Smith, Elliott - Waltz #1 Lyrics

Who knew Lydian could sound so dark?

fun fact: elliott wrote this song in LA during a 2day mushroom bender

If I EVER committed suicide, waltz 1 &2 would be on repeat.

You can have your Starry Night.....

Elliot, you beautiful beautiful man.

This song is in C# major but Elliott’s fearless use of the tritone (G natural, the most dissonant note to C#) as the STARTING note of the melody is CHILLING. Similar use in Everything Means Nothing To Me chorus bit. It sounds absolutely haunted. Elliott was really daring in his musical vocabulary.

Love you Elliott, wherever you are. Happy 50th to a true American troubadour.

Gets me every time.

god i wish i was dead

A friend of mine covered Waltz #2, it's on my channel.
Let me know what you think!

Lo que no se supo decir se convirtió en este Waltz.
Y pese a todo, aún te recuerdo pleno en esta canción...

What was I suppose to say?

Everytime the day darkens down
And goes away, pictures open
In my head of me and you
Silent and cliche all the things
We did and didn't say
Covered up, by what we did and didn't do
Going through
Every hour I used to cope to make
The repetition stop
What was I supposed to say?
Oh
Now I never leave my zone, we're both alone
I'm going home
I wish I'd never seen your face

Someone, please, write here what this song is about; or what it means to you?
I don't know, I' d like to read.

As someone with depression for years now, I wonder, does anyone without depression ever imagine what it feels like?

I often have this thought but in reverse. It's boggling to me that people can go through life without their own mental illnesses holding them back.

I assure you there is a way out of depression, although it may seem hard or impossible to believe right now. If someone had told me that, when I was in the grip of my own depression, which lasted for years, I wouldn't have believed them. Yet, here I am, 5 years later, well and alive.

so nice

Perfection. Any analysis or contemplation is futile. Absorb it.

I want to dance to this with the love of my life, wherever they are. Hell, I don’t even know if they exist

I always wish for comments like I just read down below to happen in real life when I show people this song, but it never happens.. "Its pretty good...."

"I wish I'd never seen your face"

I wish I had never seen your face

Hauntingly beautiful. Thanks elliot for helping me through some rough years.

Like a punch in your face ... Elliot always does that with grace and love.

goodbye yellow brick road

This song is another level of mind. So great. Full.of emotions

Elliot Smith, you were too beautiful for this world. This is nothing but true perfection.

Fuck... this song is beyond

When I first heard needle in the hay in the royal tenenbaums 16 years ago, I immediately had goosebumps and continued to replay the Luke Wilson shaving scene over and over.

Elliott was able to do something special with his music to impress is general sense of melancholy, while maintaining a sort of innocence in his tone

This is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful songs I've heard to date and it still gives me chills after all these years

[C# - Bbm - F# - C#]

[C#]Everytime the day darkens down
and goes away, pictures [Bbm]open
in my [F#]head of me and [C#]you

[C#]Silent and cliche all the things
we did and didn't say
covered [Bbm]up, by what we [F#]did and didn't do
going [G#]through

Every [Ebm]out I used to [F]cop to make
the [F#]repetition [G#]stop
what was I supposed to [C#]say?

[C# - Bbm - F# - C#] [C# - Bbm - F# - G#]

Now I [Ebm]never leave my [F]zone, we're both a[F#]lone
I'm going [G#]home
I wish I'd never seen your [C#]f[C#/C - C#/Bb][F#]ace

[F#]

Simon vs Homo Sapiens Agenda ...

Mushrooms on the yellow brick road lol

Guy smiley

at first i didnt know what to write. It seems to be such a no brainer and so cliche to say it is perfect. So for lack of a better word, this song is just that. Perfect

Every hour I used to cope to make
The repetition stop
What was I supposed to say?

special...

Criminally underrated. One of his saddest songs and of course one of the most beautiful of them all.

Aqman Druunk criminally being the operative word.

Someone knows some songs with the sound similar to this one?

Try "4th Of July" by Aimee Mann, or "Fourth Of July" by Sufjan Stevens.

Been trying to rediscover this artist for over a year now. Finally found him on Rick and Morty.

This sounds like it should have been on the Donnie Darko soundtrack.

Reminds me of the Piano when he meets Gretchen Ross. Glad to see I wasn’t the only one who thought so

but this didn't exist at the time donnie darko is set so they wanted to keep it true to what was around in 1988

breathtaking

I wish I had never seen her face. She haunts me. She will never leave me alone. She will keep coming back and coming back just to prove that she can.

1 of the all time greatest & saddest song's, IMHO! Make's you feel like you're being coddled in the solemn arm's of heartache....

this is on a columbine song playlist bYe

I once daneced to this with someone, and that moment will never leave me. thank you elliott

I have the same with Between The Bars! So amazing

That's awesome!

