| Elliott Smith – Between the Bars Lyrics | 5 years ago |
|
@[kaffeine_krazy:28459] Love this whole interpretation - really unlocked another level of depth to the song for me! A few people have hypothesised that the song is a dialogue with a previous lover struggling with alcoholism, (which I also find really compelling) and personally, I see the first signal of that in the first line, where Elliott uses the word 'baby'. Now, that's a totally normal thing to call a lover, but in the context of the interpretation above, I think it's adding quite a subtle layer of emotion. For me, it brings to mind the image of a baby pining for a bottle of milk, a metaphor which I think works beautifully with the song's themes of vulnerability and dependency. Most would agree that a baby is a bit of a symbol of innocence, so it makes sense if the singer is speaking to a former version of himself, as yet untainted by drugs and alcoholism. Tragically, in the present day, the only way he can find his way back to that state of wide-eyed adolescence is via the comfort and warmth of the bottle. Reading that back, it seems pretty tenuous to base so much analysis on one word and I'm sure I'm just going off on a bit of a ramble. Even still, I love the way it links in with the rest of the song as a little detail and hope you do too. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.