Album: The Dresden Dolls (2004)
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  • A late April day and it's sunny outside
    And a red little girl's at the top of a slide
    And an orange old man at the bottom
    Wants to take her for a ride

    As she slips and she tumbles the orange man mumbles
    Pennies crash down from the sky
    And he tells her, he'll take her away where it's safe
    And of course it is a lie

    She's a third the down and her skirts are yanked up
    And her little girl cheeks start to wrinkle
    But her smile is wide and her legs are spread wider
    Her hair growing long and her hips getting larger
    Past getting brighter
    Light growing weaker

    She is halfway down now but the man is impatient
    Shakes change in his pocket he might have to wait
    But she's coming
    She's coming
    She's coming

    Who are you blaming?
    They're just playing
    That's a good one, who left the playground
    A good decade before the bell rang?

    As she starts to draw nearer the view becomes clearer
    The splinters are painful but she doesn't feel it
    The pennies were loaded and as they exploded
    She starts to spin out of control

    Her eyes are now closing her sleeves are unrolling
    Up past her head and her veins are all showing
    Not that she noticed, she's thoroughly focused on
    One old man who's laughing
    Who's laughing
    Who's laughing

    Don't worry, I've got you
    Don't worry, I've got you
    Don't worry, I've got you
    Don't worry, I've got you
    The orange man got you

    A late April day and it's sunny outside
    And a red little girl's at the top of the slide
    And an orange old man at the bottom
    Wants to take her for a ride
    Writer/s: KEKE PALMER, LOREAL PALMER, TOBIAS GAD
    Publisher: Audiam, Inc., BMG Rights Management, CTM Outlander Music LC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 7

  • Cat from CtI ALSO want to add in that I believe if U wanna tie in a third song Miss me, that this guy is a family friend, and that is why from a young age she trust him, and in that one (where she is the oldest) she figures out okay this is wrong, what he's been doing is wrong, now I should tell someone, but who? but at the end she also is attached to him, and they say thats what you get for kissing little girls, and the talk about sex in that piece as well,


    AND TO throw in another piece, Delilah, is about a girl who has a lot of sex, and can't keep a relationship, (she's a prostitute). she could be page turner. and the girl on the slide, and in miss me when she's on her own and the orange/organ man is locked away, and she doesn't know what love is or how someone is supposed to treat her because people constantly treat her badly still.
  • Cat from CtI think orange man could be short for Organ man, from there song "Organist Rapes Page Turner". I think there connected. because in both the men our old, and the organist one the girl is slightly older, and talks about rape but how she keeps turning pages by the organ and turning heads, and here is where he picks her up from the play ground. That's what I believe.
  • Sarah from Dublin, Ohi love the dresden dolls and Amanda Palmer...this song gave me chills when i first heard it . I think i sat down and teared up a bit. I got so emotional out of nowhere. Then clicked it back to song 2 to rock out YAYAYYA
  • Miranda from St. Charles, MoThis song reminds me some much of my past... it hurts to listen to
  • Ana from Monroe, AfghanistanOh my God , that's horrible
  • Ashliey from Kettering, OhI think there are 2 song meaning. The first one is pedophilia and that's sex explainitory. The second meaning is life. The old man representing death. The slide being life. The little girl being the one to grow up. The man is asking her to come with him. Which death does ur entire life. While she's sliding down it talks about growth. And when she finally gets to him the whole "the orangeman got u" thing is saying that she's dead.
  • Heather from Boston, MaThis song does have to do with child molestation and innocense. it has been speculated that the "orange man" may have something to do with the orange jumpsuit of a convict. also the lines "shakes change in his pocket" could have to do with him pleasuring himself while he watches the girl play. another reference "the pennies were loaded and as they exploded she starts to spin out of control" could be refering again to the man having an orgasm.
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