With a feminist hymn Alanis Morissette became an example

Big success for Alanis Morissette came with “Jagged Little Pill”his third album. For the main single of the album, “You Oughta Know”published on 10 July 1995, the Canadian musician turned his gaze to rock and hired two Red Hot Chili Peppers – The bassist Flea and the guitarist Dave Navarrowho had replaced two years earlier John Frusciante – the pianist/organist Benmont tenchfounding member of Heartbreakers Of Tom Pettyand the drummer Matt Laugthat after, among others, the Snakepit Of Slash and the band of Alice Cooper now it sounds in the AC/DC. “You Oughta Know” It was the song that would change the life of the then twenty -one year old Morissette.

According to what was declared by
Dave Navarro
: “There were no guide tracks, we only had the voice to work on … and we practically improvised until we found something we were both satisfied with. Alanis was also happy.” In 1996
Flea
He described his contribution as “very instinctive”. “I introduced myself, I gave my best and I left. When I heard the song for the first time, there were a different bassist and guitarist. I listened to the lower line and I thought: ‘This is a little stuff!’. It was neither a performance nor a success! But the voice was strong, so I only tried to play something good.”

Morissette and its producer
Glen Ballard
They wrote music and texts in October 1994. They had presented themselves in March of that year and immediately found themselves working in common agreement. Although it was a rather complicated period for Alanis, after the disappointing sales of his second album,
“Now is the time”
released in 1992

In 2019 speaking to CBC Music Ballard he remembered: “For” You Oughta Know “it was 11 in the evening. He had sung it only once. We were exhausted. It ended there. This is the album, this is the voice. From a vocal point of view, nobody has so much courage. Everyone wants to fix their things. She has never done it. And of course it was spectacular.”

Morissette photographed her situation: “Until the crazy fame that followed, I literally thought that perhaps ten people would listen to this song. I explain to me, I wanted to share it with as many billions of people as possible, but I was alone in a room with Glen, and it was sure for me to talk, share and write, and so I did, and it was really liberating”.

Years later, he realized that documenting his personal struggles would become a symbol of hope and inspiration for other people in similar situations. Although the morissette never revealed to who the song was dedicated, its intentions were perfectly clear in some passages of the text as, “it was a slap in the face the speed with which I was replaced” and “Do you think about me when you go?”.

In 1996,
“You Oughta Know”
He was candidate for three Grammy Awards, winning the prize for best rock song and best women’s rock vocal performance, but lost in favor of
“Kiss From A Rose”
Of
Seal
in the song category of the year.

Since then,
“You Oughta Know”
She has become a feminist hymn that has much influenced the songwriters who came after her.
Britney Spears
He sang it on his 2009 tour e
Beyoncé
live, he incorporated parts of the song in his
“If i were a boy”
. In 2015,
Alanis Morissette
interpreted it with
Demi Lovato
To the American Music Awards. And always in 2015
Taylor Swift
He invited her to sing her with her in Los Angeles.

The Swift defined
“You Oughta Know”
The biggest song ever on the breakdown of a relationship, declaring that Morissette has “inspired a generation of reserved women who suddenly had the feeling of being able to express their most authentic feelings in words”. By explaining how, through songs such as “You Oughta Know”, he had given permission to musicians to vent his anger and frustrations in ways that in the past had not been normalized. Taylor was only five years old when “You Oughta Know” came out, but, he said: “You could really sing about your real life. You could enrich it with details. You could really get angry if you wanted. And I think it is right to say that many songwriters of my generation, including me, would not write as we do without her and her music.”

30 years later,
“You Oughta Know”
It probably remains one of the most important songs of his time.
Alanis
Morissette
He defined the song as a diary of a devastating period, in which in the end he was forced to choose between strength and weakness. Speaking of the song he explained: “When I listen to that song, I certainly perceive anger as a protection against vulnerability. I was mortified, devastated, and it is much easier, it was easier, for me to be angry and feel the power of that anger, compared to the destroyed and horrified woman on the ground. I remember having written some texts and having turned to Glen saying: I will have to change something. me and said: ‘Why?’ I replied: ‘Exactly, Okay, thanks’ “.