Hot Knife Lyrics

[Fiona Apple]
If I'm butter, if I'm butter
If I'm butter then he's a hot knife
He makes my heart a cinemascope screen

Showing a dancing bird of paradise
If I'm butter, if I'm butter
If I'm butter then he's a hot knife
He makes my heart a cinemascope screen

Showing a dancing bird of paradise

He excites me
Must be like the Genesis of Rhythm

I get feisty
Whenever I'm with him
If I'm butter, if I'm butter
If I'm butter then he's a hot knife
He makes my heart a cinemascope screen

Showing a dancing bird of paradise

[Maude Maggart]
I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife
I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter

If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that
He’s never gonna need another, never need another

[Fiona Apple & Maude Maggart]
If I'm butter, if I'm butter
I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife
If I'm butter then he's a hot knife
I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter
He makes my heart a cinemascope screen
If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that
Showing a dancing bird of paradise
He’s never gonna need another, never need another
If I'm butter, if I'm butter
I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife
If I'm butter then he's a hot knife
I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter
He makes my heart a cinemascope screen
If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that
Showing a dancing bird of paradise
He’s never gonna need another, never need another
[Fiona Apple]
He excites me
Must be like the Genesis of Rhythm

I get feisty
Whenever I'm with him

[Fiona Apple & Maude Maggart]
If I'm butter, if I'm butter
I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife
If I'm butter then he's a hot knife
I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter
He makes my heart a cinemascope screen
If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that
Showing a dancing bird of paradise
He’s never gonna need another, never need another
If I'm butter, if I'm butter
I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife
If I'm butter then he's a hot knife
I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter
He makes my heart a cinemascope screen
If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that
Showing a dancing bird of paradise
He’s never gonna need another, never need another

[Maude Maggart]
I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife
I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter
If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that
He’s never gonna need another, never need another
[Maude Maggart & Fiona Apple]
I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife
And you can, and you can
I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter
And you can relax around me
If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that
And you can, and you can
He’s never gonna need another, never need another
And you can relax around me

[Fiona Apple]
He excites me
Must be like the Genesis of Rhythm

I get feisty
Whenever I'm with him

[Fiona Apple & Maude Maggart]
If I'm butter, if I'm butter
I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife
If I'm butter then he's a hot knife
I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter
He makes my heart a cinemascope screen
If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that
Showing a dancing bird of paradise
He’s never gonna need another, never need another
[Fiona Apple & Maude Maggart]
Maybe he could teach me something
(If I'm butter, if I'm butter)
(I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife)
Maybe I could teach him too
(If I'm butter then he's a hot knife)
(I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter)
Even just to reach is a triumph
(He makes my heart a cinemascope screen)
(If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that)
Now I really got a hold on you
(Showing a dancing bird of paradise)
(He’s never gonna need another, never need another)
Maybe he could teach me something
(If I'm butter, if I'm butter)
(I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife)
Maybe I could teach him too
(If I'm butter then he's a hot knife)
(I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter)
Even just to reach is a triumph
(He makes my heart a cinemascope screen)
(If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that)
Now I really got a hold on you
(Showing a dancing bird of paradise)
(He’s never gonna need another, never need another)

[Fiona Apple & Maude Maggart]
Maybe he could teach me something
(If I'm butter, if I'm butter)
(And you can, and you can)
(I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife)
Maybe I could teach him too
(If I'm butter then he's a hot knife)
(And you can relax around me)
(I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter)
Even just to reach is a triumph
(He makes my heart a cinemascope screen)
(And you can, and you can)
(If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that)
Now I really got a hold on you
(Showing a dancing bird of paradise)
(And you can relax around me)
(He’s never gonna need another, never need another)
Maybe he could teach me something
(If I'm butter, if I'm butter)
(And you can, and you can)
(I'm a hot knife, I'm a hot knife)
Maybe I could teach him too
(If I'm butter then he's a hot knife)
(And you can relax around me)
(I'm a hot knife, he's a pat of butter)
Even just to reach is a triumph
(He makes my heart a cinemascope screen)
(And you can, and you can)
(If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that)
Now I really got a hold on you
(Showing a dancing bird of paradise)
(And you can relax around me)
(He’s never gonna need another, never need another)

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About

Genius Annotation

Track #10 on Fiona Apple’s fourth studio album The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do.

This song is a playful take on sexual chemistry in words and music.

Apple’s older sister Amber, who is a cabaret singer that records under the name of Maude Maggart, joins her later in the song. Fiona told New York magazine that they’d stood at the same microphone for hours, weaving their voices in what she called, “the most intimate moment of our lives together.”

It’s also interesting to note the show business lineage that Fiona and Maude continue: Their grandmother, Maude Apple Robinson, was a Ziegfeld girl. Their parents, artist Brandon Maggart and singer Diane McAfee, met during a 1970 showing of the Broadway musical Applause. Their grandfather was a big-band vocalist.

According to an interview with New York magazine’s Dan Lee, she suspects the roots of the song lay in a Bach concert that she’d seen in New York, and The Supremes tune “Where Did Our Love Go.” Apple explained the inspiration is the place where two different types of music, “crack together,” which has always given her “huge satisfaction.”
Prior to the album’s release, Vulture writer Dan P. Lee spent some time with Fiona at her house in Los Angeles. At the very end of the article he describes coming across her lyrics scrawled on the back of an invitation to Obama’s Inauguration:

On it Fiona had scrawled many words, including the name “Attenborough,” and what appeared to be notes from a nature documentary. There was writing on both sides, including, on a back corner: If I’m butter then he’s a hot knife. He makes my life a CinemaScope screen showing a dancing bird of paradise… The documentary was apparently discussing natural life, in high and low altitudes.

The song’s music video was directed by filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, whose movie There Will Be Blood is largely regarded as one of the greatest films of the 2000s. Anderson has worked with Apple on several other of her visuals in the past including those for “Paper Bag,” “Fast as you Can” and “Limp.” Additionally, the two were in a relationship in the late 90s, which most likely is the inspiration for this song.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

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