submissions
| R.E.M. – Try Not To Breathe Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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This song, to me, is about suicidal feelings in general, and happens to be from the POV of an elderly person... it reminds me of assisted suicide... |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – The Last Hour Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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a song about an unrequited love... the first verse talking about an army... elliott was known to use 'dead soldiers' to refer to empty beers... so maybe the first verse is him talking things out with this person that he had these unreturned feelings for over drinks, and that person feeling guilty about it and drowning the sorrow...
the rest of the song seems to be about the person whose love was unrequited resolving to stop trying to form relationships when he knows he's only going to end up hurt. |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – I Better Be Quiet Now Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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i think this is a song about losing a true love, and having no one to talk to about it, and longing to have that person back because youve got no one else...
and finally coming to terms with the fact that you have to let go of the anger and sadness, and live on with the memory... |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Happiness/The Gondola Man Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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i agree, this is probably the best song ever.
It's about people who hide who they really are for fear of being shamed... and for fear of having to realize they're just as human as everyone else... not only to be unknown to everyone, but never having to REALLY relate to anyone...
i think that the repeated refrain is about when the person finally escapes from that cycle...
as far as the relationship between the 'he' and 'she' in the song... i don't think that the guy necessarily died, just that the girl (whom im not sure is the same 'she' in both verses) was powerless to do anything to expose the person's falsities while he was still out building his reputation... |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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a song about having problems that are so deep rooted that you don't feel anyone can relate, and about when people try to help by reassuring you they've been through the EXACT same thing, and pushing what helped THEM onto you... sort of the inverse of independence day, but only so because the people who pushed the narrator in this song were militant about their 'cure' |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Don't Go Down Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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i think this song is (like independence day) about someone who has been through a lot and is struggling, and elliott is trying to reassure the person that things will get better, because he's been in a similar situation... it's about someone who was trying to push him away who he clung to to try and help... I love how we weave our own lives into the stories elliott gave us... the beauty is that that's what songs like this are for |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Division Day Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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i think this song is about someone who has a demon that he can't come to terms with, something that he lives with every day that he can't quite put his finger on that drives him to the point of madness, and the only means he can find to escape from it is suicide... i also think the 'mostly they'd meet' stanza is about elliott himself, and how sad it made him that people used each other to further themselves... a sick exchange... maybe the song is ABOUT elliott, and his suicidal tendencies... |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Alameda Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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i think it's a song about someone who pushes people away, then tries to justify it by passing the buck.
I've been there. |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Can't Make a Sound Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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seems like a song about someone who is lonely and depressed and has retreated into himself... elliott is at once the narrator and the subject, as evidenced in the use of first AND third person perspectives on someone who is at least for most of the song the same person...
the only time elliott is a narrator is at the end when he poses the question... which i believe to mean "why would you want someone to share your life with when you've retreated into yourself so deeply that you're avoiding reality?" you know? |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Between the Bars Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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A song narrated by a temptress of a bottle to a boy stating the perks of using alcohol to escape pain...
and then standing by watching the consequences. |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Bottle Up and Explode Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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the only thing i have to say about this song is i think it's about someone who is an angry drunk... i always thought it was about someone who didnt know how to deal with anger (someone who bottles things up and explodes in a rage when they can no longer stuff it down, something i've been capable of) but now, the poetry in the first line seems to say it all for me...
bottle up (as in turn the bottle upward...) and explode (in anger)
seems to be also about someone who is dependent on alcohol to the point where they neglect other relationships. |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – 2:45 AM Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I think that this song is about soeone who has been wronged by someone he cared about, or someone in a place of authority, and the escape he was using to stuff the hostility he felt toward this person down caught up with him "i'm putting myself on warning for waking up in an unknown place..." and now he's ashamed; it also talks about the damage done by the people who have wronged him being "hidden cracks that / constantly just grow"... kind of like emotional pain that we mask because we don't believe people can relate...
I think it's a song about being abandoned by someone who was hurtful to you but didn't mean to be, and the loneliness associated with such things, and the desire to do whatever one has to to curb those feelings... |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Ballad of Big Nothing Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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In my opinion this song is about someone who has issues, and they use drugs to escape those issues, and they have let the problem escalate to the point where the narrator (as well as the subjects brother) have decided to just tell the person "you can do what you want to, whenever you want to" and just break off the relationship, because the subject just doesn't realize the problem is there. |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Independence Day Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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This song is, to me, about someone who is having a hard time coping with struggles in their life, and the narrator is reassuring them that someday they'll be so much better off for fighting, instead of giving up... as evidenced in the line "you'll be beautiful confusion, once i was you" its sort of the narrator's attempt to relate to the troubles of the subject and reassure him or her that it will be okay, that he's been there, and that it's just an evolutionary process of sorts (future butterfly)... |
submissions
| Project 86 – Soma Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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As a sufferer of a mood disorder, I've always related this song to the idea that psychiatry promises to curb our tendencies to be who we really are... how medication changes the way our brains function and therefore we somehow lose at least a little bit of who we are... back when i was very adamantly opposed to being (re)medicated, this was my anthem, because at that time i was very conscious to the idea that taking these medications that may or may not HELP me would bring with it a price...
In short, i feel that the narrator is lashing out against medicated states, and that he says no matter what he's going to be who he really is, and won't use drugs to help him along... |
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