Goldfrapp – Paper Bag

Goldfrapp – Paper Bag (Live at Shepherd’s Bush Empire 2001)

What Is It?

The song Paper Bag by the English electronic music duo Goldfrapp from their 2000 music album Felt Mountain:

Paper Bag

Goldfrapp – Paper Bag (Live at Shepherd’s Bush Empire 2001)

Paper Bag (Live From Air Studios)

Paper Bag

Here is how Genius describes this song:

“Paper Bag” is a ballad about businesses, the pursuit of money, and romantic obsession, featuring Alison’s usual fragmented, surreal songwriting style.

On the compilation album iTunes Originals: Goldfrapp, Alison said:

It’s quite an unusual song, the lyrics are quite unusual.

It’s got a very definite character, I think. […]

It’s something that we still feel is representative of the sounds we like playing with.

Here is how Wikipedia describes this song:

The second track, “Paper Bag”, is about being obsessed with someone and not being able to have them. ^[9]

Here are the descriptions for the videos above:

Provided to YouTube by BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited

Paper Bag · Goldfrapp

Felt Mountain

℗ 2000 Mute Records Ltd., a BMG Company

Released on: 2000-09-01

Producer: Goldfrapp
Composer: Alison Goldfrapp
Composer: Will Gregory

Auto-generated by YouTube.

Goldfrapp performing ‘Paper Bag’ live at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London in support of their debut album ‘Felt Mountain’.

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the album, the duo will play the album in full in special concerts around the UK in March-April 2021.

Buy tickets: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/goldfr…

Connect with Goldfrapp:

Facebook: http://po.st/GFFacebook

Twitter: http://po.st/GFTwitter

Instagram: http://po.st/GFInstagram

YouTube: http://po.st/GFYouTube

Spotify: http://po.st/GFSpot

Sign up to the Goldfrapp mailing list for updates: https://www.goldfrapp.com

Music

SONG: Paper Bag

ARTIST: Goldfrapp

LICENSES: SME, BMG Rights Management (Europe) GmbH; Warner Chappell, LatinAutorPerf, PEDL, ASCAP, LatinAutor – Warner Chappell, CMRRA, and 6 Music Rights Societies

Provided to YouTube by Mute

Paper Bag (Live From Air Studios) · Goldfrapp

Tales of Us (Deluxe Edition)

℗ 2014 Mute Artists Limited

Composer: Goldfrapp
Composer: Gregory

Auto-generated by YouTube.

Provided to YouTube by Milan

Paper Bag · Goldfrapp · Alison Goldfrapp · Will Gregory

Pedro Almodóvar – Viva La Tristeza!

℗ 2003 Exclusively licensed by Sony Music Entertainment

Released on: 2003-05-13

Auto-generated by YouTube.

Fiona Apple – Paper Bag

Fiona Apple: Paper Bag (2000)

What is it?

The song Paper Bag by the American musician Fiona Apple from her 1999 music album When the Pawn.

Music Video

Fiona Apple – Paper Bag (Official Video)

Live Performance

Fiona Apple – “Paper Bag” live @ TheToday Show [with lyrics]

Song

Fiona Apple – Paper Bag (lyrics)

Here is how Wikipedia describes this song:

“Paper Bag” is a song by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, released as the third single from her second studio album, When the Pawn… (1999).^[2][3]

The song earned Apple a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the 43rd Grammy Awards (2001).

Background And Composition

Apple wrote “Paper Bag” following an experience in which she mistook a plastic bag for a dove.

The event took place in Los Angeles following recording sessions for her previous studio album, Tidal (1996); Apple, reportedly upset at the time, was a passenger in a car being driven by her father.^[4]

Apple’s lyrics are what she calls “extensions of her journal”, many of which draw experiences from a rape and subsequent mental health problems, including disordered eating, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and complex post-traumatic stress disorder.^[5][6][7]

The lyrics in “Paper Bag” are about minimizing different types of pain, something that is reflective of the feminine experience, and resonated with girls and women in online conversations associated heavily with trauma and eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa, a different disorder than Apple’s own.

“Hunger hurts, but starving works” became a common, relatable moniker in disordered eating communities.^[8][9][10]

Allmusic‘s Matthew Greenwald described “Paper Bag” as having a “loose, almost ragtime” melody and rhythm pattern, with an “up and down” chord pattern creating a “funky, looping feel”.^[3]

The Record noted the “infectious” song includes “Beatlesesque horns”.^[11]

The Boston Globe classified it as a “piano ditty” that “owes equally to Kurt Weill and Paul McCartney,”^[12] while The Buffalo News noted that it “provides a more contemporary hip hop sound” than other songs on her album.^[13]