Status

Elliott Smith Song

Written By

Elliott Smith

Recording Sessions

Early 1996 (Elliott’s house, Portland, OR - Division Day)
February 1997 (Jackpot! studios, Portland, OR - First Jackpot! session) - unofficially circulating 
April 15, 16, or 17, 1997 (WMUC Studios, College Park, MD - Third Rail Radio) - 3 takes are unofficially circulating
May 6, 1997 (KCRW Studios, Santa Monica, CA - Morning Becomes Eclectic) - unofficially circulating
August 1, 1998 (XFM Studio, London, UK - XFM Radio) - unofficially circulating

Availability of Official Release

Division Day 7"

Lyrics

There was a grown man dying from fright
So surprised at the things he’d say
With a giant fantasy life
Runnin ‘round on feet of clay

Naked except for a perpetual debt
That couldn’t be stripped away
An unrightable wrong that moved him along 
Closer to division day

Spent a long time living with that
Never could give it a name
And when you don’t know what you’re looking at 
It makes it much harder to take

Mostly they’d meet when he was asleep 
And have some sick exchange
That stuck him as wrong and moved him along 
Closer to division day

I can’t make an exception for a bad Connection 
That only goes one way
Sell out for a song where I don’t belong
With you on division day

The moon stood up on the ridge
Looking down where the water shines
And a man looking over the bridge
Like he done so many times

Thinking about how to stay out
Out of troubles way 
And Flying to fall away from you all
It’s over division day
Beautiful division day

Thinking about how to stay out
Out of troubles way
Flying to fall away from you all
It’s over division day
Beautiful division day

First Live Performance

July 14, 1996 - La Luna, Portland, OR

Notes

In early performances, Elliott substituted “Spent a long time living with that / Never could give it a name” with “She operates on a principle that / Has no appropriate name” and ended the song with “Enjoy division day” instead of “It’s over division day,” as well as other minor lyric changes. For more detail on these and other alternate lyrics, visit Bren’s lyric site.