Lyrics for Angeles as interpreted by EnjOy IncUbus

Angeles Lyrics
Someone's always coming around here trailing some new kill
Says, "I seen your picture on a hundred dollar bill"
And what's a game of chance to you, to him is one of real skill
So glad to meet you
Angeles
Picking up the ticket shows there's money to be made
Go on and lose the gamble, that's the history of the trade
You add up all the cards left to play to zero
And sign up with evil
Angeles
Don't start me trying now
Because I'm all over it
Angeles
I could make you satisfied in everything you do
All your "secret wishes" could right now be coming true
And be forever with my poison arms around you
No one's going to fool around with us
No one's going to fool around with us
So glad to meet you
Angeles

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StarClaire
07-23-2002

Rated 0 
Yes, Elliott Smith's lyrics are damned good, but that's not even the best part of this song-the guitar...ooh, wow, it gives me chills just thinking about it. He is one talented man-Who cares whether or not he's attractive-he melts me with sounds.

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StarClaire
07-23-2002

Rated +1 
Oh, I forgot-this is my line, the one that kills me every time Elliott sings it-"I could make you satisfied in everything you do. All your 'secret wishes' could right now be coming true, and be forever with my poison arms around you. No one's gonna fool around with us."

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CONTROLDbyhatred
09-22-2002

Rated 0 
drugs. this has to be about drugs. sooo good.

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weezerock
09-26-2002

Rated 0 
If you ever want a girl just tell her "I could make you satisfied in everything you do, all your 'secret wishes' could right now be coming true "

Go get'em guys!


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thereverendcase
05-05-2003

Rated 0 
im having this song played at my funeral. and i think needle in the hay might be a bit more about drugs...mmmmh...hay

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MusicGuru
05-12-2003

Rated +2 
this song is about how elliot smith decided not to sell out and not to make music in los angeles where he would be sold. And he talks about the people scoutting him...


someone's always coming around here trailing some new kill
says i seen your picture on a hundred dollar bill
and what's a game of chance to you, to him is one of real skill

that line explains how they only saw him as money to be made.

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2 Replies
mon no jigoku
06-07-2003

Rated 0 
hm... it's amusing to see all you people commenting on this stuff when you've heard nearly nothing of elliott's. but anyway... while people say this is about drugs, it's not at all. musicguru was close. it's about los angeles and the hypocrisy of the music business. at the time he wrote this he had just moved to LA and was going to release his next album on the Dreamworks label (XO), but this one was on the portland-based indie one, Kill Rock Stars anyway. "go on, lose the gamble, that's the history of the trade." the whole scene was such a rise. you either make it or you don't. he evidently found all that hypocritical.

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kuppoppo2
06-07-2003

Rated 0 
acctually he had just moved to new york in '97. he didnt move to LA until '99 or so. he's said before in interviews that it's not about los angeles. and i actually do think this one is about drugs or alcohol. not all of the lyrics make sense for that reference, but if you think of "angeles" as a street that a bar or drug dealer is on...he's "met" a way to get his fix. the last 5 lines make the most sense, especially "i could make you satisfied in everything you do/all your 'secret wishes' could right now be coming true/and be forever with my poison arms around you." if you imagine that as the drugs/alcohol talking. so...yeah. :D

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mon no jigoku
06-08-2003

Rated 0 
*sticks out tongue at ben* fiiiiine. be that way.

well... hm. i don't know. this one... it doesn't really sound like an addiction to me. i don't know. maybe it's just my perspective. i never thought of this as drugs. it just really doesn't sound like it to my ears. it's too sweet. it's gentle. his other songs that are about addictions are so much harsher.

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unc1emoe
05-19-2004

Rated 0 
I believe mon no jigoku is right, and it's the last verse that has me convinced.
"I could make you satisfied in everything you do/
All your 'secret wishes' could right now be coming true/
And be forever with my poison arms around you"
The city has been personified and it's trying to entice people by promising fame and fortune when in actuality it has nothing good to offer.

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jellygoose
06-01-2004

Rated 0 
Yeah I agree with mon no jugoku also. Elliott's songs about drugs tend to be rough, and this isn't one of them. He was such an amazing artist

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1 Reply
man on tv
06-24-2004

Rated 0 
what drugs did elliot use? i heard he used heroine, but if he had that he probably had alot more

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man on tv
06-24-2004

Rated 0 
that was before he was an artist though ( i think )

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dorareever
07-04-2004

Rated 0 
yes i think it's about los angeles and has nothing to do with drugs, or better you can maybe read the last lines as referring to drugs, but it would only be a way to convey the general "corruption" that comes from the song.
I think it's about Los Angeles, and the "evil" that comes from the city, and I don't think it's exactly about refusing to play by the rules and being an outsider, but more sort of an hate-love thing.
It reminds me a lot of the last pages of Father Goriot. Sort of like a love song to a city that is a declaration of war at the same time.
Like trying to stay out and thinking about beating the city at its own game, but ending up corrupt.

