Portions for Foxes: Amy Ray

"Portions for Foxes" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song by a woman or a band led by a woman. See the introduction for more.

Some songs are more "message-y" than others; some are really specific and direct. This is one of those.

My song for this week is Amy Ray's Put It Out for Good, the lead song from her 2005 record Prom. (I've never heard the rest of that album; I got a sampler of her music around 2012 with this song on it and bought a couple of other things - like so many artists in this series, I am a pure dilettante here, just saying "I really love this one song," and not claiming any deep knowledge or expertise.)

It's a song about growing up an outsider, a nonconformer - someone who doesn't fit into the boxes of what's expected.

All the punks and the queers and the freaks and the smokers
Feel like they’ll be waiting for the rest of their lives

This is very clearly in a high school context - some big dance or pep rally at the school, all spirit and togetherness and tradition and how-it's-always-been. And the singer wants to do things, but not the way they're telling her to.

Alright I hear what you’re saying to me
Alright I hear what I just can’t do
But I got this spark I got to feed it something
Or put it out for good

For so many of the songs I love, I'm deeply ambivalent about what they're saying - I'm attracted to songs about mixed love and loathing, about sadness and depression, about unhealthy emotions (because those are the big fun ones!). But this song is just true - clean and tight and ringing like a bell. It's been out in the world for twenty years now, and I hope has been randomly heard to help and support however many punks and queers and freaks and smokers needed to hear it, needed to know that there is a place for them, and that there's plenty that will feed their sparks, that nothing ever needs to put it out.