| Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Honestly, I don't think his views about feeling 'unique' strike with communism. Surely the opposite? | |
| Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think this is one of the most astounding songs I've heard in a long time and even surpasses the quality of their first album. I believe the song is about a guy who, having grown-up with a degree of idealism, is encouraged by what he sees on television to go to war to protect his wife/girlfriend and the way of life he believes in. He says 'I'd rather be a functioning cog in some great machinery, servin' something beyond me' and 'I don't need to be kind to the armies of night that would do such injustice to you, or bow down and be grateful and say "sure take all that you see" to the men who move only in dimly-lit halls and determine my future for me'. There is a line that says 'I don't know who to believe' suggesting he has second thoughts...? The slower-paced ending has him dreaming and hoping of going home to the girl he loves and imaging a more beautiful place than the one he currently inhabits. The final line is something of a conundrum - perhaps he concedes that he will 'be like the man on the screen' meaning the older voice who encourages the young to war? Sensational. |
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| Elliott Smith – Bled White Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| And... finally... how apt that Google displays the ad beneath. A very sad genius. His greatest song ever. | |
| Elliott Smith – Bled White Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Sorry, forgot to mention. The 'F train' is certainly the MTA subway heading towards Queens from Brooklyn. Also, the lyric is 'and connect to (not through) a friend of mine (white city to a friend of mine), a reference to him connecting with his helpless future, as told retrospectively of course. I agree with an earlier poster that the orange line is described as 'yellow' poetically, to connect the New York future to the Rose City past. | |
| Elliott Smith – Bled White Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| It was interesting to read all the interpretations. I think this is certainly the greatest song Elliott ever wrote and one of my favourite ever songs. It strikes a chord with me for different reasons of my own. The song is about a young man dreaming he can travel in time and meet himself in the future. Rose City is in Texas. It's on Interstate 10 which is shown as a thick yellow line through it. The dialling code is 409. The lyric modulates from 3rd person (he) to 1st person (I) when talking of 'meeting a friend. He talks of 'having to be high' to track the sunset down, meaning his journey to drugs from his beginnings with alcohol. When he meets 'his friend', they have the same blank expression, talk of sadness and happiness following in quick succession which echoes Elliott's sad life and, eventually, the younger man declares 'I'm never going to become, what you became'. His future asks him not to 'dare disturb me (don't complicate my peace of mind) while I'm balancing my past'... and, saddest of all, 'you can't help or hurt me'. As I said, surely one of the greatest songs and most poignant lyrics of all time. RIP ES. P.S. The lyrics here are wrong - he's a 'column' reporter, not colour and, like an earlier poster, I believe the lyric is 'drinking to distraction's just a waste of time' but drinking 'til he's trashed means the same thing I guess. | |
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