It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Elliott Smith. I was bummed out for two months after he died and I still get bummed when I think about it. Elliott and I had some mutual friends and I was lucky enough to see him play live back before he started to pack houses. He preferred the smaller venues and playing solo to the rigors of a huge tour but he could perform well under any circumstances.

Don’t buy the idea that Elliott just moped around and played sad songs. It’s true that he could write them like nobody else but he could also rock out when he wanted to.

And yes, there were times when he looked like a trapped animal on stage but until he started to have issues with drugs, he never failed to impress when he played live.

Here are some of my personal favorite clips:

This shows Elliott in his preferred environment…just him and his guitar. Damn, he can play that thing.p>

And then again, just the guy and his guitar:

It never fails that when people see my tattoos that I get asked what the text says…the left arm has, ‘The Devil’s script sells you the heart of a blackbird,’ lyrics from one of elliott’s songs.

Thankfully, there is a LOT of unreleased, unmastered music that Elliott left. With a posthumous double album already out there, word has it there will be more to come in the next few years.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 20:50 and is filed under Metal, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.