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Why are you here
Couldn't you tell him
Were you afraid he'd hear
You should have been thankful to be alone
You took off your shoes
Said anything further would be bad news
Because you'd already started to disappear
And he couldn't complain
Just looked at your lyric and crossed over to play
A record of quiet instrumentals
And I like what you wrote
This is a record full of sour notes
You should've been thankful to be alone
And I like what you wrote
But don't say you mean it when you know you don't
You should have been thankful to be alone, you know
You should have been thankful to be alone, you know
You should have been thankful to be alone
Couldn't you tell him
Were you afraid he'd hear
You should have been thankful to be alone
You took off your shoes
Said anything further would be bad news
Because you'd already started to disappear
And he couldn't complain
Just looked at your lyric and crossed over to play
A record of quiet instrumentals
And I like what you wrote
This is a record full of sour notes
You should've been thankful to be alone
And I like what you wrote
But don't say you mean it when you know you don't
You should have been thankful to be alone, you know
You should have been thankful to be alone, you know
You should have been thankful to be alone
Lyrics submitted by nomshybrides
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So my take on this song is that Elliott has gone to visit someone he never expected himself to visit, to show them his lyrics and get their response to his music. I think this person features heavily in his lyrics, that that by writing the songs he was able to "tell him" something that he was unable to say otherwise [Why are you here?; Couldn't you tell him?; Were you afraid he'd hear?]. He takes off his shoes, but not his coat, or anything else because that "Would be bad news" (because he was leaving soon [disappearing] anyway?) So the man looks at his lyrics, "couldn't complain" and went and put on a different record, importantly a record without lyrics, a record "of quiet instrumentals" (presumably by Antonios Carlos Jobim). The man lies and tells him he liked his lyrics, his music, his collection of sour notes (painfull moments?). Elliott knows it's a lie, the man knows it's a lie.
Knowing a little about Elliott's history, it's easy to think this is about him showing Roman Candle to his step-father, who did feature heavily in the lyrics of that album and it's B-sides. But who knows, and unlike the songs which actually mention his step-father by name (Some Song, No Confidence Man, Flowers for Charlie), I don't want to make too many assumptions in this case, but it makes sense to me.
My one question: Who should have been thankful to be alone, the man or Elliott?
It's, in the end, a stoic mantra or lie that Elliott tells himself: "Be thankful to be alone, to be on your lonely path of being Elliott Smith."