Stained Glass Eyes

so underappreciated, this song is fantastic and rather self-explanatory. Man I miss Elliott.

but they can't be people not if I'm one if i have to be like them i'd rather be no one

too good. really.

I can hear so much of John Lennon in ES's songs. This one is no exception. It's recently become one of my favorites. I don't know if there's any other versions, but the one I have is very stripped down, which I think fits the song perfectly. I used to listen to ES all the time when he was alive, and now that he's gone it's almost too painful. When I was feeling my most sad and low I would listen to him and he would absorb all of my pain. I lost a close friend when he died, and a large part of my life, and I didn't not know him personally at all, that's a powerful artist(person).

you should crack a smile once in a while, it makes you pretty.

i love that line. and the whole song is just beautiful this is one of my favorie elliott songs. he was so amazing.

Brilliant. I don't have much to say about this one, but I love it so much. What lyrics. Puts that whole feeling into a little phrase: "stained glass eyes."

Beautiful song, interesting the line 'You should crack a smile Once in a while, it makes you pretty', the word pretty is used in I think the same context in the basement song Pretty (Ugly Before), pretty -looking all good on the outside, having it all together rather than the standard pretty girl meaning of pretty

one of Elliott's most beautiful.

i highly agree!

he was so brilliant.

I could be wrong about this but it seems like this could be about working on "Miss Misery" and songs for the Goodwill Hunting soundtrack. The people drinking their lemonade and passing "you" by would be producers or other people who live high up on the film-making hierarchy. Often the role of a film composer is to augment the meaning of the film-maker, not to interpret the film in your own way (depending on the film-maker). So, he found that he had to "describe the moment" of the film.
Not being able to make the scene might refer to the way that Elliott saw himself. He always said he didn't see himself being "up there." Also, during the making of this film, Elliott was in company with Danny Elfman (one of the biggest film composers today). Looking at Elfman, he probably felt a bit intimidated. I imagine that the "scene" could be the film industry, or simply fame? Either/Or. :)

Here's where my own interpretation comes in. When I read the "They can't be people" verse, I read people as "artists." I take this verse to mean that all of the producers and various people who had an indirect input in the film were budding in on his work more than he liked. Or at least that they were not artists. After all if they ARE artists, then an "artist" is not what he wanted to be. Staring blankly out the window is better than what they are doing. Also, stained glass eyes has the obvious implications of being glazed over, but beautifully. I think that staring out a window through stained glass eyes implies that the beautiful ideas would remain inside his mind, rather than being released through his art.

What do you all think?