submissions
| Spoon – Not Turning Off Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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A) This song is incredible - Britt Daniels is simply the coolest lead of any rock band out right now, and nobody seems to know it. At the end, with those short-burst screams - so cool.
B) This song is about drugs. It's about 2 people who take drugs together. "She's gone in a word, and tanked-up" is clearly a reference to being intoxicated. Ephedrine's synthetic derivatives are amphetamine and methamphetamine. "There's something about, I'm not the only / who can't sleep at all". That refers to how they're both "tanked up". When you're on meth it's a very mechanical feeling, like your body is a machine (I've never taken it, but that' what I've heard). Here's what one meth user had to say about it : "It was like all of the switches in my body and in my brain felt like they finally got turned on." (Check out the link to that quote here: http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392428)
So yeah, clearly he's "turned on" and "not turning off". I don't think that the quote "your can tastes like tin, aluminum" refers to a beer in a can. I think he's talking about the girl he's with, how she's like a robot, or a machine. "Connect to me" he says. Obviously a sexual reference (meth increases libido, incidentally). Ok, that's it from me. |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Angeles Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I think that people read into Elliott's lyrics too literally. Just because of lines referring to gambling, or poison arms, people thing that this is a song about addiction or gambling. I think that one gift Elliott had was to paint pictures with his music that communicated attitudes, and not so much stories. He's using words to convey how he feels. I think this song is much more abstract than people think. It's about the idealists' first glimpse of the seedy underbelly of humanity. It's the narrative of a poets soul seeing how dark and lonely the world can be. That's just my take though. |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Needle in the Hay Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Like a few people I've read on here, this was the first Elliott Smith song I ever heard. A friend had it on a burned CD but he didn't know who Elliott was. I borrowed the CD from him and listened to this song about 40 times one night. It took me a few months before I heard another one of his songs on the radio (college radio) and found out who he was. I've been a tremendous fan ever since.
This song is so poignant that it's like a slap in the face. I'll admit that I don't know what some of the lyrics reference. I don't know what the "haystack charm" is supposed to mean. It's obviously about heroin addiction. I've read that they first few verses are about a girl Elliott used to date who got him turned on to heroin. What I do know is that the last verse is the best artistic snapshot of addiction that I've ever heard, and anyone who's ever been though it will understand the lonely desperation that it entails. "Now on the bus, nearly touching this dirty retreat / Falling out, Sixth and Powell, a dead sweat in my teeth". To me this image is so clear it's chilling, and it comes at the point in the song where, musically, you are on the edge of your seat. Perfect. This song deserves every word of praise ever given to it. |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Southern Belle Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I think that everyone has the right idea here, and it's really interesting to me because I never knew it was about his stepfather and mother. It makes sense though. I also love the line "no one's about to shout / nobody's seeing red / but I wouldn't have you how you want". It's like nobody else seems to notice just how wrong this situation is except Elliott (or Steven, whichever), and his anger is so pointed and sure that it's somehow more powerful than a punch or a shaking fist. I love this song, I think it's got some of the best guitar work of his entire catalogue. He really makes such dynamic use of his acoustic that it would honestly ruin the song to put any more instrumention in it. Amazing.
On another note, I am very pleased to note that under "E" on the main page the two artists are Eminem and Elliott Smith. It's great to see his influence and popularity are only growing as time goes moves on. We miss you terribly, Elliott. |
submissions
| Sufjan Stevens – The Lord God Bird Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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To me, this song speaks on so many levels as all great, honest songs do. I think that many people read into this on a much more literal level than is perhaps intended. I'm not saying that the song is not about the re-discovery of the thought-to-be-extinct ivory-billed woodpecker, because it clearly is. What I think a lot of people are missing is what this symbolizes, and I don't even think it's something as simple as bird:god and sewing-machine:man. I think the core of the song is the joy in finding something that was thought to be lost, something that was thought to be beaten long ago. That is the real magic behind the discovery of the bird, and the essense of the song. There is talk of outside forces battling, in the form of industrial expansion and hunters and the like, but to me it feels like despite all that, almost oblivious to all that, the great god bird has quietly been culling out it's existence unknown to the rest of the world. It speaks of things perhaps inside ourselves that were thought to be lost, covered by louder and more powerful things, but that somewhere thrive and wait to be discovered again. The last line, to me, says it all. "It's the great god bird through it all." |
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