Mansion Song

Album: My Best Friend is You (2010)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This angry piece of vitriol opens with a 90-second expletive-strewn monologue. Nash explained to The Daily Telegraph April 7, 2010 that the song was inspired by the fame-hungry groupies she encountered when performing at festivals: "There were these stupid girls kind of doing my head in. I felt really angry," she said.

    The London singer added: "They thought what they were doing was really cool and edgy, whereas everyone just thought they were idiots. No one else respected them – just being sleeping around on tour and picked up and ditched in the next town. It's not a career. It's not an ambition to, like, have sex with someone who plays guitar.

    It's almost like drinking when you're depressed. You know if you're really down and you're, like, 'I'm going to drink three bottles of wine,' and then you're, like, 'Boo hoo,' at the end of the night. It's a depressant. And, like, using sex as a way to make yourself feel better or cool is not going to work. You need to feel good, and then once you feel confident and happy and want to be promiscuous, or whatever, do it on your own terms. Don't let somebody use you, because those guys don't care."
  • Nash explained to The Daily Telegraph the lyric, "Take a piece of raw vegetable and hold it to your breast" She said: "You know in Gone with the Wind at the end where she kills that guy and she goes off and says that speech, 'I'll never be hungry again,' [and holds up] a turnip? It was like a really righteous moment. She was, like, 'I'll never be abused again.' But those girls, at the end of the day, like, what have you stood for? F--k all."
  • Nash told to The Observer that much of My Best Friend is You deals with female empowerment and one of her bugbears is the inappropriate sexualization of young girls in modern society. "Young kids should be taught about sex but they shouldn't be taught to be sexy. It's really distasteful," she said.
  • Nash acknowledged in an interview with The London Times April 16, 2010 that this song's lyrics are explicit, however she considers Pussycat Dolls a considerably more corrupting force than her swearing. She said: "They do sexualise young children, it's a fact - look at their name, 'pussy' and 'dolls.' But even though I say f--k and c--t and cocaine in that song, there's nothing in there as offensive as 'Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me.'"

    She added: "I'm sympathetic - if people don't want their kids to hear it, if they're offended by it, I accept responsibility. But I'm not gonna censor myself. I'm not a TV presenter. I'm an artist. It's unfortunate really that I became a pop star. 'cause that was accidental. I didn't mean to do that. So I apologize to parents who think that I'm gonna offend their children. But I actually think: you know what, your children won't be offended."

    Nash concluded that any young girls who hear this song and the rest of My Best Friend Is You will come away from the experience "not singing about stealing people's boyfriends. They're going to be singing about wanting to be an empowered woman with f---ing morals and brains. And not thinking [chipmunk-bimbo voice]: 'I wanna be pretty, I wanna be thin, I wanna shag people.' They're gonna be thinking: 'I wanna f---ing do something.' That's much better in my book.

    So, apologies for the swearing, but no apologies for the meaning behind it."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"They're Playing My Song

A song he wrote and recorded from "sheer spiritual inspiration," Allen's didn't think "Southern Nights" had hit potential until Glen Campbell took it to #1 two years later.

Richard Marx

Richard MarxSongwriter Interviews

Richard explains how Joe Walsh kickstarted his career, and why he chose Hazard, Nebraska for a hit.

Commercials

CommercialsFact or Fiction

Was "Ring Of Fire" really used to sell hemorrhoid cream?

John Doe of X

John Doe of XSongwriter Interviews

With his X-wife Exene, John fronts the band X and writes their songs.

Yoko Ono

Yoko OnoSongwriter Interviews

At 80 years old, Yoko has 10 #1 Dance hits. She discusses some of her songs and explains what inspired John Lennon's return to music in 1980.

Loreena McKennitt

Loreena McKennittSongwriter Interviews

The Celtic music maker Loreena McKennitt on finding musical inspiration, the "New Age" label, and working on the movie Tinker Bell.