Listening to Elliott Smith makes you want to kill yourself...but in a good way.

The song is "Waltz #2" on X/O. It's amazing, and you should listen to it if you've never heard it before. In fact, whether you've heard it or not, you should listen to the whole album. Right now. Instead of reading this. Go do that. You'll thank me.

For the idiots who are still reading this, I'll refer you to the chorus of "Waltz #2":

I'm never gonna know you now,
But I'm gonna love you anyhow.

These lyrics are more than melancholy enough to fit perfectly into Smith's oeuvre - yeah, that's right, "oeuvre" - but for the longest time, as I wept softly and sang along, I was singing this instead:

You're never gonna know, you know,
But I'm gonna love you anyhow.

And what I wonder now is, divorced from any context within or without the song, which of those is the sadder state of affairs?

In my sprained heart, I think that the second one is the sadder of the two, although just barely, and this is why. In the first version, it feels like "you" could be anyone. It could be someone walking down the street who "I" is never going to see again, hence, "I'm never gonna know you now." But in the 2nd version, the "you" who is loved seems like someone who the "I" would be forced to see day in and day out, while lugging around all that unrequited baggage. But "you" is so amazing that "I" has no choice but to love "you." Think Tim and Dawn from The Office. And really, what's sadder than that?

So that's the debate that's been raging in my head for the last 6 months or so. I'm glad we cleared everything up. Seriously, though, listen to that album.