Fast As You Can

In this song, Fiona Apple issues fair warning to any guy who might consider dating her: "Run. As fast as you can." She's not playing the vixen or the victim, but telling it like it is. Her active mind, iron will and artistic inclinations make her incredibly seductive, but are more than any delicate man can handle. Ever since she spoke her mind at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, Apple has been labeled "crazy." In this song, and several others in her catalog, she wears it like a designer dress: O darling, it's so sweet You think you know how crazy I am One relationship of influence Apple had leading up to this song was with the magician David Blaine, whom she dated in 1997. They remained friends.

Apple's first album, Tidal, was released when she was 18 and doing her best to navigate a strange showbiz world that was antithetical to her values. At the request of her record company, she wrote a hit song: "Criminal," but it quickly became clear that she was not going to be a pop star. Apple's music is intertwined with her psyche, complete with all the rough edges and rabbit holes. On her second album, When the Pawn..., she was even more visceral, which thrilled her fanbase but didn't expand her reach. "Fast as You Can" was the first single, and while it got airplay on Adult Contemporary and Alternative radio, it didn't make the pop charts. Songs this intense rarely do: My pretty mouth will frame the phrases That will disprove your faith in man

This is a very percussive song with an intriguing keyboard sound that drives the track. Apple played piano on the track, and Patrick Warren added both Wurlitzer electric and Chamberlain, which is a close relative of the Mellotron. There is no guitar or bass on the song.