Sparklehorse – It's A Wonderful Life Lyrics | 9 years ago |
@[unsteady:1888] nearly 10 years later a guy from the south is here to translate.. "thyonder" means "there yonder" or "right there".... "i'm the only one who can ride that horse right there." |
Elliott Smith – A Fond Farewell Lyrics | 11 years ago |
well done. i think this is a great interpretation of this song. i had always thought it was something similar but you made me think about a few lyrics in a new way. Pitch burning on a shining sheet The only maker that you'd want to meet The dying man in a living room Who's shadow paces the floor i think "pitch burning on a shining sheet" is a reference to maybe smoking tar heroin on foil and that it is the only thing he can imagine making him more comfortable while in a period of trying to kick addiction. "the dying man in a living room who's shadow paces the floor" just reminds me of the countless days and nights of withdrawal where psychology i was in such a bad place it made the actual physical withdrawals seem trivial. it would drive me to the brink. waiting on someone to call, cursing that someone didn't come through, etc. typical addictive behavior. anyway, i enjoyed your interpretation. take care of yourself. |
Elliott Smith – Angeles Lyrics | 11 years ago |
this song always reminds me of Al Pacino in The Devil's Advocate. or really just any story about making a deal with the devil. maybe Elliott considered relocating to LA to further his career as that sort of deal? certainly didn't fall in line with his life in Portland or even New York. it's as if he placed himself in the story of a guy making a deal with the devil, knowing how all those stories ended, but going through with it anyway because after all he is human and wants to be successful (in some way.) |
Elliott Smith – Clementine Lyrics | 11 years ago |
what i get from this song is just random thoughts about a girl while drinking alone at a bar. maybe something he just scribbled down on a bar napkin. regardless, i love the imagery he uses in this song. "the street's wet you can tell by the sound of the cars." it's just so incredible in its simplicity and allows the listener to enter a similar state of mind as when he may have written the song. awesome. |
Elliott Smith – Alameda Lyrics | 12 years ago |
i absolutely hate to compare all of elliott smith's songs to addiction BUT here i go.. i can't help but see the parallels between this song and my own personal struggles with heroin addiction. "you walk down alameda shuffling your deck of trick cards over everyone" reminds me of when i first started seriously using and believed i fooled everyone. that nobody knew the truth. my own personal deck of trick cards was the facade of a life i lived. i went to work every day, paid my bills, was in a relationship. there was no sign that anything was wrong beneath the surface. i thought i had it figured out and actually got a kick out of knowing that i could shoot dope in the bathroom at work and walk into my boss's office 10 minutes later. "face down, bow to the champion." the next phase of my addiction was, as with almost every addict, marked by increase use and its subsequent consequences. i started neglecting friends, family. still went to work but only as a means to support my addiction. "you walk down alameda looking at the cracks in the sidewalk thinking about your friends how you maintain all them in a constant state of suspense" my friends realized something was up and the history of our group of friends shows that those who go down the road of addiction typically end up either dead or in jail. what's it going to be? also i started relying on people around me more and more all as crutches to support my addiction. there are a few people i can think of who i'm sure absolutely dreaded my phone calls because they knew it wasn't just me calling to see how they were. not to mention the potential for phone calls from others saying i ended up dead like so many others have. next was full blown addiction with little care for anything else. no care, i should say. i had been self aware for years at this point but only recently decided i really didn't care. addiction kept me arrested to the point that i watched everything i once loved and held dear to me crumble around me and the most fucked up part is that I DID NOT CARE. "walk down alameda brushing off the nightmare you wish would plague me when i'm awake." lost my job? oh well i still have a paycheck coming. lost my girl? good even less reason to have any restraint. no place to live? i always liked shooting dope in the park anyway. all these things that should have deterred me or at least kept me awake at night were complete non-issues. "and now you see your first mistake was thinking you could relate." this line rings so true to me. the whole self-pity mixed with a fucked up weird self-righteousness. you will never understand where i am coming from, why even bother trying? just leave me to my medicine. anyway this is just what i get out of the song. i'm not claiming i know exactly where he was going, it's just an interpretation. regardless this song helped me through some extremely difficult times in my life. i've only been clean of heroin for 2 months but anyone who has been through the throws of any addiction can attest to how hard even one day is and i attribute a lot of what i have accomplished to this man. from the jaws of addiction to the horrors of withdrawal he helped me deal with my emotions (or lack there of during the worst parts of addiction) every step of the way. if any of you are having trouble with addiction and need somebody, even a random person from songmeanings.net, to talk to feel free to email me at asouthern729@gmail.com and i'll try to give you any comfort i can. just know you aren't alone. love, andrew |
Elliott Smith – Southern Belle Lyrics | 12 years ago |
this is one of my favorite elliott smith songs which is kind of unusual since, to me, it's one of his more "straight forward" works in the sense that the lyrics seem to be exactly what he wanted to get across to the listener. in most of his other songs he leaves a lot up to the listener to form their own vision of what the song means or use his songs as vehicles for expressing various feelings. i honestly put off signing up for an account on this site for years because every song of his i opened the first comment was always "this song is clearly about heroin." don't get me wrong, if you want to envision every song by elliott as an expression of his love/hate relationship with drugs, knock yourself out, but you are going to seriously miss the boat on his creative genius. anyways, i think elliott is more direct with the lyrics in this song because it's one of the few songs of his that is fed directly off of hate and contempt. he mentions in interviews i've read of how he had a lot of terrible experiences as a child in dallas. "i don't want to walk around i don't even want to breath i live in a southern town where all you can do is grit your teeth" to me is an illustration of suffering from physical abuse as a child and not having anywhere to go or anyone to speak to. he was afraid to do anything around his step-father as a child, scared to be seen or even breath the wrong way out of fear of his step-father's reaction. this is texas, where i also grew up, during a time when getting your ass kicked by your dad was just a part of life, deal with it. grit your teeth. it will make a man out of you. obviously it was taken entirely too far by many parents. |
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