This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Talking to Mary, you know you don't have to shout
She can hear what you're thinking like you're saying it right out loud
She sees behind that dirty look
It was her that followed down every every stupid turn you took
One day she'll go, I told you so
One day she'll go, I told you so
Saw the one big problem you keep under your hat
And its pretty unlikely that anyone else is cool with that
You got a bus fare in your pocket and more money down in your sock
But I can't tell you how to find her if you won't listen to her talk
One day she'll go, I told you so
One day she'll go, I told you so
Its no problem, I'll just keep quiet if its easier for you
To make believe in that I don't love you as much as I do
One day she'll go, I told you so
One day she'll go, I told you so
I told you so, I told you so
She can hear what you're thinking like you're saying it right out loud
She sees behind that dirty look
It was her that followed down every every stupid turn you took
One day she'll go, I told you so
One day she'll go, I told you so
Saw the one big problem you keep under your hat
And its pretty unlikely that anyone else is cool with that
You got a bus fare in your pocket and more money down in your sock
But I can't tell you how to find her if you won't listen to her talk
One day she'll go, I told you so
One day she'll go, I told you so
Its no problem, I'll just keep quiet if its easier for you
To make believe in that I don't love you as much as I do
One day she'll go, I told you so
One day she'll go, I told you so
I told you so, I told you so
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i think it's about Mother Mary. in the first stanza sounds like a prayer to me and second stanza how she always lookin' after you but she's invisble so she can't contact you and eventually she'll give up on you and he confesses that he doesnt have much faith in mother mary so he'll just take care of his problem on his own. oh yeah he also talks about how everyone has a secret or two that no one wishes to let anyone know or to tell anyone
I completely agree about Mother Mary and the prayer, I was gonna post this idea but then read your and I couln't have put it better.
Don't get me wrong, i read the lyrics, and i love this song. To me the Mother Mary idea seems to be very likely in this song until the reference of money in her sock, to me that just sounds like a reference to prostitution, and i don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like Mother Mary to me.
On top of my last comment, Elliott was a Methodist and Methodist don't worship Mary
Elliott smith was a raised a methodist but he ended up giving up that faith. He later went on experimenting on other religions (catholic was one of them.)<br /> It is very possible that this song was written during that phase of his life. <br /> As for the lyric that talks about money down the sock he's talking in third person because the lyric goes pure<br /> <br /> "you got bus fare in your pocket, more money down in your sock<br /> But she can't tell you how to contact her if you won't listen to her talk"<br /> <br /> If he wasn't talking in third person, he would have used "you" instead of "she" therefore eliminating the possible prostitution reference. Yes the lyrics are similar to "pretty mary k" but elliott smith didn't like writing the same song over again.
he also uses that line in the Either/Or Sessions version of "Pretty Mary K." Since the latter song sounds like it's about a prostitute, I'll venture to say that this one is also. But, not that Mary is the prostitute, but the "you" in the song.
Beautiful and haunting song.
I do t really know if Elliott was a religious guy, and probably not. But I guess in this song he is playing graetly with the idea of "Morher Mary" at least the Chrustian figure of it and how she has omniscient powers to look after someone... pretty cool song though.
i'm pretty sure this is about mary lou lord
he likes the idea of money in socks ey? i like this song
lyric correction*-it isn't `but i can't tell you how to find her if you won't listen to her talk'
it's
but she can't tell you how to contact her if you won't listen to her talk
&
to make believe inthen that i dont love you...
just minor things. but i love this song. and jbt1500, to put the connection out there to Pretty Mary K, ahh. i love how he connects songs and 'characters' and such. elliott is indescribable....
this sounds like its about his mom and charlie. the song 'pretty mary k' was supposedly about his mother, so maybe he continued to use the name mary if he talked about her.
one of his greatest
I dunno, I think it could be about smoking pot (ie. Mary Jane). Particularly, "She sees behind that dirty look/It was her that followed down every stupid turn you took."
@Badja Close! It's about heroin. Mary is one of the many (feels like there are TOO many) names for the stuff.
For some reason, it reminds me of the Nick Drake song, The Thoughts Of Mary Jane - "Who can know the thoughts of Mary Jane / Why she flies or goes out in the rain/ Where she's been and who she's seen in her journey to the stars."