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"Hands Clean"
If it weren't for your maturity none of this would have happened
If you weren't so wise beyond your years
I would've been able to control myself
If it weren't for my attention you wouldn't have been successful and
If it weren't for me you would never have amounted to very much
Ooh this could be messy
But you don't seem to mind
Ooh don't go telling everybody
And overlook this supposed crime
We'll fast forward to a few years later
And no one knows except the both of us
And I have honored your request for silence
And you've washed your hands clean of this
You're essentially an employee and I like you having to depend on me
You're kind of my protege and one day you'll say you learned all you know from me
I know you depend on me like a young thing would to a guardian
I know you sexualize me like a young thing would and I think I like it
Ooh this could get messy
But you don't seem to mind
Ooh don't go telling everybody
And overlook this supposed crime
We'll fast forward to a few years later
And no one knows except the both of us
I've more than honored your request for silence
And you've washed your hands clean of this
What part of our history's reinvented and under rug swept?
What part of your memory is selective and tends to forget?
What with this distance it seems so obvious?
Just make sure you don't tell on me especially to members of your family
We best keep this to ourselves and not tell any members of our inner posse
I wish I could tell the world cuz you're such a pretty thing when you're done up properly
I might want to marry you one day if you watch that weight and keep your firm body
Ooh this could be messy and
Ooh I don't seem to mind
Ooh don't go telling everybody
Alanis Morissette was born in Ottawa Ontario , Cannada to a french cannadian father, Alan Richard Morissette, and hungarian mother, Georgia Mary Ann Feuerstein. Alanis has a twin brother, Wade, and an older brother, Chad. At the age of six, she began playing the piano and realized she wanted to express herself through the arts In 1984, Morissette wrote her first song, "Fate Stay with Me", which she sent to a local folk singer, Lindsay Morgan, who recruited Morissette as his protégé
In 1986, Morissette had her first stint as an actress: five episodes of the children's television show You cany do that in television. Using money she saved from that role, she released "Fate Stay with Me" as a single via a label she founded with Morgan. A limited number of copies were pressed, and it received little airplay. She appeared on stage with the
Orpheus Musical Theatre Society in 1985 and 1988
. During her high school years, Morissette attended Immaculata High School in Ottawa.
At a New york city audition, Morissette landed a spot on star search a popular American talent competition on which she used her stage name, Alanis Nadine. Morissette flew toL . A to appear on the show, but lost after one round. In 1988, Morissette signed a publishing deal with
MCA Publishing, which helped to fund her record deal with one of its independent subsidiary labels.
1990 – 1993: Alanis and Now Is the Time
MCA Records released Morissette's debut album,
Alanis, in Canada only in 1991, and Morissette co-wrote every track on the album with its producer,
Leslie Howe. By the time it was released, she had dropped her stage name and was credited simply as Alanis. The
dance-pop album went
platinum, and its first single, "
Too Hot", reached the top twenty on the
RPM singles chart. Subsequent singles included "
Walk Away", "
Feel Your Love" and "Plastic". Later, this period of Morissette's career would be compared to similar teen singers in the US such as
Debbie Gibson and
Tiffany. Following the release of "Alanis", Morissette was a concert opening act for rapper
Vanilla Ice.Morissette was nominated for three 1992
Juno Awards:
Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year (which she won),
Single of the Year and
Best Dance Recording (both for "Too Hot").
Between the ages of fourteen to eighteen, Morissette suffered from
anorexia and
bulimia nervosa, which were catalysed by "hardcore" professional pressure and managerial demands from her work towards making her first album. She recalled returning to the studio to re-record some vocals, only to be told that the person who summoned her there wanted to discuss her weight, and that she couldn't be successful if she was fat. She lived on a diet of
carrots,
black coffee and
Melba toast, and her weight fluctuated by fifteen to twenty pounds. She subsequently began therapy, which she called "a long process to un-program [my brain]. I try to remember, whatever my body is, it's perfect the way it is."
In 1992, she released her second album,
Now Is the Time, a
ballad-driven record that featured less glitzy production than Alanis and contained more thoughtful lyrics. Morissette wrote the songs with the album's producer, Leslie Howe, and Serge Côté. She said of the album, "people could go, 'Boo, hiss, hiss, this girl's like another Tiffany or whatever'. But the way I look at it ... people will like your next album if it's a kick-ass one." As with Alanis, Now Is the Time was released only in Canada and produced singles — "
An Emotion Away", "
No Apologies", and "Real World". The record's sales were roughly half of what she had reached with her debut. With her two-album deal with MCA Canada complete, Morissette was left without a major label contract.
During this period, Morissette dated
Dave Coulier of television's
Full House fame.
1993 – 1995: Move to Los Angeles
In 1993, after graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to
Toronto.Living alone for the first time in her life, she met with a bevy of songwriters, but the results frustrated her.[
citation needed] A visit to
Nashville a few months later also proved fruitless. In the hopes of meeting a collaborator Morissette began making trips to
Los Angeles and working with as many musicians as possible.
