Read Online Elliott Smith's XO by Matthew LeMay - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Matthew LeMay
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rational thought. The language of chemical dependence is also implied in the wonderfully alliterative phrase “pure synthetic sympathy.” Similarly, Smith’s use of the word “pushing” in every performance of “Everybody Cares” prior to its final recording is a thought-provoking recontextualization of drug abuse terminology. But while the idea of the sun as a “pusher” is intriguing, it ultimately seems incongruous with
XO
at large. Throughout the album, the sun is often presented as a figure whose light threatens to penetrate the “endless cell that blocks the day,” that reoccurring place of safety and isolation that is, itself, associated with drug use (even when—as in
XO
outtake “New Monkey”—it is also positioned as a place of creativity.) When a “fully loaded” Smith “[stares] down the sun” in “Sweet Adeline,” it is not the sun that is rendering him “deaf and dumb and done.”
The finale of “Everybody Cares” is the most instrumentally dense portion of
XO,
building layer upon layer of what Schnapf calls “sprinkles,” including keyboard work by Smith’s friend and collaborator Jon Brion. It is a deft musical literalization of the song’s conceit; immediately following Smith’s warning to “stay the hell way,” here is “everybody,” a dizzying array of instrumental voices that grows overbearing and menacing as it builds.
“I Didn’t Understand”
In the earliest live versions of the “I Didn’t Understand”, Smith sings over a characteristically spindly acoustic guitar part. In a preliminary recording of the song, widely circulated among fans on the “Jackpot Sessions” compilation, Smith accompanies himself on piano. For
XO,
Smith ran with an idea of Schnapf’s, born of repeat listens to the Beach Boys’
Pet Sounds Sessions
box set:
I was listening to a lot of Beach Boys, and I heard a lot of a capella versions. And so I just said, “what if you did that?” And that was it. I just planted that one little seed. And then he did a version, and he basically played it on piano, on the [Roland digital multitrack] VS880. He basically picked apart the piano chord and harmonized it, and came up with that big4 part-or-more version. And we listened to it, and thought, “huh, that’s really cool, but it’s a bit too … liturgical.” And he went back and just did a different version. And we also did a different version where we took that and just added strings to it.
The earliest studio recording of “I Didn’t Understand” (then called “Watch the Worlds Collide”) has markedly different lyrics from the version that closes
XO:
Everybody’s looking for the next in line to love
Then ignore, put out, and put away
And I’d be happy just to be relieved from duty right away—
I know what’s gonna happen to me
When people talk about love,
They’re painting pictures of someone’s pretty side
But go look yourself in the face
And watch the worlds collide, watch the worlds collide
Waiting for a bus to take my thoughts away from us
And drop me off far away from you
’Cause my feelings never change a bit—I’m waiting to get over it
But I know what it is I have to do
When people talk about love
They’re painting pictures of someone’s pretty side
But I look myself in the face, and watch the worlds collide, watch the worlds collide
In a slightly later live version (performed on July 29, 1997), Smith’s lyrics have begun to resemble their final form, save for the song’s closing stanza:
So don’t talk to me about love
Or paint me pictures of my one pretty side
When you’ve seen us both in my face,
Watch the worlds collide, watch the worlds collide
The theme of intra-personal rupture and unification is one that Smith addresses in many songs, including “Cecilia/Amanda” and, perhaps most memorably,
post-Either/Or
single “Division Day.” Ultimately, though, these lyrical themes faded from “I Didn’t Understand” (though they are
XO
at large. Throughout the album, the sun is often presented as a figure whose light threatens to penetrate the “endless cell that blocks the day,” that reoccurring place of safety and isolation that is, itself, associated with drug use (even when—as in
XO
outtake “New Monkey”—it is also positioned as a place of creativity.) When a “fully loaded” Smith “[stares] down the sun” in “Sweet Adeline,” it is not the sun that is rendering him “deaf and dumb and done.”
The finale of “Everybody Cares” is the most instrumentally dense portion of
XO,
building layer upon layer of what Schnapf calls “sprinkles,” including keyboard work by Smith’s friend and collaborator Jon Brion. It is a deft musical literalization of the song’s conceit; immediately following Smith’s warning to “stay the hell way,” here is “everybody,” a dizzying array of instrumental voices that grows overbearing and menacing as it builds.
“I Didn’t Understand”
In the earliest live versions of the “I Didn’t Understand”, Smith sings over a characteristically spindly acoustic guitar part. In a preliminary recording of the song, widely circulated among fans on the “Jackpot Sessions” compilation, Smith accompanies himself on piano. For
XO,
Smith ran with an idea of Schnapf’s, born of repeat listens to the Beach Boys’
Pet Sounds Sessions
box set:
I was listening to a lot of Beach Boys, and I heard a lot of a capella versions. And so I just said, “what if you did that?” And that was it. I just planted that one little seed. And then he did a version, and he basically played it on piano, on the [Roland digital multitrack] VS880. He basically picked apart the piano chord and harmonized it, and came up with that big4 part-or-more version. And we listened to it, and thought, “huh, that’s really cool, but it’s a bit too … liturgical.” And he went back and just did a different version. And we also did a different version where we took that and just added strings to it.
The earliest studio recording of “I Didn’t Understand” (then called “Watch the Worlds Collide”) has markedly different lyrics from the version that closes
XO:
Everybody’s looking for the next in line to love
Then ignore, put out, and put away
And I’d be happy just to be relieved from duty right away—
I know what’s gonna happen to me
When people talk about love,
They’re painting pictures of someone’s pretty side
But go look yourself in the face
And watch the worlds collide, watch the worlds collide
Waiting for a bus to take my thoughts away from us
And drop me off far away from you
’Cause my feelings never change a bit—I’m waiting to get over it
But I know what it is I have to do
When people talk about love
They’re painting pictures of someone’s pretty side
But I look myself in the face, and watch the worlds collide, watch the worlds collide
In a slightly later live version (performed on July 29, 1997), Smith’s lyrics have begun to resemble their final form, save for the song’s closing stanza:
So don’t talk to me about love
Or paint me pictures of my one pretty side
When you’ve seen us both in my face,
Watch the worlds collide, watch the worlds collide
The theme of intra-personal rupture and unification is one that Smith addresses in many songs, including “Cecilia/Amanda” and, perhaps most memorably,
post-Either/Or
single “Division Day.” Ultimately, though, these lyrical themes faded from “I Didn’t Understand” (though they are
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