Elliott Smith
From Wikiquote
Elliott Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003) was an American songwriter and musician.
Contents |
[edit] General
- "I think the music business will eventually crush me, but I [smiles]... I'm ready." - in Strange Parallel
- [when asked about cigarettes] "I don't recommend them... but I smoke them." - seen at http://youtube.com/watch?v=nJN1wdDUpDg
- "Everybody gets a tag. If you listen to a Velvet Underground record, you don't think, 'Godfathers of Punk.' You just think, 'This sounds great.' The tags are there in order to help try to sell something by giving it a name that's going to stick in somebody's memory. But it doesn't describe it. So 'depressing' isn't a word I would use to describe my music. But there is some sadness in it -- there has to be, so that the happiness in it will matter."[citation needed]
- "I don't intend to write depressing songs and I'd probably rather write happy ones" in Spongey Monkey #3
- "I hope that Dreamworks can sell enough records that they're happy - so I don't get dropped."[citation needed]
- What we need are some dancers. Or maybe...answers? does anybody have any answers?"
- Someone in the crowd: "Your ass!"
- Smith: "My ass?! That's a good answer."[citation needed]
- "If you play acoustic guitar you're the depressed, sensitive guy."[citation needed]
- "Sometimes people seem to think that my songs are more personal than somebody else's and I don't really think that's true. Y'know, I think my songs reveal whatever they reveal; they say certain things about who I am, whereas Will Smith singing "Gettin' Jiggy With It" reveals certain things about who he is. Like for one thing that he doesn't mind singing a senseless song. But I don't know. It's just--I don't know. It's sort of like if no one is playing--if people who are by and large on the radio and television really don't give a shit what words they're singing, then someone comes along who actually sings about things that matter to them, then everybody thinks that their lyrics are really personal. But it's just situational."[citation needed]
- "Well, I try not to think about the general public since I have no idea what the general public is and I don't think anybody does."[citation needed]
- "Here's a song I made up while I was watching Xena the Warrior Princess with the sound off. It's a fact. I had a secret crush on Xena. It was a secret to me too. I wouldn't admit it. She's pretty fuckin' tough. She has a good yell... she kills the stupid gladiators with the log-trap. Release the log-trap! She releases the log-trap and they all get... crushed. They'd all wanna be with her if they could, but unfortunately they're not on her side. It's a lot better with the sound off. Really, it is. And the song didn't have anything to do with Xena... but... I was about half a bottle through Jameson's... if that makes any sense."
- - before playing "Between the Bars" at a concert in 1996. http://www.archive.org/details/esmith2006-09-25..flacf
- "Playing it safe is the most popular way to fail."[citation needed]
- "New songs are where its at, as far as I'm concerned."[citation needed]
- "There's some records that sell millions of copies, that it's really unclear if anybody liked it who was making it, y'know?" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_XNghTKvq8
[edit] Lyrics
[edit] Roman Candle
- Church bells and now I'm awake
And I guess it must be some kind of holiday
I can't seem to join in the celebration
But I'll go to the service
And I'll go to pray
And I'll sing the praises of my maker's name
Like I was as good as she made me...- Last Call
- I'm a roman candle
My head is full of flames
I want to hurt him
I want to give him pain
And make him feel this pretty burn.- Roman Candle
[edit] Elliott Smith
- I can't beat myself
I can't beat myself
And I don't want to talk.
I'm taking the cure so I can be quiet
Whenever I want.
So leave me alone
You ought to be proud that I'm getting good marks.- Needle in the Hay
- You turned white, like a saint
But I'm tired of dancing on a pot of gold...
...Flecked paint.- The Biggest Lie
- I'm a junkyard full of false starts
And I don't need your permission
To bury my love under this bare light bulb.
The moon is a sickle cell
It'll kill you in time.- Coming Up Roses
[edit] Either/Or
- Drink up, baby, look at the stars
I'll kiss you again
Between the bars
Where I'm seeing you there
With your hands in the air
Waiting to finally be caught
Drink up one more time and I'll make you mine...- Between the Bars
- I could make you satisfied in everything you do,
All your secret wishes could right now be coming true
And be forever with my poisoned arms
Around you.
No one's gonna fool around with us.- Angeles
- I'm going out now like a baby
A naïve unsatisfiable baby
Grabbing onto whatever's around
For the soaring high or the crushing down
With hidden cracks that don't show, but that constantly just grow.- 2:45
- Crooked spin can't come to rest,
I'm damaged bad at best.- Say Yes
- I'm in love with the world,
Through the eyes of a girl,
Who's still around the morning after.- Say Yes
[edit] XO
- It's a picture perfect evening
And I'm staring down the sun
Fully loaded, deaf, and dumb
And done waiting for sedation to disconnect my head
Or any situation where I'm better off than dead- Sweet Adeline
- They took your life apart
And called your failures art
They were wrong, though
They won't know
'Til tomorrow- Tomorrow Tomorrow
- She appears composed
So she is, I suppose
Who can really tell?
