While in Amoeba looking for any of the many albums on my to buy list, I heard some wanna be punk kid cynically say, "Oh look dude, Elloitt Smith, your favorite." What I really desired to say back was, "Well, are either of you guys hardcore enough to impale your own heart with a stake?" Of course I didn't so as not to disturb the peaceful atmosphere present at Amoeba, but sometimes a little bit of information goes a long way.I have recently been listening to more and more Elliott Smith because I am beginning to see his genius. I have to admit that I like his solo acoustic work like that of Either/Or more than his majorly produced From a Basement On a Hill. At first, I had an urge to buy his From a Basement On a Hill record becuse I believed that it was essentially his suicide record. That is, I inferred that he made it directly before killing himself. After buying the album however, I learned that his family had compiled the songs and undoubtedly put them in the order on the cd after his death.
In Los Angeles , the wall that is in the background of the Figure 8 album has become a memorial wall that many people visit, and write thier thoughts on. Of course, being a wall in LA, there are also just taggers names written, yet these are easily overshadowed by the amount of actual comments.
In the song "I Didn't Understand" off the album XO, one not only gets a sense of how overly critical he is of himself but also of how amazing he is at singing. His three part harmonies in this song are just beautiful. A video of him playing live on youtube only confirmed my assumptions about his critical nature, as he periodically stops playing to scold himself on fucking up. It's practically impossible to tell, but he stops and apologizes anyway. That kind of self-effacing personality is one that would definitely have a hard time dealing with immense fame and fortune as he was on the immediate road to obtaining.
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