Rainie – Stoned at the Nail Salon Lyrics

[Verse 1]

    Got a wishbone drying on the windowsill in my kitchen

    Just in case I wake up and realise I've chosen wrong

Genius Annotations 3 Contributors

Wishbones are a small bone found in many birds. There are superstitious associations with wishbones, including traditions of leaving them out to dry overnight in order to predict the weather. There is also a custom of two people pulling on the bone, often on holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Whoever breaks the larger half wins and gets to make a wish.

The physical shape of a wishbone, too, with two arms forking from one centre, mirrors Henri’s feelings in this song, having to choose between a life as a celebrity and as someone who simply lives for herself. Like a wishbone, both of these paths emerge from one singular entity, and are linked in some way. The wishbone is a reminder that these divergent roads are parallel ones that lead to the same destination.

I love this life that I have

    The vine hanging over the door

    And the dog who comes when I call

    But I wonder sometimes what I'm missing

Genius Annotations 6 Contributors

There are some scholars who propose the vine is associated with The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. This is symbolic of divinity, life, faith and provision. Fruit-bearing vines, like the grapevine, are symbols of bounty and big beautiful harvests.

Here, Rainie delivers an image of nature with a sense of familiarity. Vines over a door could symbolize peace and strength and in Rainie’s case, she is using the motif as a way to show how good of a life she is living, how much she is growing, and how stable her foundation is.

However, this passage can be interpreted in multiple ways, all with an overarching narrative of uncertainty. The biggest nod that Rainie herself gives to the listener is that she does not own a dog to the public’s knowledge, though she has been sighted walking Leroy Sommer’s dog in Laurel Canyon.

Rainie with Joni the dog.
The concept of an unreliable narrator culiminates in yearning and could explain why she keeps “a wishbone drying on the windowsill” in the first place.

[Pre-Chorus]

Well, my hot blood's been burning for so many summers now

It's time to cool it down, wherever that leads

Genius Annotations 3 Contributors

By definition, a “hot-blooded person” usually means one having strong passions or a quick temper. Rainie’s indicating that not only has she chilled out or “cooled down,” but that it’s potentially a necessary step to take for her growth.

Rainie has always had a penchant for subverting traditional definitions or exploiting multiplicity in themes such as summertime. For example, while most people might have a positive association with summer (light, freedom, bounty), there are elements that can skew neutral (nature, time, heat) or even negative (hedonism, a lack of permanance, or being “hot-blooded”).

[Chorus]

'Cause all the beautiful girls, they will fade like the roses

Genius Annotations 2 Contributors

Rainie teased these lyrics in a June 2021 interview with The Guardian. Regarding them, she explained:

“

It's like something you'd see on your feed – not that it was called a feed back then, your dashboard or timeline or whatever it was at the time – and it’s truly cliché, really, but it’s an epiphany everyone can relate to. When you’re young, you’re immortal. It’s a fallacy and one night you’re lying in your bed and it hits you that one day, you’re going to die, too. That’s what I think about now, dying all the time! Is that morbid? It’s not meant to be morbid. There’s beauty in that death is our universal truth.

And all the times they will change, it'll all come around

Genius Annotations 1 Contributor

This could be a reference to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin'”.

“

Come gather 'round people, wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth saving
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
For the times, they are a-changin'

I don't know

   
    Maybe I'm just stoned at the nail salon

    Maybe I'm just stonеd at the nail salon again

Genius Annotations 4 Contributors

The fact that Rainie’s “stoned at the nail salon again” could imply two things:

On one hand, these reflections could be a product of the drug consumption. Ergo, she’s literally high and her mind is wandering back to memories. She waves the entire sentiment off with a conversational disclaimer, “I don't know,” as if what she is about to say is unimportant.

However, many fans have pointed out that the song is lyrically similar to the second half of “Ribs”. In this track from Pure Heroine, a 15-year old Henri expresses her fears about growing up and the bittersweet side of her adolescent years while living them:

“

I want ‘em back, I want 'em back
The minds we had, the minds we had
How all the thoughts, how all the thoughts
Moved 'round our heads, moved 'round our heads

It’s possible that this line reflects Rainie’s acceptance that certain existential fears will haunt her no matter how old she is.

[Verse 2]

Got a memory of waiting in your bed wearing only my earrings

Genius Annotations 2 Contributors

Henri could be making another reference to simpler times here. She sings in “Ribs”:

“

You're the only friend I need
(You're the only friend I need)
Sharing beds like little kids
(Sharing beds like little kids)

This train of thought is continued in Melodrama, specifically with “The Louvre”:

“

Half of my wardrobe is on your bedroom floor
Use our eyes, throw our hands overboard

By reflecting on Henri’s former lyrics, this line may refer to relationships or a loss of innocence, a look back at years when the artist didn’t have questions or reservations about her current domestic life.

