In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Oh, Elise, it doesn't matter what you say
I just can't stay here every yesterday
Like keep on acting out the same
The way we act out
Every way to smile, forget
And make-believe we never needed
Any more than this
Any more than this
Oh, Elise, it doesn't matter what you do
I know I'll never really get inside of you
To make your eyes catch fire
The way they should
The way the blue could pull me in
If they only would, if they only would
At least I'd lose this sense of sensing
Something else that hides away
From me and you, they're worlds to part
With aching looks and breaking hearts
And all the prayers your hands can make
Oh, I just take as much as you can throw
And then throw it all away
Oh, I throw it all away
Like throwing faces at the sky
Like throwing arms 'round yesterday
I stood and stared
Wide-eyed in front of you
And the face I saw looked back the way I wanted to
But I just can't hold my tears away the way you do
Elise, believe I never wanted this
I thought this time I'd keep all of my promises
I thought you were the girl I always dreamed about
But I let the dream go
And the promises broke and make-believe ran out
So, Elise, it doesn't matter what you say
I just can't stay here every yesterday
Like keep on acting out the same
The way we act out
Every way to smile, forget
And make-believe we never needed
Any more than this
Any more than this
And every time I try to pick it up
Like falling sand
As fast as I pick it up
It runs away through my clutching hands
But there's nothing else I can really do
There's nothing else I can really do
There's nothing else I can really do
At all
I just can't stay here every yesterday
Like keep on acting out the same
The way we act out
Every way to smile, forget
And make-believe we never needed
Any more than this
Any more than this
Oh, Elise, it doesn't matter what you do
I know I'll never really get inside of you
To make your eyes catch fire
The way they should
The way the blue could pull me in
If they only would, if they only would
At least I'd lose this sense of sensing
Something else that hides away
From me and you, they're worlds to part
With aching looks and breaking hearts
And all the prayers your hands can make
Oh, I just take as much as you can throw
And then throw it all away
Oh, I throw it all away
Like throwing faces at the sky
Like throwing arms 'round yesterday
I stood and stared
Wide-eyed in front of you
And the face I saw looked back the way I wanted to
But I just can't hold my tears away the way you do
Elise, believe I never wanted this
I thought this time I'd keep all of my promises
I thought you were the girl I always dreamed about
But I let the dream go
And the promises broke and make-believe ran out
So, Elise, it doesn't matter what you say
I just can't stay here every yesterday
Like keep on acting out the same
The way we act out
Every way to smile, forget
And make-believe we never needed
Any more than this
Any more than this
And every time I try to pick it up
Like falling sand
As fast as I pick it up
It runs away through my clutching hands
But there's nothing else I can really do
There's nothing else I can really do
There's nothing else I can really do
At all
Lyrics submitted by oofus, edited by Mellow_Harsher
A Letter to Elise Lyrics as written by Porl Thompson Robert James Smith
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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True story. 1996 Im in college in the Mac lab and the "information superhighway" was new. So im in this chat room (Wow, people from all over the country talking in here at the same time?? amazing) and I see a name in the guest list, Elise. So I type to her "oh Elise it doesnt matter what you say" .... and she replies "I just can't stay here every yesterday" Holy shit!! she knows The Cure. We chatted every night. Sent emails (new at the time), eventually led to snail mail and photographs of each other, eventually led to phone calls (i was in Lancaster,PA she was in college in LA) ..remember, this was ALL before online dating. So we decided to meet up during winter break after communicating for 3 months (Actually, I graduated that Dec.96) I flew out there and spent a week with her at her home in Mesa, AZ and she came back with me to philly for a week. We fell deep for each other, but realised our real lives were 3000 miles apart, so it never went further. Thinking back, I dont believe in fate but it's amazing how it all happend because of this song. She was beautiful and I miss her.
@spokexx That does sound pretty fantasyesque (I'm too much the stereotypical cynical genXer to use the term "romantic" in a positive sense I'm afraid <g>). Certainly by '96 The Cure was pretty well-known...depends what sort of chatroom it was, but I'd say at this time in some circles it wouldn't at all be surprising to happen upon a fellow Cure fan. I first started listening to them in '87 (after hearing "How Beautiful You Are" on the radio), and the American "alternative music scene" in which The Cure has always been a favourite was pretty lively even then.<br /> <br /> On a random note: can you define "online dating" in the sense you mean? I remember '96 well (it's the year I finished my undergrad degree too, only in spring) and what the 'net was like at the time (the Web had made its grand entrance in '93, IIRC: I remember a feud rapidly developing over preferences in UNIX-based browsers), and certainly, online pickups and, err, other things, were already pretty common by that point. Indeed, by then commercial ISPs — AOL and the like — had appeared too, I believe, and the phenomena I mentioned in relation to internet "dating" (?) certainly existed before those.<br /> <br /> I should have thought that just having graduated you would have had some options as to where you might go next (literally and figuratively), and if things were looking serious by that time already, you could have tried to secure yourself in a more feasible location, at least for visiting. I'm sorry it didn't work out. (You should write a song about it!)
@spokexx thats an amazing story.<br /> <br /> Would you be up for discussing this in a podcast? Like how internet has changed our lives.<br />
@spokexx So sad.... gave me total goosebumps.....