Can someone explain how to change the lyrics on this site?
The lyric is CLEARLY "Don't be cross, this sick I want"
not "Don't be cross, it's sick what I want"
You may think it makes more sense as "it's sick what I want"
but it isn't the job of the people on this site to decide what makes more sense,
it's to record the actual lyrics and make interpretations based off of them.
If you're using the wrong lyrics, you're going to get wrong interpretations.
Listen to the song, you'll easily be able to tell it's "This sick I want"
The lyric "This sick I want" is an implies "This sickness is what I want"
and has the same basic meaning as Between the Bars.
Both of these songs are about a surrender to alcohol.
How did you come to the conclusion that Between the Bars is about alcohol? You've watered down a perceptive, rich story to an empty, pitiful, far less interesting one. It is bad to spread wrong with an angry tone. This is the internet!
How did you come to the conclusion that Between the Bars is about alcohol? You've watered down a perceptive, rich story to an empty, pitiful, far less interesting one. It is bad to spread wrong with an angry tone. This is the internet!
As for the lyrics to this song, see my reply to SweetAddy627 above. The lyric booklet says one thing, the song says another. Ergo, both are correct.
As for the lyrics to this song, see my reply to SweetAddy627 above. The lyric booklet says one thing, the song says another. Ergo, both are correct.
Umm... firstly it's an interpretation so it can't be wrong. Secondly, there are tons of reasons that song is about alcohol... I actually wrote a paper on it for one of my English classes. I could e-mail it to you sometime or if you're interested I could just explain it on here. What interpretation did you draw from it?
Umm... firstly it's an interpretation so it can't be wrong. Secondly, there are tons of reasons that song is about alcohol... I actually wrote a paper on it for one of my English classes. I could e-mail it to you sometime or if you're interested I could just explain it on here. What interpretation did you draw from it?
And it doesn't matter what the lyric booklet says, what he sings in the song and in every live performance of it is "this sick I want" so that's how it should be recorded.
And it doesn't matter what the lyric booklet says, what he sings in the song and in every live performance of it is "this sick I want" so that's how it should be recorded.
Yeah, 'wrong' was a bit inflammatory, fighting fire with fire and all that, apologies... Well to me, Between the Bars is about control in relationships (the most recurrent theme in his music? Certainly a key element), and is dominated by the evil male figure who narrates. This character keeps coming up in Elliott Smith's music - the last verse of Angeles, for example - making impossible promises of curing depression, fulfilling lofty ambitions and fixing inherent personal flaws. (Are you suggesting that the song is narrated by the alcoholic in Smith, and addresses himself?)
Yeah, 'wrong' was a bit inflammatory, fighting fire with fire and all that, apologies... Well to me, Between the Bars is about control in relationships (the most recurrent theme in his music? Certainly a key element), and is dominated by the evil male figure who narrates. This character keeps coming up in Elliott Smith's music - the last verse of Angeles, for example - making impossible promises of curing depression, fulfilling lofty ambitions and fixing inherent personal flaws. (Are you suggesting that the song is narrated by the alcoholic in Smith, and addresses himself?)
In Between the Bars, the character...
In Between the Bars, the character addressed by the narrator shows signs of all these things - for example, one personal flaw would be lack of trust, demonstrated in the line '... with your hands in the air/Waiting to finally be caught' - and as well as making as if he can fix these problems, the narrator tries to cage this character in their own self-doubt. He puts them down ('the things you could do - you won't, but you might', 'the potential you'll be that you'll never see') and controls them ('Drink up with me now' said as a command, 'Do as I say' etc.). In the chorus we get that sly promise of salvation that makes the narrator so repulsive: 'They twist, shove and won't bend to your will - I'll keep them still'.
Not much more I want to say about that, but the last verse I think emphasises everything I suggested above:
'Drink up one more time
And I'll make you mine
Keep you apart
Deep in my heart
Separate from the rest
Where I like you the best (selfish)
And keep the things you forgot'
Awful last line. Brilliant, shocks the listener into getting the point, but y'know, you've got to be pretty awful to willfully perpetuate someone's innermost fears. Great song, anyway. I'll post this under Between the Bars too, even if I have been labouring what you might consider an obvious point.
As far as your last comment goes, regardless of how you think it should be written, it's a bit unfair to lay into someone for recording the 'wrong' lyrics, when these are in fact the way the lyrics were recorded by the artist, in the booklet for the album in which they appeared. You might as well be arguing with Elliott Smith himself.
