A Fond Farewell

Here's the literal meaning of the first lines "The Lite Brite's now black and white, cause you took apart a picture that wasn't right"

The Lite Brite, for those too young to know about it, was a creative toy that consisted of a box fronted by a panel of holes in a honeycomb pattern and containing a lightbulb. You put a black paper template in the frame, which mad marked on it the pattern that showed how to insert translucent pegs of various colors. As you inserted a peg into the panel it would break through the paper and let the light come through, colored whatever color the peg was. In this way you could create a picture where each peg was like a pixel. It was a beautiful contraption. I remember the jingle in the commercials went like this "Lite Brite making things with light, out-of-sight making things with Lite Brite"

After you were done (or if you gave up because the picture "wasn't right") you could simply take the pegs out, leaving a black paper with white light shining through the empty holes. This is why the Lite Brite "is now black and white"

My interpretation is that killing oneself is compared to the simple action of deconstructing a displeasing picture. The metaphor seems to point to the idea of another chance in a next life, since you could always put a new fresh template paper into the frame and start on a new picture.

Anyway, as a contemporary of Elliott's who also was entranced by this beautiful toy, I wanted to share this bit in hopes of enriching other's enjoyment of this amazing songwriter. Requiescat in pace, Elliott.