This might just be my favorite Song About Another Singer. Well no shit, you’re saying. He’s fucking singing about Elliott Smith and you manage to include one of his songs in every single fucking theme week you think up. Enough already, we get it!
Um, excuse me. This is a good goddamn song, one songwriter to another. It’s poignant, and I hate using that word. (Note: the song fades out too early at the end of this video for some reason, but it’s the best vid I could find on youtube that wasn’t some emo 12-year-old playing it on his Casio keyboard).
“Late” / Ben Folds (2005)
The lyrics:
Under some dirty words on a dirty wall
Eating takeout by myself
I played the shows
Got back in the van and put the Walkman on
And you were playing
In some other dive a thousand miles away
I played a thousand times before
And like pathetic stars, the truck stops and the rock club walls
I always knew
You saw them too
But you never will again
It’s too late
Don’t you know
It’s been too late
For a long time
Elliott, man, you played a fine guitar
And some dirty basketball
The songs you wrote
Got me through a lot
Just wanna tell you that
But it’s too late
It’s too late
No, don’t you know
it’s been too late
for a long time
Oh no
Things were looking up
Least that’s what I heard
Oh no
Someone came and washed away your hard-earned
Peace of mind
When desperate static beats the silence up
A quiet truth to calm you down
The songs you wrote
Got me through a lot
Just wanna tell you that
But it’s too late
It’s too late
No, don’t you know
It’s been too late
For a long time
It’s too late
It’s too late
No, don’t you know
It’s been too late
For a long time
the sloppy copy 