Know something about this song or lyrics?
Add it to our wiki.
Here's the silhouette
The face always turned away
The bleeding color gone to black
Dying like a day
Couldn't figure out what made you so unhappy
Shook your head to say no no no
And stopped for a spell
And stayed that way
Oh well, okay
I got pictures, I just don't see it anymore
Climbing hour upon hour through a total bore
With the one I keep where it never fades
In the safety of a pitch black mind
An airless cell that blocks the day
Oh well, okay
If you a get a feeling the next time you see me
Do me a favor and let me know
'Cause it's hard to tell
It's hard to say
Oh well, okay
Oh well, okay
Oh well, okay
The face always turned away
The bleeding color gone to black
Dying like a day
Couldn't figure out what made you so unhappy
Shook your head to say no no no
And stopped for a spell
And stayed that way
Oh well, okay
I got pictures, I just don't see it anymore
Climbing hour upon hour through a total bore
With the one I keep where it never fades
In the safety of a pitch black mind
An airless cell that blocks the day
Oh well, okay
If you a get a feeling the next time you see me
Do me a favor and let me know
'Cause it's hard to tell
It's hard to say
Oh well, okay
Oh well, okay
Oh well, okay
Lyrics submitted by EnjOy IncUbus
Track duration: 03:06
"Oh Well, Okay" as written by Steven P. Smith
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
"If you get a feeling it's time you've seen me, do me a favor and let me know."
The original line is just as good, though, and regardless of where you place a comma or take one out to change the meaning, it's gold.
The song's building up to this line. He loves the person but they mess with him. The relationship is unhealthy. Encounters only leave him wondering what went wrong. He's ultimately saying if you get a feeling next time you see me, WARN me. Let me know... Warn me so I don't fall for it all over again.
It's typical of people to say this when they're in a situation where they clearly care more than the other person. It's like, give me a heads up that you're going to mess with me because I'm so into you I won't see it coming. But at the same time not blaming them for messing because they're playing the bigger person. Elliott plays the bigger person in most of him songs. Or at least he tries and then relishes in the fact that he can't.
Climbing hour upon hour through a total bore
With the one I keep where it never fades
In the safety of a pitch black mind
An airless cell that blocks the day
Tempting to assume "the safety of a pitch black mind" refers to self-numbing via drugs, but I'm wary of this; I think we all tend to read references to drugs in Elliott's songs, when he may have intended something else. As others have mentioned, the song is a vivid evocation of depression. If you've been there, you know what he means by a "pitch black mind." (This also fits with the earlier line: a daily struggle which feels endless, boring and pointless because of the inability to maintain interest, or feel pleasure.) When I hear him sing about the endless cell, I think of (metaphorical) self-confinement: what William Blake called "mind-forged manacles."
Elliott refers to picture(s) in "Sweet Adeline" also. Does he literally mean photographs (which can be cut apart with scissors, as the other song suggests), or pictures in one's head? Memories. Ones you'd like to keep, but most often would rather not look at.
Recently I read an excerpt from the autobiography of a doctor. (Here I'm thinking of what blackout2oo7 wrote.) At a symposium attended primarily by psychiatrists, she spoke of lying awake nights wondering about that mistake she might have made, the one which could cost a patient their life. Other attendees said they could sympathize: but that if you've never been a therapist with many patients who are suicidal, you can only begin to imagine what the worst of those sleepless nights are like. If I'm ever having doubts about therapy because of the financial cost, I try to remember how--more than once--my doctor has fought for my life.
Ethan's description of Elliott's voice, "clear water," is perfect. Some critics complain his voice is too even...not expressive enough. Have they never heard him sing live? Regardless...I don't think every singer needs histrionics to give a moving performance. Mark Eitzel for example; I like his music, but sometimes I wish he'd dial it down a bit.
I too have wondered whether the "you" is someone he knows, or whether this is an internal dialogue.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
favourite elliot smith song.
I think the recurring images are one of the best things about Elliott Smith's music. If you listen to enough of his songs it's almost like a mythology with the metaphors (... sometimes I want to make an Aarne- Thompson style classification of them! :p)
<3