Crazy Fucker

Here's what I think:

He's saying that he is in a bar, drunk and itching for a fight and egging the crazy fucker on by talking shit at him [Bleeding fortified wine out of the injury that I call my mouth; Trying to insult some crazy fucker from the south].

He's waiting for the fight, wanting it, because it will bring "white noise" - it will drown out everything else, including his thoughts, memories and his own voice in his head: the "stupid screaming little half-assed middle-class boy".

He begs the arrow [the crazy fucker's fist maybe] to find him, to 'come pick him out'.

I think this is a story of him getting into a barfight with some one that has been messing with him all night (who's arrow comes to pick me out). And the kid that he's going to fight is a kid that thinks he has problems in his life, but really he's a middleclass kid that knows nothing about life. And the kid is telling stories about his life and Elliot says he's already full of those useless stories, because he's had problems too

And I don't think he ever says"erin" I think Arrow is repeated throughout the whole song

just a few corrections.

*HE'S a busted main line

*trying to insult some crazy fucker from the south whose arrow comes to pick me out

*i don’t wanna hear no stupid screaming

and instead of "erin," i think he's saying "arrow" or "error" but i'm not sure on that one.

sounds like he's saying arrow instead of erin, the first time, which makes sense because of "whose arrow came to pick me out" and then the last two times it sounds like he says "error"

theres a lot of mistakes in whomever posted these lyrics... anywho. Elliott was always ALWAYS getting into bar fights, thats why sometimes in some of his pictures he'd look a lil beat up. though I'm sure he got some punches in ;)

Its obvious to me that he's in some bar tryin to keep to himself and this "crazy fucker from the south" is being rowdy and making all kinds of racket.

so elliotts "tryin to insult some crazy fucker" then saying "who's arrow comes to pick me out" definitly saying that the kid wants to fight and hit him possibly the "waiting for a shot of white nose" or it could be a drink, not sure.

and about the "already full of useless stories" I'm not too sure about. it could be his usual self pity talking.

the lost and found is right because i have a live recording of this where elliott says that its 'another standard folk song'. all folk songs are stories so this must be a story about elliott at a bar.

Also, Autumn De Wilde, one of Elliott's close friends and writer of the book "Elliott Smith", her daughter is named Arrow, and Elliott absolutely loved that kid =]]...

some Elliott Smith songs likely make reference to drug use.

However, I think it's unlikely that "Crazy Fucker" / "Another Standard Folk Song" is one of those songs.

See, Elliott didn't actually try heroin until he moved to L.A. - either at the end of the Figure 8 tour or afterwards (late 2000 or early 2001). Although this song has seen wide circulation on an unofficial (leak) compilation known as "Basement II", actually most or all of the songs on that compilation were written, performed, and recorded much earlier, in the mid or late 90's.

For this song specifically, the "Basement II" version actually appears to be from a live performance. The only performance I know of that he played this song was at Umbra Penumbra, in Portland, in 1994- long before heroin use.

Now of course he was writing some songs with blatant reference to heroin long before he actually did it. So in theory it's possible that he performed a song "about heroin" in 1994. However from the lyrics I'd say the Charlie (stepfather) or barfight interpretations seem much more plausible.

I think all instances of "erin" are actually "arrow".

i dont beleive ive ever heard this song. What album is it off of?

this is a b-side from www.elliottsmithbsides.com and he also does a cover of BOb Dylan's Don't Think Twice, It's Alright. thought you might want to check that out being Bob DYlan Boy and all.