| Elliott Smith – Crazy Fucker Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I think a different interpretation I thought of makes this song pretty interesting. My idea is basically that the southern man reminds Elliott of Texas. It could be that this crazy fucker from the south is a part of Elliott's self, who he was when he lived in Texas. He hated Texas, and was pretty roudy and self-destructive when he lived there. The self-destructive impulse comes when Elliott sees this southern person, probably in a bar. A part of him who he hates, the part of him that he sees as a stupid, screaming little half-assed middle class boy (I love the internal rhyme of assed with class) swells up inside him, and he wants to destruct it. He craves a fight, craves pain and the white noise that follows lots of alcohol and bar fights. He wants the middle-class boy beaten out of him. Note the song comparisons: broken main line is linked to "Passing Feeling" (another song about craving nothingness) - the "dead power lines", and the "bad connection" in "Division Day". All these metaphors are about his inabillity to get help, like a soldier stranded in enemy terriotry with a broken radio. Also, the recurring "arrow" reminds me of "Cupid's Trick". In mythology, Cupid's arrow is supposed to induce true love, but the for Elliott the arrow is always defective, it always brings pain. As if Elliott is being duped by fate and this is ruining his life. As for drug use, it's difficult to deny that a "shot of white noise" has strong associations to heroin. As someone else said, Elliott was definitely not using heroin at the time of writing this song, but he certainly had a strange obsession with it. Shot is obvious: an injection. White is important in Elliott's music, as it's usually associated with heroin, which he used as a metaphor for dependence. The "white lady" in "The White Lady Loves You More" and the "rich white lady" in "King's Crossing" refer to heroin. The word "noise" is also pretty symbolic in Elliott's world, most obviously in "Tomorrow Tomorrow". "The noise is coming out, and if it's not out now, then tomorrow, tomorrow". I think noise is nothingness; in that song it seems to be about suicide, but here in "Crazy Fucker" it's about blocking things out; "block it out" as in "The Enemy Is You". White = heroin/dependence, noise = nothingness. So it's like depending on nothingness to simply get by .. "Crazy Fucker"'s one of my favourites .. a beautiful song. |
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| Elliott Smith – Going Nowhere Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I've been wondering if Elliott was a fan of Edna St. Vincent Millay. She was a popular American poet, who died tragically in 1950. There are a few parallels between her life and Elliott's. She was often suicidal, was an opium addict for some time, and wrote many very beautiful poems with extremely dark content and themes. I've noticed that there could be a reference to her in "Twilight", when he says "Because your candle burns too bright," which is like one of Millay's most famous poems, "My candle burns at both ends It will not last the night; But ah, my foes and oh, my friends - It gives a lovely light." Also in this song the line "The time it took a cigarette to burn" reminds me of this one by Millay: "Only until this cigarette is ended, A little moment at the end of all, While on the floor the quiet ashes fall, And in the firelight to a lance extended, Bizarrely with the jazzing music blended, The broken shadow dances on the wall, I will permit my memory to recall The vision of you, by all my dreams attended. And then adieu,--farewell!--the dream is done. Yours is a face of which I can forget The colour and the features, every one, The words not ever, and the smiles not yet; But in your day this moment is the sun Upon a hill, after the sun has set." It's a pretty rich poem, with quite a few lines you wouldn't be surprised to find in an Elliott song, except he'd probably modernize the language a little bit, obviously! It could be just a coincidence, but I think there's nice similarities between the two. The one above is one of my favourite Edna St Vicent Millay poems, and "Going Nowhere" is one of my favourite Elliott songs! Peace |
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| Elliott Smith – The Enemy Is You Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I'd just like to add something. I mean the song has a pretty clear meaning that several people have pointed out, but one little part always confused me until I "got it" the other day. The lines: "You don't know what it means, coz you're a broken machine, You won't lisp it out" Could be about the word "sorry". The person in the song is like a broken machine that has lost most of its basic functions, and doesn't even know what sorry means anymore. I think he's talking about the word sorry, because of the line "you won't lisp it out". The main letter people lisp is the "s" sound, and the main "s" word relevant to the context of this song is "sorry". If this is true, it was pretty clever on Elliott's part! R.I.P. man. |
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| Elliott Smith – Memory Lane Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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As of April 2012, the lyrics on this site for this song are wrong in several places. It should read: This is the place you end up when you lose the chase Where you’re dragged against your will, from a basement on the hill, And all anybody knows, is you’re not like them, And they kick you the head, and send you back to bed Isolation pulled you past the tunnel to a bright World where you can make a place to stay, But everybody’s scared off this place, and staying away, Your little house on memory lane. The mayor’s name is Fear, his force withdrawals the beer From a mountain of cliché, that advances every day, The Doctor spoke a cloud, he rained out loud You’ll keep your doors and windows shut and swear you’ll Never show a soul again, but Isolation pushes you ‘til every muscle aches, Down the only road it ever takes, But everybody’s scared off this place, and staying away, Your little house on memory lane. If it’s your decision to be open about yourself, Be careful or else, be careful or else, I’m comfortable apart, it’s all written on my chart, And I take what’s given me, most co-operatively, I do what people say and lie in bed all day, Absolutely horrified, I hope you’re satisfied, Isolation pushes past self-hatred, guilt and shame, To a place where suffering is just a game, But everybody’s scared off this place, and staying away, Your little house on memory lane, Your little house on memory lane. I think these lyrics make much more sense, and can be heard quite clearly on the “From A Basement ..” version. The major changes are “Isolation pulled you past the tunnel to a bright world where you can make a place to stay”, which I think means there’s a tunnel to a happy life that he couldn’t travel through because of isolation, as if isolation literally pulled him past like a kidnapper — there’s a lot of personification in this song. The next change is “The mayor’s name is fear, his force withdrawals the beer from a mountain of cliché that advances every day”. Fear is personified as the Mayor, who’s one of several characters in this song (the Doctor, the “you” and the “everybody”). I guess Fear is the Mayor of Memory Lane, that a lot of memories are controlled by fear. Anyway “beer”, or getting drunk in the face of adversity, is usually a cliché, and it’s a part of this advancing cliché-mountain. But for the song’s protagonist, fear has so much force in his life that he HAS to get drunk to cope with things, the beer is withdrawn from the list of cliché’s on the mountain. Another important change is “I’m comfortable apart”, instead of “Uncomfortable apart”. It seems Elliott didn’t mind solitude. If you think of songs like “In The Lost And Found”, where he sings “I’m alone, that’s OK, I don’t mind, most of the time”, this change makes sense. The last major change is “Isolation pushes past self-hatred, guilt and shame to a place where suffering is just a game”. This line speaks for itself, and as a few comments have pointed out, is one of the most powerful and saddest lines of the entire song. Anyway I’ll try and get these changed for other users. (April 2012) RIP Elliott. |
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