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And I wanted her to tell me that she would never wake me
I wanted her to tell me that she would never wake me
I wanted her to tell me that she would never wake me
I wanted her to tell me that she would never wake me
I wanted her to tell me that she would never wake me
I wanted her to tell me that she would never wake me
I wanted her to tell me that she would never wake me
I wanted her to tell me that she would never wake me

I'm lying here waiting for sleep to overtake me Elliott Smith – Last Call
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Smith feminizes God in this expression of passive suicidal desire and insomniac frustration–a themes revisited in his later work

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Yancie
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8 years

It seems like he is referring to his mother as his maker, not God.

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While her memory worked in reverse
To keep her safe from herself Elliott Smith – Happiness
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One of many instances in Smith’s lyrics where he refers to protective forgetting or manipulation of disturbing memories

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2 years

accurate.

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Here it is, the revenge to the tune
"You're no good
You're no good, you're no good, you're no good"
Can't you tell that it's well understood? Elliott Smith – Waltz #2 (XO)
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Elliott’s stepfather, Charlie, in response to Elliott’s mother’s karaoke choice of “Cathy’s Clown” chooses the Clint Ballard, Jr. penned song “You’re No Good.” His “revenge” is to sing a song he feels represents his feelings about her.

The repetition of the phrase “You’re no good” (4X) is reflective of the chorus of the song.

“You’re No Good” was popularized by Linda Rondstadt in 1975:

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963811e51ae4202aef3a2ce742130d95

372

2 years

It’s actually actually a lot more brilliant than that. There’s the obvious reference to the song “You’re no good” but the entire point of the line (one of the most devastating in the history of all music) and the repetition is that he’s heard the phrase “You’re no good” so many times by the time he pens this song that it’s written on his DNA. He can see it coming because it’s always been delivered with the same loathing over and over again. If there’s anything more crushing in music… then I’ve never heard it.

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Now she's done and they're calling someone
Such a familiar name
I'm so glad that my memory's remote
'Cause I'm doing just fine hour to hour, note to note Elliott Smith – Waltz #2 (XO)
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Smith often alluded to memory suppression as a coping mechanism, here likely relating to his troubled childhood and difficult, abusive relationship with his stepfather.

After his death, it was revealed that Smith believed his stepfather may have sexually abused him. Interviews and lyrics point to other forms of abuse

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58c60da9c02b0787a63a88f8c8bd6c45

198

2 years

People are calling the narrator’s stepfather’s name as he’s getting ready to sing a song to the narrator’s mother, as revenge. The narrator is glad his memory is remote because he doesn’t look as distressed as he feels when he hears his stepfather’s name.

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Default_avatar_100

52

6 years

They’re calling Elliott to the stage, but he doesn’t recognize his own name. To me the song is more about apologizing to his mom for Elliott doing badly in life.

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First the mic, then a half cigarette
Singing "Cathy's Clown"
That's the man she's married to now
That's the girl that he takes around town Elliott Smith – Waltz #2 (XO)
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A woman, presumably Smith’s mother, chooses the breakup song “Cathy’s Clown,” with the lyrics “don’t want your love anymore,” to serenade her husband (presumably Smith’s stepfather, Charlie, whose name appears in several songs) and the women with whom he is cheating on her.

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85

5 months

Matthew LeMay’s 33 1/3 book on Xo describes an earlier draft of the song beginning with “holds the mic like a half-cigarette”. The updated line might still communicate this comparison: at first it’s the mic, then it’s a half-cigarette.

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Default_avatar_100

10

8 years

The song is about Elliott’s strained relationship with his stepfather. The entire song is aimed at her mother and having to see and spend time with her and his step-father. In the opening line they are at a Karaoke singing the Everly Brother’s Cathy’s Clown which is directly referenced after smoking a half cigarette and grabbing the microphone.

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Now on the bus
Nearly touching this dirty retreat
Falling out
6th and Powell, a dead sweat in my teeth Elliott Smith – Needle in the Hay
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A likely reference to a stop along Powell Blvd in Portland, Oregon, where Smith is looking for heroin (in accordance with the song’s central metaphor).

“Dead sweat in my teeth” likely refers to cottonmouth or that gritty feeling you get from not brushing your teeth after vomiting—both are symptoms of heroin usage.

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6649602c1b566a7d006545be0e40015c

1,401

4 months

I think it is also worth mentioning how well Elliott conjures the image of this event.

Both him falling out of the bus and his description of the way his teeth feel bring us closer to the story, and allow us a glimpse of how he may have felt.

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4 months

A reference to his state of withdrawal. Thus his bus ride to “the man who’s gonna make it all ok” likely also be a reference to Lou Reed’s “I’m Waiting For My Man” a song with a similar theme

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Jonny M
2 years

cotton mouth isn’t a sympton of heroin usage, its literally a symptom of heroin withdrawal, cold and hot sweats.

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C2995213ffb3e47ed5f0adc70c8c305d

168

3 years

6th continues as a footpath for a block past Woodward and does run into Powell on the next block.

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4d1d93bc13786d93f33c30ee96a8cd80

1,184

3 years

There’s a 6th & Powell in San Francisco which is a major public transportation hub

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56e151c90313996944b572142ac0a441

100

4 years

there’s not an exact “6th and powell” per se, but there is an area where they are very close around the ramp for the ross island bridge, and it wouldn’t be much of a stretch for someone to refer to it as that.

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Violet
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5 years

There is no intersection of 6th & Powell in Portland. The closest is 9th & Powell in SE.

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Bebo Posse reincarnated through me probably Nas – A Queens Story
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See here for info on Howard “Pappy” Mason and his notorious gang of enforcers, The Bebos. Nas also namedrops Mason on “The World is Yours,” “Get Down,” and “Just A Moment”

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Watch the calm realest channel his mom's spirit
Goosebumps cover me, mother's here, I could feel her Nas – A Queens Story
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Nas' mother passed away in his arms of cancer in 2002, an event that sent him into a depression and carelessness that culminated in his failed 2002 Summer Jam attempt to hang Jay-Z in effigy and his famed rant shortly thereafter on rival station Power 105.1.

In the vh1 behind the music he said that what made him come back to music was that he could feel his mom inside of him and in the mother. He could move on:

that´s life. You keep living on.

http://youtu.be/K8VcczZtIeI?t=4m42s

Thats the feeling he is describing right here.

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No Ordinary (Love) and other songs by Sade
Sweet as agave
There's romance and slow dance but what about agape? (love) Invincible – No Easy Answers
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Agave is a very sweet plant-based syrup. Agape is a Koine Greek word that translates to English as “love”, specifically the love of god for humanity as modeled by Jesus, or love that is more about spirituality than sex.

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Is it something you fall in
Or a thing that soothe and lifts you? (love)
Defying gravity
But rather than the latter we
In Pat Benatar's "Battlefield"
Where's the seminar to help a heart that's shattered heal? Invincible – No Easy Answers
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In a tricky bit of rhyming, Invincible contrasts imagery of “falling in love” and love as elevation, casting a more ominous light on the common former phrase. She argues that the actual experience of love can feel a lot like combat, and points out the absence of resources for the wounded.

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