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Elliott Smith: Five years on

Written by Rebecca White
Tuesday, 02 December 2008 00:00

Elliott Smith’s absence is still felt, five years on, by musicians and fans alike. It is very difficult to talk about his music without mentioning his suicide in 2003 or the antecedent stories of drug addiction, childhood abuse and depression. Many people feel that Smith's music is difficult to listen to and maybe this is for the very reason that he didn't see his music as particularly somber; the bleak lyrics of some of his most haunting songs were never intended to be vitriolic anthems like Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, for example, but just how he saw the world. Perhaps it is this honesty which makes his music intensely captivating but also, for some, deeply harrowing.

Unlike other artists, such as Eva Cassidy or Nick Drake, Smith’s career hasn’t had the same kind of exposure since his death, yet it still garners a strong following from old and new fans. Commemorations often take place by the wall on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, which was the location of Autumn De Wilde's front cover for Figure 8 and, since his death, has become a tribute to the late singer with lyrics and messages scattered across it. It remains tactile evidence of fans’ ongoing dedication. Smith's fan base remains a proactive tight-knit group, with a strong focus on his music opposed to a kind of cult obsessed with mourning his death. The fifth anniversary of his passing saw tributes all around the globe, across to America to Japan, Greece, Australia and the UK with the proceeds going toward the Elliott Smith Memorial Fund. This was set up by his relatives to raise money in aid of both Outside.In, a homeless shelter in Portland, Oregon, and the Los Angeles-based charity, Free Arts for Abused Children.

The Figure 8 wall also forms part of the artwork from De Wilde's recent book Elliott Smith, which includes interviews with friends and fellow musicians such as fellow Heatmiser member Neil Gust. The book aims to show Smith as he was known by those closest to him and to move away from his "Miss Misery" image often portrayed in the press. The book contains an extensive collection of photos from around the shoot for the “Son of Sam” video and shows Smith as a playful, kinetic creature. His immense creativity is captured through this very intimate portrait from not just a photographer, but also a friend. It is interesting to wonder whether De Wilde would have been prompted to publish this book had he still been alive today and without the understandable pressure to make public unreleased material as a way of cementing an artist's legacy.

There are certain ethical questions about posthumous releases and they often have a tendency to sit quite uncomfortably in an artist’s body of work as their lack of input in post production lends itself to the belief that the album will never be truly as intended. This is, to a certain extent, true for From a Basement on a Hill, released shortly after his death in 2004. The album had been in production for a number of years and after his death, Joanna Bolme and producer Rob Schnapf (whom Elliott had worked with on XO, Either/Or and Figure 8) were encouraged by Smith's estate to complete the final mix. Smith intended it to be a double album, partially composed of noise tracks, yet the final product only contains elements of these wishes, specifically in the songs such as “Coast to Coast”, and was released as a single, fifteen-track album. Despite being not quite what Smith originally planned, notably with the exclusion of several key tracks, the album beautifully depicts the progression of his music in the latter part of his life; a real mix of styles from the simple acoustic melody of “Memory Lane” to a heavier, more abstract “King's Crossing”, without mentioning the ongoing amelioration of his lyrics. From a Basement on a Hill is more lucid and infinitely darker.

The second official release after Smith's death was New Moon, an album of demos largely recorded during the production of the albums Either/Or and Elliott Smith. New Moon isn't just a fan's album of leftovers and b-sides; every song on this compilation could have easily made it onto any one of Smith's five albums. Songs that stand out on the album include “Angel in the Snow”, “All Cleaned Out” and the missing title track to the album Either/Or. It is also interesting to note that New Moon is the only album in Smith's discography to include “Miss Misery”, one of Smith's best known songs for which he received an Oscar nomination for best original song in Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting (1997). The song featured in the film includes different lyrics and has a much more produced quality to it than the version on New Moon.

Collaboration between Van Sant and Smith seems to be an obvious one when you consider the similarities in both content and style of their work. Both being native Portlanders, they share the same kind of passive aggressive quality associated with the grunge scene of the Pacific Northwest. Van Sant’s films focus on punk culture and, specifically, young men who are marginalized in society which seems to resonate with Smith's own biography. The use of “Angeles” in the scene in which Will (played by Matt Damon) and his friends travel back from the Harvard bar late at night perfectly captures their shared aesthetic.

Van Sant used “Angeles” again in Paranoid Park, released earlier this year and, since his death, Smith’s music has appeared on the soundtracks to several films including Thumbsucker which was originally meant to be produced entirely by Smith. This soundtrack includes his cover of Big Star’s “Thirteen” and Cat Stevens’ “Trouble”, both demonstrating the range of musicians who influenced his own work.

Of course, five years is still a relatively short time to judge exactly how Smith will be remembered and it will certainly be interesting to see if more unreleased material surfaces over the years. It is, however, a testament to his sheer ability and talent that he still carries such a loyal fan base that sees him as an incredible musician above everything else.