Happiness - Elliott Smith song lyrics meaning

As is often the case, thanks to the tragic circumstances surrounding his death, people often assume that every single Elliott Smith song has to do with drugs, alcohol, or suicide. No doubt the references are there, but Elliott was a talented and complex song writer... a master of metaphor. 'Happiness' is an example of one of his deepest and best songs...

Check out the lyrics at the Elliott Smith tribute site, sweetadeline.net (http://www.sweetadeline.net/ltoms.html), which I am NOT affiliated with in any way.

As Elliott said numerous times, the great thing about music, and art in general for that matter, is that each person has their own interpretation of a piece.

'Happiness' is an incredibly relateable song that gets at - directly - the way we communicate with friends, family, and lovers. When Elliott refers to making your life a lie, I think he refers to how we cover things up, how we keep things about ourselves, our problems, our struggles, our vices, our faults away from the ones we love in order to avoid conflict or them thinking less of us. The former is referred to here: I told him that he shouldn't upset her, and that he'd only be making it worse involving somebody else.

As one person in a relationship does this, it forces the other person to do some version of the same. The other person knows something is amiss, yet they don't confront their suspicion and concern as to not rock the boat. In turn, they also make their life a lie, so to speak.

Ultimately, each part is hoping that the problems, the personality flaws, whatever the issues are will just go away. And when they do, all will be content in their worlds...

What I used to be to be will pass away and then you'll see,
that all I want now is happiness for you and me.