 Genius Lyrics
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Elliott Smith – Southern Belle
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A beautiful but relentlessly intense number about family life in old Dallas town off Smith’s classic self-titled LP.
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Elliott Smith – Condor Ave
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Depending on how you understand it, this song is one of the more fictional and narrative songs that Smith ever wrote. A lot of people read this song in a strictly autobiographical
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Elliott Smith – Twilight
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From A Basement On The Hill was released in 2004, almost exactly a year after Elliott Smith’s mysterious death. “Twilight” is one of this album’s best-known songs, delivering a
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Elliott Smith – Angeles
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Taking a chance is always a fearsome thing. Relocation, especially to somewhere as gold-gilt and Gomorrah-esque as Los Angeles is a huge risk which can hold fame and riches in
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Elliott Smith – Christian Brothers
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A song about Elliott standing up to his step-father, with the help of alcohol. “Christian Brothers” is a type of brandy.
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Elliott Smith – Pictures of Me
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“Pictures of Me” was the very first collaboration between Elliott Smith and longtime collaborator/producer Larry Crane. In an interview with Pitchfork Crane told the story behind
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Elliott Smith – Roman Candle
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“Roman Candle” details Elliott’s relationship with his abusive step-father, Charles. Charles would go onto inspire several of Elliott’s songs.
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Elliott Smith – Waltz #2 (XO)
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Join Elliott Smith for a night of extra-awkward family trauma karaoke on one of his most-famous songs. From his major-label debut, 1998’s XO
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Elliott Smith – 2:45 AM
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“2:45 AM” is the 11th track off of Elliott Smith’s 1997 album Either/Or.
This song, in many ways, encapsulates Smith’s style with its stripped down aesthetic and uncomplicated but
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Elliott Smith – Pitseleh
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[Verse 1] / I'll tell you why I don't want to know where you are / I got a joke I've been dying to tell you / A silent kid is looking down the barrel / To make the noise that I
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Elliott Smith – Needle in the Hay
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A classic Elliott Smith song featured both on a Kill Rock Stars 7" and his eponymous second LP. Smith employs heroin as a metaphor here and on many songs on the album. As he told
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Elliott Smith – Ballad of Big Nothing
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A tongue-in-cheek song about a disenchanted, drug-addicted loser.
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Elliott Smith – Speed Trials
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“Speed Trials” is the album’s first track and single, released on October 1, 1996.
The song was recorded on 4-track cassette at Joanna Bolme’s apartment, on SE 34th Ave. at
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Elliott Smith – Clementine
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“Clementine” tells a deceptively simple story – a man gets drunk and worries about his relationship – using beautiful imagery.
It’s also based on the imagery from the folk poem “
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Elliott Smith – Punch and Judy
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[Verse 1] / A wallflower Punch talks to Judy / In a crowded corner where anybody can listen in / But they don't read page to page or speak easy / Now, they're gonna go say the
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Elliott Smith – A Fond Farewell
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“A Fond Farewell” is the sixth track on Elliott Smith’s posthumous album From a Basement on the Hill. The track’s instrumental palette is sparse, consisting of bass, vocals, and a
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Elliott Smith – Coming Up Roses
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[Verse 1] / I'm a junkyard full of false starts / And I don't need your permission / To bury my love under this bare light bulb / [Pre-Chorus] / The moon is a sickle cell / It'll
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Elliott Smith – Rose Parade
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“Rose Parade” is the seventh track off of Elliott Smith’s celebrated album, Either/Or.