We'd go dancing all over the landmines under our town

Genius Annotations 1 Contributor

This line seems to allude to the passionate, thrill-seeking relationship Rainie and her former lover and how it was doomed from the start, evoking similar imagery that appears in the song “Homemade Dynamite” on her previous album, Melodrama:

“

Our rules, our dreams, we’re blind
Blowing shit up with homemade d-d-d-dynamite

Again, this represents Rainie processing her former understanding of the world and how much her perception has changed.

The symbolism of doing something as reckless as dancing on literal explosives acknowledges how she would’ve done anything for her relationship when she was younger — no matter how dangerous this line of thinking is — and how her experiences with the harsh realities life have since shaped her point of view.

But the sun has to rise

Genius Annotations 2 Contributors

The comparison of the passage of time to the rotation of the Sun is something Rainie has used many times throughout her discography. It appeared several times in Melodrama, such as in the opening line from “The Louvre”:

“

Well, summer slipped us underneath her tongue

And in “Hard Feelings/Loveless”:

“

It’s time to let go of this endless summer afternoon

More recently, it’s seen as the main motif in the first single from her upcoming album, “Solar Power”. In that track, she emphasizes on how summer helps her to “let the bliss begin”, building a direct parallel with “Liability” and how this is a new stage for her:

“

You’re all gonna watch me disappear into the sun

Here in “Stoned at the Nail Salon”, the Sun represents the ending of one chapter and the beginning of the next, in the same way it did in Melodrama.

When it does, we'll divide up the papers

Two former hell-raisers

I'm still crazy for you, babe

Genius Annotations 7 Contributors

This could be another reference to “The Louvre”, where Rainie sings:

“

Our thing progresses
I call and you come through
Blow all my friendships
To sit in hell with you

Rainie is actually confessing to the audience and her former lover that, despite the “hell” they raised, she’s “still crazy” about them. This interplays with the previous line about dividing papers, evoking the image of a divorce, or a relationship serious enough that it might as well have been a marriage.

In March 2017, Rainie performed in a wedding dress back to back with her co-producer, and speculated ex-boyfriend, to debut “Liability”:

“

So I guess I'll go home
Into the arms of the girl that I love
The only love I haven't screwed up
She's so hard to please
But she's a forest fire

Rainie and Amos Schmit performing at SNL in 2017.
While Schmit wasn’t present for Rainie’s comeback show where she performed the eponymous lead single, he was prominently featured during the live debut of “Stoned at the Nail Salon”.

Rainie and Amos Schmit performing at SNL in 2021.

[Pre-Chorus]

    Well, my hot blood's been burning for so many summers now

    It's time to cool it down, whatever that means

Genius Annotations 3 Contributors

The word “blood” appears in almost every track of The Love Club EP, later incorporated into and re-branded as Pure Heroine (Extended).

The opening song, “Bravado”, almost works as a thesis for the rest of her discography:

“

It's a switch flipped
It's a pill tipped back, it's a moon eclipse, whoa
And I can tell you that
When the lights come on, I'll be ready for this
It's in your bloodstream

These themes reappear in Henri’s sophomore album Pure Heroine with tracks like “Royals”, “Tennis Court”, “A World Alone”, and “400 Lux”.

One of the best examples of this recurring allegory is “Glory and Gore”:

“

There's a hummin' in the restless summer air
And we're slippin' off the course that we prepared
But in all chaos there is calculation
(Drop-drop-drop-drop) Dropping glasses just to hear them break

Even “Yellow Flicker Beat”, the song Henri wrote for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 passes on the torch:

“

My blood is a flood of rubies, precious stones
It keeps my veins hot, the fire's found a home in me

When comparing these lyrics to each other, it’s obvious that “cooling it down” doesn’t come naturally to Henri, and is a relatively new concept she’s embracing. It’s possible that this is a choice she’s actively making, even though it goes against her base instincts.

[Chorus]

'Cause all the music you loved at sixteen you'll grow out of

Genius Annotations 6 Contributors

As Rainie set into a more ordinary daily routine after her Melodrama tour, she had more time for self-reflection and introspection, including ruminations about her younger self and how much she has changed.

She mentioned thinking about herself at that age when talking about the song with Zane Lowe:

“

It’s a weird song to even talk about. It’s about the passage of time, which is a weird thing to even think about and be in conversation with. Thinking about me at 16 really confronting my mortality, I sort of dissociate when I try to put myself in the place I was back then.

