She's your cocaine
She's got you shaving your legs
you can suck anything
but you know you wanna be me
put on your makeup boy
you're your favourite stranger
and we all like to watch
so shimmy once and do it again
bring your sister if you can't handle it
she says you control it
then she says you don't control it
then she says you're controlling
the way she makes you crawl
She's your cocaine
your Exodus laughing
and she knows what you are
so shimmy once
and do it again
bring your sister
bring your sister if you can't handle it
if you want me to
Boy I could lie to you
you don't need one of these to let me inside of you
and is it true that devils end up like you
do something safe for the picture frame
and is it true that devils end up like you
so tied up you don't know how she came
I said, She's your cocaine
she's got you shaving your legs
she got you liking mine back
got me taking it in
getting mine back
lasting my evil
I'm taking my easel
and I'm writing good checks, yes
you sign Prince of Darkness
try Squire of Dimness
please don't help me with this
please don't help me with this
please don't help me with this, no
Tori Quotes
For "She's Your Cocaine" I put on this tiny black body suit, jeans and high heels, got a margarita and walked outside for 30 minutes to drink Tequila in Cornwall, in the freezing November night. After a take I'll get the guys a coffee and I'll say, "The artist is on one today, isn't she?" They often agree. [Deluxe - May 1998]
You know, I think it ["She's Your Cocaine"] is a reference to my rock chick days, but realized in a different way. There are three characters in that song - a he and a she and the girl singing it. I haven't quite figured out if the girl singing is really pissed off that she isn't special anymore, or if she is just horrified that she put this guy on a pedestal and now he's chosen this thing... this girl who wouldn't even be let into a real girl's party. This... black hole of nebulae...
I think your own sex can see your sex for what it is. You know the tricks of your own sex. Sometimes you can put your little play glasses on and not want to see them. But I know when another woman is flirting with one of my crew -- it's so obvious and yet they can't see it. They say, "oh she's so pained" or "she's had all this stuff happen to her." I know a girl like this -- who uses her victimness to make people feel they can't do enough for her, that nothing is ever enough. And you're like an addict. You can't spill enough blood, you can't wrap your dick into seventeen different little shapes, y'know, like those balloons. "Here... look! Puppy! Ice cream truck!" This song is my revenge. [Attitude - May 1998]
The idea of a series of songs with the same basic sound didn't appeal to me. The woman in "She's Your Cocaine," which is about a reptile woman who has no fidelity to sisterhood, had to be distinct from the woman in "Spark," who's addicted to nicotine patches. [Philadelphia Inquirer - May 3, 1998]
She not being me, she being the one that he's obsessed about, and whatever we think of her is whatever we think of her -- probably we think about her in "Cruel." The woman in the song that the man is obsessed with could be amazing, concedes Tori, but equally, she could just be a black hole. [High Life: British Airways Magazine - May 1998]
It's about um me being really strappy and um vile because somebody uh finds a woman that's a black hole that isn't a woman's woman interesting... You know, a lot of guys and a lot of them are on my crew, they're like my brothers and it blows me away sometimes the women they're attracted to. Let's be honest here. The women they're attracted to, right, me and Beene, who's my best friend and Karen, we would never, like even if they were crawling, we wouldn't give them the worm at the end of the tequila bottle. Forget it! They could beg, crawl, dog on your knees, hopefully lick the sand, they wouldn't get a chance.
These women. Let me tell you something about these women. They have this little thing, this little beard between their legs and they're a snake. They're reptilian. I don't want to hurt the poor snake-life even... you know, it's a cut to the snake world. But these girls, they're takers. And guys don't see it because they don't sit there... They do their killing... Say we're eating dinner, right, and one of these girls is at the table and there's a big party of us. Some of these guys are going, "Isn't she the sweetest thing you've ever seen?" and you're going, "She just murdered the girl next to you. The girl you brought is like a walking corpse because of this other girl..." Like, over the head. They don't even get these slime walking... These women try to get in and act like they're your friend. They act like they're your best friend. And so they find out all your secrets, they find out everything and then they go to your man or to your other friends and just completely ruin your relationships with them. I'm telling you, they are Lucifer. Lucifer with boobs. [Modern Rock Live - May 10, 1998]
"She's Your Cocaine" puzzles over a man's attraction to a woman who will destroy him. I've seen myself become quite angry because somebody that I love has been dragged through the streets emotionally. A vicious narcissist is hard for me to take. But a yummy narcissist, are you kidding? You're talking to one. [The New York Times - May 23, 1998]
Live Versions
"She's Your Cocaine"
June 23, 1998 - Frankfurt, Germany radio broadcast
"She's Your Cocaine"
July 28, 1998 - New York, New York
Madison Square Garden
"She's Your Cocaine" (with "Sweet Leaf" by Black Sabbath)
Novemer 28, 1998 - Akron, Ohio
"She's Your Cocaine" (as Santa)
November 5, 2007 - Chicago, Illinois
"She's Your Cocaine" / "Teenage Hustling" (as Pip)
July 21, 2023 - Los Angeles, California
t o r i p h o r i a tori amos digital archive yessaid.com