While the song seems to be a reference to the annual Portland Rose Festival, Elliott
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Elliott Smith – Amity
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[Verse 1] / Amity, Amity, Amity, Amity / Amity, Amity, Amity / Caught stars in her arms / Hello, hello kitty happy in New York City / Amity walking like a lucky charm / I'm a neon
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Elliott Smith – Because
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[Intro] / Ah-ah / [Verse 1] / Because the world is round / It turns me on / Because the world is round / Ah-ah / [Verse 2] / Because the wind is high / It blows my mind / Because
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Elliott Smith – Last Call
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“Last Call” is one of the more produced songs on the mainly four-track debut album of the late Elliot Smith, with blaring electric guitar and a more powerful Heatmiser-like vocal
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Elliott Smith – Trouble
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Trouble / Oh trouble set me free / I have seen your face / And it's too much too much for me / Trouble / Oh trouble can't you see / You're eating my heart away / And there's
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Elliott Smith – No Name No. 5
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[Verse 1] / Got bitten fingernails and a head full of the past / And everybody's gone at last / A sweet, sweet smile that's fading fast / 'Cause everybody's gone at last / Don't
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Elliott Smith – Son of Sam
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[Verse 1] / Something's happening / Don't speak too soon / I told the boss off and made my move / Got nowhere to go / [Chorus 1] / Son of Sam / Son of the shining path, the clouded
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Elliott Smith – Tomorrow Tomorrow
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[Verse 1] / Everybody knows which way you go, straight to over / No one wants to see you inside of me, straight to over / I heard the hammer at the lock / Say you're deaf and dumb
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Elliott Smith – Cupid's Trick
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Elliott purposely left the lyrics to this track off of the lyric sheet on the vinyl copies.
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Elliott Smith – St. Ides Heaven
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[Verse 1: Elliott Smith and Rebecca Gates] / Everything is exactly right / When I walk around here drunk every night / With an open container from 7-Eleven / In St. Ides heaven / [
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Elliott Smith – Placeholder
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Looking at all the rows / All these records look like big zeroes / Got your picture on the back of a 45 / A placeholder till you take up mine / A placeholder till you take up mine
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Elliott Smith – The Biggest Lie
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[Verse 1] / I'm waiting for the train / The subway that only goes one way / The stupid thing that'll come to pull us apart / And make everybody late / [Verse 2] / You spent
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Elliott Smith – Single File
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[Verse 1] / Here in line where stupid shit collides / With dying shooting stars / All we got to show what we really are / Is the same kind of scars / And looking at you all I see
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Elliott Smith – Baby Britain
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[Verse 1] / Baby Britain feels the best / Floating over a sea of vodka / Separated from the rest / Fights problems with bigger problems / Sees the ocean fall and rise / Counts the
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Elliott Smith – Alphabet Town
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[Verse 1] / Alphabet City is haunted / Constantina feels right at home / She probably won't say you're wrong / But you're already wrong / You're already wrong / And you threw up
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Elliott Smith – No Name #1
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This is a song of inner struggle Elliott feels. The lyrics represent inner dialog he is wrestling with. He sees himself as someone who doesn’t belong at this event. He
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Elliott Smith – I Didn't Understand
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Originally called ‘Watch the Worlds Collide’, which has different, more telling lyrics that show Elliott sees love as more complex than it would appear, saying:
“When people talk
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Elliott Smith – Happiness
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…and this is what Smith sounds like at his most optimistic. Off his fifth studio album, 2000’s Figure 8
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Elliott Smith – Pretty (Ugly Before)
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[Verse 1] / Sunshine / Been keeping me up for days / There is no nighttime / It's only a passing phase / [Refrain] / And I feel pretty / Pretty enough for you / I felt so ugly
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Elliott Smith – Independence Day
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[Verse 1] / Future butterfly / Gonna spend the day higher than high / You'll be beautiful confusion / Ooh, once I was you / [Verse 2] / I saw you caught between / All the people
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Elliott Smith – Almost Over
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You think I'm unkind / But people aren't the way you think they are / They can't remember all the time / What it was you wanted / They paint you out in straight silhouette / Don't
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Elliott Smith – Waltz #1
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[Verse] / Every time the day darkens down and goes away / Pictures open in my head of me and you / Silent and cliché / All the things we did and didn't say / Covered up by what we
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Elliott Smith – Oh Well, Okay
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A man is looking through photos of an estranged lover whom he still cares about. He feigns nonchalance (“Oh well, okay”), but it’s clear that he’s pretty torn up.
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