| Elliott Smith – Don't Go Down Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Some great comments here, but I think everyone's overlooking a very important part of the lyrics, perhaps because the lyrics posted here are incorrect. The line should be: "I split the scene, the globed bit spun" I believe this song tells a very straightforward story. I will review my thoughts a verse at a time. I met a girl Snowball in hell She was as hard And as cracked as the Liberty Bell As another poster pointed out, "snowball in hell" is a play on the fact that hell is not a very conducive environment for a snowball. That is, she was living in an environment that wasn't good for her. And she was emotionally weathered from her toxic environment, "she was hard and as cracked as the liberty bell". And I got her to Come on and move in with me And I said, "I'll find a better place Where we can spend eternity" The narrator got her to move in with him, so that he could extract her from that toxic environment. Her mother called me a thief And her dad Called himself "commander and chief" Her mother accused him of stealing her away ("her mother called me a thief"), and her father tried to use his authority to force her to stay ("and her dad called himself commander and chief"). I fought him off with my love But I knew the sense of worthlessness She'd have to raise above The narrator used his love of the girl to persuade her to take the plunge and move out ("I fought him off with my love"). But moving out alone wasn't enough, she still had a lot of baggage to deal with. She had a dream Woke up in shock She had seen Her own body outlined in chalk She dreamed that she was going to die. I think Elliott is being a bit symbolic here, she may simply be threatening to kill herself -- ie, "dreaming of death". I split the scene, the globed bit spun And her ghost leaned down to kiss me With a message from the sun I think the narrator went away because he couldn't handle the drama, and the threats of suicide. "The globed bit spun" is a reference to the chamber of a revolver being spun as the trigger is pulled. Her ghost coming to kiss the narrator implies that she is now dead, ie she has committed suicide. "Don't go down" means he doesn't want the sun to go down. I think the sun is symbolic of her life (he doesn't want her to die), or at least his memory of her. The repetition of "don't go down, stay with me baby stay" increases further and further through the song. At the start, it only repeats once. In the middle it repeats twice. At the end it repeats three times. I believe his wish for her not to go gets stronger throughout the song, the more he realises she's slipping away. At the end, perhaps it is almost as though the narrator is in denial, wishing for her not to leave even though she already has. Well, that's my two cents, hope my thoughts are helpful. |
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