Pretty Ugly Before Chords Guitar Tab

From A Basement On The Hill Tabs:

Let's Get Lost
Pretty (Ugly Before) »
A Fond Farwell
King's Crossing
Twilight
A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free

Elliott Smith - Pretty (ugly before)
From the album "from a basement on the hill"
By Marshtin (thanks to Stinemor ;))
Chords are:
Gmaj7 - 320002
C     - 032010
D     - x00232
G     - 320003
E     - 022100
F     - 133211
Am    - 002210
Riff1:
|---------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------|
|-------------0-------------------------|
|-------0-2p0---------------------------|
|-0-1-2---------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------|
Intro:
Gmaj7
Sunshine been keeping me up for days
There is no night-time it's only a passing phase
and I feel pretty, pretty enough for you - G - E
C           D                       F  Am
I felt so ugly before I didn't know what to do
C         D                        G (riff1)
Sometimes it's all I feel up to now
C
But it's not worth it to you
D                             G (riff1)
Cause you gotta get out somehow
C           D                 G    E
It's the destruction that you require to feel
C        D                        F   Am
Like somebody wants you someone that's more for real
Solo:
Chords are C - D - G - E x3  then  C - D - F - Am
C        D                      G   E
Sunshine been keeping me up for days
C          D            G           (Riff1)E
There is no night-time it's only a passing phase
C    D                 G    E
And I'll feel pretty another hour or two
C            D                       F  Am
I felt so ugly before, I didn't know what to do
I felt so ugly before, I didn't know what to do
I felt so ugly before, I didn't know what to do
-tab end-

Source: GuitarMasta.net
http://www.guitarmasta.net/s/smith,_elliott/.html

Tab Discussion, Comments, and Critiques


No Picture juan Wanna Be	#1 by juan montoya at Sep 26, 2007 at 10:21 PM EST
	this song hands down is about drugs, nighttime is a slang for heroin withdrawl "there is no nighttime it's only a passing phase". It makes who evers on the high basically feel like they are worth something

No Picture Michael Average	#2 by Michael Cromwell at Sep 27, 2007 at 7:34 AM EST
	I really think this can be interperited drug-free. or you can make every other word a cocaine reference. I guess we'll never know his real intentions

No Picture Valenteen Lead Player	#3 by Valenteen Valkorados at Sep 27, 2007 at 9:14 AM EST
	perhaps "sunshine been keeping me up for days" is a reference to cocaine. "and i'll feel pretty another hour or two" also sounds like a blatant drug reference to me. although most elliott smith music probably can't be disected that easily. a great song though.

No Picture leif Average	#4 by leif hall at Sep 28, 2007 at 6:11 AM EST
	my interpretation: sunshine=his previous intrigue/obsession/love for girl which has consumed him up until now (keeping him up for days). He now realizes she's not perfect and that he is pretty/good enough for her. Or maybe im wrong and it is about cocaine!

No Picture David Average	#5 by David Tims at Sep 28, 2007 at 5:37 PM EST
	it has been stated on many times by the people who released this album that he was finally recovering from his addiction and this album was something he started to work on after he got clean, he was finally getting on the right track in his life which is what makes his death so tragic. His songs will always have strong drug reference in them but that is just a part of who he was. When you write a song a lot of what you write about has to do with past experiences, that does not mean that is all he was. If anything i can see how positive he is about being on the right track in this song - its like hes saying he wasnt good enough in his own eyes before, but hes starting to realize he doesnt need that escape anymore, he is starting to realize how blind he was before. For me it is one of his very positive and uplifting songs.

No Picture Mangus Average	#6 by Mangus Hung at Sep 28, 2007 at 10:53 PM EST
	Elliot was clean from street drugs when writing thsi albulm but he was abusing his perscripiton drugs, like crazy. I agree that this is about drugs.

No Picture Jonathon Wanna Be	#7 by Jonathon Gangloff at Sep 29, 2007 at 2:00 AM EST
	to, me this song isn't particularly about drugs or love or something. it kind of just represents the moodswings of a very sensitive person. maybe even a person who suffers from this sensitivity, like a borderliner or something. he feels "pretty" in this particular moment, but he knows that it's only "a passing face". sounds pretty much like borderline moodswings to me. swinging between the extremes.

