| Elliott Smith – Drive All Over Town Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I'm under the impression that he says "He got OVER that whole deal before it happened" I also think he is talking about some time that his mother told him he was an accident, that he shouldn't have been born... |
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| Elliott Smith – Condor Ave. Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I'm gonna go step by step about how I see the meaning of these lyrics... Which are amazing by the way! I see that this is a couple and they were fighting, she runs away crashes and dies. This is how I see it: "She took the Oldsmobile out past Condor Ave. And she locked the car and slipped past" She ran away from the fight. "Into rythmic quietude Lights burning Voice dry and hoarse" By running, things became quiet. It was night (car lights on). Their voice were dry and hoarse from shouting at each other. "I threw the screen door like a bastard back and forth" Display of frustration and anger when he realizes she is running away "The chimes fell over each other I fell onto my knees" Chimes from the door, those metal things that make pleasant sounds when you open the door "The sound of the car driving off made me feel diseased Sick shouting like you hear at the fairground" He is sick and angered about she driving off and shouts, displaying frustration again. But not just a shout, a desperate shout like from someone in a roller coaster or such "Now I'm picking up to put away Anything of yours that's still around I don't know what to do with your clothes or your letters It'll make a whisper out of you" I think anyone who ever broke up with someone felt this before. The things left behind keep reminding you about the person who is gone. Things that whisper her name back to haunt you. He's hiding all that stuff so he can move on, try to forget about her. This part is confusing cause you guys put an enter in the wrong place, listen to the song and check that he pauses after "sits" "She took the Oldsmobile out past Condor Ave. The fairground's lit, a drunk man sits" While she drives away, he sits, drunk. "By the gate she's driving through" she's going, while he's sitting drunk "Got his hat tipped, bottle back in between his teeth Looks like he's buried in the sand at the beach" that typical drunken image. Someone thrown at a chair drinking.. "I can't think about you driving off to leave, barely awake To take a little nap while the road is straight I wish that car had never been discovered" She drives off at night, tired and falls asleep on the wheel. "They took away the bottle and the hat he was under That's the one thing that he could never do" This part is not very clear to me but it seems like the accident was the one thing that made him sober up "And it'll make a whisper out of you" Again, the memories of her will stay "She took the Oldsmobile out past Condor Ave. Cops were running around the scene Looking for some kind of clue They never get uptight when a moth gets crushed Unless a light bulb really loved him very much" this part I agree with thagunk about the order and stuff "I'm lying down Blowing smoke from my cigarette Little whisper smoke signs you'll never get" Again, the comunication problems that thagunk talked about. "You're in your Oldsmobile driving past the moon Headlights burning bright ahead of you" A metaphor for her in heaven.. Maybe again he refers to himself as the moon? "And someone's burning out on Condor Ave. Trying to make a whisper out of you" I think on this part he's talking about how he's doing some self destruction trying to forget about her "What a shitty thing to say Did you really mean it? You never said a word to me about what passed between us So now I'm leaving you alone You can do whatever the hell you want to " This part to me is confusing.. Sometimes I think of him saying this, others of her. But as the whole song is based on his point of view, I guess it's him talking. I again, agree with thagunk. It's his way of dealing with it, childish way. Great song |
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| Elliott Smith – St. Ides Heaven Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I agree with you guys about the interventions and how people assume they know what's best for you. About the moon part. I think he refers to himself as the moon. A light bulb shines the brightest when it breaks, I think it's a metaphor for all the fuss he's making, as a foreboding to death. As the moon, he may go around with anyone, but he won't "come down" from being high, for anyone. Not only being high on drugs, but being unreachable. |
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| Elliott Smith – Alphabet Town Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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first I tought this: the male in the song is with some girl he's not in love with. He loves someone else but is with this one just to pass the time, and to make it worse, she is ok with it. He fells bad about going out with her when he loves someone else. I did that once. I went out with a girl thinking about another, and said the other girls name. It's common to do that, cause you're using her as a substitute for the one you didn't get. Now I think that he's going out with a drug whore. Someone who sticks around with him to score drugs. Read again the lyrics with this interpretation in mind, it makes perfect sense |
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| Elliott Smith – Christian Brothers Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This is what I could make of it: "No bad dream fucker's going to boss me around Christian Brothers going to take him down" He can't reach his dreams and uses alcohol as an escape, to "take him down", forget about what ruins his dreams. "But it can't help me get over" It only makes him forget, doesn't help really. "Don't be cross, it's sick what I want" He doesn't want any help, he WANTS to be sick. "I've seen the boss blink on and off" I think it'd be a reference to God, specially the use of "Christian Brothers" as an alcohol instead of any other.. I think he means he's been close to dying many times.. "Fake concerns is what's the matter, man And you think I ought to shake your motherfucking hand Well, I know how much you care" When people try to "help" and get you out of such states of alcoholism or drug addiction, they're actually thinking about themselves, how they love the addicted person and how they miss them. So they're actually helping themselves, not the addicted (not my vision on it, I guess it'd be elliott's vision). "Come here by me, I want you here Nightmares become me, it's so fucking clear" In the end, it becomes clear that he really wants company and help, he doesn't want to be alone. |
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| Regina Spektor – Better Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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it fells to me like she's talking about a best friend, someone she was friends with since she was born, that from "Born like sisters to this world, In a town where blood ties are only blood," which says, blood ties means nothing, what matters is that they're sisters. Something happens to that friend of hers and that girl gets very depressed and apathic. that from "if I kiss you were it's sore will you fell better, will you fell anything at all?" like any small child, she was led to belive that kissing were it's sore made it feel better and she wants her friend to get better... Now, the reason why her friend is depressed to me sounds like child abuse. I feel like the "In a town where blood ties are only blood" has a double meaning there. Regina is saying how wrong it is for her friend's father to do that to her. "And if you never say your name out loud to anyone, They never ever call you by it." Would be on the same idea. A kind of "you don't have feel related to him" "it doesn't matter that you have the same name, just don't tell anyone your name is that" it feels like it's a bit too farfetch but another reading I have is the same idea but without the abuse part.. then the "And if you never say your name out loud to anyone, They never ever call you by it." would be "you'll stay alone if you don't talk to people" how will people call you by your name if you don' t tell them? In my experience with depression I always felt like I was alone and miserable and no one wanted to talk to me but it was I who was excluding myself. On the same page, if I never talked to anyone how would they get to know me? |
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