Lyric discussion by pretorben 

Cover art for Alameda lyrics by Elliott Smith

It's Elliott singing to himself. It's not about drama queens or ex-girlfriends, it's about Elliott's inability to be closer to people.

@pretorben Bingo - you got it. This song is about Elliott. He flirts with relationships and realizes it is only him who is responsible for his actions. He had a lot of friends but could like or accept himself. There is an old saying you have to like yourself first before you like others. Elliott could never get there and resorted to suicide.

@pretorben I very rarely comment, but it's not about Elliott. This is one of the few time's I think that Elliott is actually speaking about someone else when he says "you". The reason is because you can see he changes person a couple times in the song.. he literally says "the nightmares YOU wish could plague ME". He also says "I don't pay any attention" when talking about "she loved you for a minute or two". I think this is actually about a girl who doesn't seem to know what she wants, maybe hiding her real emotions to protect herself....