OK. I've hurt myself enough today. Thank you.

Honesty in music.

Chills. Every time.

I can releate to this song a lot right now Elliot Smith makes me feel.emotions and not to hide them and keep shit in

Pure magic.

Very Nice!!!

How can anyone not love this?

The best !

Man, this bring me to tears. Love you Elliott.

For any other music theory nerds out there, this song is written in Lydian, which is not used often.
This song is incredible.

haha I just learned about how the modes work and this was the first song that came to my mind for lydian!

Yes it is.

I accidentally made a song in lydian mode and i searched for the moods of each of the modes and a site referred this song to me and here i am.Listening to this beautiful piece.I think if any of the modes represents my feelings,lydian must be it :)

I am a self taught guitarist. Everytime I play in a certain key. I learn the scale that goes with it. I decided to learn the lydian scale instead of the pentatonic scale. I was pleasantly surprised how good it sounded.

Lydian mode brough me here as well

'what was I suppose to say?'

I wish I'd never seen your face...

I wish I'd never seen your FAAAAAAAA---AAAAAAAAA---AAAAAAAAACCEEEEEE...

Thanks Elliott.

I love this song so much.

So yeah...this song is simply mindblowing.

Sooo...Beautiful !!!!!

Everytime Elliott plays the 3/4, magic occurs!!!

"What was I supposed to say?" Soooo haunting...

my heart!!! :( the feels... but yet so beautiful. <3

wow is everyone deaf? am I only one hearing the falsetto?

cleric022684 what? Why would you think or assume this? Just such a pointless comment lol...

Now I never leave alone my zone, We´re both alone :(

+Pablo Sinuhé I'm going home

I have no Idea why, but this song reminds me of Kingdom Hearts...

i can only imagine the 8 thumbs down are people in such pain they can't bear this. i feel for them.

Anyone that gives this a thumbs down doesn't have a pulse.

Pray for them.

I love this song!!!

This song, and Everything Means Nothing to Me, is as close to musical perfection as you can get.

Alexis Aguero source for that first story?

XenomorphLV426 you are perfect, kid.

XenomorphLV426 YES!

yeah...they are great - especially the one from symp #6 (and the famous one from the 5th)

To me they are perfection. They're the unreachable goal I try and graze with every song I write. This song is atemporal. It's always been there, and Elliott just knew how to bring it to the world. What a genius. I miss him even though I never met him. Rest easy man ❤

I'm hidden somewhere between the notes

somewhere BETWEEN THE BARS

best comment i've ever seen on youtube no lie

in loop for ever..

such a tremendous wrenching song.  i have had it on loop for three days.  so very profound to me. kind of like a decent into madness a little, with the piano. I love this song to death. i know that sounds goofy, but i don't care.

+Judy A. Colbert I agree. You can feel a bit of his soul in this one. Dark, indeed.

Yes. So sad, the descent into ending your life.

It doesn't sound goofy at all. What you said resonates with me in many ways, as I've felt this way, here and there, off and on, over the years with certain music, at certain times in my life, u know what I mean.

Hauntingly beautiful!

une découverte !

I love you V

The album XO just makes me cry. 

That's the real me somewhere in between in this song

A few summers ago a good friend of my dad's killed himself and I used to come downstairs at night when I couldn't sleep and listen to this. I love you, Elliott.

!!!!!!!!!!!

sad and poignant, beautiful and melancholic

Did Elliott stab himself or what was it, a drug deal? Does anyone have any accurate  idea?

Courtney Love killed him

he stabbed himself in the heart between the ribs after an argument with his girlfriend. 

this is so haunting and beautiful RIP

i love him, forever... just like you, who will like my comment

I wish I'd never seen your face. ;(

Sure. I never read that he was depressed, though. Maybe I didn't read enough.

you don't think John Lennon had mental health issues?

He always reminds me of John Lennon, if Lennon had been clinically depressed and a lot nicer of a person.

Nice I didn't realize this song was written in lydian mode. I am used to playing mostly in dorian and mixolydian for irish music.

i wish i've never seen your face..

Db Lydian. :)

Beautiful.Haunting. What a genius. xo

he's talking to god or something here...

i'm thankful that Elliott was kind enough to leave us all of this incredible music before he left us.

SporadicMovementz we didn't deserve him anyway..

saddest song i have heard.hands down

Utter perfection.

I have goosebumps. Beautiful.

It makes perfect sense to me that E.S. took mushrooms then wrote this. I could imagine this being written while extremely emotionally drained from a big mushroom trip but also unable to sleep and In a sort of delirium. The melody is so beautiful and understated, but at the same time totally foreign and strange.

yep. I agree.