This is going to get a little academic, but Elliott Smith was a genius and so you must view his work through this lens.
This was actually Elliott Smith's response to Kierkegaard's great work, "Continuum," published in 1892. He says "you can do what you want to whenever you want to" as a nod to Soren's nihilist ideologie(s). The "helpless little thing with the dirty mouth / who's always got something to say" refers to a lesser character in the aforementioned Great Work, whose name was Pinchin. Pinchin was a "straw man" who would constantly repeat the refrain "you can do what you want to" in response to the obvious fact that human options are sorely limited by other concerns.
When Elliott Smith refers to the "alley," he means a metaphorical alley, of course, the alley of the human conscious AND conscience. Anything can walk down that alley, but few things can come back. It is like crossing the heroin needle riddled Rubicon of sorts. The man with "smoldering anger" refers to Americans and their subsequent loss of innocence and idealism in the late 20th century. Pinpoint eyes, of course, pinpoint the issue.
There is much more to be said about this great Ballad, but if you want to know more shoot me an email at esmithRULZ22@mailinator.com.
This is going to get a little academic, but Elliott Smith was a genius and so you must view his work through this lens.
This was actually Elliott Smith's response to Kierkegaard's great work, "Continuum," published in 1892. He says "you can do what you want to whenever you want to" as a nod to Soren's nihilist ideologie(s). The "helpless little thing with the dirty mouth / who's always got something to say" refers to a lesser character in the aforementioned Great Work, whose name was Pinchin. Pinchin was a "straw man" who would constantly repeat the refrain "you can do what you want to" in response to the obvious fact that human options are sorely limited by other concerns.
When Elliott Smith refers to the "alley," he means a metaphorical alley, of course, the alley of the human conscious AND conscience. Anything can walk down that alley, but few things can come back. It is like crossing the heroin needle riddled Rubicon of sorts. The man with "smoldering anger" refers to Americans and their subsequent loss of innocence and idealism in the late 20th century. Pinpoint eyes, of course, pinpoint the issue.
There is much more to be said about this great Ballad, but if you want to know more shoot me an email at esmithRULZ22@mailinator.com.
can you say "OVER-ANALYZE?"
can you say "OVER-ANALYZE?"
After googling in vain for a couple minutes, I'm pretty sure you made this up.
After googling in vain for a couple minutes, I'm pretty sure you made this up.