Speed Trials-EP Tabs:
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Speed Trials
Standard tuning (for once!)
Intro
Play two times
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---2-2-2-2---------------------------------|
--------------------0-0-0-0-2-2-2-2--------|
------------3-3-3-3------------------------|
Verse 1
C Am
He's pleased to meet you underneath the horse
C Am
In the cathedral with the glass stained black
C Am
Singing sweet high notes that echo back
Ab G7
To destroy their master
C Am
May be a long time till you get the call-up
C Am
But it's sure as fate and hard as your luck
C Ab G D
No-one'll know where you are
Chorus
C Am Fmaj7 G
It's just a brief smile crossing your face
C Am Fmaj7 G
Running speed trials standing in place
Verse 2
C Am
When the socket's not a shock enough
C Am
You little child what makes you think you're tough?
C Am
When all the people you think you're above
Ab G7
They all know what's the matter
C Am
You're such a pinball yeah you know it's true
C Am
There's always something you go back running to
C Ab G D
To follow the path of no resistance
Chorus
C Am Fmaj7 G
It's just a brief smile crossing your face
C Am Fmaj7 G
Running speed trials standing in place
Am F C G
It's just a brief smile crossing your face
Am F C G
Running speed trials all over the place
Ending
Play these chords to fade-out while Elliott sings "Oooh-ooh-ohh", etc.:
Am F C G
During the part where the words are "No one'll know where you are", you might try:
Ab Eb F G
No one'll know where you are
Same for "To follow the path of no resistance"
Neither one is completely right, I don't think, but maybe each is part right.
Speed Trials
Elliott Smith
Standard tuning (for once!)
Standard open chords except:
Am (1) x02210 Am (2) 577555
Dadd9 xx0230
Intro (played twice) (this is also played as the bassline under the C
and Am chords in the verse)
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2-2-2-2-------- ------------------------|
------------------ 0-0-0-0-2-2-2-2------|
---------3-3-3-3 ------------------------|
* Lick in verse (bass plays a G but it don't add it to the guitar
line, it sounds cluttered)
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-2-2-2-2-4-4-4-------|
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-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-------|
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Verse:
|| C | Am (1) | C | Am | C | Am |
* |
| C | Am | C | Am | Am (2) | Ab |
* ||
Chorus 1:
||: C | Dadd9 | Fmaj7 | G :||
Chorus 2:
||: C | Dadd9 | Fmaj7 | G :||
||: A | Fmaj7 | C | G :||
Outro:
||: Am | Fmaj7 | C | G :||
Tab Discussion, Comments, and Critiques
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No Picture
Roger Wanna Be |
#1 by Roger Osinski at Sep 26, 2007 at 9:50 AM EST |
| to me it sounds more like a song about someone who's addicted to heroin-black. : He's pleased to meet you underneath the horse In cathedral with the glass stained blacksinging sweet high notes that echo back to destroy their master using heroin is called riding the black/white horse (smoking/snortinig,injecting),being high is sweet-sweet notes,thne the notes turn around and come back as withdrawals,which are often a main reason for suicide/destroying the person who released the notes. You think you're tough and you'll put up with it because it's your little secret but all the people who used to look up to you know whats going on so ur not their hero anymore. | |
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No Picture
GodOfBass208 Average |
#2 by GodOfBass208 at Sep 27, 2007 at 10:11 AM EST |
| This song is about a person's inability to confront herself and really look at the scary, introspective things that need to be looked at and resolved. The song is about the frantic dellusion that self-security and happiness and completeness can be produced through changing around physical stances. The song is about the complicated drama produced by that frantic ignorance: the ignorance of not understanding that there is only and always RIGHT HERE AND NOW regardless of the story you tell yourself about how things got to where they are. The song is about the freightened, desperate race of distracting oneself from his lonliness by running back to familiar grounds and never committing. The song is about running away instead of dealing with what needs to be dealt with. | |
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Tristan Wanna Be |
#3 by Tristan Riles at Sep 28, 2007 at 9:56 AM EST |
| The "to destroy their master" vocal and guitar/bass harmony is revolutionary. 1 | |
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colin Average |
#4 by colin gardiner at Sep 28, 2007 at 1:52 PM EST |
| i think songs are percepted by people mainly by their own (past) experiences. being a former crystal meth addict, the lines: it's just a brief smile crossing your face running speed trials all over the place mean that doing drugs just make you feel better briefly, then you're back to all of your problems... | |
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PUNX UNITE Average |
#5 by PUNX UNITE at Sep 29, 2007 at 1:35 PM EST |
| about speed abuse? i really dont fucking know | |
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Chris Rhythm Player |
#6 by Chris Hall at Sep 30, 2007 at 3:22 PM EST |
| beautiful. simply said. | |
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No Picture
Nacy Average |
#7 by Nacy Sanchez at Sep 30, 2007 at 9:32 PM EST |
| im usually all over elliott songs trying to get the meaning. with this one i just like to listen | |
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KT Average |
#8 by KT Brown at Oct 1, 2007 at 2:50 AM EST |
| the wording in this song is amazing the very first verse. I couldn't quite figure it out until hiphopperka's brilliant interpretation of it. Yes, this song is definately a non-fictional song about his addiction. Yes, elliot smith was intelligent lazyteen69, but come on! I'm sure he considered himself a junkie at one point, it's when you're addicted to shooting up. period. Being a genius doesn't mean you're gauranteed self control. | |
