- New DNA evidence leads to arrest in 1984 cold case homicide of Everett woman - KING5.com - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- Ancient DNA Reveals Kinship Structure of Eurasia's Avars - Archaeology Magazine - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- Water bottle, DNA, fingerprints led to arrest of Chicago police officer Luis Huesca's accused killer, police say - CBS Chicago - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- Jason Licht: Part of the DNA of this football team is trying to prove everybody wrong - NBC Sports - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- New DNA evidence found in connection with 2014 Georgia murders of Shirley and Russell Dermond - GPB News - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- Unraveling the roles of non-coding DNA explains childhood cancer's resistance to chemotherapy - Medical Xpress - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- South Carolina's 'In Our DNA SC' aims for 100k participants in diverse health research - ABC NEWS 4 - May 5th, 2024 [May 5th, 2024]
- Joel Embiid finally discovers he has the DNA of a champion. Down 2-1, can he lead the Sixers past the Knicks? - The Philadelphia Inquirer - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Unraveling DNA's role in pop culturefrom superheroes to crime scenes - The Daily | Case Western Reserve University - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Elucidation of inhibitory effects of bioactive anthraquinones towards formation of DNA advanced glycation end products ... - ScienceDirect.com - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- DNA Testing Proved My Innocence of My Son's Murder - Innocence Project - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Generative A.I. Arrives in the Gene Editing World of CRISPR - The New York Times - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Persistent TFIIH binding to non-excised DNA damage causes cell and developmental failure - Nature.com - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Enhanced CRISPR method enables stable insertion of large genes into the DNA of higher plants - Phys.org - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Scientists inspired the right guardrails for nuclear energy, the internet, and DNA research. Let them do the same for AI - Fortune - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Test your dog's DNA to learn about their heritage and health for only $120 - New York Post - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Earth Life Biodiversity: Vast DNA Tree Of life For Flowering Plants Revealed - Astrobiology - Astrobiology News - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise Share Some Very Stylish DNA - Vogue - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- DNA evidence leads to arrest of 75-year-old Auburn man - Opelika Auburn News - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Putnam NY cold case: DNA test finds skeleton is not Robin Murphy's - The Journal News - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Ancient nomads you've probably never heard of disappeared from Europe 1,000 years ago. Now, DNA analysis ... - The Conversation - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Genetics Studies Have a Diversity Problem That Researchers Struggle To Fix - Kaiser Health News - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Keeping Telomeres in Their Places - The Scientist - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- WWII veteran Ward Thomas identified through genealogy testing - 10TV - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Vast DNA tree of life for plants revealed by global science team using 1.8 billion letters of genetic code - Phys.org - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- Here is a look at one of the labs that helped uncover new DNA evidence in Lake Oconee murder - WSB Atlanta - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- This Guardians prospect has baseball in his DNA - 1330 WFIN - April 27th, 2024 [April 27th, 2024]
- DNA identifies last known remains of victims of notorious Green River Killer, cops say - Miami Herald - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- UNE to study why rare lobsters have strange-colored shells - Spectrum News - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- DNA evidence identifies last known victim of Green River Killer almost 40 years later - NBC Right Now - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- New bill would give California parents more control over whether state can store their kid's DNA - CBS News - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Lucas County Sheriff's Office doing advanced testing on DNA found at site of 2011 Clarke and Straub murders - WTOL - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Last known remains connected to the Green River Killer identified through DNA | WTGS - Fox28 Savannah - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- 5 Best Ancestry DNA Tests 2024 To Help You Learn More About Your Health - GLAMOUR UK - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- 11 Investigates: Lucas County Sheriff's Office doing advanced testing on DNA found at site of 2011 Clarke and Straub murders - WTOL - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Researchers improve blood tests' ability to detect and monitor cancer - MIT News - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- DNA test approved for Duxbury's Lindsay Clancy, who is accused of killing her 3 children - The Patriot Ledger - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- 1,650th victim of 9/11 identified through advanced DNA testing - FOX 17 West Michigan News - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- We Think Cavco Industries (NASDAQ:CVCO) Might Have The DNA Of A Multi-Bagger - Yahoo Finance - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- DNA From the Ocean's 'Twilight Zone' Could Lead to New Lifesaving Drugs, Scientists Say - Smithsonian Magazine - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Last known remains connected to the Green River Killer identified through DNA - KOMO News - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- 9/11 victim identified as John Ballantine Niven of Oyster Bay with help of DNA technology - WABC-TV - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Scott Peterson has every right to DNA test: Attorney from case - NewsNation Now - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- DNA from stone age chewing gum sheds light on diet and disease in Scandinavia's ancient hunter-gatherers - The Conversation - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Barbara Lee responds to Nikki Haley: Racism is in the DNA of this country - The Hill - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- DB Cooper 'will finally be identified' after 53 years due to huge DNA breakthrough - LADbible - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Dog Owners Who Abandon Poops To Be Found Using DNA Tests in Italy - Newsweek - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Scientists gather bobcat DNA from paw prints - KJZZ - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Discovering Fusions Requires More Than DNA Testing in GI Cancers - OncLive - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Largest-ever ocean DNA study uncovers mysteries of marine life - Earth.com - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- 1st-ever ancient case of Turner syndrome, with just 1 X chromosome instead of 2, found in ancient DNA - Livescience.com - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Minnesota Mother Calls on NYS to Allow DNA Testing Finger Lakes Daily News - Finger Lakes Daily News - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- DNA Didn't Match Marcellus Williams. Missouri May Fast-Track Execution Anyway. - The Intercept - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Ancient DNA From Eurasian Herders Sheds Light on the Origins of Multiple Sclerosis - Smithsonian Magazine - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- DNA's hotel toh kuyabeh mirrors bird flight undulations in tulum - Designboom - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Research into ancient DNA sheds new light on cause of Multiple Sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases - University of Oxford - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Ancient DNA reveals reason for high MS and Alzheimer's rates in Europe - University of Cambridge news - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- TIME-seq reduces time and cost of DNA methylation measurement for epigenetic clock construction - Nature.com - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Gilgo Serial Killer Suspect Rex Heuermann Tied to Slaying by DNA From Daughter's Can of Coffee: Prosecutors - The Messenger - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- DNA evidence leads to arrest of Denton sexual assault suspect - The Cross Timbers Gazette - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Ancient DNA reveals reason for high multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's rates in Europe - EurekAlert - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- New technique identifies earliest cases of genetic disorders from ancient DNA - University of Oxford - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Ancient DNA could be hiding all kinds of health secrets - Deccan Herald - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Ancient DNA reveals reason for high MS and Alzheimer's rates in Europe - ScienceBlog.com - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Supreme Court seeks government's view on DNA profiling of unidentified bodies - IndiaTimes - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Prosecution Ordered to Release Portion of DNA Evidence to Kohberger's Defense Team - bigcountrynewsconnection.com - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Judge orders more DNA disclosure in University of Idaho murder case - KXLY Spokane - January 16th, 2024 [January 16th, 2024]
- Cas9-induced targeted integration of large DNA payloads in primary human T cells via homology-mediated end-joining ... - Nature.com - December 14th, 2023 [December 14th, 2023]
- The DNA glycosylase NEIL2 is protective during SARS-CoV-2 infection - Nature.com - December 14th, 2023 [December 14th, 2023]
- How an immune response is driven by one letter difference in DNA - Medical Xpress - December 14th, 2023 [December 14th, 2023]
- Tracy Morgan Discovered He Was Related to Nas After DNA Test - PEOPLE - December 14th, 2023 [December 14th, 2023]
- Scientists testify about DNA in third week of Aguirre trial - The Spokesman Review - December 14th, 2023 [December 14th, 2023]