Understanding That 'Rat In A Cage' Song

There's a lot of songs about anger out there, but few of them feel quite like Bullet With Butterfly Wings. Oh yeah, that's the actual name of the song. You might know it as "The World Is A Vampire" or "Rat In A Cage" but the official name is Bullet With Butterfly Wings. Anyway! It presents a particularly nihilistic view of anger, not as something to be wielded or overcome, but something to be weathered, a pointless and ultimately futile attempt to break free from an infinite cage. So... seemed like it'd be a nice, fun, lighthearted analysis, y'know?

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Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!

[trishunaeatingpizza]

I think they were thinking "hmm bullet with butterfly wings is a pretty cool name for a song"

[turnstilerockets]

The most common thought reason for the title and that rat in a cage lyric is that the song is about pent-up anger but the guy simply cannot get violent to let go of said anger!
Bullet with butterfly wings is a saying for someone too empathetic to take out their rage on anyone or anything else!

[lotoreo]

maybe the title is meant to paint the mental picture of a bullet that instead of flying straight and focused on its target, it's just wizzing around aimlessly and chaotically, never being able to do any serious harm

[darkninjafirefox]

"Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins. "
"Homer Simpson, smiling politely."

[mateusbez]

Chamberlain is such a great drummer.
The lack of cymbals and the pattern accentuating the vocals are very keith moon inspired here.

[michanowak]

When you said 'rat in a cage' will pay off I was hoping there will be C A G E progression at the end

[ronkytonky]

There's actually an interview with the drummer in the band (if I remember correctly) that explains the title of the song. I thought way more people knew why it was called a bullet with butterfly wings. It's actually a phrase that was used commonly in the 90s among music producers, it simply means a song that rises through the charts like a bullet, but has a melodic chorus like butterfly wings. The drummer explains in the interview that their producer asked them to make a "bullet with butterfly wings" and the lead singer got upset and said they'd make whatever they wanted. So to spite him, they made a song containing melodic verses but a heavy chorus. To drive the point home, they called it "bullet with butterfly wings". Didn't work as intended though, producer loved it

[freshprinceofbeleren]

"The Rumba Clave isn't all that common in rock..." *draws the rarest Magic card of all, the Black Lotus* :D Amazing little detail there.

[GrahamMitchell]

"If I add a snare... it sucks the life out of it."


I see what you did there.

[morganwellsmusic]

I think the reason they decided in the beginning to have the band enter after the completion of the word "vampire" rather than on the "pire" is that, in natural speech, "pire" is the less-stressed syllable in the word "vampire", so having the band enter on "pire" would've emphasized the wrong syllable and run counter to the natural rhythmic accent of the word which is generally a no-no in lyrics. Okay now I'm gonna watch the rest of the video. My two cents as a lyricist regarding that decision.

[lauscho]

"Despite all my rage, I am still just Nicholas Cage"

[BuddhaMonkey]

The fact that people apparently don't remember the title of this song anymore makes me feel old. On the plus side, this analysis is great. You hit on so many things that I always intuitively understood as a listener, but that I don't have the music theory to articulate. Like the tension between the melody and the chords in the bridge -- I could never have told you how that works, but I absolutely hear it.

[caseyhamm]

back in the day we used to call it “the world is a vampire” like an emily dickinson poem

[-tera-]

There's an old quote from Billy Corgan explaining how he would use a sort of free association two or three steps removed from the actual song to come up with titles:

"Say you write a song about a chandelier, and the chandelier gives off light. And the light is the color red and red reminds you of the color your not supposed to wear around a bull. So you name the song 'Cow.'"

[gettingkilt]

Wow. Cory, your analysis adds layers to the song that I never suspected. Whether the Pumpkins intended them or not is irrelephant. They are there now.

[andrew_oid]

The nails add to the “world is a vampire” motif. 🧛🏼‍♂️

[tjwebb]

Oh man, when you drew the cow for the interrupting third bar I almost died

[ThatCreepyReading]

I can't get over your nails, I am sure your aware that they are long but my eyes are constantly drawn to that long nail. Maybe I'm being stupid but wowzers, I give this a nail out of music.

[michaelfox]

I love that you drew the parasol bicycle from The Prisoner when you said "His struggle to break free". I also love that you talk about claves in a song that you don't think uses them. You are a wonderful freak my friend.

[cosmicbreakfast]

Interesting interpretation of the snare part! It's like it personifies the thrashing against the cage, but in the end becomes the bars of a new one as he's defined by and therefore ultimately limited to that struggle. I've been listening to this song for most my life, and playing drums almost as long, and I never really thought of it that way before!