Elliott Smith's XO by LeMay Matthew

Author:LeMay, Matthew
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Continuum International Publishing
Published: 2009-08-16T04:00:00+00:00

“A Question Mark”

In a video interview for Musician.com, Smith describes his songwriting as follows: “I don’t really think about it in terms of language, I think about it more like shapes.” He then goes on to play “A Question Mark”; a perfect fit, seeing as the song’s spare opening notes seem to paint that very punctuation mark. In that same interview, Smith goes on to say “I’m really into chord changes. That was the thing I liked when I was a kid. So I’m not like a … I don’t make up a ‘riff really. It’s usually like … That sequence has some implied melody in it or something like that.”

“A Question Mark” proves exemplary in this respect; the chord voicings in its verse contain almost all of the song’s melodic turns, several of which actually get subsumed by a bass saxophone part in version recorded for XO. The decision to prominently feature the bass saxophone (and to include an unaccompanied snippet of it at the end of “Bottle up and Explode!”) makes for a substantial and welcome textural shift in the flow of XO, but obscures some of “A Question Mark” ’s innate musical logic. The instrumental demo of “A Question Mark,” recorded by Crane at Jackpot on January 13, 1998, places the horn part (played on guitar) farther back in the mix, allowing more room for the major 3rds in Smith’s nimble guitar part to sketch the song’s basic melody.

“A Question Mark” not only restates Smith’s belief in uncertainty, but also associates the illusion of certainty with “hatred.” Smith wrote many songs that suggest that, in the words of Larry Crane, “things that you think are one way … are actually another way.” “A Question Mark” is Smith’s “things that you think are one way can’t be simplified to any one way at all” song:

I’ve got a question mark

You’ve got a need to always take some shot in the dark

I don’t have to make pretend the picture I’m in is totally clear

You think that all things have a way they ought to appear

’Cause you know, you know, you know, you know

You know, I don’t, I dream

Don’t know what you mean

The end of the song’s second verse lays out the dangers of the causal mindset Smith implicitly rejects in “Pitseleh”:

You’re giving back a little hatred now to the world

’Cause it treated you bad

’Cause you couldn’t keep the great unknown from making you mad

Here, the attempt to fix meaning is seen as a vengeful act; an outlook that seems to inform Smith’s lyrics in approach as well as content. As with many songs on XO, “A Question Mark” reveals much of its hand during its bridge, in which the song finally resolves to the G major chord it has been hinting at since its first notes:

Said your final word, but honesty and love could’ve kept us together

One day you’ll see it’s worth it after all

If you ever want to say you’re sorry you can give me a call

Notably, this is the only time on the record that the word “sorry” appears.

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