Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003) was an American songwriter and musician.
Quotes
[edit]- I think the music business will eventually crush me, but I [smiles]... I'm ready.
- in Strange Parallel (1998).
- [when asked about cigarettes] I don't recommend them... but I smoke them.
- I don't intend to write depressing songs and I'd probably rather write happy ones
- in Spongey Monkey #3.
- 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.
- There's some records that sell millions of copies, that it's really unclear if anybody liked it who was making it, y'know?
Lyrics
[edit]Roman Candle (1994)
[edit]- 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.
- 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.
Elliott Smith (1995)
[edit]- Your hand on his arm, the hay stack charm around your neck, strung out and thin, calling some friend trying to cash some check, he's acting dumb, that's what you've come to expect. * 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.
- I'm looking at a hand full of broken plans
And I'm tired of playing it down
You just want her to do anything to you
There ain't nothing you won't allow
You wake up in the middle of the night
From a dream you won't remember flashing on like a cop's light
You say she's waiting and I know what for
The white lady loves you more- The White Lady Loves You More.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
From a Basement on the Hill (posthumous, 2004)
[edit]- This is the place you end up when you lose the chase,
Where you're 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 you're 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 Is Now A Necessity To Be Free.
- And though you'd rather see me gone
then to see there come the day,
I'll be waiting for you anyway
- Miss Misery (Early version).
- 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
- Miss Misery (Early version).
- 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.
- Angel in the Snow.
- Don't you know that I love you?
sometimes I feel like
only a cold still life
only a frozen still life
that fell down here to lay beside you.
- Angel in the Snow.
- 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'
- Georgia, Georgia.
- Here come your pride and joy
The comic little drunk you call your boy,
Making everybody smile
- All Cleaned Out.
- I'm sorry you seem so stung,
and I'm sorry you feel you have to hold your tongue
when you're so pretty and smart
- All Cleaned Out.
- Wearing clothes that clash
Wondering 'is this treasure, is this trash?'
Still trying to decide
- All Cleaned Out.
- The clock moved a quarter of a turn,
the time it took a cigarette to burn
- Going Nowhere.
- Elliott: "Do you want to hear a happy or a sad song?"
Crowd: "Happy!"
Elliott: "Old or new?"
Crowd: "Old!"
Elliott: "Happy and old, that's a strange choice."
External links
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