Elliott Smith RIP

[John B]

The Associated Press is reporting that Elliott Smith has died of an apparent suicide. He was 34.

I've only heard a few of his albums but I enjoyed the little that I experienced.

Such a shame.

[jpmosu]

Place this in the "irony is NOT dead" file:

In *The Royal Tennenbaums,* there's a suicide (attempt) scene involving Richie Tennenbaum (Luke Wilson). The music on the score: Elliott Smith's "Needle in the Hay."

It's the only reason why I even know who Elliott Smith is.

[Adam]

Unless I'm confusing him with someone else, he had a history of heroin use, severe depression, and sometimes bizarre live performances.

Good songs, though.

It's really sad that he ended up going so young, and in such a manner. May he find peace.

Edited October 22, 2003 by Adam

[jmjk]

It's the only reason why I even know who Elliott Smith is.

I can't even say this!

[AfricaBrass]

This is really heartbreaking!

You guys turned me on to his music a few months back and I really was blown away by it. It's such a tragedy that we live in a world that destroys those with the biggest hearts. I'm six months older and I have fought off depression and many of the same demons that Smith did. I feel so sad for him. He must have been really hurting to have had to end it this way.

[Rooster_Ties]

Brad Mehldau does a very good cover of Elliot Smith's "Bottle up and Explode!" (which was originally on Smith's 1998 album "XO").

It (the Smith cover Mehldau does) is on a promo-only CD of Mehldau tracks, which are mostly various tracks from his "Art of the trio" series, plus two tracks otherwise not available commerically: "Bottle up and Explode!" --- and also a solo-piano version of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" (which I like a fair bit better than the version on Mehldau's "Largo").

Oddly enough, that was how I first encountered Elliot Smith's music, was from this Mehldau promo. On the strength of the Mehldau cover, I went out and "XO", but that's the only Smith CD I own (at least so far).

Very sad news.

[Rooster_Ties]

AP story from CNN: click here

[ghost of miles]

I am so fucking torn up by this. I found out half an hour ago when I went online. Just two days ago I was listening to FIGURE 8, and I was going to change my Organissimo signature to a line from one of the last songs on that record--Why should you want any other/when you're a world within a world? This, for me, is even worse than Kurt Cobain's suicide. I listened to Smith's music almost every day for about two years, and he's still somebody I've turned to frequently when I wanted to feel an intimate, lyrical connection with an artist. He made the most beautiful music since Nick Drake. Music that could break and re-make your heart.

Thank you, Elliott. Your songs came to me like spiritual and artistic gifts. I know there are many, many others who felt & feel the same way. I'm going to go listen to your music now and hope that you've found peace. You deserve it, because your records brought love into people's lives.

[Matthew]

This is such major bad news, it's just unbelievable. Smith artist had so much talant and creativity.... I'm speechless. Sad, sad, sad.... The Pacific Northwest rock scene will be in a deep depression over his one. Sad.

[.:.impossible]

What? I don't even know what to say. I almost skipped over this thread. The title didn't register. I scrolled back up and chills ran around my body.

It is so difficult to understand how someone with such a gift for expressing the human emotion so deeply and clearly can take his or her own life. He was such a gift to us all. I hope he acknowledged that at some point in his life.

The thought that I will never experience his music live, or ever have a chance to speak with him is heartbreaking. Bless his family and friends.

I was looking forward to decades of great Elliott Smith albums. I have to say I'm fortunate to hear what I have heard. He was a wonderful musician and a wonderful poet.

[kulu se mama]

no way.

i've been out cd shopping all morning, and i finally picked up a copy of "figure 8."

i just signed on the computer for the first time today, and i was going to listen to music while i check my emails.

figure 8 is going on right now.

the first time i saw or heard of him was the oscars a few years ago when he had a song nominated from "good will hunting."

very sad news.

[ghost of miles]

I know that he tried to commit suicide in 1997 (by jumping off a cliff, supposedly). And there were all kinds of shadows in his life & in his music that pointed to suicide as a possible outcome. I have been haunted, ever since FIGURE 8's release in 2000, by its last song, an instrumental called "Bye." At the end of it Smith hits a crashing, glassbreaking flurry of notes on the piano. It always sounded like an audio suicide note.

It's going to be a long time getting over this.

