Elliott Smith – Shooting Star

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  General Comment:He was with a girl "shooting star". She cared more about making the scene, getting herself seen in society, being popular, you know basically being "cool" within a certain scene. She is going to be with some guy because he is a "trophy boy", he has had some successes of some sort, but if he had just come up to her in the bar she would have denied him because he was likely not her type, but I mean if you know he's had success well then ofcourse you'd fuck him because well, thats what women often do. But, this women is never satisfied and eventually she will even make this poor fool sad, she will hurt him too. Just like she did to himself. When he was with this shooting star he had dreams of a future together and he feels lucky that he didnt say them outloud because it would have been for a waste, well because obviously she never really gave a fuck, she only cares about herself. Her love is sad. It only lasts briefly and ends without giving a shit for the person she was with, she only cares about her needs and what benefits her and her place within the "scene", society, etc.

  Flag emamalyon April 08, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:I think this is about a girl that he met at a bar or somewhere when he was drunk, maybe thought he had some kind of connection with her only to find out she was a fake, she was just telling him what he wanted to hear and he belived her.
  
  As for being about Elliott or not, I doubt he would write this song about a current girlfriend, maybe something that happened in his past, or maybe he just wrote something that we could all relate too.
  
  

  Flag Cincyskateon March 15, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:There are a lot of corrections needed for the lyrics of this song.
  
  First, it's "going up-street down the avenue"
  
  Second, the "I'm" needs to be removed from "I'm drunk off dreams"
  the lyric is speaking in the past tense, when he was momentarily proud.
  
  Third, it should be "I don't believe that you are"
  not "I don't think that you are"
  
  Fourth, the lyric should be "You're distant and cold and a sight to behold,"
  a pretty obvious mistake.
  
  Fourth, the lyric is "going back to find square one"
  not "first" square one. Elliott wouldn't include such redundancy.
  
  Let me add though,
  that this is a terrific song.
  As many people have said already,
  this is not about drug use.
  I believe it's about a girl who Elliott slept with after one of his shows because he thought she was the type of girl he could be with for a while, but he quickly realized that she wasn't anything like she pretended to be.
  
  Also, Dharmajim, you're a complete moron.
  You have no idea what you're talking about, and you obviously don't love and/or respect Elliott enough to pay attention to his lyrics, or you would realize that he hated himself most of the time.
  You say he should've hated himself, but I disagree completely.
  I think he was far too hard on himself.
  Everyone has faults.
  He chose to look only at his faults most of the time,
  instead of focusing on how brilliant of a musician he was.

  Flag DistantDreameron October 04, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I want to try to make something clear:
  This song can't possibly be written about Jennifer Chiba. He was living with her at the time of his death, and he recorded music 'til the day he died.
  

  Flag galaxygirlloveon April 07, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I know someone just like this who left me the same way. It's about a girl who sleeps around a lot, and yet the people, or at least some of the people she sleeps with end up getting attached to her. I guess Elliott would be one of them, and so would I -- unfortunately none of them can have a real relationship with her.
  
  When he says, "Your love is sad," that means that the promiscuous sex she has in place of actual "love" is sad. It's sad that she can't experience an emotional connection, and has to replace it with fleeting physical contact.

  Flag mattchamberson August 11, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:Well said.

  Flag bitterbritteron April 22, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:I found this song to be quite simple in meaning, he loved a girl, a girl who he knew had been promiscous in the past but had thought she'd changed, he was wrong, he finally understands who she truely is and feels sorry for her, mainly because he knows where her life is headed. She cannot love in the true sense of the word, she will never be happy. He now feels sad and takes pity on her. I particularly like the line "Nobody gets on with you very long, because you don't feel bad when you lie", i know a girl just like this, she can get any guy she wants, but once they see her for she really is, they all leave her, i feel sorry for her in the same way i think elliott felt sad for the girl in the song.
  "Your love is sad, shooting star"
  What a beautiful song from a beautiful artist and man, if only i'd been able to just see him live...
  I miss you Elliott, i don't believe in god or heaven or hell, but i think that for you there could be something after life on earth. RIP my dear friend.

  Flag pendoon February 05, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:like elliott smith said, for example you can take a picture of new york and show it to someone they might think it looks big ,scary or depressing, but you could show that same picture to another person and they might think it looks like a place for oppurtunities to make a life and to have fun.
  
  thats how he looks at his songs, a song to him could be different to you, the thing about his songs is that there almost never about one thing.

  Flag matt.hgon January 31, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:this song fucking rocks/so beautiful. the main riff is the meanest. elliott is a legend. one day he will be considered among the all-time greats

  Flag stacklestahlon January 28, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:Love this song.

  Flag asteroideon November 03, 2007   Link

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