1993’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan’s third album. Sitting on the line between the more ethereal, goth, vampire-novel sound of her first two releases and the radio-friendly Lilith Fair pop of its smash follow-up Surfacing, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is gorgeous and sad and the best example of its genre I’ve ever heard.
This is an album-album. Scanning some of the titles — ‘Wait,’ ‘Plenty,’ ‘Mary,’ ‘Elsewhere,’ ‘Circle’ — I’m hard pressed to call any of them to mind. But when I play the opening seconds of any of them, they flood into my headphones with total familiarity. I’m just not used to hearing them individually, or referring to them by title, because they’re all a part of the greater suite.
A few tracks are exceptions, including the creepily sexy ‘Possession,’ the sweetly sexy ‘Ice Cream’ and the sadly sexy ‘Good Enough,’ which I’m featuring today.
I’ve always considered this song half pep talk for a battered woman and half lesbian come-on. Maybe the lesbian part is just wishful thinking, but I’m not sure how else to read the final verse, where the singer asks her friend to give her a chance to be “good to you” and “there for you.” I suppose she could mean it platonically, but where’s the fun in that?
I believe the romantic angle lends a poignancy to the whole song. It makes it not just about the abused woman’s hope for escape but about the singer’s unrequited love. How do you interpret it, gentle readers?
It’s a hell of a long way home
Why don’t you let me take you
It’s no good to go alone
I never would have opened up
But you seemed so real to me
After all the bullshit I’ve heard
It’s refreshing not to see
I don’t have to pretend
She doesn’t expect it from me
Don’t tell me I haven’t been good to you
Don’t tell me I have never been there for you
Don’t tell me why nothing is good enough
Hey little girl would you like some candy
Your momma said that it’s OK
The door is open come on outside
No I can’t come out today
It’s not the wind that cracked your shoulder
And threw you to the ground
Who’s there that makes you so afraid
You’re shaken to the bone
And I don’t understand
You deserve so much more than this
So don’t tell me why
He’s never been good to you
Don’t tell me why
He’s never been there for you
Don’t you know that why
Is simply not good enough
So just let me try
And I will be good to you
Just let me try
And I will be there for you
I’ll show you why
You’re so much more than good enough
Meet Me In Montauk 
I did a little research and it appears that she wrote the song for her mother who was in an abusive relationship with her husband (Sarah’s father). However, I can see your take on this as well. Also, I really like her voice and style.
Hey that’s cheating, Peg!:)
Definitely intrigued by the lyrics in this one. I had heard the song before, but never really paid much attention to what it was about. What I find interesting is the shift between what appears to be a conversation between two adults (women?) where one is opening up to the other, then we shift to what is presumably a memory of child abuse, and it ends with a recounting of abuse by a man against his wife/girfriend. I can certainly see an interpretation that the victim in this song was abused as a child and then by her husband, and is now being told by this other person that she can trust her. Obviously, Peg’s research deflates the romantic angle, but I can see why you would find it in there. My first take was–hey you were abused as a child, abused by a man—time to give a loving woman a chance. But, then again, like you, perhaps that’s just my wishful thinking:)
I don’t know what to make of the 5th verse – that one complicates the whole song for me. Does it lead into the next verse, or does the verse exist independently? Are both intended to be figurative, or are we to believe this is a childhood remembrance? I don’t feel confident I have enough evidence in the text to support one interpretation over another.
Now on to the “wishful thinking” the boys discussed…. why do you assume the speaker of these lyrics is a woman? Sure, Sarah McLachlan is a woman, but that doesn’t/shouldn’t automatically mean that the speaker/singer of the song is, should it? I don’t know that it matters, but it seems clear that a platonic friend is tired of hearing all the reasons WHY and wants his/her unrequited love/bff to stop rationalizing her decision to remain in an abusive relationship and try a healthier one out instead.
But I’m still stuck on the “little girl” verses.
When I listen to it, it touches me because my daughter’s father is a very low down person and not even close to being a good father-or father at all, for that matter.
He’s never been abusive, so that doesn’t relate in our situation, but it touches me because I am the only parent she has & i am always trying to be the best mother i can be. I try to be good enough in her eyes. . But everyone knows a young child still tends to cling to the father, even if he is close to non existent n her life. He is not good enough for her, cause he’s never made any effort-but I can’t tell her that. So, I just try to be good enough-in her eyes. That’s all that matters. #motherhoodissacred
Yes, the lesbian angle hits. Hard.