[ghost of miles]

Some of you may have already seen this, posted by Charlie, who ran the Sweet Adeline website, and who got to know Smith in the last year of his life:

goodbye elliott

as you probably realize im pretty devastated about having to say goodbye to elliott. i've been so lucky enough to experience my own love and other's love of elliott and what his music has brought to us. its never easy to put into words what someone means to you. simply elliott was such a lovely man. i'll miss him so much. he was so kind and generous. he really made me feel so good whether being in his presence or watching him play a song or just driving in my car singing along. when i first meet elliott in 1998 after a show i was really worried to bug him for an autograph. it seemed like every article i read, elliott got into a fight somehow, so my perception was that you don't want to get him mad because you might get socked. well i was willing to take a chance that night and god i'm so glad i did. it was brief but it meant the world. with elliott holding a beer, i ran up to him asking for an autograph. with a soft spoken yes and a smile, he was willing to take time for me to sign my record. the fact he was willing to take time to do that for me meant the world. not only didn't i get socked but elliott put 'to charlie <3 elliott' of course that just made me love him more as time went on, i got to meet elliott more and more and spend a little time with him backstage. as always he was sweet to me before even knowing who i was. but finally i told him. i was nervous but he was so comforting. he even gave me a pat on the back. some of the things he told me were cool, interesting, honest and funny. the best moment to me was when he told me how much he loved the site. the thing is that it reflects on everyone who contributed to the site and visited the site. elliott told me he thought the site was really nice and that he would come and visit it especially to check out the set lists to see what he played before so he could play a new set. he thanked me for it but really he was thanking everyone because he appreciated how much everyone cared about what he was doing. he also thanked us multiple times! so many times people close to elliott thanked us for doing this for elliott too because they knew how much it meant to him. you guys really did make him happy and brought a lot of good to his life. as fans gave to him, he was willing to give too. all the stories i read and heard from fans were never negative. everyone's experience with elliott was always positive. from elliott putting fans who didn't get tickets for the show on his guest list to giving money to the homeless to simply hanging out with fans and going out for a beer. i wish i could put so much more because that just doesn't add to all the kind things he was willing to do for anyone. i wish i could remember everyone's stories and list them all for you. i wish i knew every word he said to me word for word to share with you. im sorry i wish i could say more. im sad. so how can you say goodbye to someone who was and is so wonderful? you don't because elliott will be forever in my heart and hopefully yours. i will always have his love, kindness, intelligence, humbleness, creativeness, greatness and so much more in me forever because that's what he was and i'll always love him for being who he was. i love you so much elliott. thank you so much from the bottom of my heart and soul for making me happy when i need it or i just wanted to rock out. thank you for bringing such much joy to your love ones, family, your friends and all of us. i really pray you heard all the great things you gave us. love and friends. i'll miss you so much. we will all miss you. see you in heaven elliott.

<3 charlie

if you would like to email something to elliott's family and friends, please send it to charlieramirez@sbcglobal.net

Steven Paul (Elliott) Smith. August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003. Elliott Smith was born on August 6, 1969 in Omaha, Nebraska. Elliott spent his childhood near Dallas, Texas where he began his musical training at the age of nine, winning a local award for original composition at the age of ten.

Elliott relocated to Portland, Oregon as a Sophomore at Lincoln High School where he achieved the rank of National Merit Scholar. During his time at Lincoln High School, Elliott joined the band “Stranger Than Fiction” in which he composed music and performed until his graduation in 1987.

Elliott later attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he majored in Philosophy and Political Science. During his time at Hampshire, Elliott, known then as Elliott Stillwater-Rotter, co-founded the band “A Murder of Crows”. He later became a member of well known band “Heatmiser”. It was during this time that Elliott began to release music as a solo artist.

During his lifetime, Elliott released five full-length albums as a solo artist as well as a number of singles. Elliott was nominated for an Academy Award for “Miss Misery”, his musical contribution to the Academy Award winning movie, “Good Will Hunting”.

At the time of his death, Elliott was recording his sixth album, “From A Basement On The Hill”.

Elliott is survived by a host of family, friends and fans.

thanks to daphne for composing an obituary

[maren]

the first time i saw or heard of him was the oscars a few years ago when he had a song nominated from "good will hunting."

Yeah, me too -- "Miss Misery" -- rare to see such a DIRECT and intimate presence on the Oscars.

Like Impossible said, for me the title of this thread just WOULDN'T register -- thought there must be a 90-year-old Elliott Smith I hadn't heard of, or I read the RIP wrong.

This is awfully sad.

[ghost of miles]

Two of Smith's greatest records (some think THE greatest), ELLIOTT SMITH and EITHER/OR, came out on Kill Rock Stars. Here's what you see today when you go to their website:

It just about made me fucking cry.

