But success it never comes
And I'm the only one who laughs
At your jokes when they are so bad
And your jokes are always bad
But they're not as bad as this
We'll be waiting, waiting where
Everything's ending here
It defends an empty dock you cast away
And rain upon the forehead
Where the mist's for hire if it's just too clear
Let's spend our last quarter stance randomly
Go down to the outlet once again
Crotch mavens and one-night plays
Are they the only ones who laugh?
At the jokes when they are so bad
And the jokes they're always bad
But they're not as bad as this
We'll be waiting, waiting where
Everything's ending here
They sold away sold have gone away to this
And a run-on piece of mountain
Trembles, shivers, runs down the freeway
I guess she spent her last quarter randomly
We guess, a guess is the best I'll do
Very clever lyrics. The lyrics themselves hint at the inherent ambiguity in interpreting speech and action. The final line:
"We guess a guess is the best I'll do, I'll do" is a philosophical statement by the band regarding the inherent difficult of declaring absolute truths. So to say with certainty what the song is about is a risky thing to do! Nevertheless HERE goes:
"I was dressed for success" is about the difference between appearance and reality. For example you may be wearing an expensive suit and look like you are ready to bestride the world like a colossus, but that's just not enough. You need to have some substance. Or perhaps the line refers to dressing up for a Sunday church service - in order to receive something that you think you deserve (ie. absolution and forgiveness). I think the latter is more likely as the chorus says "come join us in our prayer...we'll be waiting waiting there...everything's ending here".
This brings us to the chorus and the heart of the song - which is religion and death and reflecting on the meaning of life as death approaches. I'll come to this in detail in a future post.
haha, yep
id run S&E parallel with doolittle and surfer rosa actually
This song is amazing, best pavement song. This was my official going away to college song.
...everything's ending here.......
Here is the defining song of the 90's. It describes the futility of all the gen xers..."I was dressed for success but success it never comes". fucking righteous.
And Pavement OWNS, OWNS the Pixies.
shit, i was looking for songmeanings.net but i guess i was somehow redirected to pretentious-douchebags-compare-bands-that-sound-nothing-alike.net man i hate it when that happens.
Everclear is everything indie music isnt. How many songs can you write with the same three chords about how bad your divorcing parents/father were to you? Or your struggle with drugs?
And shut up about the Pixies already, Jesus there are other great bands! If Pavement apes anyone its the Fall, but that doesnt take away that Pavement is definitely the greatest indie band of all time, hands down.
"I was dressed for success But success it never comes And I'm the only one that laughs At your jokes when they are so bad And your jokes are always bad..."
Sums up everyone's life? (or at least some point in everyone's life)
This song sounds very nostalgic and sort reflective/wistful to me without being schmaltzy, which is always admirable. My favourite song off of Slanted and Enchanted, and perhaps my favourite Pavement song in general (though they have somewhere around 487984753 great songs).
the Peel Session 1 version that closes out the first cd on the re-release starts "i was dressed for suc.... cess/but success it never comes/and i'm the only one who laughs/at the jokes when they are so bad/and the jokes are always bad/but they're not as bad as this"
same lyrics, but the space in "success" kind of makes it sound like the stanza is an intentionally bad pun on giving head (success it never comes (cums). he then admits to that joke being bad. probably nothing to do with the intention, but i think sm is clever enough to realize that, even if it wasn't what he was doing.
yeah actually its called DOOlittle.
I don't know what it's about, but it gives off this kind of warm yet cold feeling, like, everything is wrong, but okay. I get the feeling he is singing about some girl who is alone, and tells bad jokes.... Okay, well all I know is that I really like it and play it a lot because it's pretty damn simple and I like making up other lyrics... but I always keep that crotch mavens and one-night plays line. It always makes me feel like happy to be where i am..... the drug-trip ends now...