“Werewolf” by Cocorosie- NOT About a Girl being Raped by her Father

It’s about a woman who was raped because of her father.

Lyrics:

In a dream I was a werewolf
My soul was filled with crystal light
Lavender ribbons of rain sang
Ridding my heart of mortal fight

Broken sundown fatherless showdown
Gun hip swollen lip bottle sip yeah I suck dick
Lose grip on gravity falls sky blinding crumbling walls
River sweep away my memories of
Children’s things a young mother’s love
Before the yearning song of flesh on flesh
Young hearts burst open wounds bleed fresh
A young brother skinny and tall my older walks
Oceanward and somber, slumber sleeping
Flowers in the water,
But I’m just his daughter
Walking down an icy grave
leading to my Schizophrenic father.
Weeping willow won’t you wallow louder
Searching for my father’s power

I’ma shake you off though
Get up on that horse and
Ride into the sunset
Look back with no remorse

He’s a black magic wielder some say a witch
Wielded darkness when he was wilein’ on his mom’s
And born child and he was the bastard that broke
Up the marriage evil doer doing evil from a baby carriage
And he was born with the same blue eyes
Crystal ships dripping with ice, diamonds coruscate
In the night fireworks electric bright
And now he’s got his own two sons
Tried to hide his tearz in a world of fun
But loveless bedrooms filled with doom
Bring silent heartache July to June
Woon over new young hot flame
Mourn the memories later
Laugh now aligator

Oh in a dream
My father came to me
And made me swear that I’d keep
What sacred to me
And if I get the choice
To live in his name
I pray my way through the Rain
Singing Oh happy day

I don’t mean to close the door
But for the record my heart is sore
You blew through me like bullet holes
Left staind on my sheets and stains
On my soul
You left me broke down beggin for change
Had to catch a ride with a man who’s deranged
He had your hands and my father’s face
Another western vampire different time same place
I had dreams that brings me sadness
Pain much deep that a river
Sorrow flow through me in tiny waves of shivers
Corny movies make me reminisce
Breat me down easy on this generic love shit
First kiss frog and princess

The first verse is about herself, the second verse is about the man who “blew through her like bullet holes.” The third verse is drawing a parallel between the man who “had your hands and my father’s face” and her father.

Beginning the song, the singer, a girl, is talking about being fatherless, alluding to how her “schitzophrenic father” was checked out, not there, and how she was “searching for her father’s power.” For reasons that weren’t his fault (mental illness), dad wasn’t there for her, therefore the only person to blame for her misery was herself, and when you can only blame yourself, bad things happen, low self-esteem, depression. “Weeping willow won’t you wallow louder…searching…” The blatant sex references allude to a loss of innocence. A father never taught her how men should treat her, or taught her the wrong way men should treat her. She’s having sex she doesn’t want to searching for her father’s power, her father’s influence.

The second verse talks about someone, I wasn’t sure who at first when I read the verse, I assumed she was still talking about herself, or her father, but then I realized she was talking about someone else entirely, someone who would “woon over new young hot flame.” I realized the young hot flame is her, and the man she is talking about is her lover. She’s describing his life from his time growing up, painting a depressing picture of a depressed and abused man, telling his story as if it wasn’t his fault that he abused and “wooned over new young hot flame.” Why would she paint the images of the men in her life who hurt her as victims? Again, she blames herself for her misery. When you have no one to blame but yourself, bad things happen.

Then she launches into a dream sequence, it seemed to me like her father came to her in her dream and was everything she ever wanted in a father, a supportive, caring, nurturing figure who told her to hold onto everything she held dear, and if she “had the choice to live in his name,” she’d make it “through the rain.”

In the last verse, she’s slamming her father and her lover all in one, who may be an allusion to the many lovers she’s had who have all one by one abused her and psychologically torn her, seeing as in the beginning of the song she touts promiscuity and dark experience by saying “yeah I suck dick.”

What deeper meaning I’m really sensing though is the “Werewolf” theme. I think her lovers, her father, everyone changes. “He had your hands and my father’s face.” He had your hands but he and the person who had his hands are the same person, the lover. The lover changed to someone she didn’t know who looked like someone she loved. She’s slamming men who have lured her in and then changed into violent werewolves in schizophrenic frenzies. “Another western vampire different time same place” could either mean many men all the same or that she’s seen her father in her lover.  A very last line that struck me is how she’s talking about how “corny movies make her reminisce,” how this “love shit” isn’t like the movies, and her “first kiss frog princess” is a grim fairy tale turned real, which in many ways is the textbook definition of real life.

But she’s going to shake it off, get up on that horse and ride into the sunset looking back with no remorse…which never happened because the beginning of the song is sung in present tense, “yeah I suck dick” not “yeah I sucked dick.” She’ll keep telling herself that, wishing, hoping, praying for her father to come to her like he did in that dream, instead of “blowing through her like bullet holes.”

Witness the plight of those who are “just his daughter.”

*Correction: “He had your hands and my father’s face.” After listening to it more closely I do think this is actually some random person, the “man who is deranged.” She keeps falling in with people who are like her father and her x-lover and blames them for it.