Rapunzel

THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
My mother told me stories with the sharp parts filed away
There was a girl, a tower, a woman who was kind —
That's the version that she gave me
That's the version I've outgrown inside
But the real one starts with hunger
Starts with "I will trade my child"
They named me after what they craved
Not who I was inside

[Pre-Chorus]
She brushed my hair like rosary beads
And I believed her — what choice did I have?
When the only world you know is a room
You think the lock is what it means to be loved
You think the woman with the key
Is the closest thing to God above

[Chorus]
Let down your hair, let down your guard
Let me climb the thing that keeps you scarred
I have been the tower, I have been the rope
I have been the soft version of a darker hope
Every golden strand a chain she braided in
Every bedtime story with the teeth pulled from its grin
Rapunzel, Rapunzel — that's not even my name
It's the garden that they sold me for
And I answered to it just the same

[Verse 2]
He came at dusk — a voice I wasn't meant to hear
I let him climb because I needed to discover
If there was something past the window, past my mother
She found the truth inside my changing skin
She cut my hair — my one bridge to the ground
And gave me to the silence without sound
Not punishment for sin
But for the crime of letting someone in
Past the story she had built for me
Into what I wasn't supposed to see

[Chorus]
Let down your hair, let down your guard
Let me climb the thing that keeps you scarred
I have been the tower, I have been the rope
I have been the distance between knowing and hope
Rapunzel, Rapunzel — that was never my name
Just the price tag that my mother paid
Stitched into me like a claim

[Bridge]
He fell — the thorns took both his eyes
And I walked the desert with no wall
No gentle version of myself at all
And the desert said what no one would:
Your mother loved you, yes — but love this good
Leaves you blind in different ways than any thorn could
She hid the wolf, she hid the blood
She hid the hunger underneath the flood
And left you with a tower
And called it all she had

[Final Chorus]
Let down your hair — but it's all been cut
Let down your guard — but it's all I've got
She braided chains and called them song
He climbed my body and called it love
Rapunzel, Rapunzel — I'll keep the name
It's the only thing that's mine
In this whole arranged fairy tale of shame

[Outro]
My children sleep — I watch them breathe
And wonder which version I should leave
My mother chose the gentle part
And now I stand before the same old gate

I am my mother, I am the same
Brushing the dark out, page by page
Building a beautiful
Beautiful cage