| Elliott Smith – Whatever (Folk Song in C) Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This is a beautiful song and I think many people have a good idea of it's meaning but I think there's more to it than what's been said. This song is about two addicts, the speaker (presumably Elliott) and his friend, in this case the drug is alcohol. The friend has been sober for some time while the speaker has continued using and the friend basically hit up his old drinking buddy (Elliott) to go get drunk, and the speaker is asking why they're bothering to come back to this stuff. "They come here alone and they leave in twos Except for you and me who just came to use" The first verse tells us they're in a bar, but while a lot of people come to the bar to get laid, they're just there to drink. "Why you tell me stuff that's so plainly untrue If you'll be straight with me, I'll be straighter with you" When addicts relapse they tend to sling a load of bullshit about how it's just one time, or how they just needed it tonight for whatever reason. And as a fellow addict who's currently using you're kind of obliged to not call them out on it because who are you to preach to them? The speaker here is saying don't bother lying to me I know you're drinking because you're an addict, be honest with me so I can be honest with you and not pretend to go along with your bullshit reasons. "I haven't wanted to do anything for a long time" (correct lyrics btw) When you're an addict you tend to not care for anything that doesn't involve your drug, aka anything real in life. "But whatever you got right now will probably suit me fine" In this case "whatever you got" is what the friend has been doing while sober, essentially living a real life and not wallowing in drug-induced despair all day every day. The speaker is saying that whatever the friend has got outside of drinking seems much better than the life the speaker is currently living, and he would take it over being a drunk all day every day. This is the most important concept of the song in my opinion, it's what the speaker truly yearns for and it's what he named the song after. "If you're all done like you said you'd be What are you doing hanging out with me" Self-explanatory. |
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