It's 99 degrees, I may be delusional.

And now for an in depth exploration of the song

"Fell in love with a girl"

by the White Stripes.

Why?

I don't know.

The following is complete speculation

and more than likely just a bunch of projection.

First of all, let me start off by saying I think the most common interpretations of the song are a bit off.

I can't say by how much, but after looking at some of the explanations that people came up with

I can't say I really agree.

The first one being that this song is about a lesbian experience.

I disagree based on this fact: Jack White wrote the song.

Last time I checked, he wasn't a lesbian.

He writes a good portion of the music

why would he write about a lesbian experience?

Is it possible that it's really Meg's story?

Possible, but unlikely.

Now to be fair, the song never gives a gender to the narrator, so it -could- be about a lesbian experience of sorts, but I'm pretty sure that's not the focus of the song.

The gender roles in this case are irrelevant.

Just to put it out there, I'll say this

I think it's about a girl, that's a hippie, who's into the whole free-love kinda thing

To be more specific, I think it's about a girl that is at the very least, poly.

"Fell in love with a girl, I fell in love once and almost completely

She's in love with the world, but sometimes these feelings can be so misleading"

I know it's an extremely short song, but it's...perfect in its brevity.

It tells the short but complex story of trying to understand that sort of "share the love" mentality.

And just how confusing it really is

Especially when you find yourself agreeing or at least trying to in spite of yourself.

What I do find interesting is where he says "I fell in love once, and almost completely"

Which implies a variety of things, that I probably shouldn't spend too much time looking into because I'll get sidetracked.

The unnamed narrator of this story realizes s/he has these deep, caring, almost reckless feeling for this girl, but holds back on letting him/herself fall over that "edge"

...this of course implies that there is some form of "edge" as it comes to falling in love with someone.

But again, different topic for a different day.

"She's in love with the world, but sometimes these feelings can be so misleading"

This may not be literal, but broad enough for you to get the gist of it, she loves, freely.

It's not just that she's in love with life, she's actually in love with the world

She loves people/things of all shapes, sizes, colors, circumstance, background, whatever

What free love is supposed to represent.

Love without borders

Loving the world.

But again, more than just loving life, there's the idea that the narrator doesn't actually understand how she can love so many things and people at once.

This is where the idea of her being open or poly really starts to kick in.

"She turns, and said 'Are you alright?'

I said 'I must be fine, my heart's still beating'"

Enough time has elapsed that the narrator is lost in thought, or has been lost in thought for some time

So as she shows concern, the narrator brings it back to the physical plane

I mean, if your heart is still beating, you're still alive, and this has got to be real.

As surreal or as bizarre as it may seem, you're here, in this moment

There are some moments, I find, when someone drops some kind of information on you that really makes you stop and think "is this actually happening?" or more importantly "is this actually happening to me, right now?" 

Often, it's particularly intimate details about themselves, but sometimes it's just something you never really expected to hear, so you try to understand it.

"Come and kiss me by the riverside, yeah. Bobby said it's fine, he don't consider it cheating now"

This..is probably where the lesbian experience explanation comes to light. It's implied that Bobby is her boyfriend and apparently he doesn't mind if she's off making out with someone else by the river or wherever else. Now, because of our societal and cultural upbringing, we've become accustomed to the idea that it's not cheating as long as it's not another male. Two women making out is way more acceptable, and is often seen as a bonus.

Again, while I don't necessarily agree with that specific explanation, I can certainly see where it comes from. 

Alternatively, we could see it as such: Bobby himself is also a hippie of sorts, perhaps even poly

So Bobby's lack of concern isn't attributed to the gender of the narrator, but rather to the relationship that he and The Girl have. It could just be an open-relationship of sorts.

And also, to clarify my point, I turn to the cover of this same song as done by the artist Joss Stone.

In her version, she fell in love with a boy, but the idea is that the boy is pursuing two women at one time. However, in her version she also makes the Boy out to be a bit of a liar, or a cheater, because he's "telling lies on Sarah". Implying that Sarah is actually not okay with that kind of relationship.

(I'd like to note that nowhere in the song does Ms Stone say that she ever spoke to Sarah about it, so Sarah might actually be fine with it, but the Boy gets the shitty end of that stick because culturally speaking, men cheating is extremely common) 

Now, the wording of the verse is a little perplexing. Not that he "doesn't" consider it cheating, but that he "don't" consider it...I think that implies that there's more of a...country dialect going on.

