stupidity tries
Elliott Smith’s “Stupidity Tries” came up on shuffle yesterday while I was on the train, and I was overcome with this nostalgic feeling towards this boy I was in love with in college when I was 19 who I haven’t thought about in a long time. After a drunken failed attempt at hooking up our first semester he and I became very close friends on that kooky cosmic level that happens less and less as one gets older. There was still always sexual tension between us, but it definitely made the friendship more fun and even passionate. I remember one night sophomore year he came up to my dorm room and we laid in my twin extra-long bed for 7 hours, until 6am making each other laugh, playing 6 degrees of kevin bacon, and confessing “i swore i’d never tell anyone this” stories, my WinAmp playlist trudging through emo album after emo album (haha god…) and eventually landing on Elliott Smith’s Figure 8. And I don’t know what it was about “Stupidity Tries,” but we started kissing, and yeah, I just dont know what it was about that song! There’s nothing particularly sultry about it, and they lyrics arent provocative, but it’s just really when I hear it now, so evocative of that feeling. I had been so in love with him, and of all the playlists I had constructed throughout that past year hoping one of them would be the siren’s call, it ended up being some abstract war metaphor for life (err i think). Anyway, I started reflecting on other memorable make-out-song moments in my life and narrowed it down to my top 5. While the others make a little more sense—more romantic thematically—I’m glad that none of them ended up being “Lets Get It On” by Mr. Marvin Gaye.
So here it is, my top 5 memorable makeout list!
5. Modest Mouse- 3rd Planet (The Moon & Antarctica, 2000)
4. Bob Dylan- Just Like a Woman (Blonde on Blonde, 1966 and every best of/compilation since)
3. Spoon- I Summon You (Gimme Fiction, 2005)
2. Supergrass- St. Petersburg (Road to Rouen, 2005)
1. Elliott Smith- Stupidity Tries (Figure 8, 2000)
The epilogue to that story though, is a sad one. First, I should note that he and I had this ongoing banter about how he would always try to do the least amount work and get out of obligations in almost everything he did— always taking the easy way out. Months later, he broke my heart for some sassy Venezuelen troll with a man-voice. It was of course, short-lived, but our friendship never recovered, and the next semester I took a leave of absence and havent seen him since. The song that follows Stupidity Tries on Figure 8 is called Easy Way Out, and the lyrics were so spot on, that to this day, I still go “ugh” when it comes on.
i heard you found another audience to bore
a creative thinker who imagined you were more
a new body for you to push around and pose
it’s all about taking the easy way out for you i suppose
it’s all about taking the easy way out for you i suppose