In this song, Morissette points out that everything in life is a learning experience. It's based on the saying "Live and Learn," which is a common way of dealing with negative events and accepting whatever life brings you. Alanis explained on her VH1 Storytellers appearance: "I wrote it during a time that I was very insulated, and had first just moved to LA. I was prepared for perhaps the first time in my life to focus on things that were negative because I was always encouraged to focus on things that were positive, and that things like confusion and depression and those kinds of things were to be hidden or repressed. Having done that for so many years resulted in an explosion of sorts, so writing Jagged Little Pill was that explosion and a lot of things were very subconscious and that's why everything was relatively urgent."
The lyrics, "Swallow it down, what a jagged little pill" provided the album title. This relates to the saying "a hard pill to swallow," which means dealing with something difficult that must be accepted.
Morissette wrote this with Glen Ballard, who produced the album. It was one of the first songs they wrote for Jagged Little Pill. "She had the concept from the first chord: 'Swallow it down, such a jagged little pill,'" Ballard told Spotify. "She was in the zone. It came about very quickly."
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