Meaning of Smile?

dontloseyourheat

I have heard that this song is based off of a letter from a fan and therefore is essentially meaningless. But to me, this song has always reminded me about a relationship where one of the partners is unfaithful.

"Don't it make you smile?
Don't it make you smile?
When the sun don't shine? (Shine at all)
Don't it make you smile?"

The singer was in a relationship but his lover cheated on him. She now regrets it but its too late and she is upset, "the sun don't shine".
It seems to me as if the singer is sarcastically saying "Look at what you have done, are you happy now?"


"I miss you already... I miss you always
I miss you already... I miss you all day
This is how I feel..."

The relationship is now over and he misses her.

"I miss you already... I miss you always
Three crooked hearts and swirls all around... I miss you all day"

Two of the hearts belong to the guy and girl, one belongs to the person who he/she is having an affair with. The swirls represent the feelings that they all have.

Another way to look at it along the same theme, is that the singer cheated on his partner.

"Don't it make you smile?
When the sun don't shine? "

He is happy because he is having the affair, but his other relationship, the serious one, has fallen apart, or in other words the "sun don't shine"

He then realizes he made a mistake and misses his serious partner.

Pearl Jam and toast

It wasn't a fan letter per se, it was a note someone Pearl jam toured with wrote in Ed's notebook. I can't remember who exactly wrote it, but the back of the polaroid is the actual note I think.

This one's nice and simple.. How does it feel when you miss somebody?

Jeanie

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

...............This one's nice and simple.. How does it feel when you miss somebody?

Yep, been playing it for that very reason all week! Don't tell me we agree?!:D

Evacuation Rules

Here we go again.

The lyrics are not from a "fan" - they're taken from a note that Dennis Flemion (of The Frogs) left in Eddie's notebook when he wasn't in the room. Eddie was looking for lyrics for the song and opened up his notebook and there was the note.

"Don't it make you smile when the sun don't shine"
- lyrics from the unreleased Frogs song "Now I Want To Be Dead"

"This Is How I Feel"
- title of unreleased Frogs song

"I miss you already/always"
- Dennis's addiditonal comment to Eddie

"crooked hearts & swirls all around"
- Eddie's description of Dennis's doodlings

The note itself is on the back of the "Smile" No Code polarioid.

Dennis is credited on the vinyl (both LP and fan club 45) but not the CD for some reason.

In addition, The Frogs are the inspiration for Pearl Jam's "Bugs", Smashing Pumpkins' "1979" and "We Only Come Out At Night", Pavement's "We Dance", Wesley Willis's "The Frogs", amongst many others...

Jeanie

JWBusher wrote:

Here we go again.

The lyrics are not from a "fan" - they're taken from a note that Dennis Flemion (of The Frogs) left in Eddie's notebook when he wasn't in the room. Eddie was looking for lyrics for the song and opened up his notebook and there was the note.

"Don't it make you smile when the sun don't shine"
- lyrics from the unreleased Frogs song "Now I Want To Be Dead"

"This Is How I Feel"
- title of unreleased Frogs song

"I miss you already/always"
- Dennis's addiditonal comment to Eddie

"crooked hearts & swirls all around"
- Eddie's description of Dennis's doodlings

The note itself is on the back of the "Smile" No Code polarioid.

Dennis is credited on the vinyl (both LP and fan club 45) but not the CD for some reason.

In addition, The Frogs are the inspiration for Pearl Jam's "Bugs", Smashing Pumpkins' "1979" and "We Only Come Out At Night", Pavement's "We Dance", Wesley Willis's "The Frogs", amongst many others...

Thanks for this it's really interesting. It's still ok for me to play it when I'm missing someone though right?

catefrances

yes. it does make me smile when the sun don't shine.

Avocado Surf Co.

Wow. Thanks for the story. Interesting.

As for the other posters, the song can mean anything you want. They're our songs too, they don't just belong to the band.

I miss you all day, Lucy. This is how I feel.

macgyver06

dontloseyourheat wrote:

I have heard that this song is based off of a letter from a fan and therefore is essentially meaningless. But to me, this song has always reminded me about a relationship where one of the partners is unfaithful.

"Don't it make you smile?
Don't it make you smile?
When the sun don't shine? (Shine at all)
Don't it make you smile?"

The singer was in a relationship but his lover cheated on him. She now regrets it but its too late and she is upset, "the sun don't shine".
It seems to me as if the singer is sarcastically saying "Look at what you have done, are you happy now?"


"I miss you already... I miss you always
I miss you already... I miss you all day
This is how I feel..."

The relationship is now over and he misses her.

"I miss you already... I miss you always
Three crooked hearts and swirls all around... I miss you all day"

Two of the hearts belong to the guy and girl, one belongs to the person who he/she is having an affair with. The swirls represent the feelings that they all have.

Another way to look at it along the same theme, is that the singer cheated on his partner.

"Don't it make you smile?
When the sun don't shine? "

He is happy because he is having the affair, but his other relationship, the serious one, has fallen apart, or in other words the "sun don't shine"

He then realizes he made a mistake and misses his serious partner.

umm...its Free Cookies and SMores all around... end of discussion.

dontloseyourheat

Thanks for explaining that.

Mmmmm I could go for some free cookies and smores rights now.

justam

It seems to me if you live somewhere that is cloudy a lot when you're somewhere else, if the weather is like that, it'll feel like home and maybe it'll make you smile.

So, in other words, I think it's about missing your home and the people you love back home.

That's what I think anyway.

momofglynn

I have always loved this song. Thanks for the story.

whispering hands

you have an interesting angle never thought of that. I love No Code but having known where it was stemmed from I never thought of that. great catch. proof that as eddie says music is different to every person that hears it!!

babz

You Make Me Smile :-)

is it just my way

i like the stories behind the songs, and i adore that the listener can interpret the song how they want to and so it helps them in some way, this is one of my songs to remember my cousin who died.

Omarama

justam wrote:

It seems to me if you live somewhere that is cloudy a lot when you're somewhere else, if the weather is like that, it'll feel like home and maybe it'll make you smile.

So, in other words, I think it's about missing your home and the people you love back home.

That's what I think anyway.

i agree, you don't always have to be sad when it's cloudy or rains, it's just weather, i think rain is nice, although luckily for me i live in a country that looks beautiful whether it's sunny or not

Evacuation Rules

BeerBaron wrote:

Thanks!

That was the most interesting thing I have read on here in a long time

Cool! Glad I could help.

Pearl Jam and toast

JWBusher wrote:

Here we go again.

The lyrics are not from a "fan" - they're taken from a note that Dennis Flemion (of The Frogs) left in Eddie's notebook when he wasn't in the room. Eddie was looking for lyrics for the song and opened up his notebook and there was the note.

"Don't it make you smile when the sun don't shine"
- lyrics from the unreleased Frogs song "Now I Want To Be Dead"

"This Is How I Feel"
- title of unreleased Frogs song

"I miss you already/always"
- Dennis's addiditonal comment to Eddie

"crooked hearts & swirls all around"
- Eddie's description of Dennis's doodlings

The note itself is on the back of the "Smile" No Code polarioid.

Dennis is credited on the vinyl (both LP and fan club 45) but not the CD for some reason.

In addition, The Frogs are the inspiration for Pearl Jam's "Bugs", Smashing Pumpkins' "1979" and "We Only Come Out At Night", Pavement's "We Dance", Wesley Willis's "The Frogs", amongst many others...

I THOUGHT it was the guy from the Frogs! Wow I feel so nerdy having remembered that

Dog Loyal

macgyver06 wrote:

umm...its Free Cookies and SMores all around... end of discussion.

I like that better.