No Picture john Wanna Be	#8 by john dolmayan at Sep 29, 2007 at 7:22 AM EST
	elliott smith was a genius therefor it is impossible to dissect his songs into one simple concept reading the peoples reviews for all of his songs, i've realized that many people think all of his songs are about drugs and then in the same forum someone disagreed. There really isn't a reason for the dissagreement because i think that they are both right. Not all of his songs are about drugs, though many may have a referance to drugs in them as a symbolic referance of sorts. He was a genius. too bad he was a drug addict and then he stabbed in chest

No Picture Derrik Professional	#9 by Derrik at Sep 29, 2007 at 7:44 AM EST
	Man, I love this song so much. It makes me think of how I felt before I fell in love.. Elliott describes it perfectly. He was. Such. A great. Writer. I

No Picture Vinny Average	#10 by Vinny Spano at Sep 30, 2007 at 2:41 AM EST
	I think that it's about escape and addiction. It's like he's bargaining with himself almost when he's saying "you've got to get high somehow". When he's coming down he feels ugly but he feels at peace and pretty when he's high

No Picture mikey lee Average	#11 by mikey lee smith at Sep 30, 2007 at 12:30 PM EST
	during the recording of "from a basement on the hill" elliott was clean, just to clear that up.

No Picture Nathhan Average	#12 by Nathhan griffithss at Oct 1, 2007 at 12:54 AM EST
	sunshine been keeping me up for days there is no nighttime it's only a passing phase i love this line, 'cos i'm such an insominac. and he's saying peace and happiness is to the fucked up as sleep is to the insomniac.

No Picture Artcore Lead Player	#13 by Artcore at Oct 1, 2007 at 12:56 PM EST
	i think, more appropriately, it should be that "not every elliott song is about suicide," because his songs do often carry alot of overt allusions to drugs. to me, this song is about using drugs as a crutch to escape low self-esteem. maybe he feels unworthy of the person he is with, and escapes into the self-glorified world of drugs: only a passing phase and i'll feel pretty another hour or two these lines to me represent the duration of a drug high, whether that being cocaine or heroine. probably the former, but i could be wrong. i know elliott was experimenting with crack and heroine, as well as a plethora of other drugs throughout the course of this final album.

No Picture Guitar FrE@k Average	#14 by Guitar FrE@k Freak at Oct 2, 2007 at 5:19 AM EST
	to my mind it has to be about drugs, and inadequacy, and insomnia.. "and i feel pretty/ pretty enough for you/ i felt so ugly before/ i didn't know what to do" is the part that gets me every time: it's about relying on chemicals for the self-esteem you need to be with someone. even if it's just for a while, it's something you can count on: "i'll feel pretty/ another hour or two" and "only a passing phase". i'd agree that the line "sunshine been keeping me up for days" is a pretty blatant reference to cocaine, but then because it's so prettily phrased it doesn't have to mean that to everyone. that's the beauty of this song. it's deceptive, delicately sung with such a sweet melody that it sounds optimistic, but if you look at the lyrics it's actually pretty dark ("is it destruction..."). and in the same way doing coke to be with someone is deceptive, making you feel optimistic but if you look at why you're doing it in the first place it's pretty dark ("i felt so ugly before"). it has to be my favourite song of his, it captures that kind of situation absolutely perfectly.

No Picture Tim Wanna Be	#15 by Tim Nelson at Oct 2, 2007 at 7:33 AM EST
	I don't see the drug reference at all. I think it is about realizing that one is better than their self esteem allowed them to believe. Like an epiphany of sorts, emerging with a new outlook on life. I hear it as a pretty positive song..

No Picture matthew Wanna Be	#16 by matthew dawkins at Oct 2, 2007 at 7:49 AM EST
	every elliott smith song isnt about drugs. you just have that in your head. nevertheless its a great song.

No Picture Mathias Wanna Be	#17 by Mathias Bøyesen at Oct 4, 2007 at 7:12 AM EST
	Not really commenting on the song, but to lisalynn and the stuff about looking back. He actually performed this song live as early as 2000, in Variety Playhouse, Atlanta to be correct. I don't think it was somthing he wrote after he got clean...