[Rooster_Ties]

From salon.com

Elliott Smith, 1969-2003

Despite his success, the fragile and brilliant alt-troubadour never seemed comfortable with his career -- or his life.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By Sarah Schmelling

Oct. 22, 2003  |  About a year ago, I went to my first and only Elliott Smith concert. Though I had loved his music for years, coveting his albums and even attempting a version of his song "Say Yes" with my limited ability on guitar, I had never seen him play. It was a disappointing show. He was obviously under the influence of something far beyond stage fright, and over and over he forgot lyrics, broke strings, laughed and mumbled incoherently instead of singing. At least three songs in a row just fell apart halfway through. The crowd, most of whom were in their early 20s, thought this was hilarious and egged him on, cheering at his numerous screw-ups. The people I was with just couldn't watch it, and we left early. It was such a shame, we kept saying. Such a waste of talent.

But his death yesterday, an apparent suicide at 34, that is the shame. That is the great waste.

In a quote that's been circulating in the many articles in today's news, Smith told the Los Angeles Times in 1998 that he didn't think his songs were particularly fragile or revealing. But ever since he was launched out of obscurity through his songs that were famously selected by director Gus Van Sant for the film "Good Will Hunting," the word "fragile" has always seemed the most fitting description, not only for his music but for his persona. Who can forget him on that huge Academy Award stage in 1997, sandwiched in his ill-fitting white suit with his acoustic guitar between Trisha Yearwood and Celine Dion? Like a stray street musician who had wandered in to crash the party, Smith seemed to struggle to whisper out his nominated song, "Miss Misery." And though Dion's ubiquitous theme to "Titanic" won the trophy, Smith's performance had been perhaps the truest, most earnest example of strong songwriting ever to grace the ceremony's stage.

The concert I saw in Los Angeles last year was no anomaly. Smith's battles with alcohol and drugs had never been much of a secret. He talked about alcoholism in interviews, but his lyrics kept the cat out of the bag as well. Even his Oscar-nominated song starts, "I'll fake it through the day/ With some help from Johnnie Walker Red/ Send the poison down the drain/ To put bad thoughts in my head."

Smith's sweet voice, layered lyrics and rich guitar melodies somehow made his listeners -- including those in the concert hall where I saw him play last fall -- take these problems less seriously than perhaps we should have. How could you not embrace the warmth of lyrics like the start of "Say Yes": "I'm in love with the world/ Through the eyes of a girl/ Who's still around the morning after." Yes, in that same song, he also swears, doubts his feelings and his strength ("I'm damaged bad at best"), but is ultimately optimistic. This, along with the Beatle-esque chord progressions and vivid, emotional storytelling, won us and kept us listening. He was an artist proud of his musical influences, and had a strong ability to weave references to other music into his tales. In "Waltz #2," he manages to cite the songs "Cathy's Clown" and "You're No Good" so subtly, you may not even realize how much you're learning about both the singer and the people he's singing about.

I have friends who ran across Smith in various clubs around L.A. They were always amazed at how approachable and friendly he was, but it's not a stretch to say anyone who cared about his music felt like they knew him, just a little bit. Today, after his brutal, seemingly self-inflicted stabbing death, that seems to be a harder concept to believe. Obviously, he was part of a much deeper struggle than his words could have conveyed. The fact that he was in the midst of recording another album, and that he was due to perform as early as next month, is all the more frustrating, knowing what might have been. And yes, that's always the way of the beautiful artist's life cut short. But it's still a shame. Such a mighty shame.

[Rooster_Ties]

from slate.com

New York in Reverse

Elliott Smith's idea of heaven was modest, like everything else about the songwriter.

By Alex Abramovich

Posted Wednesday, October 22, 2003, at 4:08 PM PT

Elliott Smith, who wrote about love, loss, addiction, and the precise point at which the three intersect, died Tuesday, Oct. 21, of a single, self-inflicted stab-wound to the chest. Like so many rock deaths, his was a long time in the making, but no less sad or shocking for all the warnings that preceded it. "Give me one reason not to do it," Smith sang on his final album, which now remains unfinished.

We'll see more than a few comparisons between Smith and Kurt Cobain in the coming days; they are easy, and, perhaps, inevitable. Like Cobain, Smith sprang from the indie-rock scene of the Pacific Northwest, and despite a similar overabundance of talent, he shared that scene's set of reduced expectations. "I'm a color reporter," Smith sang, "but the city's been bled white." Like Cobain, Smith was a junkie who occasionally played his addiction for laughs—the kind that stuck in his listener's throats: Nirvana called its first album Bleach; "You ought to be proud," Smith sang on his second, "that I'm getting good marks."

