Elliott Smith - I Didn’t Understand | Info on every Elliott song!

Status

Elliott Smith Song

Alternate Titles/Versions:

Watch the Worlds Collide

Written By

Elliott Smith

Recording Sessions

1997 (Location Unknown - Grand Mal Demos) - uncirculating
Mid-1997 - Mid-January 1998 (Jackpot! Studios, Portland, OR - Final Jackpot! sessions pre-Dreamworks) - unofficially circulating
March-April 1998 (Sunset Sound Studios; Sound Factory Studios - Primary XO Sessions) - two versions recorded; one officially circulating and one uncirculating
April 1998 (Sunset Sound Studios; Sound Factory Studios - XO Strings Sessions) - additional tracking which is uncirculating
November 29, 1998 (NOB Audiostation 1, Hilversum, Netherlands - 2 Meter Sessies) - unofficially circulating

Availability of Official Release

Lyrics

Thought you’d be looking for the next in line to love

Then ignore, put out, and put away

And so you’d soon be leaving me alone like I’m supposed to be

Tonight, tomorrow, and every day

There’s nothing here that you’ll miss

I can guarantee you this is a cloud of smoke

Trying to occupy space

What a fucking joke

I waited for a bus to separate the both of us

And take me off, far away from you

‘Cos my feelings never change a bit

I always feel like shit

I don’t know why, I guess that I just do

You once talked to me about love

And you painted pictures of a never never land

And I could have gone to that place

But I didn’t understand

I didn’t understand

“Watch the Worlds Collide” version (Mid-1997 - Early 1998 demo)

everybody’s looking for the next in line to love

then ignore, put out and put away

and i’d be happy just to be

relieved from duty right away

i know what’s going to happen to me

when people talk about love

they’re painting pictures of

someone’s pretty side

but go look yourself in the face

and watch the worlds collide

waiting for a bus to take my thoughts away from us

and drop me off far away from you

‘cause my feelings haven’t changed a bit

i’m waiting to get over it

but i know what it is i have to do

when people talk about love

they’re painting pictures of someone’s pretty side

i look myself in the face

and watch the worlds collide

watch the worlds collide

Note

An early live version on July 29, 1997 included the line “So don’t talk to me about love / Or paint me pictures of my one pretty side / When you’ve seen us both in my face / Watch the worlds collide, watch the worlds collide”

Audio

Jackpot Demo

Live performance on August 12, 1998 at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, NJ

View comments on the original page