No Picture Bobby Wanna Be	#18 by Bobby Warneke at Oct 4, 2007 at 10:09 AM EST
	you are right. every elliott smith song is not about drugs. this one though, happens to be about drugs. sunshine is slang for cocaine. and "theres no nighttime, its only a passing phase" is so true when you are a cocaine addict. i cant count how many times i havent slept and was awake the whole night to see the sun rise and to look at the clock and have it say 1 in the afternoon and yet i havent slept.

No Picture Pink Rhythm Player	#19 by Pink Mintaka at Oct 4, 2007 at 2:10 PM EST
	i've never thought that this song was about drugs, though i can see how it could be. in the end, the original meaning of a song isn't as important as one's interpretation of it, and my interpretation goes very closely with roxxma. i've been at low places in my life, which went along with self-esteem and depression, and during those times, i didn't feel very pretty, but when i came out of those times, it's a wonderful feeling when you don't feel ugly anymore and everything just kind of sparkles. the lines "sunshine been keeping me up for days / there is no nighttime / it is only a passing phase" makes me think of sunshine being a metaphor for happiness and not paying attention to the darkness.

No Picture Winterborn Average	#20 by Winterborn at Oct 4, 2007 at 6:33 PM EST
	yeah, i can see all the drug angles and stuff, but here's what this song means to me when i listen to it... that brief moment of feeling worthy, feeling "pretty" enough for somebody else, feeling loved. you know it won't last long, it never does, because you always wind up being let down. no matter who it is, they always let you down. maybe you struggle with ugliness in the form of depression, or maybe you feel physically ugly, but either way, you don't know what to do about it when you feel at your lowest. you feel so stuck and like everything is a dead-end and there's no way out. ...but then you find somebody who erases all of that and makes you feel fine, makes you feel "pretty" ... makes you feel okay. makes you feel like there's hope again. however, almost as soon as it's in your grasp, it's gone again. this song is so bittersweet to me[the live version i have anyway], almost like it's being sung by someone who has seen into the future and is merely counting down the minutes until the inevitable happens, knowing nothing can be done to stop what's coming... funny how after someone actually succeeds at making you feel beautiful, when they leave, you feel about a million times uglier than you did before, because after all...if someone who claimed to find you so beautiful could turn around and leave without a sound, what's that say about you? it must say you're even more of a piece of trash than you thought before...it must mean everything good they said was a lie. ...and you go back to feeling ugly, and you don't know what to do. 1 2 Next

No Picture Hudson Lead Player	#21 by Hudson Ryan at Oct 5, 2007 at 2:32 PM EST
	one of my favourites off the new album... i feel like it's a song of liberation after a bad relationship. the person was killing themselves trying to be good enough for their significant other ("is it destruction that you're required to feel?"), but now they realize that they've been "pretty enough" all along and don't need to suffer the pain anymore...

No Picture nikki Average	#22 by nikki at Oct 5, 2007 at 4:50 PM EST
	to elektric....spot on i think. Reminds me of how you feel when you are alone, and feeling worthless..but eventually you find something and you gain some self worth. The line: i felt so ugly before i didnt know what to do, is so spot on, cause when you feel that way you simply dont know what to do.

No Picture JustiN Professional	#23 by JustiN at Oct 5, 2007 at 8:34 PM EST
	ahem, "a passing PHASE" i meant... :P

No Picture Mike Average	#24 by Mike at Oct 6, 2007 at 4:26 AM EST
	It's obvious that this song refers to drugs he just thinks that he worth someting because of the self-esteem that the drug provides. 'sunshine been keeping me up for days there is no nighttime only a passing phase and i'll feel pretty another hour or two' another hour or two, when finally the effect will be over.

No Picture alex Wanna Be	#25 by alex v s at Oct 6, 2007 at 11:24 AM EST
	i think that it's about a bigger picture... Elliott seems to me like in almost every song he utilizes scenes or stories or snippets of a situation to get a bigger picture across, to describe or envoke a feeling or emotion.... he only uses these to get his message across which i like to believe is bigger or more complex than it all just being about drugs...