King's Crossing

Basic summary:

This is a song about Smith's regret over using his Good Will Hunting residuals/added fame on heroin and crack cocaine.

The carnival game metaphors are an extended metaphor for the gamble he takes every time he shoots up. You get the repeated implication that Smith is walking a boardwalk (The Santa Monica pier perhaps), possibly the location where we was going to buy some heroin/crack.

As he looks at his surroundings, he realizes that he is gambling every time he shoots up, because an overdose could kill him.

Alternately, the carnival imagery is not literal, but rather a reference to the balloon that the heroin came in.

The core narrative is about Smith's internal dialogue as he nears a relapse and his feelings after he does relapse.

"Give me one good reason not to do it" is not a suicide allusion, it is cry for help, begging someone to give him a way out of shooting up again.

Line-by-line analysis:

"The king's crossing was the main attraction Dominos are falling in a chain reaction The scraping subject ruled by fear told me Whiskey works better than beer"

The first stanza details the events that lead up to his relapse. First it is beer, then someone, possibly his drug dealer or another addict, offers him some whiskey. The line "Scraping subject" alludes to the practice of trying to get every last bit of black tar heroin from a piece of tinfoil, scraping it back up to the top and smoking the remnants in fear of getting dopesick.

"The judge is on vinyl, decisions are final And nobody gets a reprieve And every wave is tidal If you hang around You're going to get wet"

The judge in the second stanza is a metaphor for Smith's conscience and his fear/knowledge that he will never get clear. He can recover and go straight for a while, but he will always end up back in the prison of his addiction. The judge is on vinyl because the cycle of his addiction has been detailed in almost all of his previous songs. The ruling is there before the court case even begins.

"I can't prepare for death any more than I already have All you can do now is watch the shells The game looks easy, that's why it sells Frustrated fireworks inside your head Are going to stand and deliver talk instead The method acting that pays my bills Keeps the fat man feeding in Beverly Hills I got a heavy metal mouth that hurls obscenity And I get my check from the trash treasury Because I took my own insides out"

In the third stanza, Smith considers suicide as an alternative to relapsing. The carnival metaphors return, possibly bringing us back to the present tense of the narrative as he waits to buy the heroin/sits at home with the balloon of heroin on his table. He bemoans his helplessness in the face of the drugs and warns the listener that "The game looks easy, that's why it sells." Every addict starts out thinking, "I'm not going to be that guy. I won't be an addict" but then you inevitably become one and life turns into a shell game, waiting for the bad batch that will put you in the ground.

Smith is a "Method actor" because he is getting inside the 'character' of Elliott Smith by relapsing on drugs because he cannot write without them. On a second level, he is also bemoaning that the Hollywood money from Miss Misery and the added fame of his Oscar Nomination has lead only to more money to spend on heroin. The trash treasury is wordplay on heroin's street name, "Junk." It also seems like a commentary on Smith's awareness that his addiction makes someone very rich.

"It don't matter because I have no sex life All I want to do now is inject my ex-wife I've seen the movie And I know what happens"

Here, Smith discusses anhedonia; the inability to find pleasure that is common among schizophrenics and heroin addicts. He cannot maintain an erection/orgasm. Even when you're clean, the lack of sexual functioning, ability to feel pleasure or an orgasm can continue for months. Heroin is his 'Ex-wife.' He was clean for a while, but now he is going back to her. The lyric further employs wordplay to put Smith in a feminized position. He feels emasculated because he cannot function sexually and now he is being penetrated by the feminine heroin. The movie metaphor, a reference to living near Hollywood, his music appearing in films and the perceived 'glamor' of heroin in media, continues.

"It's Christmas time And the needles on the tree A skinny Santa is bringing something to me His voice is overwhelming But his speech is slurred And I only understand every other word"

This stanza places the narrative in time. It's December. Alternately, it is a metaphor for Smith feeling like this is the end for him. He juxtaposes the innocence and purity of the baby Jesus with his own defiled state. The pure Jesus could also be a metaphor for switching from smoking black tar heroin to injecting the more pure china white. Also, pine needles turn into heroin needles for injecting. "Santa Claus" is a heroin dealer making a delivery to his house, possibly because Smith is dopesick and can no longer go out and get it himself. The dealer is high too. Maybe the shoot up together and the dealer begins to nod.

"Open your parachute and grab your gun Falling down like an omen, a setting sun Read the part and return at five It's a hell of a role if you can keep it alive"

Smith feels at war with himself, so he extends the acting metaphor from before to imply that his 'method acting' of heroin addiction is part of his audition for a war movie.

"But I don't care if I fuck up I'm going on a date With a rich white lady Ain't life great?"

Smith gives up on sobriety and dives back in to full blown heroin addiction. The "rich white lady" could be either high grade china white heroin or possibly cocaine, which is sometimes referred to as, 'White girl.' However, I'm not sure about the cocaine interpretation. Smith did have a problem with cocaine/crack, but, "White girl" is a bit hip-hop for his sensibilities.

"Give me one good reason not to do it (Because we love you) So do it"

This is actually an older song. Smith performed it for years before ever recording it. At his shows, he would sing this song and his girlfriend/close friends would yell out, "Because we love you!" This line was not part of his original writing, nor was it included in the recorded version until after his death. The line itself is a moment of clarity. Smith is begging for something to keep him away from the drugs.

"This is the place where time reverses Dead men talk to all the pretty nurses Instruments shine on a silver tray Don't let me get carried away Don't let me get carried away Don't let me be carried away"

Smith looks forward in time now, thinking about his next trip to rehab where they try and put you back into the state you were in before the addiction. The, 'Dead men' are the old addicts flirting with the nurse staff. The song closes by returning to the original metaphor of the carnival setting on the pier. He is getting carried away with his addictions and by the metaphorical wave that gets everyone wet.