But unlike Cobain, Smith split away from his first group, Heatmiser, and struck out on his own. "I was always disguised in this loud rock band," he explained. Pushing to the opposite extreme, he released a series of remarkably understated solo records. Initially released on the Olympia, Wash., Kill Rock Stars label, these won him a cult following, a major-label deal and, eventually, an Oscar nomination (for his contribution to the Good Will Hunting soundtrack). But Smith's four- and eight-track recordings—whispered vocals dubbed over and against themselves, and set over the fast and florid finger-picking of his acoustic guitar—never lost their sense of intimacy. Even in recent years, when he immersed himself in the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour and tried to replicate its arrangements in Los Angeles studios, Smith's voice had a way of cutting through the lushness of his string sections.

Still, Smith was at his best when he was least adorned. His words were concrete and lyrical, but not uncomplicated: "Drink yourself into slo-mo," he sang, in a typical turn toward self-erasure. "Made an angel in the snow/ Anything to pass the time/ And keep that song out of your mind." (Smith's heroes always seemed to find themselves a half-step behind happiness, his lovers bent on self-sabotage: "You beat it into me/ That part of you/ But I'm going to split us back in two"). The songs, too, were deceptively simple; Smith preferred minor keys, and cycled through as many as 13 or 14 chord changes in the course of a few minutes; onstage he managed to evoke the pained nostalgia of the records like George Harrison's Isn't It a Pity, John Lennon's Jealous Guy, the Kinks' Waterloo Sunset, and Big Star's Thirteen, all of which he covered in countless solo performances. "You gotta get out there and show what it's like to be a person," he told Seattle's Rocket in 1997. "That's what I'm gonna do. It might be good or it might be bad, but I'm gonna show what it's like to be a person."

Offstage, however, Smith seemed to shrink from view. He moved to New York to escape the Portland drug scene, began drinking heavily, and provoked bar fights he rarely got the best of. Six years ago, a mutual friend invited me to share their table after a show—the friend and I chatted for nearly an hour, while Smith stared into the distance and said perhaps a dozen words. That same year, I took another friend to see him play to a packed house in Hoboken, N.J. Afterward, the audience wouldn't let him leave. A line of pretty women queued up at the exits. But walking home in Manhattan an hour later we turned a corner and ran into Smith, standing alone in the drizzle, with his head down and his Walkman turned up. He looked unspeakably lonely. "I remember seeing him stumbling glumly around the East Village every now and then," that friend e-mailed me this morning. 

Smith moved to Los Angeles to detox, but it didn't stick. He began missing shows, claiming injuries and health problems of one sort or another, but continued playing—his sixth record, From a Basement on the Hill, was due to be released this year. He'd turned 34 in August.

Asked once by New Musical Express what his idea of heaven was, Smith replied, "George Jones would be singing all the time. It would be like New York in reverse. People would be nice to each other for no reason at all. And it would smell good." Today, it seems like the least we could wish for him.

Edited October 23, 2003 by Rooster_Ties

[ghost of miles]

The drag of it is that his recent performances had supposedly been quite good. He underwent some kind of innovative new treatment for drug addiction and alcoholism earlier this summer (something called Neurotransmitter Replacement, or some such), and those who saw him in performance said that he seemed very happy, chatted amiably quite a bit between songs, didn't forget lyrics, etc. It really seemed as if he'd emerged from the darkness he'd been in for the past couple of years. Obviously he'd dealt with darkness his whole life, but after a relatively stable period between XO and FIGURE 8, he seemed to plunge back into it. Apparently the abyss opened back up, and this time he fell into it. I honestly thought he'd make it; on FIGURE 8's "Color Bars" he sings, Everybody wants me to ride into the sun/but I ain't gonna go down/Laying low again/high on the sound. Music always seemed to be his salvation.

[ghost of miles]

Via Sweet Adeline:

[John B]

I didn't think I had ever heard Elliott Smith live, but one of my friends just reminded me that we saw him in 1995 opening up for Mary Lou Lord at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA. I hadn't realized that was him, as I wasn't aware of his music at the time. I enjoyed his set, but wish I could go back and see him with the fuller appreciation of his work that I have developed since.

