Going Nowhere

situational lyrics here are simply brilliant: a 15-minute smoke and a silent wave, exaggerated and sadly familiar from across the party or room or street. I see people noise not allowing a voice greeting. I see a slightly unsurprising run-in with a recently estranged love interest. Someone with whom things were going nowhere. The writer's recount of memories involving this person is instantaneous the moment he sees her, and from his dark unnoticed nook across the crowded party, he is again painted with misfortune and thoughtful disappointment (echoes drowning out conversations); in a place of which he is not unfamiliar. I feel that bitterness is not as prominent here as in other elliott songs, more like a regretful sort of harsh lament came at me from the first time i heard this song in lines like "there's no changing my mind" and "it's dead and gone as a matter of fact/ maybe for the best"

im in love with elliott smith

this song helped me get over a girl. especially the lines: "It's dead and gone, matter of fact Maybe for the best"

the lines You said some things you can't take back Honestly I guess always had a double meaning to me. they could mean like a person said some things that they couldn't take back, or that the person was saying that some things you can't take back, like time or love

I've been wondering if Elliott was a fan of Edna St. Vincent Millay. She was a popular American poet, who died tragically in 1950. There are a few parallels between her life and Elliott's. She was often suicidal, was an opium addict for some time, and wrote many very beautiful poems with extremely dark content and themes. I've noticed that there could be a reference to her in "Twilight", when he says "Because your candle burns too bright," which is like one of Millay's most famous poems,

"My candle burns at both ends It will not last the night; But ah, my foes and oh, my friends - It gives a lovely light."

Also in this song the line "The time it took a cigarette to burn" reminds me of this one by Millay:

"Only until this cigarette is ended, A little moment at the end of all, While on the floor the quiet ashes fall, And in the firelight to a lance extended, Bizarrely with the jazzing music blended, The broken shadow dances on the wall, I will permit my memory to recall The vision of you, by all my dreams attended. And then adieu,--farewell!--the dream is done. Yours is a face of which I can forget The colour and the features, every one, The words not ever, and the smiles not yet; But in your day this moment is the sun Upon a hill, after the sun has set."

It's a pretty rich poem, with quite a few lines you wouldn't be surprised to find in an Elliott song, except he'd probably modernize the language a little bit, obviously! It could be just a coincidence, but I think there's nice similarities between the two. The one above is one of my favourite Edna St Vicent Millay poems, and "Going Nowhere" is one of my favourite Elliott songs! Peace

This song is about a couple splitting up and him feeling everything is falling apart. Sad but beautiful song.

I find this song to be absolutely beautiful. It breaks my heart listening to it, but it's brilliant.

It's beautiful.

It's beautiful.

well said, Last Hour.

this song gives me chills