Angel in the Snow

Okay. Just because the man did drugs before, does -not- mean that every song has to be about drugs. Jesus Christ. It really pisses me off when people seem to jump to that conclusion in every song. You know, there -was- more to his life than drugs. His mind wasn't that much in the gutter, people! Give the man more credit.

this song is haunting yet peaceful. i can see how a drug addiction could relate to it, but to me its about being in love with someone who is perfect in your eyes, and they love you as well, but because of a personal setback you are afraid to go further or engage in a deeper relationship with that perfect person. in my mind the setback is a mental disorder such as depression, which would relate to the "Sometimes I feel like only a cold still life, only a frozen still life" lyric, because of the emptiness that is felt by people suffering from depression. also, in my experience, there is a natural tendency to distance yourself in relationships when suffering from depression, ("Better stop before it goes too far") because of fears that either you or the other person will be unable to handle the illness. this song does have a tone of hopeless, lost love that is beautiful yet so tragic.

"you make a perfect angel in the snow" is a comment on that while she (or whoever or whatever) maybe perfect in conceptual form (beautiful and original as a snowflake, fragile and delicate as an angel in the snow which eventually gets lost under more snow or melts) in reality is not perfect but a mold of that idea of perfection perhaps the person is lost in the idea of what they would like to be, trying so hard to fit some perfect mold just to belong somewhere;

The dynamic beauty of who you are being "crushed out" under all that "snow" whether that represents drugs or just other things we bury our true selves under squeezing out the childlike innocence which snow angels could also represent

yet he loves the person or whatever "don't you know that i love you" Don't be afraid you can be yourself with me; i don't want a perfect illusion; i like the idea of perfect girl with untapped potential,but I LOVE the sad, dirty, hurt, scared, cold mess of a girl that you've become. I want you i love you, that's what i take from that line.

i kept thinking of plato the more i read into the lines which makes sense because elliot smith was a philosophy major

world of ideas, you know, ideas are greater than the physical manifestations

a detached distant depiction of a man (cold still life) in love with a detached distant depiction of a beautiful woman (angel in the snow)

phewwww sorry so long.....

this song is so sad.

the return of the bridge/chorus is so powerful and it just makes me want to cry. makes me think of times where i've felt like i just belong to one person, but know that they don't belong to me.

I think this song is talking about either unrequited love or just love in general. On the unrequited side of things it sounds like he would say anything to compliment her. All snow angels look the same, so why would hers be any more special than his? He just wants to make her happy and maybe she will love him back. The still life reference could be how he feels so little compared to her, who he has idolized. "Better stop before it goes too far" could be him telling himself he's pushing it and will eventually drive her away.

It could just be referring to a guy talking about the girl he is in love with and he feels his main purpose for being put on this earth was to be with her.

it's very ambiguous in it's imagery. it could be drugs or love. Either one, the snow represents the purity of it all.

"i'd say you make a perfect angel in the snow all crushed out on the way you are better stop before it goes too far "

either he's in love with a girl who has a massive crush on him and he doesn't want to hurt her through his inadequacy/shortcomings or he's enamoured with drugs and the way they are all crushed up and he doesn't want to take it too far.

and

"sometimes i feel like only a cold still life that fell down here to lay beside you "

Inadequacie's/shortcomings comes into play again here. He doesn't know how to respond in the face of the situation, he freezes, be it through the fear of love and failure and what it could do to him or drugs and the consequences that they entail. Either way, he wishes to be a part of the purity of the freezing cold and its simple ways. He wishes he were a part of it so that he could simply lay down and become whatever it is that affects him so greatly. It's really all about something you love but you cant deal with, be it drugs or love. It could be either depending on your viewpoint.

A wonderful simple and sweet song.

thx Elliott

the first time i read this song,i just get this from it. you love someone,and they love you back,but you feel like a shadow under them almost. they have the best intentions,and they do not mean to make you feel like that,though.

I'm sorry, but this song is most definitely about cocaine. I understand people's concerns about how Elliott's songs "aren't ALWAYS about drugs," but what they fail to understand is the mind of an addict, which Elliott most definitely was. What I mean by this is that the brain of an addict is always thinking about drugs. An addict loves drugs the way that normally functioning people love other people; they have a real relationship with whatever their drug of choice might be. This is why so many people here are interpreting his song as a simple love song about his feelings for a "cold woman." That is the beauty of music: no matter how it was originally written or intended, it is the interpretations of the listeners which give it its power.

The song is about Elliott's, and thousands of others', love/hate relationship with the powdered drug: cocaine. The first verse is easily comprehended as being about the preparation for doing cocaine: "a perfect angel in the snow" refers to his girlfriend, his angel, which is in fact the "snow" itself. The second lines backs this up: "all crushed out the way you are." Cocaine is first crushed up into fine powder before being snorted or injected. "Better stop before it goes too far," only furthers the proof of what this song is truly about: cocaine overdosing comes as the result of "going too far," as the cocaine addict, once high on the drug, often has trouble controlling how much of the drug they will continue to use. Any cocaine addict will tell you that they will continue to use until either it's all gone, or until they decide to face the intense drawbacks of the depressing come down.

I believe that the rest of the song refers to the infatuation with cocaine. "Don't you know that I love you," is obvious: he loves the drug, but he wonders at times if it knows this, or if it even loves him back (which it doesn't). He loves this drug, he feels like he was a "cold still life that fell down here to lay beside" it. He's a cold human being, he cares about very little, he's often depressed (as is the primary indication of a coming down cocaine user), but despite these things, he still loves the drug, and he feels he was meant to be with it, no matter how cold and still its made him.

And that verse repeats itself, such is the way of the addict's love for cocaine.

what a beautiful song...

To me it's about the helplessness of a harmful relationship, be that a friend, a lover, a drug... it doesn't really matter. It describes all of them.

very true