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RvB_Church
09-24-2004

Rated 0 
Oh my Jesus, why does everyone think every Elliott Smith song ever is about drugs? Really. God damn.

Anyways, I agree with MusicGuru and mon no jigoku when they say it's about not selling out, and turning down all those major record labels. It makes so much sense. Elliott was good at hiding song meanings, but it was only minor subtlety.

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replicant212
10-06-2004

Rated 0 
doesnt "poison arms" refer to his years of heroine addiction and the result that it had on him? his poison arms? or does he mean the arms of the music "industry"? It can definitely be poisonous. I am up in the air on this one, if its about drugs alone, it doesnt make sense, and having worked in the industry, yeah I can vouch for his thoughts. All I know is that its a great song, he was so brilliant.

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replicant212
10-06-2004

Rated 0 
doesnt "poison arms" refer to his years of heroine addiction and the result that it had on him? his poison arms? or does he mean the arms of the music "industry"? It can definitely be poisonous. I am up in the air on this one, if its about drugs alone, it doesnt make sense, and having worked in the industry, yeah I can vouch for his thoughts. All I know is that its a great song, he was so brilliant.

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oldflashy
10-16-2004

Rated 0 
replicant212 -- it's a clever line that leaves you thinking. Like all good writers (and like in many of his songs), Elliott manages here to give us a song with many different interpretations - the whole thing can be read in different ways. Without sounding too arsey, the late Jacques Derrida would say that it doesn't matter what the original intention of the song was. It's a lovely, lovely song.

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pink_girl
11-14-2004

Rated 0 
i also heard that he said it was not about L.A. but then again he could just be trying to confusing people to make them think. he was known to hide song meanings though...if it's about LA, I don't think he'd name the song "angeles" because he wasn't that "flat" a writer...i definitely think the beginning is about the music industry. you don't have to be in LA to meet LA. I take it to mean the people from LA tracking him down. the end of the song, poison arms, seems like something he put in to signify the industry but wanted people to question if it related to drugs. i don't think it was about drugs , even at the end of the song, it was just a way for him to make you think - halfway through the song you think he's finally put out a really simple straight-line song. then at the end he throws in some things that sound like it could be drugs- he was so used to writing about addiction, wouldn't have been hard for him to throw in a few lines like that, but i don't think he was one to "throw" lines in regardless. he was into philosophy though, so the whole point of his songs are to convey many messages, only after you've mulled the meanings over in your head for a while though. i just want to know why he says "so glad to meet you" when he clearly doesn't love LA. maybe he's flattered? and i want to know he's "all over now" ...maybe he considered "the big time" for a second, but he's over thinking about it?

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CharleyIV
11-27-2004

Rated 0 
This is the first time I make a comment on a song. I found this page and the site a week ago looking for a guitar tab(which is a way to write out a guitar part) of the song to play it, which was strangely difficult to find. I found a good tab today when I came back to check the lyric out again.
At first I thought the song was about a group of people that he in the past associated with that had some bad habbits or something like that. But when I read it again today it hit me(I think) and it fits remarkebly well I believe.
Its about a gamebling addiction. It kinda nicely blends the first two verses with the last which is clearly about an addiction and a lot of the first two verses can be taken litteraly instead of some kind of metafor.

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precipitate
11-27-2004

Rated 0 
one of my favorite's

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IveBeenBroken
11-28-2004

Rated 0 
Why the fuck isnt my name at the top of all thease elliott smith songs? i posted more than half of them...

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lisalynn
12-14-2004

Rated 0 
i first heard this song when watching good will hunting years ago and it blew me away.. sadly i never got really into elliots music till i heard of his death and hearing that someone who with a few songs in a movie made me think he was brilliant, had died, i finally looked into his music and realized that it was all brilliant and i was a fool for not realizing earlier and now i will never get the joy of seeing him perform this brilliance live. To me this song was very much about the music industry.. i am heavily reminded of pink floyds song "have a cigar". Him saying its not about LA was a total throw off, he was not one to give away his meaning - his songs were all very multi layered with many interesting references, they are never about just one thing. He was the closest thing this generation has to Bob Dylan.

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katei
12-20-2004

Rated 0 
I also think Elliott was too subtle to be talking about something like LA in a song like this. I can just immagine him meeting up with someone and they are trying to convince him that drugs will truly "satisfy" him. I don't think it's about an addiction, I think it's about the beginning when you still shoot up to fulfil your "wishes," not because you need it to get by.

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greener99
12-20-2004

Rated 0 
I think the Angel is Lucifer, he's being ironic, the music industry is full of devils! The "Have a Cigar" comment is right.

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