A city is used as a metaphor in several Elliott Smith songs, including the Basement versions of "A Passing Feeling" and "Strung Out Again". In the former, some say the city is getting clean in terms of drug use, and destroying the city is using again ("everything is gone but the echo of the burst of a shell... In the city I built up and blew to hell"). In "Strung Out Again" Elliott writes of a "city of canals" that possibly refers to his own body.
But then again in the song "Alphabet Town", which still refers to drugs, it doesn't seem quite as direct a metaphor for one's addictions or oneself.
I don't have a definite answer for what the song means, but perhaps these other songs have some clues. "Alphabet Town" was written before "Fear City", while the other two songs were written later.
A city is used as a metaphor in several Elliott Smith songs, including the Basement versions of "A Passing Feeling" and "Strung Out Again". In the former, some say the city is getting clean in terms of drug use, and destroying the city is using again ("everything is gone but the echo of the burst of a shell... In the city I built up and blew to hell"). In "Strung Out Again" Elliott writes of a "city of canals" that possibly refers to his own body.
But then again in the song "Alphabet Town", which still refers to drugs, it doesn't seem quite as direct a metaphor for one's addictions or oneself.
I don't have a definite answer for what the song means, but perhaps these other songs have some clues. "Alphabet Town" was written before "Fear City", while the other two songs were written later.