13th_Wolf said:
https://youtu.be/ebSRSyycPf0
This song is pretty powerful for people who want to get over stuff, not necessarily a casual tune. It grabbed my attention recently and I think it's relevant at least for some people here.
I think it's among the first indie, lo-fi and emo type of music that ever came into circulation. Personally I wasn't too interested in the genre till I heard this.
That aside I also think it's pretty invoking for girls and the feminine polarity overall. There are more than a few interpretations and ways it can be felt. I felt the title was poignant for some people on here dealing with said issues but it covers a lot of emotional stuff, just an all round well made song dealing with that side of musical expression.
I hope it helps someone else out as it has for me.
Hail Satan.
The first time I heard Elliot Smith I got chills.
This song invites you to abandon yourself, to dissolve all the worries. It is one of Smith's confessional classics, candid and devious,songs that whisper love and hope on the top of a deep and very black abyss. Elliott's fragile voice is scarred in the heart and disheartened by her surroundings, yet uncorrupted, beautiful even when covered with wounds.
A melody that holds melancholy whispers for two and a half minutes. As usual, it seems. Like any other Elliott Smith song. Right? No!
Drink up baby, stay up all night
With the things you could do
You won't but you might
The potential you'll be that you'll never see
The promises you'll only make
Alcohol is another dominant theme in Smith's poetics, also because Smith has notoriously suffered from alcoholism, particularly in the last years of the 1990s. But his poetry is far from being disgusting or something like that, Between The Bars is a lullaby that Elliott dedicates to his "baby". There is a talk about missed opportunities, of unexpressed potential, unknown even to ourselves, of promises we have made but never kept. Promises never kept to ourselves.
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
Keep you apart, deep in my heart
Separate from the rest, where I like you the best
And keep the things you forgot
Between The Bars talks about the difficulty of relating to others, once again. The "bars" of the song are the "bars" of a prison, the invisible obstacles that divide us. Smith talks about "kissing through bars": it is impossible to break down these barriers, all we can do is go through the cracks in them to achieve a feeling of satisfaction.
But there is also another reading: "bars" means yes "bars", but also "bars, cafè". "Kissing in the middle of the bars, through the bars" then means chasing a moment of fulfillment through alcohol, or despite alcohol? Elliott suggests no answer. And again, if the lovers are divided by bars, who is the two of them in prison? Smith, the alcoholic, or his "baby", with a clear mind but uncapable to find the the way out? Again no answer.
The only way to be happy, Smith seems to say, is to keep ourselves in the depths of our hearts, separated from the rest.
And love it.
Thank you so much for sharing, I'm sure it will help someone.