[ghost of miles]

I saw him live only once, in Nov. 2000 at a very odd place called the Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky (the town, I believe, where Jerry Springer was arrested for writing checks to a prostitute). The Southgate House is a mansion set high up on a hill that overlooks the Ohio River; the man who invented the tommy-gun was born and raised there. It's kind of funny; in front of the house there's a historical marker about the guy that talks about how he lamented his association with gangsters' weapon of choice, and then you look up the hill and see a stenciled silhouette of a gangster popping off a few rounds with a tommy-gun in one of the windows of the club.

There was a huge line down the hill and along the street, and it took us about 45 minutes to get into the club (we missed the entire opening set by a group called Grandaddy). When Smith came out he was very apologetic and laidback--he opened with "Ballad of Big Nothing" off EITHER/OR and played for about 90 minutes, doing much of the material off FIGURE 8 as well as cool, electrified versions of "Needle in the Hay" and "Clementine" from his earlier records. He also did a great acoustic duet of "Say Yes" with his backup guitarist/keyboardist Shon Sullivan. We were about 20 feet from the stage all night, and it struck me that Smith seemed like somebody who'd been happy for awhile and was now somewhat bored--perched, perhaps, on the cusp of another spell of depression. Not long after that tour ended he vanished from the public eye, and rumors began to go around that he'd lapsed back into heroin. The new album, which Smith himself had announced for autumn 2001 on the Sweet Adeline website, was delayed again and again, with stories circulating that Dreamworks had rejected it as "too dark" and too lo-fi, and also that Smith was too depressed to finish it. I hope that it eventually comes out in some form--he did a great deal of recording in the past couple of years, and many of the songs have surfaced in live bootleg versions. Again, I think a lot of people who followed him are somewhat astonished, because he seemed to be doing so well lately. I agree with the statement that he was "the most gifted songwriter of his generation"--at least, I haven't heard anybody else between the ages of 30 & 40 who I think equals him. But his hand has now been stilled, and even more sadly, by itself.

[doubleM]

I agree with you, Ghost. I heard that he used to endorse some feelings of jealousy towards Beck, for all of his talent and success, etc... but I don't think he had any peers as a songwriter in that demographic. There is a band called the Delgados whose songs are terrific, though. Dark, lyrical, and strike a chord in me similar to that from E.S. . I'm up in Portland, and there is a really heavy vibe in the air among musicians, hipsters, and the like. It's so fucking hard to imagine a grizzlier way to take yourself out. Anyone that I know that met and hung out with him said he was funny as hell, sensitive, basically a sweetheart of a guy. It's hard to see him go.

[ghost of miles]

I agree with you, Ghost. I heard that he used to endorse some feelings of jealousy towards Beck, for all of his talent and success, etc... but I don't think he had any peers as a songwriter in that demographic. There is a band called the Delgados whose songs are terrific, though. Dark, lyrical, and strike a chord in me similar to that from E.S. . I'm up in Portland, and there is a really heavy vibe in the air among musicians, hipsters, and the like. It's so fucking hard to imagine a grizzlier way to take yourself out. Anyone that I know that met and hung out with him said he was funny as hell, sensitive, basically a sweetheart of a guy. It's hard to see him go.

Funny that you mention that about Beck, DoubleM, because when his record SEA CHANGE came out, I told my wife, "Wow, I'll bet Elliott Smith will feel jealous when he hears this record..." because it was as if Beck had gone and made an Elliott Smith kind of album. Thanks for the Portland report, too--I'm sure the news hit even harder up there.

Interesting article from Billboard today about the album-in-progress:

Friends, Peers Mourn Elliott Smith

The album Elliott Smith was working throughout the last year of his life was an extraordinarily diverse effort that ranged from "phenomenal, experimental soundscapes to the most intimate guitar vocals," his DreamWorks Records A&R man, Luke Wood, tells Billboard.com.

"He was really having fun experimenting with recording," Wood says. "And as always with Elliott, the lyrics were incredibly poignant and very consistent and very beautiful." However diverse, the album -- reportedly titled "From a Basement on the Hill" -- was a focused effort, Woods notes. "It wasn't like a free-for-all."

There's no word yet on what will happen to the recordings. Although Smith had tracked more than 30 songs and was said to have been considering a double album, Wood says it's unclear how many are complete, as Smith had a habit of working on multiple songs at a time. "He was always editing and working," he says. "He always had a large cycle of songs that he was making better, and sometimes that cycle took years."

Yet the Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd tells Billboard.com that when he did some casual recording with Smith roughly a year ago, the singer had "tons of stuff that hasn't been released. And I know a bunch was recorded and mixed and all ready to go."

