OT: Elliott Smith has died...

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sthslvrcnfsn
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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by sthslvrcnfsn » Wed Oct 22, 2003 7:20 pm

About 3 weeks ago I saw an accident at 75 mph, and got out to help the girl. And now this. It's really made me think about things.

And guys, there's no reason to fight, whatever's true will be found out shortly by the people investigating the whole thing. I think it's fishy, too, but certainly suicide is not out of the question. I'm not going to "make up my mind" quite yet.

I hope his family and friends - portland people here? - do well these next few months. This happened with a family friend of mine, and I still don't know how to express consolation to others who are going through the same thing. With that being said, I'm sorry if my words don't come out right.

I'm done sounding depressing now
jim

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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by mixmasterdsr » Wed Oct 22, 2003 7:57 pm

Fuck what a shock. I had to take off to the record store at lunch today and lo and behold there was 1 more 7" left of Pretty (Ugly Before). I guess it'll be a collectors item now.
Elliot, wherever you are, holy shit asshole. I'll miss you

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Rick Hunter
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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by Rick Hunter » Wed Oct 22, 2003 8:06 pm

I am crushed. Big time.

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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by TapeOpLarry » Wed Oct 22, 2003 8:48 pm

It's been a rough day. Thanks to everyone for condolences, thanks to The Western Conference and my intern, Trent Hayes, for letting me slack off on the session today (the band offered to cancel but I figured we might as well do something, Trent is busting out tracks in the next room while I "supervise").

I hadn't talked to Elliott in over a year. His girlfriend Jennifer called me last week and asked if I'd like to come to LA and help mix and finish the long-awaited Elliott Smith album. I said, yes, of course, and chatted with Elliott for the first time in ages. It was so great to talk after so long. I juggled my schedule to make it down there November 10-21. Those plans are off now. It seems surreal that he would call me to finish an album and then a week later kill himself. I talked to Jennifer this morning, who was obviously shattered and in tears, and she said, "I don't understand, he was so healthy."

It will take some of years or our whole lifetime to get over this. I've been crying all day. Our friendship really began with Jackpot! and doing the studio and our mutual pal Joanna Bolme. And here I sit around his piano, albums, and some of the gear he left here. I've never had someone so close to me pass away.

Elliott certainly suffered from depression. Sometimes he was medicated, sometimes illegally. Sometimes he was drunk. Sometimes he was a great friend.

Take care everyone....

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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by jajjguy » Wed Oct 22, 2003 8:53 pm

Yeah, what a shock. So of course i'm listening to either/or and nooding along. alameda, what a difficult song to learn. it sounds so smooth and natural but when you check it out there are so many left turns and unevenesses. a mark of genius in songwriting, i'd say. we lost a good one yesterday.

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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by echofonic » Wed Oct 22, 2003 9:48 pm

i found out late last night - a phone call from a friend who'd heard it from the grapevine, but couldn't find any news or proof to support it. i hung up and went straight to sweetadeline.net, where the black-n-white splash page confirmed what i'd so hoped was a lie.

i didn't expect to cry, but i did. like someone else who posted here, i've never met the man - but felt a stong connection to him through his music. he was a hero to me - the ultimate underdog - the epitome of what i wanted to do and say, and how i wanted to do it...and even though he wrote, arranged, and played at a level which i will most likely never reach, listening to him was never daunting - always inspiring. i pulled my 8-track back out of the closet because of either/or. the clicked-out kicks and tape hiss keep reminding me that it's the music that counts in the end.



leigh wrote:
SKY_AT_NO_NOON wrote:A very poetic exit.
There's nothing poetic about it either, Sky. It's just straight fucked. Artistic explorations of depression can be poetic. Depression itself is not. An act of suicide is not an artistic exploration, except under certain Situationist rubric, which is not what was going on with Elliott. His suicide, if that's really what happened, was the end result of a horrible, grinding depression, not of his capacity to make beautiful art.

Leigh
so well put - and thank you for saying it.

perhaps the best thing that can come of this is for all of us to learn from elliot's choice.

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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by DUC » Wed Oct 22, 2003 10:38 pm

Fuck you, Elliott. God bless you.

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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by Helen Fordsdale » Thu Oct 23, 2003 2:21 am

Go to Ebay and count how many copies of the "Pretty Ugly" 7" sold for under $8 earlier this month. Then count how many have sold for $40-50 in the last 24 hours. Sick.

