Lyrics for A Fond Farewell as interpreted by angelofthesilence

A Fond Farewell Lyrics
The Lite Brite's now black and white
Because they took apart a picture that wasn't right
Pitch burning on a shining sheet
The only maker that you'd want to meet
A dying man in a living room
Whose shadow paces the floor
He'll take you out any open door

This is not my life
It's just a fond farewell to a friend
It's not what I'm like
It's just a fond farewell to a friend
Who couldn't get things right
Fond farewell to a friend

He said really I just want to dance
Good and evil matched perfect, it's a great romance
I can deal with some psychic pain
If it'll slow down my higher brain
Veins full of disappearing ink
Vomiting in the kitchen sink
Disconnecting from the missing link

This is not my life
It's just a fond farewell to a friend
It's not what I'm like
It's just a fond farewell to a friend
Who couldn't get things right
Fond farewell to a friend

I see you're leaving me and taking up with the enemy
The cold comfort of the in-between
A little less than a human being
A little less than a happy high
A little less than a suicide
The only things that you really tried

This is not my life
It's just a fond farewell to a friend
It's not what I'm like
It's just a fond farewell to a friend
Who couldn't get things right
Fond farewell to a friend

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purplehaze8x
10-04-2004

Rated 0 
i can deal with some psychic pain
if it'll slow down my higher brain

that line, along with this song is amazing...

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jack_the_brat
10-19-2004

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so beautiful.
the entire album is amazing.

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oneiros lykos
11-07-2004

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Wow...this whole album is great.

Elliott...WHY?!!!

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the green eyes
11-09-2004

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this is one of his best songs off of his new cd "from a basement on a hill"

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MarshmallowPeep
11-18-2004

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I agree. Except I think that about almost every song on the CD.

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X Co and Ca X
11-22-2004

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my favorite song of the new album, the music has such a good vibe to it

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TransparentSunChild
11-25-2004

Rated 0 
this song is sad...this whole cd is sad. rip elliott...sing to the angels

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sharksandwich999
12-05-2004

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wow this song is amazing. by far the best song i've heard in a long while. just beautiful.

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molotovsix
12-06-2004

Rated 0 
it's strange how well he captures being a junkie. that song reverberates through my head, particularly these bits:

pitch burning on a shining sheet
the only maker you wanna meet (god knows that's the only maker i want to meet, most of the day, at least. although chasing the dragon isnt something i enjoy, sometimes you have to improvise. especially if you dont have anything else to use & you need your fix.)

veins full of dissapearing ink,
vomiting in the kitchen sink.
disconnecting from the missing link.
this is not my life...

god, that's, like, what goes through my head everytime i wake up dopesick. i wish it wasnt my life, and in a way, it isn't. it's a part of yourself that you keep hidden. but his words mean so much to me, and probably every other addict.

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LiquidViolet
12-11-2004

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A dying man in the living room.
this line makes me cry.
He is there, but no one can help.
He's dying in the LIVING room...

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lisalynn
12-14-2004

Rated 0 
a little less than a human being
a little less than a happy high
a little less than a suicide
the only things that you really tried

these lines really got to me... man could he write and sing like no one else.. this entire album, a masterpiece

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nopoetic
12-20-2004

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its sad to think of what it would have been if he had lived to finish the intended double album...

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katei
12-20-2004

Rated 0 
Alot of people think that this song is about suicide and I really don't think it is. I think it is about putting his old life behind him and moving on, and promising himself "this is not what I'm like" and he's saying goodbye.
When he sings "really I just wanna dance" it gives me the chills, because Elliott loved to dance! Nobody knows that though, because the media portrays him as this depressed guy all the time, but he was a normal person who just "couldn't get things right." His friends remember him for his love of dancing, and he also loved to do the robot :-)

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a fond farewell
12-20-2004

Rated 0 
i believe this song is about various lives of his friends, but also relates to him. because the song has a pattern of telling the story and going into the chorus which says "This is not my life It's just a fond farewell to a friend" and he goes of to explain that he wasn't talking about himself. Then again, he could've been his own friend.

