Baker baker baking a cake
Make me a day
Make me whole again
and I wonder what's in a day
What's in your cake this time
I guess you heard he's gone to LA
He says that behind my eyes I'm hiding
and he tells me I pushed him away
That my heart's been hard to find
Here
There must be something here
There must be something here
here
Baker baker can you explain
if truly his heart was made of icing
and I wonder how mine could taste
Maybe we could change his mind
I know you're late for your next parade
You came to make sure that I'm not running
Well I ran from him in all kinds of ways
Guess it was his turn this time
Time
Thought I'd made friends with time
Thought we'd be flying
Maybe not this time
Baker Baker baking a cake
Make me a day
Make me whole again
and I wonder if he's okay
If you see him say hi
Tori Quotes
"Baker Baker" is kind of tragic in a way, because -- I've had to look at how I treated men, and on this record, I think with "Baker Baker," to deal with a man that truly loved me, but that I wasn't emotionally available for.You know how women always say men aren't emotionally available. Well, a lot of women aren't emotionally available. It's like, if you're vulnerable, we say, "Look, we need you to be sensitive." So you become sensitive, and yet we go, "You've got no fuckin' backbone," and we kick you in the face and run off with a ski trainer. [Baltimore Sun - January 1994]
["Baker Baker" acknowledges that] I was the one that wasn't emotionally available. We're always blaming the guys, saying, "You're not sensitive enough; why can't you just be more understanding?" And then when they are more sensitive, we kick 'em in the face and go for the hockey player. It's like "Dominate me, just dominate me. Not long -- I'll time you -- just a little!" [Los Angeles Times - January 30, 1994]
In "Baker Baker," not blaming... that's where gaining my power is coming from, being able to say I am the one who has not been able to be intimate, I'm the one who pushed him away.
I took from the rape that man's hatred of women, so much so that I couldn't access parts of myself. It's as though a computer chip has been put in, to cut out contact with your core self, your central energy source. And that hatred ran so deep that I just numbed myself to survive. Even sexually, after the rape, I became the vampire, I drank but would not let the men drink. And I had to be a hooker to have sex. Having felt I let myself, and all women, down because of my total vulnerability the night I was raped. I then had to continually tell myself I was in complete control, so I had to feel like I was getting paid. Even in "Baker Baker," on this album, it says I'm the one who was endlessly unavailable, to Eric, even when having sex. And now the only way I'm getting out of all this is with him. The only way back now having taken so much hatred from one man is to accept so much love from another. But it's a long, slow process. [Hot Press - February 23, 1994]
What ingredients do you need to become whole again when something is broken inside? You don't feel as if you're whole grain. You feel more like Wonder Bread -- which isn't very wondrous at all. The childlike framework of the song is referencing the wholeness that began to be lost back in childhood. The baker is whoever you want it to be -- some people very much believe in a male authority God, but a doctor or a baker can be male or female. It depends on who you feel has the power to heal. In this case, it is the baker who the song believes holds the keys needed for healing to be complete. [Under the Pink Deluxe Edition liner notes - 2015]
Live Versions
"Baker Baker"
February 11, 1994 - Los Angeles, California The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
"Baker Baker"
May 11, 1996 - New Haven, Connecticut
"Baker Baker"
October 13, 2001 - Philadephia, Pennsylvania
"Baker Baker"
December 18, 2002 - Los Angeles, California
"Baker Baker"
October 3, 2009 - Paris, France
"Baker Baker" (with quartet)
October 2, 2011 - Moscow, Russia
"Baker Baker" (with orchestra)
October 3, 2012 - London, England
"Baker Baker" (with orchestra)
November 11, 2014 - Sydney, Australia
"Baker Baker"
October 1, 2017 - Vienna, Austria
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