Can someone explain how to change the lyrics on this site? The lyric is CLEARLY "Don't be cross, this sick I want" not "Don't be cross, it's sick what I want"
You may think it makes more sense as "it's sick what I want" but it isn't the job of the people on this site to decide what makes more sense, it's to record the actual lyrics and make interpretations based off of them.
If you're using the wrong lyrics, you're going to get wrong interpretations. Listen to the song, you'll easily be able to tell it's "This sick I want" The lyric "This sick I want" is an implies "This sickness is what I want" and has the same basic meaning as Between the Bars. Both of these songs are about a surrender to alcohol.
Hey
Hey
How did you come to the conclusion that Between the Bars is about alcohol? You've watered down a perceptive, rich story to an empty, pitiful, far less interesting one. It is bad to spread wrong with an angry tone. This is the internet!
How did you come to the conclusion that Between the Bars is about alcohol? You've watered down a perceptive, rich story to an empty, pitiful, far less interesting one. It is bad to spread wrong with an angry tone. This is the internet!
As for the lyrics to this song, see my reply to SweetAddy627 above. The lyric booklet says one thing, the song says another. Ergo, both are correct.
As for the lyrics to this song, see my reply to SweetAddy627 above. The lyric booklet says one thing, the song says another. Ergo, both are correct.
Umm... firstly it's an interpretation so it can't be wrong. Secondly, there are tons of reasons that song is about alcohol... I actually wrote a paper on it for one of my English classes. I could e-mail it to you sometime or if you're interested I could just explain it on here. What interpretation did you draw from it?
Umm... firstly it's an interpretation so it can't be wrong. Secondly, there are tons of reasons that song is about alcohol... I actually wrote a paper on it for one of my English classes. I could e-mail it to you sometime or if you're interested I could just explain it on here. What interpretation did you draw from it?
And it doesn't matter what the lyric booklet says, what he sings in the song and in every live performance of it is "this sick I want" so that's how it should be recorded.
And it doesn't matter what the lyric booklet says, what he sings in the song and in every live performance of it is "this sick I want" so that's how it should be recorded.
Yeah, 'wrong' was a bit inflammatory, fighting fire with fire and all that, apologies... Well to me, Between the Bars is about control in relationships (the most recurrent theme in his music? Certainly a key element), and is dominated by the evil male figure who narrates. This character keeps coming up in Elliott Smith's music - the last verse of Angeles, for example - making impossible promises of curing depression, fulfilling lofty ambitions and fixing inherent personal flaws. (Are you suggesting that the song is narrated by the alcoholic in Smith, and addresses himself?)
Yeah, 'wrong' was a bit inflammatory, fighting fire with fire and all that, apologies... Well to me, Between the Bars is about control in relationships (the most recurrent theme in his music? Certainly a key element), and is dominated by the evil male figure who narrates. This character keeps coming up in Elliott Smith's music - the last verse of Angeles, for example - making impossible promises of curing depression, fulfilling lofty ambitions and fixing inherent personal flaws. (Are you suggesting that the song is narrated by the alcoholic in Smith, and addresses himself?)
In Between the Bars, the character...
In Between the Bars, the character addressed by the narrator shows signs of all these things - for example, one personal flaw would be lack of trust, demonstrated in the line '... with your hands in the air/Waiting to finally be caught' - and as well as making as if he can fix these problems, the narrator tries to cage this character in their own self-doubt. He puts them down ('the things you could do - you won't, but you might', 'the potential you'll be that you'll never see') and controls them ('Drink up with me now' said as a command, 'Do as I say' etc.). In the chorus we get that sly promise of salvation that makes the narrator so repulsive: 'They twist, shove and won't bend to your will - I'll keep them still'.
Not much more I want to say about that, but the last verse I think emphasises everything I suggested above:
'Drink up one more time And I'll make you mine Keep you apart Deep in my heart Separate from the rest Where I like you the best (selfish) And keep the things you forgot'
Awful last line. Brilliant, shocks the listener into getting the point, but y'know, you've got to be pretty awful to willfully perpetuate someone's innermost fears. Great song, anyway. I'll post this under Between the Bars too, even if I have been labouring what you might consider an obvious point.
As far as your last comment goes, regardless of how you think it should be written, it's a bit unfair to lay into someone for recording the 'wrong' lyrics, when these are in fact the way the lyrics were recorded by the artist, in the booklet for the album in which they appeared. You might as well be arguing with Elliott Smith himself.