I could be another fool
or an exception to the rule
You tell me the morning after
Though I'm not supposed to be online today (work, work, work) October 21 2010 marks the 7th anniversary of Elliott Smith's untimely death and I just couldn't let that pass.
It was almost exactly a year earlier, in October 2002, that I first started listening to Smith, when, in the wake of my Grandfather's death, I was given a copy of his eponymous sophomore LP (that's self-titled second album in non music-journo speak). From the opening bars of Needle in the Hay right through to the closing chords of The Biggest Lie, that record encircled and entwined every fabric of my being and helped me through my grief.
Over the course of the next few months, I did my best to get my hands on every piece of music Smith ever even thought of composing. This was a time before mp3s and YouTubes and so Dublin's record shops and musically well-endowed friends proved invaluable. I even managed to get my hands on some Heatmiser bootleg tapes, tapes I tell you, that some friend of a friend had gotten from his cousin's sister-in-law who'd worked in Portland.
There are few, actually, scrap that, there are no artists that have had the effect on me that Smith has had. He has influenced and inspired almost all my musical endeavours as an adult, be it writing, playing or just listening. There are people, as there always will be, who don't 'get' Elliott Smith. Some find him too depressing, some say he couldn't sing, others don't like the constant references to drugs in his lyrics. But drugs, and his living hell fighting/embracing them were what made Smith who he was and his songs what they were. And despite how strung out he was for years, I once got talking to a journalist who interviewed Smith when he was at his worst. During the interview Smith was plucking an acoustic guitar and could barely string a coherent couple of words together but, according to said journo, he didn't play one bum note on the guitar over the course of a 45 minute interview.
Anyway, this post isn't about glorifying drugs, one way or another his abuse of them played a role in his death, but the point I'm making is that they were his demons, and while we're all fighting our own individual battles, be alcohol, poverty, illness - his words, his music, even seven years after his death, can continue to provide us with hope. It worked for me 8 years ago, it works for me today.
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He was clean from the Drugs for well over a year when he died, he had many other deamons in his life which I think the drugs where a way to forget these. But I would say the years of drug abuse and self harm played a major part in his life, death and music.
ReplyDeleteAlan
Lovely piece.
ReplyDeleteHe went through a strange drug detox programme a little while before he died - there was an article in the music mag Under the Radar about it... he seemed like he was in an odd place. He mentioned that he thought people were following him and taking his music...
I still have that mag at home, the headline was 'Better Off Than Dead'....!
http://www.undertheradarmag.com/interviews/elliott_smith/