Little Red Shoes

Album: Van Lear Rose (2004)
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Songfacts®:

  • This spoken-word song was the result of a bit of trickery by the album's producer, Jack White (of the White Stripes). He was playing a melody for Lynn to generate song ideas when she recalled a story from her childhood. Little did she know, White was recording her the whole time. "He pulled a fast one on me!" she remembered in the book Honky Tonk Girl: My Life In Lyrics. "I started telling him a story about when I was a little girl and my daddy and mommy had saved up enough money and they bought me a pair of little red shoes. They were the prettiest things I ever saw. That same year I got really sick, and the town doctor told mommy I might die, and I almost did. My mommy put my little red shoes away thinking I'd never get to wear them. Well, I did get better and I did wear those shoes, and how I loved them! I was just sitting and talking to Jack, telling him about all this. I didn't know he was taping me. When we were done he said, 'Well, there's the song!'"

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