I tell my love to wreck it all/
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall.
What is this “Skinny Love” that Birdy and Bon Iver are speaking of? A “skinny love” seems to be with an unhealthy love…perhaps there is not much love left. The relationship is passionate and volatile. Perhaps they get physical with each other. They argue. They make threats to leave each other. The couple is constantly fighting.
But he also seems to realize he needs her. He makes pleas: he tells her that it will be better in the morning. Eventually she leaves him and his tune changes. While in the beginning of the song he was telling her to leave, by the end he is asking her “who will love you as good as I”?
Bon Iver wrote this song and made it famous. When I hear Birdy’s “Skinny Love”, I hear an all-time great song. The song sounds better with a piano. Birdy brings the proper emotion to the song: she makes it hers.
There are a couple other songs on this list where a cover version eclipses the original. That doesn’t take away from the original version; sometimes (though not often) someone can interpret and perform your work better than you. She made this recording when she was 14–which sounds impossible and unbelievable.
Skinny Love Lyrics
Come on, skinny love, just last the year
Pour a little salt, we were never here
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer
I tell my love to wreck it all
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Right in this moment, this order’s tall
And I told you to be patient
And I told you to be fine
And I told you to be balanced
And I told you to be kind
And in the morning I’ll be with you
But it will be a different kind
And I’ll be holding all the tickets
And you’ll be owning all the fines
Come on, skinny love, what happened here?
Suckle on the hope in light brassieres
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Sullen load is full, so slow on the split
And I told you to be patient
And I told you to be fine
And I told you to be balanced
And I told you to be kind
And now all your love is wasted
And then who the hell was I?
And I’m breaking at the britches
And at the end of all your lines
Who will love you?
Who will fight?
Who will fall far behind?
written by Bon Iver