Status

Elliott Smith Song

Written By

Elliott Smith

Recording Sessions

Early 1997 (Jackpot! Studios, Portland, OR - Early Jackpot! sessions) - “early version”
Mid-1997 - Mid-January 1998 (Jackpot! Studios, Portland, OR - Final Jackpot! sessions pre-Dreamworks) - additional tracking
January 8, 1998 (MTV Studios, New York, NY - MTV Indie Outing) - unofficially circulating
March 5, 1998 (MTV Studios, New York, NY - MTV Live) - unofficially circulating
November 29, 1998 (NOB Audiostation 1, Hilversum, Netherlands - 2 Meter Sessies) - unofficially circulating

Availability of Official Release

Good Will Hunting soundtrack
New Moon (early version)
Heaven Adores You (not a studio recording, soundboard recording of live performance at Late Night with Conan O'Brien from March 4, 1998, in New York, NY)

Lyrics

I’ll fake it through the day
With some help from johnny walker red
Send the poison rain down the drain
To put bad thoughts in my head
Two tickets torn in half
And a lot of nothing to do
Do you miss me, miss misery
Like you say you do?

A man in the park
Read the lines in my hand
Told me I’m strong
Hardly ever wrong I said man you mean

You had plans for both of us
That involved a trip out of town
To a place I’ve seen in a magazine
That you left lying around
I don’t have you with me but
I keep a good attitude
Do you miss me, miss misery
Like you say you do?

I know you’d rather see me gone
Than to see me the way that I am
But I am in the life anyway

Next door the tv’s flashing
Blue frames on the wall
It’s a comedy of errors, you see
It’s about taking a fall
To vanish into oblivion
Is easy to do
And I try to be but you know me
I come back when you want me to
Do you miss me miss misery
Like you say you do?

Early version lyrics

I’ll fake it through the day 
With some help from Johnny Walker Red
And the cold pain behind my eyes
That shoots back through my head
With two tickets torn in half
In a lot with nothing to do
But it’s all right, because some enchanted night
I’ll be with you

Tarot cards and the lines in my hand
Tell me I’m wrong, but they’re untrue

I got plans for both of us
That involve a trip out of town
To a place I’ve seen in a magazine
That you left lying around
I can’t hold my liquor but
I keep a good attitude
Because it’s all right, some enchanted night
I’ll be with you

And though you’d rather see me gone
Then to see there come the day
I’ll be waiting for you anyway

Next door, the TV’s flashing
Blue frames on the wall
Its a comedy from the seventies
With a lead no one recalls
He vanished into oblivion
It’s easy to do
And I cried a sea when you talked to me
The day you said we were through
But it’s all right, some enchanted night
I’ll be with you

First known live performance

1997-07-17 (Rivoli, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

Audio/Video

Audio (early version)