Song of the Week - Apr. 16, 2007 - All Things Being the Same

[KarenZ]

All things Being the Same
She is searching for some form of salvation
In the corner of a bar down the street,
But the gin controls whole conversations
And plays magic tricks with her feet...

[chorus]
She gets up, falls down, breaks even,
Gets caught by the wrong mister right --
Hey, it's a hard town.
I wouldn't want to live in it --
But I wouldn't want to give up in it,
All things being the same...

Back home she's got these pictures on her mirror,
They frame her when she looks back at her face.
They tell her where she's been --
I'll tell you where she's going,
She's got her name on a stool down at Eddie Owen's place...

[repeat chorus]

She drinks when romance brings her down.
Like the sight of blood is a wedding gown.
Bright lights and smoke fill up this space.
It's a crowded room, but still a lonely old place...

All her friends are nothing more than strangers,
Whose names are just words on a face .
If they bumped into her out on a sidewalk on some Sunday,
They wouldn't recognize her outside of the place

[repeat chorus]

© Ellis Paul Publishing (ASCAP) 1994

Folks,

I listened to this song this morning and over the weekend. Love how the guitar comes in pounding from the get-go, with the screaming B3 Hammond following quickly behind. I often don't like organ...but I must say on the early EP releases it feels like an old worn shoe - comfortable, soothing. Not sure why that is. My friend BillK (Illinois Bill on the board) was with me at our first Ellis Paul show - coming up on the 10 year anniversary of that life-changing event - and Bill says that "All things Being the Same" was the show opener. I don't remember really, but Bill has a memory like a steel trap, so I believe him. So that means that this song was the first Ellis Paul I ever heard live! Oh my....I just realized that.

When I was in college, I went through a short (thankfully) period of time when I was looking for a form of salvation too. I guess maybe we all have stools with our imprint on it somewhere. And Ellis Paul, in usual fashion, captures a moment in time and paints a picture with a minimum of words....the last verse is so sad (All her friends are nothing more than strangers)...and I'm happy that period of timein my life was a short phase. It makes me not want to go back.

And Duke Levine is a freakin' guitar god.

KarenZ

[Patti]

Karen the fact that this was your first song live makes it all the more special. This song always reminded me of girl I knew in highschool, thankfully her life has changed for the better.


I don't get what this line is about "Like the sight of blood is a wedding gown." ?

[paddyinthepub]

Karen,

I too find it cool that you are now in touch with your first "live Ellis" tune. It's very COOL that Bill remembers this milestone song!!!
That's what friends are for!!!

Patti, that's a great question.

What on earth does that line pertain to, anyway? Someone's bound to know, but for now, I can only guess "back in the day" girls often married extremely young....and I'll leave it at that for now.

In Ogunquit last August, after the concert at Jonathan's, Ellis dropped a hint to a lyric in a song on American Jukebox Fables that has me stumped to this day. It was another word for something else. He asked if anyone caught the reference. Now I like a good challenge every now and then, and pride myself with being able to decipher even the most clever of lyrics, BUT TO THIS DAY, I have no idea what Ellis was referring to.

[Sue Ellen]

I don't get what this line is about "Like the sight of blood is a wedding gown." ?

I'm with Patti on this. I love this song, and play it alot, and whenever I get to that line I think, "Huh? What's that mean?" I can't even come up with a hypothesis.

Sue Ellen

[KarenZ]

I don't get it either. My only theory was that maybe the lyric was a typo and that the line was like the sight of blood on a wedding gown (I mean the sight of blood ON a wedding gown would bring me down!)....so I listened to the song...and he's definitely saying "is".

Who wants to post the question in the Clarity forum?

KarenZ

[paddyinthepub]

Just in case, might we still discuss what we all "think" it might mean?

I'm sure Ellis gets a kick out of how his lyrics are interpreted, often finding they have several meanings depending on who he's talking to.

So I asked another Ellis fan (my wife) to ponder the lyric for meaning. Here's what she came up with:

Her fate in life is sealed......when she gets depressed about romance, she drinks. It's deeper than that though. Here she is, in life, sans true love. No real hope for everlasting love in the form of a man she can plan to spend the rest of her life with. She knows full well most people find that person to share their life with. When she thinks about it, it depresses her. When she gets depressed, she's off to drown her sorrows at Eddie Owen's place.

Over-explaining the obvious here, but there's a conclusion in sight.

Ellis' use of the word "Like" in the line of lyric in question, is simply saying THIS is "like" THAT. Kind of a "sure as your born" statement. In somewhat bygone days, when young girls "lost their innocence", it was often the case that a wedding would follow.

"She drinks when romance brings her down.
Like the sight of blood is a wedding gown."


It's fun to decipher lyrics sometimes.

Right or otherwise........

[Patti]

Paddy I think you are on the right track... I always felt like it was something like the passage of woman hood meant marriage wasn't that far away.

Reminds me of an article I read when Carly Simon talked about her mother popping a bottling of champagne and saying it was time to celebrate "woman hood" when the "time" came.

hmmm.. I don't see myself ever doing that with my girls!!

PS Carly's family wasn't too happy about her dishing on her mom, but Carly felt it was okay to discuss it because it was part of what makes her her, and that of course relates to the songs she wrote. That just reminded me how much I love Boys in the Tree by her.

[paddyinthepub]

Patti,

Something tells me Carly Simon poured the bubbly for Sally. I too loved Boys in the Trees.....been too long!!!


Back to the song at hand:

She gets up, falls down, breaks even,
Gets caught by the wrong mister right --


I remember listening to this song when it was new and thinking this girl is one clumsy drunk. I wanted her to be careful coming down off that barstool, ya know, like you are are about to fall, AGAIN!!!

Truth is, the jist of the lyric always had me thinking she had broken something like her ankle. That she was in serious physical pain from tripping as she went to stand up. Course that's what I used to think Ellis was trying to convey. It was easy to go there with the those 2 lines.

Upon further reflection.....well, she might not have been all that clumsy, afterall. Once again, Ellis has used metaphors brilliantly. The highs and lows this woman experiences are revealed with "she gets up falls down breaks even". I always thought the guy who breaks her fall, you know, "the wrong Mr. Right" actually kept her from hitting the floor when she fell. Well, I suppose he did keep her from hitting Rock Bottom.

[shari]

Hi Everyone,

I am up for air for a few moments. Sorry that I've disappeared, my work life has got me cornered at the moment - I have not dropped off of the face of the earth, just a bit buried - hopefully not for too long.

I love this song. It paints a very real picture for me. If I don't miss my guess this story takes place in Eddie's Attic in Decatur, GA - a place that I have been and so the picture paints even more vividly for me.

I could pick this one apart all day....

In some cases, the lyrics I "hear" are different than the ones I see here....

I've always heard "It plays magic tricks with her fate" rather than "It plays magic tricks with her feet" the line works either way and has a nice double meaning to it.

I also heard "bright lights and smoke fill the stage" instead of "bright lights and smoke fill the space", making me think about the stage at Eddie's Attic with a performer (Ellis?) on stage and seeing smoke in the hazy light.

To me this is someone desperately looking for connection, going to the extent of concocting it in her mind when she is not able to produce it in the world, but the illusion is always shattered.

Gotta go, but wanted to post and say HELLO to everyone. I'll be back soon!

Shari

[shari]

PS: I can't tell you why but for some reason the line "Like the sight of blood is a wedding gown" speaks to me of confusion. Being focused on the goal of marriage rather than the goal of a right relationship leading to marriage. Not sure if this makes sense outside of my own head.