Q. Fiona Apple’s new album has quite the title. What’s the story behind it?
A. According to Apple, the 90-word title of her second album — “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 Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You’ll Know That You’re Right” — started out as a poem. (Her 1996 debut, by the way, was called “Tidal.”)
The 22-year-old singer and songwriter, who says she writes as a form of therapy, penned the poem in “a furious minute” after an article in Spin magazine characterized her as a narcissistic drama queen and readers wrote in to agree. “It’s not my best piece of writing or anything, but I was thinking that when it came time to record an album, it would be useful for me to remember this,” Apple said. “It was another instance of writing something to help myself.”
Retailers tend to call the album, which hit stores Tuesday, “When the Pawn . . .” for short.