For me the song is up there with his best. The brutal economy of the whole song being vocal and acoustic with just a single piano punctuating roughly the ⅔ mark always seems to conjure Pink Moon with its devastating little piano line. Lyrically it does what all his greatest work does - fold in specific references to his own personal history with more abstract imagery, somehow forging the whole into an arc that draws you in as he navigates these fractured thoughts and memories. For my money it's broadly a goodbye song, a sweet, sad goodbye song, with some very direct (and some more arcane/unconnected) references peppered throughout. The song is then strung across this lovely base - the main chords of the verse see-sawing from that minor 2nd to a major first inversion. Beautiful as they are on the guitar, the instrumental piano break is breathtaking, thunderous, heartbreaking. Waves of emotion. It might be my favourite moment in any Elliott Smith song, and I have many....
For me the song is up there with his best. The brutal economy of the whole song being vocal and acoustic with just a single piano punctuating roughly the ⅔ mark always seems to conjure Pink Moon with its devastating little piano line. Lyrically it does what all his greatest work does - fold in specific references to his own personal history with more abstract imagery, somehow forging the whole into an arc that draws you in as he navigates these fractured thoughts and memories. For my money it's broadly a goodbye song, a sweet, sad goodbye song, with some very direct (and some more arcane/unconnected) references peppered throughout. The song is then strung across this lovely base - the main chords of the verse see-sawing from that minor 2nd to a major first inversion. Beautiful as they are on the guitar, the instrumental piano break is breathtaking, thunderous, heartbreaking. Waves of emotion. It might be my favourite moment in any Elliott Smith song, and I have many....