It’s ironic that heart is the biggest word appearing on this wordle creation made with the lyrics of Elliott Smith’s ‘A Distorted Reality is now a Necessity to be Free’, one of the songs figuring on his posthumous album.
‘Heart’, but also ‘shine’, ‘raining’, ‘baby’, two
weather terms and one affectionate one, for a song that so many have interpreted to be about drugs,… it does not show up. It actually oscillates between the religious with ‘God’, Easter’, ‘virgin’, ‘devil’ and the dark side with ‘fuck’, ‘OD’, ‘distorted’, ‘acid’,… ‘virgin’ and ‘white’ against ‘black’ and ‘blackbird.
It is as if Elliott Smith was ‘in between’, trying to get free, free from a distorted reality, free from drugs, free from the bullshit of the music industry, free from hypocrisy, and this duality in the song may well be representing just this desire of new freedom from illusion and false reality.
There are actually two versions of the songs using different lyrics, and the other one gives a whole different perspective on the song. But I prefer this weather metaphor, it was raining on his heart and Elliott wanted his baby to shine on it.