During this time, she met producer and songwriter
Glen Ballard, and within ten minutes of meeting each other they had begun experimenting creatively.According to Morissette, Ballard was the first collaborator who encouraged her to express her emotions.[
citation needed] The two wrote and recorded Morissette's third album,
Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with
Maverick Records.
As Morissette later revealed, during her stay in L.A., a thief confronted and robbed her on a deserted street, although he did not take the writing and brainstorming notes in her purse; they were the scribblings that soon made up Jagged Little Pill. Morissette subsequently developed an intense and general
angst, which manifested in random daily
panic attacks, including on planes. She checked herself into a hospital and attended psychotherapy sessions, but with no improvement. She focused her inner problems on the soul-baring lyrics of the album for her own health.
1995 – 1998: Jagged Little Pill
"You Oughta Know" (1995)This angsty, rock-influenced track about a bitter breakup became Morissette's breakthrough international single.
"Ironic" (1996)The two-time Grammy Award-winning song is considered one of Morissette's signature tunes.
Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation changed quickly when a
DJ from an influential Los Angeles
radio station began playing "
You Oughta Know", the album's first single. The song instantly garnered attention for its scathing, explicit lyrics, and a subsequent
music video went into heavy rotation on
MTV and
MuchMusic.
After the success of "You Oughta Know", the album's other hit singles helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "
All I Really Want" and "
Hand in My Pocket" followed, but the fourth U.S. single, "
Ironic", became Morissette's biggest hit. "
You Learn" and "
Head over Feet", the fifth and sixth singles, respectively, kept Jagged Little Pill in the top twenty on the
Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year. According to the
RIAA, Jagged Little Pill is the best-selling international debut album by a female artist, with more than fourteen million copies sold in the U.S.; it sold thirty million worldwide, making it the second biggest selling album by a female artist, and the biggest selling debut album of all time.
[4][5] Morissette's popularity grew significantly in Canada, where the album was certified twelve times platinum
[9] and produced four RPM chart-toppers: "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn" and "Head over Feet". The album was also a bestseller in
Australia and the
United Kingdom.
Morissette's success with Jagged Little Pill was credited with leading to the introduction of female singers such as
Tracy Bonham,
Meredith Brooks,
Patti Rothberg and, in the early 2000s,
Avril Lavigne and
Pink. She was criticised for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Ballard, and her previous albums also proved a hindrance for her respectability, particularly in her native country. Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996:
Album of the Year,
Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"),
Female Vocalist of the Year,
Songwriter of the Year and
Best Rock Album. At the 1996
Grammy Awards, she won
Best Female Rock Vocal Performance,
Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"),
Best Rock Album and
Album of the Year.
Later in 1996, Morissette embarked on an eighteen-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues.
Taylor Hawkins, currently with the
Foo Fighters, was the tour's drummer. "Ironic" was nominated for two
1997 Grammy Awards —
Record of the Year and
Best Music Video, Short Form— and won Single of the Year at the
1997 Juno Awards, where Morissette also won Songwriter of the Year and the International Achievement Award. The video
Jagged Little Pill, Live, which was co-directed by Morissette and chronicled the bulk of her tour, won a
1998 Grammy Award for
Best Music Video, Long Form.
During the tour, Morissette became disillusioned with the music industry and declared being tired of constant travelling, quick and superficial relationships and parties full of drugs — subjects that made her consider ditching her career.[
citation needed] She started practicing
Iyengar Yoga for balancing, and after the last December 1996 show, she headed to
India for six weeks, accompanied by her mother, two aunts and two female friends.
2002 – 2003: Under Rug Swept
In 2001, Morissette was featured with
Stephanie McKay on the
Tricky song "Excess", which is on his album
Blowback. Morissette released her fifth studio album,
Under Rug Swept, in February 2002. For the first time in her career, she took on the role of sole writer and producer of an album. Her band, comprising
Joel Shearer, Nick Lashley, Chris Chaney and Gary Novak, played the majority of the instruments; additional contributions came from
Eric Avery,
Dean DeLeo,
Flea and
Meshell Ndegeocello. Shortly after recording the album, Morissette hired an entirely new band, featuring Jason Orme, Zac Rae,
David Levita and
Blair Sinta, who have been with her since.
Under Rug Swept debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually going platinum in Canada and selling one million copies in the U.S. It produced the hit single "
Hands Clean", which topped the
Canadian Singles Chart and received substantial radio play; for her work on "Hands Clean" and "
So Unsexy", Morissette won a Juno Award for
Producer of the Year. A second single, "
Precious Illusions", was released, but it did not garner significant success outside Canada or U.S. hot AC radio.
Later in 2002, Morissette released the combination package
Feast on Scraps, which includes a DVD of live concert and backstage documentary footage directed by her, and a CD containing eight previously unreleased songs from the Under Rug Swept recording sessions. Preceded by the single "Simple Together", it sold roughly 70,000 copies in the U.S. and was nominated for a Juno Award for
Music DVD of the Year.In late 2003, Morissette appeared in the
off-Broadway play The Exonerated as Sunny Jacobs, a
death row inmate freed after proof surfaced that she was innocent.