The Wee Democracy

i am quite sad today.

elliott smith died. and i'd try to write a little obituary of some substance and poignancy, but it would be a fallacy, as i did not know the man. so instead i'll recall my own personal experiences involving this talented fella.

i first becam exposed to ES over the phone, when my sister leah discovered him in new york. leah went off to NYU when i started high school, and immediately became a sort of connoiseur of little known music. i think it was around 97 or 98 that she told me about it. ('98 was the year XO was released, i just checked) so, she called me near the beginning of my senior year in high school, and told me about this great guy she'd just heard, that he was kinda beatlesy and i should totally check him out. she played part of Waltz #2 for me over the phone. i thought it was pretty good, and soon i saw him perform it on saturday night live.

so, i had some limited exposure, then, i went to college and my friend damon was a devotee of ES, so we heard plenty of that stuff. it was actually his in to get me to watch good will hunting, which up to that point i had refused to see. so he said, "and elliott smith did all the songs in it" which was more or less true, so i figured, what the hell - can't be all bad. turned out to be a pretty damn good movie and ES's music fit right in there.

and lauren, a girl i had a good relationship with that year, she was another disciple to the path of smith. lauren was a cool cat, and i can't listen to elliott without thinking of her fondly.

junior year, i saw the royal tenenbaums during the christmas break, and i thought his song 'needle in the hay' was a killer for the scene in which is was used. it was when richie tried to kill himself. sadly, it was a bit too apropos. it was about that time that i put together a bunch of elliott smith songs onto a burnt CD, because i wanted to listen to a lot of them while i was on the go. ES's cd's are the ones that, no matter how old they are, they never go down in price. yes, i'm a cheap bastard.

and the beginning of senior year, when i first moved into my apartment, i played that CD every night while i hand washed my dishes....it was peaceful. maybe the last truly peaceful time in my life.

goodbye, elliott.....you've given me some fond memories



feeling: melancholic....like, robert smith, from the cure
thinking of: how lauren, damon, and other folks are taking it
song of the day: miss misery - elliott smith