11 Meanings
Add Yours
Share
Q&A

Small Lyrics

If I remember the night that we met
Tasted a wine that I'll never forget
Opened the doorway and saw through the light
Motions of movement and I felt delight

She spoke of freedom, "A way in," she said
"A wisdom that took me away from the bed"
Spoke of the glory that we had become
I felt forgiven in all I've become

Small, tasteless, and flawed
Hoping to see, blinded like me
You tried to understand, but you're just a man
Open to scorn just like me

Failure again
Tried to pretend
Who you were then
Who you are now

Hating the lord
Hating the lord
Hating the lord
Hating the lord

Small, tasteless, and flawed
Hoping to see, blinded like me
You tried to understand, but you're just a man
Open to scorn just like me

Failure again
Tried to pretend
Who you were then
Who you are now

Hating the lord
Hating the lord
Hating the lord
Hating the lord
Song Info
Submitted by
anarchitect On Mar 15, 2008
Questions and Answers

Ask specific questions and get answers to unlock more indepth meanings & facts.

11 Meanings

Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.

Cover art for Small lyrics by Portishead

I believe the correct line is: small, tasteless and flawed.

Really a beautiful song, one of my favorites!

Cover art for Small lyrics by Portishead

Perhaps this is a song about beds: a relationship that starts in one, can only survive in one, and falls apart outside of one... is not much of a relationship at all.

Cover art for Small lyrics by Portishead

I could have SWORN she was saying "but you're just a man - hoping to score - just like me"

That's what I thought it was. I hope it is.

Not Valid

@bbb19 I've always heard, 'Open to scorn just like me.', though this is only my opinion.

Cover art for Small lyrics by Portishead

beautful and impeccably made song.

(by the way... it REALLY does sound like she says "hoping to score")

Cover art for Small lyrics by Portishead

Perhaps it is a discussion of the difference between men and women in relationships. It presents women to be more gravitated to the emotion side of interaction, while males gravitate more to the physical

Cover art for Small lyrics by Portishead

I like best the bit at the end, where the guitar - to me - sounds like from a Quentin-Tarantino-Movie. It's quite surf-sound-like, isn't it? Certainly not the strongest song on this great album but still has it's merits.

Cover art for Small lyrics by Portishead

And the mid-section of the song really reminds me of Deep Purple. :D

Cover art for Small lyrics by Portishead

One of the best songs ever, in my opinion.

Also, I think it's "Frail you are again" not "Failure again"

Cover art for Small lyrics by Portishead

the song is about lesbianism i think. She (the other partner) spok of "freedom in a way" from the traditional male-female relationship and that sh is "hating the lord," and saying that he is "just a man, open to scorn (and judgement)," and wouldn't understand what it's like to be a gay woman?

the line "A wisdom that took me away from the bed" perhaps indicates that she's bitten the "second apple" and again taken hr away from the traditional bed/relationship?

but again i could be totally off base

My Interpretation
Cover art for Small lyrics by Portishead

Hi everyone. For me, another song where God and Death are involved (and also accepting that God and Death are one figure in the end).

It started the night a human being and Death met. This human being is telling the story. I guess this human being was trying to kill him/herself and then the Death appears speaking about 'Freedom', freedom you obtain after you die, and also wisdom. After all, human beings are having a kind of 'glory' in evolution.

But then again, God's joke. Human beings thinks they are the pick of the piramid, even that they were created in his/her own image and likeness. So stupid, we are in fact small, tasteless and flawed.

We try to understand, but we are only men, trying to be more than we are.

And as we can't be like God, we hate him/her. We waste our lifes 'hating the Lord'. That's human being.

My Interpretation