Between going to the riverside and the wording, and the name Bobby as opposed to just Bob or Robert or any variation thereof...the Girl in this song might be a bit of a southern belle, or at least a country gal.

A country girl hippie that's in love with the world.

...or maybe it's just because "doesn't" has too many syllables and would take away from the rhythm of the song.

 Again, merely speculation.

"Red hair with a curl

Mellow roll for the flavor 

and the eyes for peeping"

These are just lines to describe the girl, the detail that goes into admiring someone

Noticing the way someone smiles, laughs, whatever makes them, them.

I sat for a long time trying to figure out what the fuck "Mellow roll for the flavor" meant

So I searched and searched for meanings, but I found nothing until I figured out what I really needed to search for

it's not "Mellow roll" it's "Mello-Roll" a type of ice-cream treat made back in the 50s til the 80s (working theory, can't exactly back that up with many sources)

We typically don't know much about it these days because its long since been discontinued

But it makes sense in the song.

This is a story about a past love experience. A different time, perhaps the 70s or 80s when free love was the revolution and hippies were everywhere.

I think the "eyes for peeping" speaks to the Girl's intellect, or possibly her innocence, or even naivete.

Or maybe all 3. 

...or maybe she just had really pretty, bright eyes.

Again, I feel like this was put here to emphasize the narrator's feelings for the Girl, 

she was beautiful, tasteful, a little whimsical, a bit mischievous, and ultimately just fun.

It's understandable why s/he would come to fall in love with the girl.

"Can't keep away from the girl

the two sides of my brain need to have a meeting"

  Try as s/he might, the narrator just can't pull him/herself away from this Girl because she's too intriguing. The narrator is just too drawn to the girl to walk away from this situation

Logic and Creativity need to have it out, somebody needs to decide how this is supposed to end. Either reason it out why it doesn't make any sense to pursue any further

Or just go with what feels good, embrace it for what it is

Either way, something needs to be concluded

 

"Can't think of anything to do, yeah. My left brain knows that (all?/our?) love is fleeting"

 Stuck. The narrator is stuck. The left hemisphere of the brain, the supposed "logical" side of the brain is telling him/her in whatever way that love and these feelings are just temporal

However, the right side, his/her "creative" side doesn't exactly agree. Torn between feeling like it's a waste of time, and possibly one of the most exhilarating moments in this life, s/he's torn.

Torn between the desire to explore and understand

and the desire to walk away.

"She's just looking for something new, yeah. I said it once before but it bears repeating now"

Again, this line feeds that lesbian experience theory people love to throw on this song

the "something new" being experimentation.

Which is yes, a possible explanation, but again, I doubt it.

I think it's that the girl is living up to her previously mentioned status of being in love with the world.

We're all led to believe that love is a fleeting thing. It's logical. Love is a blend of chemicals that can just as easily disperse as it is put together. Maybe the Girl knows and acknowledges this as well. Instead of letting that stop her, however she chooses to embrace it and find love in the next experience she has. So she goes searching for it, that new love, that new interest that she's bound to run into. After all, you can't love everything if you spend all your time loving just one thing, you have to move about.

But it bears repeating

This to me is the most depressing line in the song

the narrator is constantly sliding between being in love with her

and knowing that s/he may just be a temporary part of this Girl's life.

Because all love is fleeting

this whole experience could be and probably is just a fleeting moment in this Girl's life.

Chances are the narrator wants more from the Girl, something more permanent, but may realize that in doing so she would no longer be the Girl that s/he fell in love with to begin with.

It's a bit of a sad cycle.

For a quick example, and yes, I know this probably has flaws, but the concept is basic

Imagine a beautiful glass on a pedestal.

Now around that glass is a security circle. 

If you cross the line, the glass shatters

The fact that you can't actually get to the glass makes it that much more appealing

and kind of makes you want it even more.

But you also know that by trying to acquire it, you'll lose it forever.

That would suck

I'll say this in conclusion, I'm pretty sure Jack White is a hippie.

Seriously, check the wiki, dude got married by a shaman.

I think it's a story about a young boy experiencing hippie love for the first time and realizing that it's something he can kind of relate to, but it's scary because it doesn't sound like the "American dream" kind of love. Y'know, the one with the picket fence and 2.5 kids and a dog

TL;DR ---> Dude got sprung on a hippie chick, then he realized that he got sprung on a hippie chick.

-----------

Or I could be way off.

Who knows.

Either way

I felt like writing that out.

Now I'm tired

so

Goodnight.