A “New Yorker” profile of Apple offers insight into the feeling behind this song:
‘People with depression are always playing with this thing that’s very heavy,’ she [Apple] said. Her arms went up, as if she were bouncing a balloon, pretending to have fun, and said, ‘Like, 'Ha, ha, it’s so heavy!’'
[Verse 1]
People like us, we play with a heavy balloon
We keep it up to keep the devil at bay, but it always falls way too soon
People like us, we play with a heavy balloon
We keep it up to keep the devil at bay, but it always falls way too soon
People like us, we play with a heavy balloon
We keep it up to keep the devil at bay, but it always falls way too soon
[Chorus]
I spread like strawberries (I spread like strawberries)
I climb like peas and beans (I climb like peas and beans)
I've been sucking it in so long
That I'm busting at the seams
I spread like strawberries (I spread like strawberries)
I climb like peas and beans (I climb like peas and beans)
I've been sucking it in so long
That I'm busting at the seams
[Verse 2]
In the middle of the day, it's like the sun
But the Saharan one, it's staring me down
Forcing all forms of life inside of me to retreat underground
It grows relentless like the teeth of a rat
It's just got to keep on gnawing at me
And it constricts like a boa on a hose, nothing flows
So the pressure grows instead of the seed
[Verse 3]
People like us get so heavy and so lost sometimes
So lost and so heavy that the bottom is the only place we can find
You get dragged down, down to the same spot enough times in a row
The bottom begins to feel like the only safe place that you know
But you know what?
[Chorus]
I spread like strawberries (I spread like strawberries)
I climb like peas and beans (I climb like peas and beans)
I've been sucking it in so long
That I'm busting at the seams
I spread like strawberries (I spread like strawberries)
I climb like peas and beans (I climb like peas and beans)
I've been sucking it in so long
That I'm busting at the seams
[Outro]
(I spread like strawberries), I spread like strawberries
I climb like (I climb like peas and beans)
I spread like strawberries
I climb like peas and beans
I spread like strawberries
I climb like peas and beans (That I'm busting at the seams)
I spread like strawberries
I climb like peas and beans
Heavy Balloon was written by Fiona Apple.
Heavy Balloon was produced by Fiona Apple & Amy Aileen Wood.
Fiona Apple released Heavy Balloon on Fri Apr 17 2020.
The imagery of that one came to me years ago, because a boyfriend of mine was talking to me about his father and his depression. The way he was describing his father moving around the house being weighed down by something made me think, We’re just always trying to keep it up; oh my God, this is not...