Suicide Machine

It's absurd how Elliott's family chose to exclude this amazing song from Basement. It has nothing to do with suicide, yet they put songs like King's Crossing and Little One on the album?

I think the song pretty clearly is a sarcastic remark at peoples' (critics, fans, etc) expectations of him and his music. Everybody wants him to be this suicidal, sad guy all the time, and to write only sad songs. The fact that this song has a happy rhythm to it is the ultimate slap in the face to those people. Practically everybody that knew Elliott in person has said that he wasn't a sad or depressed person for most of the time; sure he had low points, everyone does, but he was a joker and a fun guy to be around.

I'll point out some specific lines to support my thoughts. "Baby got a place in the sun selling people shade." Despite the fact that he may be happy, he's selling sad songs to people. "Everything's alright / Except for how it seems." Everything is alright, but because of the songs he writes people view him as being in some sort of unending depression. It seems like he's not alright. "I don't think I'll ever know anyone besides you / But it's no surprise. / I know what you want, / I got what you need." He realizes he'll probably never be able to escape the sad sack assumption of his life. He knows people want that, they want the sad songs, and he knows he's perfectly capable of writing what people see as 'sad songs'--even though he never considered them as such.

I could look at more lines but I think it's pretty obvious.