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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by comfortstarr » Thu Oct 23, 2003 6:20 am

Helen Fordsdale wrote:Go to Ebay and count how many copies of the "Pretty Ugly" 7" sold for under $8 earlier this month. Then count how many have sold for $40-50 in the last 24 hours. Sick.
Well... profiting on the death buy selling his records is definately sick, but buying his records because he died isn't. I've never owned one of his CDs, but I listened to some stuff yesterday and I will now buy a couple (it was one of those situations where I started hearing about him when he had several out, and I wanted to know which were the "good" ones, and this thread has certainly pointed me to certain disks).

Why didn't I own his CDs? I don't know, the few things I heard had never grabbed me. But, seeing the way he obviously affected so many, causes me to reconsider. Maybe I was just stupid before... who knows.

I feel bad for him, his family, his friends, and all of the people so deeply impacted by his music. I want to better understand the relationship between creativity and mental/emotional torment. Two days ago I listened to the new Mescallero's CD. While completely different circumstances in death, it makes you wonder about where someone's creativity comes from.

Peace to Elliott's family and friends,
C

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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by biasvoltage » Thu Oct 23, 2003 9:51 am

I know I'm a little late chiming in.


I heard it on NPR driving on the freeway yesterday and had to pull over to the shoulder. I wasn't prepared to hear the news.


I saw him twice. Once at Trees in Dallas. Once again at a Jon Brion friday night at Largo in los angeles, where he went up and played Rose Parade and a cover of the Kinks' Waterloo Sunset. I went up to him afterwards and thanked him "for all of the 3am's you've helped me get through"

I wish he had someone help him through his 3am's.

This morning, driving to work along Sunset, I saw that people are leaving flowers and candles in front of the wall where the cover of Figure8 was photographed. I had to pull over again.


cv

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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by madpie » Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:08 am

Some pictures of that memorial at the Figure 8 wall are up at Sweet Adeline.
http://www.sweetadeline.net/ (scroll down a bit)... In a weird way, it really does my heart good to read all the outpourings of feeling from everybody. I keep turning on the radio and being shocked that everything just goes on as usual. Which is dumb, because of course he was not known to that many people. But to me it feels like a very substantial thing, and somehow it's comforting to see some public acknowledgment from others who feel the same way.

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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by wayne kerr » Thu Oct 23, 2003 2:16 pm

Elliott certainly suffered from depression. Sometimes he was medicated, sometimes illegally. Sometimes he was drunk. Sometimes he was a great friend.
Hang in there Larry. Death is part of life - and it's the real raw in your face part most of the time. I never met Elliott Smith, but his music touched me in a way that few do. I am glad that you got to be a part of that. I like to imagine that he's just getting acquainted with the "supergroup" up there right about now... "Elliot, welcome... there's a few people we'd like you to meet - Jimi, Bonzo, Nick, Bobby, Will, Boon, Geroge, John, Janis, Brian, Stiv, Keith, Darby, Kurdt... and those two guys over there with the wigs... they're called Ludwig and Amadeus... everyone, this is Elliott... he's gonna jam with us."

This too shall pass.

Peace,

Eric
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
-Hunter S. Thompson

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axial
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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by axial » Thu Oct 23, 2003 2:49 pm

all I have to say is thanx for the music elliot!
don't worry we don't need to track, we'll fix it later!

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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by dumbangel » Thu Oct 23, 2003 3:07 pm

A lot of people loved his music here. Beyond the obvious quality of his songs, the French press always praised his egoless personnality. His music will feel very different to us now.

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Re: OT: Elliott Smith has died...

Post by Eric Rottmayer » Thu Oct 23, 2003 4:00 pm

i'm sorry i'm late in posting, i just wanted to say how sad i've been for the past couple
of days. his music and words have been so influential to me as a writer/recorder myself,
i can't think of anyone else who has changed the way i think about, play & listen to music
besides maybe the beatles. i'm still shaking from the news. it doesnt really matter how he
died, it's more just that he is gone. but his music will be remembered for a long time.
what will become of From A Basement On A Hill? i hope it can be heard at some point
even though it will be hard to listen to.

my condolences to the many who loved him.

eric

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