I think the first line -- "activity's killing the actor" -- together with the "cop turning traffic away" language -- is using a murder as a metaphor for some kind of irreparable damage to someone's personality that occurs as a result of that person's encounter with the world. In other words, what happened in that person's life ("the activity") killed something inside of that person ("the actor"). While I'm not sure Elliott Smith is singing about himself, I wouldn't be surprised if this line was inspired by traumas he is said to have experienced in his own childhood -- and a sense they resulted in something wrong with him that could never be fixed, at least not until his death or some other radical separation from who he is.
The next set of lines similarly emphasizes that the deep-seated problem he's talking about is something that no one else can fix: "There was nothing she could do until after. When his body been buried below." I think that means that whatever it is that's been killed inside of him is already dead -- and more than dead, buried -- and so those people who might hope revive him and restore his ability to live a happy life are fooling themselves.
And, as with other themes in his songs, this theme --the theme of something deeply wrong in a person's life that can never be fixed -- comes up repeatedly in his lyrics: e.g., in Division Day ("naked except for a perpetual debt that couldn't be stripped away -- an unrightable wrong"); in Pitseleh ("i'm so angry i don't think it'll ever pass"); I Didn't Understand ("my feelings never change a bit i always feel like shit i don't know why i guess that i just do").
And as in some of these songs, I think "Happiness" is also about how, when a person is damaged inside, that damage can cause pain (or worse) to other people which is why it only makes it worse for that person to "involv[e] somebody else" in his life.
I think the first line -- "activity's killing the actor" -- together with the "cop turning traffic away" language -- is using a murder as a metaphor for some kind of irreparable damage to someone's personality that occurs as a result of that person's encounter with the world. In other words, what happened in that person's life ("the activity") killed something inside of that person ("the actor"). While I'm not sure Elliott Smith is singing about himself, I wouldn't be surprised if this line was inspired by traumas he is said to have experienced in his own childhood -- and a sense they resulted in something wrong with him that could never be fixed, at least not until his death or some other radical separation from who he is.
The next set of lines similarly emphasizes that the deep-seated problem he's talking about is something that no one else can fix: "There was nothing she could do until after. When his body been buried below." I think that means that whatever it is that's been killed inside of him is already dead -- and more than dead, buried -- and so those people who might hope revive him and restore his ability to live a happy life are fooling themselves.
And, as with other themes in his songs, this theme --the theme of something deeply wrong in a person's life that can never be fixed -- comes up repeatedly in his lyrics: e.g., in Division Day ("naked except for a perpetual debt that couldn't be stripped away -- an unrightable wrong"); in Pitseleh ("i'm so angry i don't think it'll ever pass"); I Didn't Understand ("my feelings never change a bit i always feel like shit i don't know why i guess that i just do").
And as in some of these songs, I think "Happiness" is also about how, when a person is damaged inside, that damage can cause pain (or worse) to other people which is why it only makes it worse for that person to "involv[e] somebody else" in his life.