| Elliott Smith – The White Lady Loves You More Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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"In popular medieval legend, a White Lady is fabled to appear by day as well as by night in a house in which a family member is soon to die." The use of the first and second person perspectives in the lyrics represents a 'conversation' between an addict & the addiction ('the need') that the addict knows (hopes even?) will soon kill them ("I'm looking at a hand full of broken plans/And I'm tired of playing it down/You just want her to do anything to you/There ain't nothing that you won't allow"). The addict tries resisting 'the need', but always fails ("Keep your things in a place meant to hide/But I know they're there somewhere/And I know that's where you'll go tonight/I'll be thrown over just like before"). ['Thrown over' = the addict's willpower to resist the addiction will be 'overthrown' "just like (all the other times) before".] The addict's existence is reduced to feeding 'the need' ("Need a metal man just to pick up your feet/It's a long time since you cared enough for me to even be discrete/I know what this metal is for"). [The addict has abandoned hope of ever returning to 'normal': "It's a long time since (the addict) cared enough (about how others see them) for me (the addiction) to even be discrete (about the ravages it continues to inflict on the addict's body & self-esteem)". The addict accepts that their addiction will kill them: "I know what this metal is for (it's my doom)".] The addict's dreams of release from addiction are so vivid, but borne of such profound existential pain, that visions of her ("She's waiting") can't be recalled, they can only be sensed ("You wake up in the middle of the night/From a dream you won't remember flashing on like a cop's light/You say she's waiting, and I know what for"). And the refrain, "The white lady loves you more"? She ("The white lady") loves you more than the addiction, because she loves you enough to one day release you from it when she, finally, comes for you; without her, the addiction will never let you go. This song is about waiting for, even welcoming, one's impending death (as a release from addiction-related suffering). Only an addict could have written such an agonisingly perfect song about the prison of addiction. And only another addict can truly understand its lyrics. |
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