Elliott Smith - Pretty (Ugly Before)

[ossie29]

You might be right there Starving but I always took it in a slightly more litterary feel, like drugs or alcohol, you know 'keeping me up for days' 'There is no nightime, only a passing fase'! We've all been there if we like this video, even if we're not junkies!

[spartandx]

to me is about drugs and how you feel ugly inside and out before you take them, then when you take them you feel perfect like the sun is out even though is night and you can't sleep

[TheKenTerry]

@spartandx

You know what? I think you're right. Keep the sunshine for "another hour or two" does it for me.

[WiiIsaac28]

i hope your in peace elliot

[NorthWriter]

I love the guitar solo here.  It's so jangly and beautiful.

[Mestup998]

I watched a documentary on Cobain today, he wasn't half the artist Elliott was, yet he had a documentary made about him. Wheres Elliott's documentary? I wanna see that fuckin movie.

[Loverdizzle]

It is my belief that if there were a "Elliott Smith" Dating Website, people would actually find the people they always dreamed of being with...

Why do I feel this opinion? Because it seems the more people communicate their emotions, the stronger they grow together EMOTIONALLY. We aren't supposed to feel alienated by one another. This is an unnatural phenomenom caused by materialism in popular media.

[theunsheep]

Further to @Loverdizzle's brilliant impressions, here's mine, and I could be way off:

I reckon he's singing about how he doesn't feel fit for life, but feels pretty enough for death; death will have him regardlessly and this sentiment makes him feel pretty. Moreover, his reflex to ponder self-destruction makes him feel wanted by "someone that's more for real". (Note the "that's", implying a non-person, as opposed to "who's"). It's a blinding thought- the sunshine that's kept him up for days.

[Loverdizzle]

@theunsheep

Your impression taps on the symbolism created by the lyrics. I feel that those lyrics speak to the writer/listener, as well.

[1suszkojohn]

not conclusive, my ass

[anakros5]

love this music....

[Loverdizzle]

So much is said with so little. He always speaks in imagery, folds of highs and lows, and always a mystical chorus.

His harmony, as usual, is fresh and yet... familiar. Like an old friend you remember from lifetimes ago. 

Each of his lyrics lines is a but tiny folds to a giant picture that no one could possibly understand even if they had the senses to gaze upon it.

[Loverdizzle]

Is it destruction that you require to feel?

Even when someone wants you... it's not real enough. I know exactly what Smith is expressing. His sentiment is always so brilliantly captured by imagery in his words.

[theunsheep]

@Loverdizzle So true. Boy I love youtube.

[Hamsaouahamsine]

Music sounds but TRUE music passes you through. And the listener left there, with a ridicoulous openned mouth. What can I say?

[baker3163]

@coreythebuffman if you don't like him, get the fuck out...don't waste your unwanted and shitty excuse of an opinion..bye.

[coreythebuffman]

@baker3163 Get the fuck out of where? Get out of the internet? Get out of your head? Get out of your bed? Your silly, we should get together for some drinks sometime

[onthinice766]

@coreythebuffman thank you for gracing us with your superior opinion, dickwad

[coreythebuffman]

@onthinice766 FINALLY, someone who agrees with me. PS thats no language for a young lady

[bon1931]

@starvingfortruth

Nope, you're spot on. It's about more than that of course but you're insight strikes me as a very plausible interpretation. In any case meaning is a collaboration between the author and the audience.

[StarvingForTruth]

@bon1931

i absolutely agree. elliott's songs hit us on more than one level, and the forces that shape our life are never one dimensional. hence the madness.

so says this particular bundle of impressions, anyways.

[1suszkojohn]

Elliot you Idiot...Stabbed yourself in the Heart. You Knew your Flaw, Weakness and Saw it Coming. Why? I am a music lover but I hate Listening to you cause you threw it away.

[ourladyoftheflowers1]

@1suszkojohn

the case is still open. it's inconclusive to whether he was murdered or did the injustice himself.. feel better now?

[nocrazyyou]

don't forget about schizophrenia, "a state characterized by the coexistence of contradictory or incompatible elements". just observations

[StarvingForTruth]

@nocrazyyou

scizophrenia is in essence, a break with reality. i'm not aware he ever experienced any such episodes. if you know anybody with the disease - and one of my best friends has it - it's unmistakable. one minute he can be fine, and the next, dancing naked in the street and talking to the air. it's way past bipolar, and up vs down moods are not incompatible elements. i don't mean to be a prick about it. it's just something i've seen very close and personally.

