Strung Out Again

Elliott Smith was a giant talent. His music combines gorgeous Beatles melodies with sensitive, highly intelligent Sylvia Plath/Leonard Cohen like lyrics. There are very few singer songwriters who even come close.

Without going into too much detail as to how I know this, I have some ideas regarding the meaning of this song. Elliott Smith's Achillies heel was his self-loathing. He was viciously self-critical and sadly, this loathing was based largely on his outer appearance. Despite having tremendous inner beauty which is clearly reflected in his music, Elliott just couldn't stand looking in the mirror - literally. This was likely one of the main reasons (but not the only one) behind his depression, recurring drug addiction and eventual suicide. He leaves behind his art, which along with the circumstances of his death, make him a singularily tragic figure.

In my opinion, Elliott Smith the only artist I would place above the Beatles.

The correct lyrics, I believe, are "I saw a rich fuck given charity," not "giving charity."

Oh man... Heroin is the death of me, destructive yet sooo seductive. Anyone who has been strung out can relate to this one. We know how it will end, yes indeed, strung out yet again. You can stop but you can't kick. Sooner or later it'll get you. But man it feels good...

It seems to me that he caught a glimps of himself in a moment of clarity......Was he the rich fuck at the charity? I wonder if he had lost sight of who he was and then was reminded of the impending doom......i dunoo I really enjoy everyones comments though. Either way Its hard to hypothesize about the grief he must have f felt....it's all so well disquised and personal....

i don't know where i'm going and i don't even wanna know

best song on the new album

it's a damn shame i won't ever get to buy another elliott smith album

i don't know there might be another album since they didn't put everything on this album that smith wanted on it...

this song is one of the most depressing on the albums, i just sit and wonder what happened to my life

this song is beautiful.. he always made the best most flowing melodies.. this one really reminds me of a dream... and he always talked about how a lot of his songs were based on dreams he had.. they werent supposed to mean anything specific... i see that a lot in this song.

fuck yeah

i love how all the replies to the other elliott songs on this website talk about how the songs are about drugs, yet there's only four replies to a song called "strung out again" hmmm....

This is a good song. The line "I saw a rich fuck giving charity" is pretty powerful. Well it struck me as being so. Its ashame he's gone. He made some damn fine music and I would've loved to see him in concert, but the real loss is the artistic one, and judging by what I hear on the radio we won't have someone else this good for a long time. Oh, and I think the song is about someone with low self esteem trying to get the courage to do something but being supressed by the things he sees out there so he falls into a stupor.... This comment is too long.