Leather

"A hole opens sometimes that I fall through a bit like the madhatter. I guess where memories coughing in loose molecules come and chase me around for a while. I felt like I had lived 20 different lifetimes from birth through death during the writing of this song. When I looked up from the piano and at the clock, thinking I was late for someone, it had only been 8 minutes." [Little Earthquakes songbook]

"Leather is really one of the ones on the record that was written in one sitting... That’s uncommon, because I always go back and tinker. I mean, I have to go, the map gets... It’s like a body. It’s almost like... a chunk of clay gets dropped in my lap and then you have to go back and you start molding it. But with Leather somebody just... got me so off that I sat and just did this one." [World Cafe - May 18, 1992]

"I've never told this story. People think um, that this next song is about wild sex. And I think... well, it isn't. And um, it is for you, probably, that's fine. I mean, I, you know, whatever your experience is, you've probably had much more fun with this song than I have. But um, I've never had fun with this song, but I sing it all the time. I do adore this song because it reminds me of the time that this bitch came over to my house. And I lived in this hovel in um, Hollywood. And I don't remember what my manager called it, but it was a pit. And um, when you walk in all my clothes were strewn, you know, peanut butter and banana, all that stuff. I know, gross. But anyway, you get to my piano, right, and my fish tank, and I had dead fish in the fish tank. Because I forgot to feed them, but I couldn't throw them away. And so I was sitting there at my piano, right? And this girl comes over there that is very very very very very close by - not mentioning any names. And so she comes over... So she comes and goes, "Can I have some sugar?" And I said, "Yes." And uh, she goes, "I hear you wrote a new song." I said, "Yes." And um, I played it for her, and it was one of the songs that went on Little Earthquakes, I won't mention it. And she says to me, "Well, you know... I really think you better get a new writing style, because that's like, not catchy." And so I say, "Obviously you have the sugar. Good day." So... The next eight minutes of my life..." [Dew Drop Inn tour - 1996]