[nocrazyyou]

@StarvingForTruth I appreciate and understand the view, I don't sense any prickliness. Though, with most of his songs reality is somewhat called into question. I realize what you're talking about, but there are degrees when looked at from a meta, or macro view. Additionally my comment of 'just observations' was meant to tie the whole thing together

[StarvingForTruth]

@nocrazyyou

fair enough. if he were type 1 biploar, that would also involve episodes that resemble such a break. what do I know, really, about his private experiences? but the more i talk about it, the more ghoulish i feel trying to dissect the deceased. i really didn't mean to do that. i'm just talking form my perspective and sharing how this felt to my own private heart. part of his genius is how he touched so many people on so many levels. i just hope and trust he is at peace.

[samesamething]

its an atmosphere

[evancasto]

The picture of him around 1:50 kind of looks like Paul McCartney haha.

[navarino94]

that you are gone

[navarino94]

master piece as all that you did elliott

you whas the the best,is so fuckt up that you are i hope you find you,r peace wherever you are my friend we miss you so very much all my love to you.peace

[noisez13000]

wow

[WiiIsaac28]

@navarino94 so true

[pinksocks00]

hey what is that song by him the video of which is all the notes that people wrote to him after he committed suicide

?

[mistermusicpsycho26]

'Between the Bars'. There's another one for 'The Biggest Lie'; both should bring up some search results.

[plxplxkthx]

Elliott Smith, "The Biggest Lie" (2003)

[mymummy12321]

@plxplxkthx ?

[nikkillove83]

@pinksocks00 the biggest lie

[kppavan]

brilliant song! hail elliott!

[StarvingForTruth]

this might be just my own head talking, but to me, this sounds like a song about the Up phase of a person with bipolar disorder.

At least, that's how I relate it to me......

"sunshine been keepin' me up for days" - but in the silent background, another force of nature stirs - destruction. And sometimes, you know it.

Hard to explain I guess.

[visioncommission]

yeah could be some mood disorder and/or imperfect love and its trials and tribulations--seems like being in love was very important to this man and he thought about it a lot-based on his lyrics-

[StarvingForTruth]

@visioncommission

Very true.  And I think he's brilliant enough that he probably had more than one thing in mind when he wrote it. I don't think good art is often that one dimensional.

[noisez13000]

i think its about a girl who makes him feel beautiful... but shes only around half the time

[Rasulis]

Makes perfect sense if you know about bipolar or are close to someone with bipolar disorder.

It makes me wonder if Elliott Smith might of had it and his suicide happened on a really low down swing.

[inhernightlife]

Yep. Very sad disorder and very sad when it takes the lives of such amazing beings. Its a shame he felt suicide was his only option :(

[supervillian1]

Im pretty sure just about all his songs are about drugs or the effect they had on him.

[StarvingForTruth]

@supervillian1

That definitely is a big part of it. But might it be that the particular way he interprets that experience - in terms of feeling generally ugly, but then being allowed brief windows of feeling good about himself - thanks sadly to the use of a drug - might be reflective of the fact that this habit is a way of self medicating his problems?

Once again. I interpret this via personal experience. And this is why his art is so great, right?

peace.

[jessicatron]

@StarvingForTruth i look at it the exact same way. "it's only a passing phase". a lot of his songs remind me of BPD, actually.

[StarvingForTruth]

@jessicatron

cool. and of course, I could just be projecting, but I don't think it's a secret that he suffered from serious bouts of depression. maybe he also folded in ideas about his drug use - self medication is tragically common in people with mood disorders (I should know...) . It's all part of the same bundle of shit life hands us to unpack and sort out.

i'm just thankful I found his music. he was a dear, dear man. he touches a soft spit in me that too often lives in a box.

[StarvingForTruth]

@StarvingForTruth

*spot (not spit)..

hehe

[jessicatron]

@StarvingForTruth again, i completely agree. i also see a lot of self-medicating references in his work, but i could be projecting, too. still, it's nice to listen to songs that so specifically capture what bpd is like. i think miss misery, for example, is more obviously about alcoholism, but i think it works equally well for bpd. 

[StarvingForTruth]

@jessicatron

and the two are found so commonly together, right? they can blur into one common nightmare if things go wrong. which sometimes, they do. at least that's my experience.

[nikkillove83]

@StarvingForTruth yes i myself suffer from bipolar i always thought this too !

[nikkillove83]

@StarvingForTruth 

[nikkillove83]

@StarvingForTruth i suffer from bipolar its the ups and downs in this song

[nocrazyyou]

@StarvingForTruth the sunshine refers to the truth found in light, the truth of actually being beautiful

[boxnacage18]

@StarvingForTruth nah I think I hear what you're saying.

[scolaynic]

this song makes me smile, then cry, then rejoice, i don't know what else to say, miss you elliott

[MaireadPearl]

loove elliot

[TrainSparks]

godspeed