I don’t know when it’s gonna stop, Kill Rock Stars keeps releasing unheard versions of some Elliott Smith’s songs, and this time, it’s an alternate version of ‘Punch and Judy’. If ‘Needle in the Hay’ and ‘Alameda’ were alt-releases still close to the original songs, this new one is quite different from the version we all know, featured on ‘Either/Or’. I would even say that it is a totally different song, the music and the lyrics are totally reworked and the ‘new’ song (to us) has taken another direction around the traditional puppet show characters, the violent Punch beating his wife Judy.
Whereas the original song was all dreamy sounding with Elliott’s soft vocals talking about making the same mistake twice, the music of this new version takes a more aggressive tone with a more audible drumming and several changes of direction during the song. From one wallflower to one wallpaper, the new story isn’t clearer (as always with Elliott) but may be more nightmarish than dreamy, with lyrics evoking danger and conflict, like ‘In the alley, mixing blood cheek-to-cheek’, ‘She had a dream of bandages on Punch’s wrist’, and ‘You’re up against the words you never could dare to speak’.
Listen to it below and go buy it on the Kill Rock Stars bandcamp page: