Failure's Art

#37

02.06.10

Music

Elliott Smith is my favorite singer-songwriter of all time.  That means I favor him over Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, and Leonard Cohen.  If that doesn't reverberate within your cranium, I have failed to convey the importance of what I just said, and will chalk it up to being a crummy writer.

In the same way that I picked yesterday's Josh Ritter tune and then staged a photo to accompany it; today I decided that any additional day that passes without featuring Elliott Smith would be a sad day in the life of this Blog.  To make cosmic amends, I may feature Elliott tunes exclusively for months!  Alright, I won't do that, but I love this guy and feel his music like no one's business.  Tomorrow Tomorrow is very representative of the Elliott Smith sound and style.

Like many artists of the highest caliber, regardless of their respective art forms, Elliott led a troubled and short existence on this planet.  His real name was Steven Paul Smith; but he didn't like "Steve" because Steve Smith was the drummer for Journey.  He picked the name Elliott because of the street in Portland, Oregon where he lived with his father early in his career.  

He was proficient on many instruments, including guitar (as featured in this track,) also bass guitar, piano, clarinet, drums, harmonica, and others.  He began his musical career in college with the grungy Heatmiser, but his mellow, solo side project skyrocketed with the release of Roman Candles, and that was the end of Heatmiser.  This song is off his 4th album, XO.  

He is known for absolutely astounding finger-picking guitar work, Tomorrow Tomorrow being exemplary, and compared to Nick Drake in that regard.  He is also compared to Drake with his whispery vocal style.  But the fullness of sound... therein lies the difference.  Oh, the sound, the sound, the sound.

I hope you'll keep this song playing for 60 minutes in the background while you do whatever it is you do.  It would be inconceivable to me that at the end of that experience you do not feel the same affection for Elliott and his music as I do.  His string picking at the beginning of the song seems impossible, and it mesmerizes me on every listen.  The trademark layering of his own voice via multi-tracking is displayed in elegant fashion on this tune, too.

This song is, to me, excruciatingly deep.  I find so many layers of meaning here, and most of them are heart-wrenching and painful.  But the pure fact that he was able to write and sing with such honesty and explicitness allows a ray of hope and happiness to shine through, regardless of the lyrical content.  That's how it is for all of Elliott's music in my case.  He was a brilliant star, and I lament his loss and pain more than any other musician.

He was found stabbed twice in the chest in 2003.  It remains a mysterious death; neither  ruled suicide nor homicide (by his girlfriend Jenn Chiba) as many believe.  Alas, this is strikingly similar to Kurt Cobain's death which was ruled suicide, but widely believed to be homicide by his wife Courtney Love.  The heroin addiction of Elliott and Cobain cannot be overlooked as another tragic, common thread in their lives.

Everybody knows which way you go,

     Straight to over.

No one wants to see you inside of me,

     Straight to over.

I heard the hammer at the lock

     Say "you're deaf and dumb and done".

Give yourself antoher talk

     This time make it sound like someone.

The noise is coming out,

     and if it's not out now,

 Then tomorrow, tomorrow.

They took your life apart

And called you "failure's art".

They were wrong, though they won't know

     'Til tomorrow.

I got static in my head,

     The reflected sound of everything.

Tried to go to where it led,

     But it didn't lead to anything.

The noise is coming out,

     and if it's not out now,

I know it's just about to drown 

     Tomorrow out.

Rest in peace, Elliott.  

 

Photo

 

I adore the finger picking in this song, and wanted to get a photo of a Yamaha acoustic guitar since that is what Elliott played (his electric guitar was Epiphone, I believe).  Despite being sicker than Ozzy's dog after eating spoiled bangers and mash (but not so dead as Ozzy's dog after getting eaten by a coyote), I went to the guitar store tonight on a mission.  Alas, the guitar store I wanted (Mammoth Music) was closed, so I had to go to BestBuy.  And wouldn't you know it?  They had plenty of Takamine, Gibson, Ovation and Taylor... but no Yamahas.  So I just snapped a pic of this one that looks slightly like Elliott's from pictures I have seen, though I was going by memory.  This one featured above is a Gibson Songwriter Deluxe, for what it's worth.  I love any natural wood grain, and tried to get in close to that on this guitar.  They had scant acoustic guitars at BestBuy, but check out this wall o' electrics:

  

Parting Comments

I meant this to be a short blog entry because I'm still quite sick and want to get plenty of rest... but the music made me write more.  Please forgive me pushing the photo to junior varisty while I focused on the music, but again, I owe that respect to Elliott.  He's given me more than I've given him, after all.  And sadly, I'll never be able to balance those scales.

One small caution for those wanting to explore more Elliott Smith; please know he does not shy from dark themes or coarse language.  Anyone wishing to avoid either/or both elements should avoid Elliott's albums; but if you let me know, I can give you a list of singles like Tomorrow Tomorrow that can be enjoyed by all.

 

Until tomorrow... thank you for listening, looking and reading.  CCE