Elliott Smith – Clementine

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They're waking you up to close the bar
The street's wet you can tell by the sound of the cars
The bartender's singing clementine
While he's turning around the open sign

Dreadful sorry clementine
Though you're still her man
It seems a long time gone
Maybe the whole thing's wrong

What if she thinks so but just didn't say so?
You drank yourself into slo-mo
Made an angel in the snow
Anything to pass the time

And keep that song out of yr mind
Oh my darling
Oh my darling
Oh my darling clementine

Dreadful sorry clementine

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Lyrics submitted by EnjOy IncUbus, edited by Memento22Mori

Track duration: 02:46

"Clementine" as written by Steven P. Smith

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Clementine song meanings
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35 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:what i get from this song is just random thoughts about a girl while drinking alone at a bar. maybe something he just scribbled down on a bar napkin.

    regardless, i love the imagery he uses in this song. "the street's wet you can tell by the sound of the cars." it's just so incredible in its simplicity and allows the listener to enter a similar state of mind as when he may have written the song. awesome.
    Flag asouthern729on April 24, 2013   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I think this song is about a man who's completely down on his luck. Sure, he's just lost his girlfriend, but the fact that the bartender is singing "Clementine" leads me to believe that even in his safe haven(the bar) he's unable to escape his dismal thoughts. I also think that the "The street's wet, you can tell by the sound of the cars" alludes to the narrator's inevitable sadness. I don't think that bartender is actually singing; I think that line is more a metaphor to the bartender's acts of closing the bar and general uncaring of Elliott's situation. Not only is he without Clementine but is reminded that the one scapegoat he has (drinking at a bar) is pushing him away now to face the 'wet streets', thus forcing him to think of his loss. Just a thought.
    Flag martingroomson May 12, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think he's saying sorry to Clementine because it's the damn millionth time someone has sung that song for her and it wasn't clever the first time.
    Flag kamalmanzukieon December 06, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:agreed. i think this must have inspired some part of the movie, it's too coincidental to not have. and the movie came out in 2004... totally possible, right?
    Flag asafebeton November 18, 2009   Link
  • 0
    Memory:this reminds me of eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.
    Flag macerzzon December 07, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i think this song is about watching love drown--and being incapable of rescuing it. its no coincidence im sure that the folk character of clemintine (who is seen drowning by her aquatically challenged lover)
    is parelleled against a man 'drinking (him)self into slo-mo'--an act often referred to as 'drowning in a glass'. its also not so uncommon to hit a bar and get shitty after ending a relationship. so perhaps the narrator feels broke a girls heart and feels the relationship went under because he is inept, and is feeling the remose into the stormy closing hours of a bar, with that guilt-ridden reassurance stuck in his head, "dreadful sorry, clemintine."
    Flag hopeless_opuson March 10, 2008   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:"The street's wet, you can tell by the sound of the cars..."

    It really doesn't get any better than this, does it?
    Flag soupytwiston January 27, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i fucking love this song thats pretty much all i have to say.
    Flag beck112on November 22, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:well this one seems more literal than most of his other songs.....a guy gets drunk and falls asleep at a bar and the bartender wakes him up as he is closing the bar.

    he is either in a relationship that isnt true, or he is still in love with someone else.

    "Anything to pass the time
    And keep that song out of your mind"

    drinking to forget a past love that will haunt you forever.
    Flag bubbamooon October 12, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:also, i think the reason my first inclination was that the drunk was a girl named clementine is that she's a regular at the bar and so the bartender knows her name and so was singing the song. but even that doesn't make complete sense (wouldn't he know she hates it?)
    Flag eyore596on September 20, 2007   Link

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