| Elliott Smith – Stickman Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
"I draw from memory The stillest kind of life Slide after slide You know pain's the sharpest knife Project what's done so everyone can see To me it's just a reversal" I concur with ginteardrops' general assessment of this stanza but would just like to add some interesting particulars. Elliott Smith referred to memories metaphorically as "pictures" and had a bit of a photographer's sensibility. With this in mind, more depth is brought to this stanzas significance. "Slide after slide" can be construed as his mosaic of memory. "You know pain's the sharpest knife" can be construed as the pain of separating the good and the bad from his mosaic. And "Project what's done so everyone can see To me it's just a reversal" seems like a metaphor for film reversal (e.g. in photography: projecting a positive image onto a transparent base.) or projecting a positive self-image to the world while seeing his self as just the opposite. |
|
| Pixies – Caribou Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
He was probably inspired by the legend of the Inuit god Tekkeitsertok. Wikipedia: "Tekkeitsertok is a god of hunting and the master of caribou, one of the most important hunting gods in the pantheon." |
|
| Pixies – Caribou Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I totally agree with "ladyhoney." It seems like Frank Black was reading some Inuit mythology and got inspired to write this song. | |
| Elliott Smith – Sweet Adeline Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| ...purely speculative based on imagery. ;) | |
| Elliott Smith – Whatever (Folk Song in C) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
@lane I got carried away with a little flourish of storytelling. That's what is great about alot of his music. It has duality and that's why (I think) people say "man, his songs can be so sad and beautiful at the same time." He was all to aware of that method of storytelling and he mastered it in a way. I just wonder what else he could've produced? |
|
| Elliott Smith – Sweet Adeline Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
"Cut this picture into you and me Burn it backwards, kill this history Make it over, make it stay away Or hate'll say the ending that love started to stay." He's desperately trying to bring a healthful psychological ending to a failed relationship by using the symbolism of the "picture" (memories of lost happiness) & "burning" (maybe a direct metaphor for drug-use). "There's a kid a floor below me saying, "Brother, can you spare Sunshine for a brother, Old Man Winter's in the air" Walked me up a story asking how you are Told me not to worry, you were just a shooting star." He's using a metaphor of a "building" to represent his conscious/sub-conscious mind ("kid a floor below me...") because when the relationship went sour, I guess loss or whatnot issues from his abusive childhood overwhelmed him. His "inner child" is in a sense needing to be repressed so he can "not worry" and convincing him that the relationship was actually meaningless. "Sweet Adeline Sweet Adeline My Clementine Sweet Adeline." This could just be some way reassurance he had always practiced. Who really knows. "It's a picture perfect evening and I'm staring down the sun Fully loaded, deaf and dumb and done Waiting for sedation to disconnect my head Or any situation where I'm better off than dead." He's being morbidly ironic. He's toying with his life and he's absolutely fucking aware of it but he caves because he (I assume) knows nothing else to do. That's my take. If I'm "right" then this is honestly a brutally sad depiction of a desperate individual needing help. |
|
| Elliott Smith – Twilight (Somebody's Baby) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Fuck! What a beautiful piece of poetry. The figurative language, metaphor and dialogue are absolutely fucking brilliant, and make a power little vignette. As for interpretation. Maybe he's been thinking too fatalistically but can't help but to be distracted by hope because he's (although a slave to his own terrible affliction) still too human. Maybe I've read too deep between the lines, but that's the way I see it and I cannot imagine how the fuck he could sing this shit live without being numbed. | |
| Elliott Smith – Whatever (Folk Song in C) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Somewhat of statement of his philosophy of that period. | |
| Elliott Smith – Whatever (Folk Song in C) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Mtolsky hit it on the head. Two friends meet while Elliott's scoring some dope. The friend's made empty gestures of sincerity concerning his habit. And E.S. quickly becomes reconciled with these moments of weakness, slips into resignation and they get high as some stubborn statement of apathy. | |
| Bob Dylan – Simple Twist of Fate Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| With verses 1-5, he's narrating in third person about a lovelorn seaman on shore leave (a metaphor perhaps paralleling the one of the old Schooner lost at sea where man is searching for shore "love" to moor to). And with the last verse he changes the narration mode to the first person, maybe as a device to illustrate his own feelings about love as a concept at it's most ideal for Dylan. | |
| Elliott Smith – All Cleaned Out Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Damn! Elliott had a keen way of detatching himself from the situation to paint a vivid picture. | |
| Elliott Smith – Looking Over My Shoulder Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think this song corresponds to a period when he knew he was in a huge shame-spiral and was so fucking apathetic to the point that he felt okay about becoming a parady of himself. It wreaks of shameless, pointless defiance. Not the height of his artistry by far. Just a lower than low point. | |
| A.C. Newman – Miracle Drug Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I think it's about the spiritual justifications corrupt religious proponents make to further there own selfish ends. "He was tied to the bed with a miracle drug in one hand, In the other, a great lost novel that, I understand, was returned with a stamp That said "thank you for your interest, young man." -A young evangelist maybe who has a ferver to preach what he believes he can't uphold. "While preparing his soul for a perilous slide into crime, He had decided that he would err on this side of divine, Being told this was wise, that there'd be payback with interest in due time So why all the history now?" -He sees the profit of greed and convinces himself that he's erring on the side of "God's" archangel Jegudiel. "He was tied to a job selling miracle drugs from his home, At his door every morning, a trophy arrived with the dawn, With the following inscribed: "we've followed you with interest for some time." So why all the history now? He was tied to the bed with a miracle drug in one hand." -He begins his delusional quest for personal greed. With every coming day, he receives his bitter rewards with a reminder of his lies. That's one way I interpreted the song. |
|
| Elliott Smith – No Name #3 Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Simply put (because the lyrics are descriptive and evoke simplicity) I think this tune is his "Moonlight Serenade." Just a man & a woman finding solace in eachothers company while sharing the coming twilight framed from a tenemant window. I think it's just an archetypical song...Elliott knew (on whichever level) how to emulate these types of songs. He was fucking good. | |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.