Smith, 34, died Tuesday after apparently stabbing himself in the heart. According to a source, he did so using a steak knife at his girlfriend's apartment in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

About a year ago, Smith built his own studio in Los Angeles, and it was there that he was focusing on "From a Basement on the Hill." Jon Spencer Blues Explosion drummer Russell Simins, who occasionally collaborated with Smith onstage and in the studio, says he recently recorded with the singer at his own studio in New York.

Some of the new songs Smith was working on included "Strung Out Again," "Let's Get Lost," "Shooting Star," "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity To Be Free" and "Fond Farewell." The titles seem to suggest he may have been contemplating suicide and revisiting his frequent themes of addiction.

In a highly unusual move, Wood says DreamWorks had reached an agreement with Smith that allowed him to take a "sabbatical" from the label. The singer, Wood says, was looking for a more intimate way to reconnect with the fans who had followed him since his indie days, during which he issued albums for the Cavity Search and Kill Rock Stars labels.

"It was sort of like, 'How do you continue to motivate and be a true partner to an artist who's gonna want to take turns and do different things, and reach his audience more directly without going through radio or MTV?'" Wood says. "I think it was really a sense of him being able to feel like he was in control of his own destiny. And he wanted to bring it down and do sort of less promotion, and focus just more on making a record and getting it out."

Smith, Wood says, was going to release "From a Basement on the Hill" on an independent label of his choosing, even though he would have remained signed to DreamWorks. During his five-year tenure with the label, Smith issued a handful of releases on indies. In August, released the single "Pretty (Ugly Before)" as a limited-edition seven-inch on the Suicide Squeeze label.

While it was well-known amongst his friends and peers that Smith was battling alcohol and hard drug addiction and depression -- for which he was on medication, according to a source -- Wood says the singer's suicide was still quite shocking. In the past six months, Wood says, the singer seemed hopeful and excited about completing the album and then launching a tour to support it.

Says Simins, "He seemed to be doing really well lately. That's why it's really sad. We all had a hope that he was in a good way, or at least heading towards that."

Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne wasn't so optimistic about Smith's state of mind. He recalled the Lips' show in Los Angeles with Beck last year, where a bloated and clearly frustrated Smith was involved in a scuffle with police and seemed to be clearly losing his fight with addiction. "It really was nothing but sad," Coyne says. "You just sort of saw a guy who had lost control of himself. He was needy, he was grumpy, he was everything you wouldn't want in a person. It's not like when you think of Keith Richards being pleasantly blissed out in the corner."

"I think it points out how unglamorous the whole drug thing really is," Coyne continues. "For the people who knew him, the people who were around him, it was horrible. It's not this glamorous, jetsetting, beautiful lifestyle that everybody dreams of rock'n'roll heaven being. It wasn't like that at all. It was ugly. It was sad."

Adds Drozd, "There's an undercurrent of f***in' real sadness in a lot of his music that just f***in' crushes me. And that's just really the way he was. I hate to sound that way, but he really was. And I can hear it in his music. That's totally him."

Addiction, Wood says, was "a constant battle for him, but I gotta say, I thought it was one he was winning." Wood called Smith the "essence of what we would want DreamWorks as a culture to stand for -- the true song craft, the ambition, the artistry, his performance ability. I think he challenged the rules of songwriting and being a pop artist."

He adds that to Smith, life was "a very beautiful and brutal place, and his songs were that ground in between."

What was lost Tuesday, Simins says, was "someone who was really admirable as a person and as a star. There's so much bulls*** around, so many unhumble people who are all about the glitz and the glam and the bulls***. What we lost is a very, very, very, very truthful, truthful, honest star. I think both as a person and as a musician, as an artist. It's really sad because he was just brutally, brutally honest. And very smart. And if you put the two together, it's undeniably appealing."

-- Wes Orshoski, N.Y.

[.:.impossible]

Shit. I keep sighing and shaking my head as I read. Cat Power seems to be setting an appropriate mood. I hope they do release whatever he's been working on and I hope Elliott Smith is remembered by the pop public as someone other than the indie singer/songwriter that dove a knife into his own chest. Dammit.

[ghost of miles]

Came across an interesting parallel in an article I was reading about Smith the other day. When he died I thought a lot about Charlie Parker, because they were both the same age, and because they both had an intensely devoted following--but now I learn that Smith was a huge Chet Baker fan! Why did I never hear that before? They both certainly have what I call a junkie-lullabye kind of intimacy to their vocal approach (although Smith's is much edgier, IMO). They both were junkies, of course, and if James Gavin's speculation is correct, Baker was a suicide as well.