This could also be yet another parallel to “Ribs”:

“

The drink you spilt all over me
"Lover's Spit" left on repeat

“Lover’s Spit” is a direct reference to the song by Broken Social Scene. Due to their nostalgic quality, it’s possible that these lines were written about Rainie’s romantic relationship with Blu Church — whom she was dating on-and-off at sixteen years old.

Fans have speculated that the high profile couple have since broken up, considering the last time they were sighted together was back in January 2021.

And all the times they will change, it'll all come around

Genius Annotations 1 Contributor

Her debut album, Pure Heroine was released in 2013, the year before she turned sixteen years old. This line and the one before it are literal examples of the redundancy that weighs on Rainie.

Although she’s older and wiser due to age, the same sense of uncertainty and insecurity from the passage of time still manifests itself in different ways. Though times change, the same feelings will still come around to haunt her.

I don't know

    Maybe I'm just

    Maybe I'm just stoned at the nail salon again

Genius Annotations 4 Contributors

Getting high and going to get your nails done is something that someone who isn’t busy at all would do. This line serves to really showcase the contrast between her busy tour life and her more ordinary post-tour life in California, New York and, more recently, Germany.

She talked about this in an interview with Zane Lowe:

“

I mean, it’s such a thing you do when you get off tour or stop traveling for a bit. All of a sudden you’ve got nothing to do. There were a lot of, I guess, I’m going to get stoned and pick up my dry cleaning; I’m going to get stoned and tend to the garden; I’m going to get stoned and get my nails done; moments like that.

That’s why it’s like, “Am I okay? Is everything okay? What is okay?” You know, that’s what the song was borne from, that omnipresent anxiety. The confusion of not knowing what your role is. Or that strange idea that you’re not needed.

Like, “Oh, no one’s seen me in ages. I haven’t posted a picture of myself for the clout. My social media presence isn’t missed. People don’t remember what I look like and they don’t care.” In a way, I’m being left behind, and obviously I leaned hard into that in the years that followed. I’d say, looking back, that was harder to maintain because it didn’t come to me naturally. It’s my joy to be left behind now.

[Bridge]

Oh, make it good

Oh, make it good

Genius Annotations 1 Contributor

As this song is believed to be a sequel to her track “Ribs”, a song that projects fears about growing older, these lines could be connected:

“

We can talk it so good
We can make it so divine
We can talk it good
How you wish it would be all the time

This reference to her previous nostalgic song could embody the progress she made. Moreover, while a younger Rainie suggests to idealize their future life, in a dream state of mind; in “Stoned At The Nail Salon”, she urges her partner to do more than talk.

I'd ride and I'd ride on the carousel

'Round and 'round forever if I could

Genius Annotations 4 Contributors

This imagery of an eternal ride on the carousel harkens back to Joni Mitchell’s classic song, “The Circle Game”. In this bridge, Henri is drawing on Joni’s picture of a life which simply cannot stop turning and progressing in order to explore her own misgivings with progress.

“

And the seasons, they go 'round and 'round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time

In an email Henri sent out the day this song released, she explained that she made this song as “a real step toward embracing” how she felt about separating her Melodrama-era-life from her subsequent period of rest — or the great divide between her public and private lives.

Here, she finds a solution; instead of playing with fire and burning out, Henri is committed to slowly and steadily building “a beautiful life”, a fresh philosophy that potentially guides her towards “a new kind of bright”.

    But it's time to cool it down

    Whatever that means

Genius Annotations 1 Contributor

It’s possible that these two lines are also a subtle reference to Rainie’s well documented trip to Antartica in February 2019.

[Chorus]

Spend all the evenings you can with the people who raised you

'Cause all the times they will change, it'll all come around

Genius Annotations 1 Contributor

This suggests that the pop star is remorseful for not spending as much time as she would have liked with her loved ones when she was growing up. Most people only start to appreciate their parental figures when they’ve become adults and feel as though it’s too late.

Rainie is also reminding the listener of universal truths – we are all growing old, we are all changing, and we are all burdened by the passage of time.

I don't know

    Maybe I'm just stoned at the nail salon

    Maybe I'm just stoned at the nail salon again

Genius Annotations 3 Contributors

It’s also possible the use of cannabis in “Stoned at the Nail Salon” is a parallel to what she’s under the influence of in “Sober”:

“

King and Queen of the weekend
Ain't a pill that could touch our rush
(But what will we do when we're sober?)

In an interview with The New York Times, Henri described going into the process of writing “Solar Power” from a hallucinogenic framework. However, she also admitted:

“

I went into it thinking, 'Fuck yeah, hallucinogenics!' And then I had a bad experience with hallucinogenics! So it just ended up evolving into something else. What we have here is a weed album. Yeah, it's a weed album.

In conclusion, it seems as though Henri has yet to answer her own question, “But what will we do when we're sober?”