She shows no emotion at all
Stares into space like a dead china doll- Waltz #2 (XO)
- London Bridge is safe and sound
No matter what you keep repeating
Nothing's gonna drag me down
To a death that's not worth cheating- Baby Britain
- The first time I saw you
I knew it would never last
I'm not half what I wish I was
I'm so angry
I don't think it'll ever pass
And I was bad news for you just because
I never meant to hurt you- Pitseleh
- I waited for a bus
To separate the both of us
And take me off far away from you
'Cause my feelings never change a bit
I always feel like shit
I don't know why; I guess that I "just do"- I Didn't Understand
[edit] Figure 8
- Bored in a role, but he can't stop
Standing up to sit back down,
and lose the one thing found.
Spinning the world like a toy top
'till there's a ghost in every town.
- Can't Make A Sound
- Everything here is free
Everything but you and me
This painting never dries
Stupidity tries
- Stupidity tries
- What I used to be will pass away, and then you'll see
That all I want now is happiness for you and me.
- Happiness
- The first true love that folded at the slightest touch,
brought down like an old hotel,
people digging through the rubble for things they can resell.
- Junk Bond Trader
[edit] From a Basement on the Hill
"This is the place you end up when you lose the chase Where your dragged against your will from a basement on a hill And all anybody knows, is you're not like them So they kick you in the head...and send you back to bed" -"Memory Lane"
"I'm comfortable apart It's all written on my chart And i take what's given me Most cooperatively I do what people say And lie in bed all day Absolutely horrified I hope your satisfied" -Memory Lane"
"So I wait for confirmation That you're never gonna use your starting gun."
-"Coast to Coast"
"I met a girl snowball in hell she was hard and as cracked as the liberty bell"
-"Don't Go Down"
"I see you're leaving me and taking up with the enemy the cold comfort of the in between a little less than a human being a little less than a happy high a little less than a suicide the only things that you really tried."
-"Fond Farewell"
"Veins full of disappearing ink Vomitting in the kitchen sink."
-"Fond Farewell"
"The scraping subjects, ruled by fear, they told me whiskey works better than beer."
-"King's Crossing"
"This is the place where time reverses. Dead men talk to all the pretty nurses. Instruments shine on a silver tray...don't let me get carried away."
-"King's Crossing"
"Gimme one good reason not to do it (because we love you), so do it."
-"King's Crossing"
"Because your candle burns too bright, well, I almost forgot it was twilight. Even if I think that you are right, well, I'm tired of being down, I got no fight. You're wonderful, and it's beautiful, but I'm already somebody's baby. And if i went with you, I'd disappoint you, too."
-"Twilight"
"Haven't laughed this hard in a long time. I better stop now before I start crying. Go off to sleep in the sunshine...I don't want to see the day when its dying."
-"Twilight"
"You don't deserve to be lonely, but those drugs you got won't make you feel better. Pretty soon you'll find it's the only little part of your life you're keeping together."
-"Twilight"
"My mama told me 'baby stay clean, there's no in between.' but all you ladies and you gentlemen, between is all you've ever seen or been."
-"A Distorted Reality is Now A Necessity To Be Free"
"You disappoint me, all you people raking in on the world. the devil's script sells you the heart of a blackbird."
-"A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free"
"Shine on me, baby cause it's raining in my heart."
-"A Distorted Reality..."
[edit] New Moon
-"Miss Misery (Early version)"
"And though you'd rather see me gone then to see there come the day, I'll be waiting for you anyway"
"Next door, the TV's flashing blue frames on the wall. It's a comedy from the seventies with a lead no one recalls. He vanished into oblivion it's easy to do and I cried a sea when you talked to me the day you said we were through. But it's all right, some enchanted night I'll be with you"
-"Angel in the Snow"
"I'd say you make the perfect angel in the snow all crushed out on the way you are, I'd better stop before it goes too far."
"Don't you know that I love you? sometimes I feel like only a cold still lie only a frozen still lie that fell down here to lay beside you."
"Georgia, Georgia"
"Your arsenal of excuses you never told her when you walked out on the savannah shoulder with your veins all full of beer thinking well at least now everything is clear"
"All Cleaned Out"
"Here come your pride and joy The comic little drunk You call your boy, Making everybody smile"
"Going Nowhere"
"The clock moved a quarter of a turn, the time it took a cigarette to burn"
"Do you want to hear a happy or a sad song?" (crowd) "happy!" (Elliott) "old or new?" (crowd) "old!" (Elliott) "happy and old, thats a strange choice"
