Black Dress by Melissa Ferrick
Black Dress came at me the way many of my favorite songs do, with the first line. “You say I’m either too much or not enough” is my inner critique talking, and the next line, You say I'm self-obsessed, a borderline narcissist,” came from the woman I was seeing at the time who enjoyed half-jokingly diagnosing me; she is a therapist. I knew I needed a short line to end the first verse in order to paint the protagonist and antagonist as equals. I thought about what was the same between us and I wrote, “But you can't stop yourself.” YES! It felt so good to get that line because it clarified that, in this song, there is no bad guy. Production wise, we took a cue from The Wallflowers, One Headlight, and Phoebe Bridgers’s Motion Sickness (among many others), by not hitting any cymbals - you never get the release that comes with a crash cymbal. The groove is relentless, just like our attraction was. Even though my co-producer, Dave, is a drummer, I played drums on the track because they needed to convey the level of passion and frustration that is at the song's core. Black Dress is a song about infatuation and desire, it’s about being all wrapped up in someone new. Sonically, it conveys the exhilaration and power I felt being with her. It’s a song without apology, without regret, and without shame.
Tracklist
| 1. | Black Dress | 2:56 |
Lyrics
You say I’m either too much
Or not enough
You say I’m self obsessed
Boarder-line narcissist
But you can’t stop yourself
You never shut up
About the research
About our past and
The fact the stars are stacked against us
But you’re hotter than a black dress
My lover my analyst
Ya you’re hotter than a black dress
Let’s burn until there’s nothing left
Pull me in and pull me out
Keep me on the edge of us
Stare me down start me up
Take me home take it off kiss me full on my mouth
Ya you’re hotter than a black dress
My lover my analyst
Ya you’re hotter than a black dress
Let’s burn until there’s nothing left
Burn until there’s nothing left
Hotter than a black dress
Heavy like a mountain
Hungry like the sea
Radical and wild
We are just what we wanna be
Magical shapeshifters
Movers of hearts
Yes truth is a superpower
And the truth is what we got
Yes truth is a superpower
And the truth is what we’ve got
You’re hotter than a black dress
My lover my analyst
Ya you’re hotter than a black dress
My lover my analyst
Ya you’re hotter than a black dress
Let’s burn until there’s nothing left
Burn until there’s nothing left
Hotter than a black dress
Burn until there’s nothing left
Hotter than a black dress
Credits
Produced and Mixed by: Dave Brophy and M. Ferrick
Engineer: Dave Brophy
Guitars, Vocals, Drums: M. Ferrick
Bass: Joe McMahon
Recorded at: Studio Solitaire
Right On Records Publishing BMI 2023
License
CC BY-ND 3.0. See the Creative Commons website for details.
Melissa Ferrick, a genre- and gender-defying artist, has spent 30 years disrupting Indie, Alternative, Folk, and Punk norms. With wit and vulnerability, her lyrics invite growth. She signed with Kill Rock Stars in 2023 and joined Paladin Artists as an agent in 2024. A Professor at Northeastern, she previously taught at Berklee (2013–2019) and holds an Ed.M. from Harvard.