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NishFets
12-20-2004

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Hehe, Katei, you read the SPIN article? I thought it was adorable. That line makes it all the more poignant.

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seanm
12-21-2004

Rated 0 
I think the song's about heroin addiction.
"pitch burning on a shining sheet"
"veins full of disappearing ink"
"vomiting in the kitchen sink"
Really sad when you think about it.

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NeuroticSurgeon
12-22-2004

Rated 0 
This is a beautiful song.

As far as I'm concerned, the "friend" he is referring to is himself. If you consider what it means to have a friend, it's all about staying true to them even if you don't agree with everything that they do, but appreciating that they do have good parts to them. It's almost like Elliott Smith is looking back on his life, and accepting that there is a lot that he doesn't like about what he did, but also accepting that he is, intrinsically, a good person.

He's accepting that he is a complex person, and the media never realise this with celebrities: for them the litebrite and the pictures are "black and white", never grey. They've reduced him to a "dying man in a living room", and he's saying that that's not just him: he is SO MUCH MORE than that. Sure, he "couldn't get things right" but that never made him the depressed druggie he was made out to be.

The "I really wanna dance" comments above fits into this; he was a happy man and he did gain pleasure for some things. He wasn't perfect himself, he had both "good and evil" - a great romance; he was only human after all! He has a higher brain - spirituality? He can deal with pain, but because he's only human, he used drugs/heroin to do so (vomiting in the kitchen sink etc). At some point he did have to "disconnect" - Missing Link, here is really poignant. I think Smith felt his life was missing something and that's why he "disconnected" to drugs.

I really love the bit where he sings of the "cold comfort of the in-between"; it's as if no one appreciates how HUMAN he is; he's been reduced to "a little less than a human being" by others, a little less than a happy high/suicide - the two states of mind are extremes. There is no middle-state; humans experience both happiness and sorrow, and the media especially never recognised that in Smith.

I'm not sure about the whole suicide interpretation here actually, I think Smith explores what it means to be an individual and human rather than "oh my god I want to die". He finally recognises that there is no black and white to life, and that he HAS made mistakes, and making mistakes is a hard, but positive experience because you learn from them.

He has LEARNED from them - he is saying a "fond farewell" - fond because he realises he gained something from that part of his life, but a farewell because he has to move on and make himself a better person. Nice interpretation, no?

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roach133
12-23-2004

Rated 0 
my favorite song on this album...

is he talking about kicking his drug habit, his old life, himself???

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cannedfamine
12-28-2004

Rated 0 
The line "pitch burning on a shining sheet" stands out, often heroin use is sort of glamorized but only in the context of needles, lines like that are rare. Nothing's very glamorous about boiling smack off tinfoil, and the reference is disguised, people probably don't notice it unless they have first-hand experience with it whereas needle/vein references are obvious. The context of the song gives it away more though... but I really like that line.

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mulmo
12-29-2004

Rated 0 
nice interpretation, yes

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speed trials
12-30-2004

Rated 0 
someone up there said, "sing to the angels." This is probably my favorite post on the entire songmeanings.net. If there is a heaven and Elliot is singing to angels, then we have nothing to worry about.

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TransparentSunChild
12-30-2004

Rated 0 
i think you're talkin about my post...if there is a heaven, elliott'll be singing to the angels along with k. cobain, l. staley, and s. hoon. they all had majestic voices. we dont have to worry about elliott anymore, and hey, we have a really fine cd that says "goodbye".

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enigmatic_jess
01-04-2005

Rated 0 
I really love the guitar intro to this song... so emotive...

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kissthesky714
01-10-2005

Rated 0 
I think this is my favorite Elliott Smith song. The lyrics are amazing, the music is beautiful...*sigh*

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oldseawall
01-22-2005

Rated 0 
My favorite Elliott Smith song. The lyrics, the whole thing is so lovely. It's so sad and I think everyone can relate to it in some way. So much talent.

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