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  1. Tracks
  2. Fiona Apple
  3. The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
  4. Periphery

TRACK

Fiona Apple

Periphery

Release date: 19th June 2012

From The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
Spotify More on Fiona Apple

About This Track

Apple turns the periphery into a landscape of romantic dismissal. The song circles a single image: the margins where people gather, celebrate, build false pedigrees, and eventually disappear. She watches someone she loved drift toward it, toward a prettier girl with a steadier temperament, and finds she cannot follow. The acceptance is almost brutal in its clarity. "I don't even like you anymore at all," she repeats, the phrase landing with the weight of something final. What makes the track move is not anger but a kind of weary arithmetic. Apple accounts for the loss without demanding it back. If he wants the other woman, he should have her. If he finds himself yearning for the margins again, that is between him and his bride, not her. She will care, but differently, at a distance, hoping he becomes a good family man. The song holds space for his future without claiming a place in it.

"Periphery" is a track by Fiona Apple, from the album The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, released 19th June 2012. Full lyrics are available below.

About the Artist

Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple

Lyrics

Periphery

[Verse 1]

Oh, the periphery

They throw good parties there

Those peripheral idiots

Always have a bite to bear

Bear it, if you can

If you really want to

[Verse 2]

Go to the periphery

Have them celebrate your name

Have them forge you a pedigree and then you'll be

Left to run the races, lame

Run it if you want

If you think it’s worth it

But not with me

[Chorus]

'Cause I don't appreciate

People who don't appreciate

All that loving must've been lackin' something

If I got bored tryin' to figure you out

You let me down

I don't even like you anymore at all

[Verse 3]

Oh, the periphery

I lost another one there

He found a prettier girl than me

With a more even-tempered air

And if he wants her, he should get her

'Cause I think he thinks she's worth it

And maybe they'll move from the periphery

Buy themselves their own plot of land

And I'll care in a different capacity, I'll just be

Hoping he makes a good family man

And if he finds himself yearning

For his throne on the silly side

There's nothing wrong, as long as he's learning

Besides, he can take it up with his bretheren

Or with his bride, just not with me

[Chorus]

'Cause I don't appreciate

People who don't appreciate

All that loving must've been lacking something

If I got bored tryin' to figure you out

You let me down

I don't even like you anymore at all

All that loving must've been lacking something

If I got bored tryin' to figure you out

You let me down

I don't even like you anymore at all

[Outro]

Oh, the periphery

Oh, the periphery

Oh, the periphery

Oh, the periphery

Stole you away

Stole you away

Away, away

Stole you away, away

Lyrics provided by LRCLIB

View full lyrics page →

Track details

From The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do

2012
Listen
Album
The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
Fiona Apple
Release year
2012
  1. —Werewolf
  2. —Jonathan
  3. —Valentine
  4. —Left Alone
  5. —Periphery

More from Fiona Apple

Albums & EPs

Fetch The Bolt Cutters
Fetch The Bolt Cutters
2020
The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do (Expanded Edition)
The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do (Expanded Edition)
2012
Extraordinary Machine
Extraordinary Machine
2005
When the Pawn...
When the Pawn...
1999
When The Pawn Hits The Conflicts He Thinks Like A King What He Knows Throws The Blows When He Goes To The Fight And He'll Win The Whole Thing 'Fore He Enters The Ring There's No Body To Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold You
1999
Tidal
Tidal
1996

Explore

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  6. Cosmonauts
  7. Court Watchers (Narration & Original Score)
  8. David Rakoff Describe It for Me
  9. Don't Get Rid of It (You'd Look Good In It)
  10. Drumset

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    • Credits

    Production & Engineering

    Writer
    Fiona Apple
    Producer
    Charley Drayton, Fiona Apple
    Mixing Engineer
    Dave Way
    Recording Engineer
    Eddison Electrik, John Would
    READ MORE ABOUT FIONA APPLEREAD MORE ABOUT FIONA APPLE
    READ MORE ABOUT FIONA APPLEREAD MORE ABOUT FIONA APPLE

    No coverage available for Fiona Apple yet.