...unfortunately. :(
this was a rather nice article on the sixth anniversary on his passing, which was a few days ago.
I remember the day Elliott Smith died, oddly enough. it was a very shitty day in general for me. I was pining emptily for somebody I went to school with- kind of weird, not going into details, suffice to say this was during my self-mutilating stage, very bad/embarrassing time in hindsight- and I was at this stupid college fair with my best friend when they were pushing schools like Allegheny and Penn State on me and I was like OH I CAN GET INTO THOSE LOLZ. then I heard about Elliott and I had heard a few songs of him around that time (like, a month or so beforehand) so I was like ! whoa and it put a damper on the rest of an already ugly day. In January of the next year, I heard "Rose Parade" again on the internet and bought Either/Or out of curiousity. 'nuff said. I fell in love, slowly. not sure what my favorite album is though. I think....hmmm. well, all I know is From a Basement On the Hill is way too disturbing/sad for me to make it the whole way through without feeling like, emotionally punctured.
here's my personal favorite of his:
you? "MISS MISERY," YES?
Holy shit, I actually remember when he died. I feel so fucking old.
ReplyDeleteI think the day he died, we were making a 9/11 mural in my school and I wrote "I'm never gonna know you now/but I'm gonna love you anyhow" and below that, I drew a little balloon and wrote "RIP E.S." because when you are 14, you are kind of obsessive over the music you love.
This was right before iPods were the bomb digity so I think I just sat in my whateverclassitwas and just listened to "XO" on my red, Sony walkman after I wrote my tribute down for Elliott. Oh, to be 14 and the center of the universe again!
Well, my teachers thought that was actually someone I lost in the 9/11 attacks and without asking me about what I wrote or why I was just chilling to some music, they wanted to do instant damage control and so they sent me to the counselor's office and were like, "WHY DID YOU WRITE THAT ON THE 9/11 WALL? ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU AT RISK FOR DOING HARM TO YOURSELF? WHY DIDNT YOU TELL US YOU LOST SOMEONE THAT DAY?"
When I told them that it was just my favorite musician who just died, they were like "YOU HAVE TO WHITE WASH WHAT YOU WROTE BECAUSE ITS IRRELEVANT!"
So they walked me back to that spot on the wall, and I had to paint it over with white. I was supposed to write something else on top of it, but some Juggalo got to it before I could and drew an American flag upside down (which was left up and still visible to this day.)
So anyway,
RIP Elliott Smith.
I don't remember the day he died, but "A Fond Farewell" was one of the songs that defined my senior year of high school. Absolutely brilliant.
ReplyDelete