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No Picture
Marks Average |
#9 by Marks at Oct 1, 2007 at 9:57 PM EST |
| this song is obviously about drug use. | |
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Chase Average |
#10 by Chase K at Oct 2, 2007 at 2:24 PM EST |
| "You little child what makes you think you're tough" | |
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Badass |
#11 by Nirvana at Oct 2, 2007 at 2:51 PM EST |
| Its possible that Elliott made reference to the catherdral with stained black glass that was across the street from his house in Portland...I love the courus "Its just a brief, smile, crossing your face. Running speed trials standing in place." I can remember getting high, getting a fix and just giving a sigh of relief, like a brief smile as its said in the song...fortunatelly I've done my best to put those dark days behind me but it always amazes me how it seems like all his songs are chapters of my life.. | |
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No Picture
Kael Average |
#12 by Kael Nainggolan at Oct 2, 2007 at 5:47 PM EST |
| As my away message on AIM, I often put up -- it's just a brief smile crossing your face running speed trials still standing in place -- Yesterday, a friend of mine asked what I interepret those lyrics to mean. So I thought about it, and wrote: -- i interpret the lyrics to that song as about a girl who has problems, and that particular quote about her putting a smile on her face but fighting it off. i like the idea of a brief smile as a light in the darkness- that through her problems, there's a glimmer of hope that shines through -- Any thoughts on this? What do they mean to you? | |
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No Picture
ed Wanna Be |
#13 by ed o at Oct 3, 2007 at 4:27 AM EST |
| wonderful interpertation fearnotofman, i was thinking the same thing, but the 'sockets not a shock enough' i was confused with but your example is really good. the part where he says, "he's pleased to meet you underneath the dead horse, in the cathederal with the glass stained black" is obviously him meeting his dealer at their place, in somewhere dark almost like an alley (glass painted black). he's probably saying cathederal a holy term as a replacement of something else so he can think he's not doing something wrong. "to destroy their master" the dealer is destroying his 'master', his customer with speed "it's just a brief smile crossing your face running speed trials still standing in place" his 'speed trials' are when he binges on speed and he smiles becuase of the satisfaction "you little child what makes you think you're tough when all the people you think you're above they all know what's the matter" he's asking himself why he thinks he's so above everyone and, the 'they all know whats the matter' is is literal, everyone knows he's an addict yet they don't say anything "you're such a pinball yeah you know it's true there's always something you come back running to to follow the path of no resistance" he's self loathing and he knows it, and he also knows by the end of the day he'll always run back to the poeple he knows, like a cycle, the 'path of no resistance'. all elliott fans, me included know there was a period in his life where he went completely down hill with his habits, it makes sense why he'd write this. | |
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John Average |
#14 by John Tinsley at Oct 3, 2007 at 10:16 AM EST |
| "running speed trials still standing in place" to me this line isn't about doing drugs. even though everyone who is an avid elliott smith fan, as i am, knows elliott had his fair share of dabbling with drugs. but come on... he is really intelligent and a more in depth character than just another junkie. but i believe this line refers to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, in which the Red Queen tells Alice, "[I]t takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." This never-ending evolutionary cycle describes many natural interactions between hosts and disease, or between predators and prey: As species that live at each other's expense coevolve, they are engaged in a constant evolutionary struggle for a survival advantage. They need "all the running they can do" because the landscape around them is constantly changing. | |
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terry Rhythm Player |
#15 by terry terry watts at Oct 5, 2007 at 12:51 PM EST |
| i would just like to completely agree with the last entry. | |
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svent Wanna Be |
#16 by svent yeah at Oct 5, 2007 at 2:39 PM EST |
| "you're such a pinball, yeah you know it's true, there's always something you go back runnin to." aren't we all pinballs? | |
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No Picture
Alyssa Professional |
#17 by Alyssa at Oct 6, 2007 at 5:55 PM EST |
| This is the first time I'm reading the lyrics, I didn't really know what they were before. I think they get better as they go along. I actually never would've thought it was about drug use, but now that I think about it... Yeah, what Fearnotofman said about meeting the dealer makes sense. So the dealer is the one who thinks he's above everyone else. | |
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No Picture
michael Average |
#18 by michael miller at Oct 6, 2007 at 9:30 PM EST |
| Yep, obviously about drug use. Talking about meeting (his drug dealer) in a secretive place, the same place they always meet. Talking about disregarding the advice of his friends and family, the people he considers himself to be above, to get help. Talking about how the typical forms of entertainment, such as TV ("the socket's not a shock enough"), doesn't match the thrill of speed. | |
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