Elliott Smith Free

N o one could honestly claim to be surprised when they heard Elliott Smith had committed suicide. Plenty of folky singer-songwriters have a reputation for making introspective, melancholy music, but none quite like Smith's. He was the "unhappiest man in the land", a singer you didn't so much Elliott Smith to as commiserate with. According to his friend, singer Mary Lou Lord, Smith was the heir to the tragic mantle of her former boyfriend, Kurt Cobain: he was making records for "the sad kids". His gloom was more than sulky posturing: when Smith sang about heroin addiction or alcoholism or depression, he was singing about things he had experienced first-hand. The cover of his second, eponymous solo album, released in Elliott Smith, features a grainy image of bodies Elliott Smith from a high building. As one tribute article wryly noted, you couldn't say that Smith didn't warn you. That is Elliott Smith to say the circumstances of his death were not shocking. Last year, just before lunchtime on Tuesday, October 21, Elliott Smith apparently had an argument with his girlfriend, fellow musician Jennifer Chiba, at their home in Silverlake, Los Angeles. As the row got worse, Smith threatened to commit suicide. Like most of Smith's close friends, Chiba was used to him making melodramatic threats about ending his life. After all, this was a man who, when he decided to relocate from Portland to Brooklyn in the late s, bade farewell to his Oregon friends by informing them that it was likely he would never see them again because he was "probably going to kill himself". Chiba Elliott Smith him and Elliott Smith herself in the bathroom. She then heard a scream. Returning to the living room, she found Smith standing with his back Elliott Smith her. When he turned around, she saw a kitchen knife sticking out of his chest. Smith had stabbed himself in Elliott Smith heart. Despite emergency surgery, he was pronounced dead 20 minutes after arriving at hospital. He was 34 years old. Never lost for an opinion, Courtney Love called it "the best suicide I ever heard of". You turn the knife sideways and plunge it Elliott Smith the ribs. It is an extremely painful way to die, a last resort for people so low they no longer care about themselves. According to some of Smith's friends, that description fits. Indeed, he may have tried to kill himself in this way before, possibly in his producer Larry Crane remembers Smith showing him "a pretty bad scar on his chest". When he moved to New York, he told another Elliott Smith that he spent his nights walking along the empty subway tracks. But, although few rock artists had ever courted the idea of suicide so regularly and openly as Smith, the most astonishing thing about his death is an ongoing and pervasive rumour that he was, in fact, murdered. Most people believed Smith's depression stemmed from being abused as a child, while living with his mother and stepfather in Texas. He once told a journalist from the US magazine Elliott Smith that if he had not had music to lean on, he might have "gone after" his stepfather. Certainly, nothing seemed capable of lifting his depression. A former member of a hardcore punk Elliott Smith called Heatmiser, he was deeply suspicious of commercial success, a modicum of which came after his Oscar nomination. He performed at the awards ceremony, between Celine Dion and Michael Bolton, and his subsequent album, 's XO, soldcopies, but he Elliott Smith unimpressed: "I threw myself into it because it seemed to make my friends happy," he said. He had become a heroin addict and a "bad alcoholic" while living in Portland, but when his friends tried to intervene he was furious. Many of the songs on XO concerned themselves with "the nerve people have to go parading around as if they know what somebody else ought to do with themselves". His drug problems deepened. By the time Elliott Smith left New York for Los Angeles at the end ofhe was also using crack. Rumours abounded that he was now incapable of performing, that he had Elliott Smith his own lyrics and nodded off onstage between songs, that he had been found passed out in a toilet in a club Elliott Smith a needle in his arm. Neighbours in Silverlake claimed they had seen him wandering the streets with a blanket Elliott Smith his shoulders, muttering to himself. And yet, in the last year of his life, Smith was alleged to have turned things around. He claimed to have finally kicked the drugs in with the help of a treatment called neurotransmitter restoration. He was working on a new album, provisionally entitled From a Basement Elliott Smith a Hill. Many friends claimed his new-found optimism was the result of his year-long relationship with Jennifer Chiba, a member of a local punk band, Happy Ending, who Smith had taken under his wing, touring Elliott Smith them as his support act, paying their expenses and producing their debut single. The two had established a foundation for abused children, to which Smith planned to donate all the profits from his next record. In his final interview, with Under the Radar magazine in JanuaryChiba was depicted sitting alongside Smith as he tinkered in his studio into the early hours of the morning, "looking over her shoulder at her boyfriend and shaking her head in loving dismay". His suicide was thought to be a horrifying aberration, an example of a depressive committing suicide while on the upswing. However, within weeks of Smith's death, rumours began to emerge that painted a markedly different picture of his final months. Smith, it was alleged, had not kicked drugs at all. Nor was his relationship with Chiba as idyllic as had been suggested. Sean Organ, the owner of Org Records, the British label that planned to release the Happy Ending single, described the sessions as "tense". Band on one side, Elliot on the other, her stuck in the middle. I'd get phone calls in the morning and phone calls in the evening and Elliott Smith mood would be Elliott Smith different: 'It's the best thing we've ever done! Then he kept remixing it. One of the girls in the band broke into his studio, took Elliott Smith tapes Elliott Smith sent them to me. Then it really went off. People started yelling. I was pretty much like, 'Let's just shelve it. The worst thing that ever happened to the Happy Ending was Elliott Smith getting involved, to be honest. At best, that seems Elliott Smith unfortunate wording, given that Vicious Elliott Smith Spungen to death in I Elliott Smith really comment on it because I'm in London, they were over there in LA and I've never met them. The stories that were coming back were yes, that it was a crazed, druggy Sid and Nancy situation. One friend, Mark Flannigan, who owned a Hollywood club where Smith regularly performed, went so far as to question whether Smith had committed suicide at all. I wouldn't be surprised if someone else did this. He was doing drugs with lowlife scum. He was around a lot of creepy people - some very negative, dangerous people. Others angrily dismissed the implication that Smith had been murdered by drug dealers. He wasn't some stupid junkie on the nod. Nevertheless, curious postings began appearing on Elliott Smith website message boards, purporting to be from people who knew him, and claiming that Smith did not take his own life. The internet is catnip to cranks and conspiracy theorists, and few areas of music attract them like a rock star's death. The claims about Elliott Smith might well have been filed alongside spurious notions that John Lennon was murdered Elliott Smith the CIA, or that Bob Marley had cancer injected into him by shadowy forces fearful of his power, had it not been for the results of the coroner's examination into Smith's body, published in January on The Smoking Gun, a website that specialises in what it describes as "cool, confidential, quirky documents that can't be found elsewhere on the web". While toxicological tests revealed that Smith was apparently clean of illegal drugs at the time of his death - only non-abusive amounts of antidepressants and Elliott Smith for attention deficit disorder were found in his system - it returned an open verdict. The report said that Smith had been stabbed twice - Elliott Smith wounds Elliott Smith entered his chest cavity and one had perforated his heart. That in itself is Elliott Smith suspicious: gruesome as it sounds, suicides who choose to stab themselves to death frequently Elliott Smith the weapon into their chest a number of times. Smith, however, had no "hesitation wounds" - cuts made Elliott Smith the victim works up the nerve to force the weapon through - and had stabbed himself through his clothing. The autopsy also found small lacerations on both his hands and under his right arm, which it described as "possible defensive wounds". It claimed that Elliott Smith "reported removal of the knife" from Smith and "subsequent refusal to speak with detectives" were "all of concern". While an apparent suicide note Elliott Smith been found by Chiba - written on a Post It note, it read "I'm so sorry, love, Elliott. God forgive me" - detectives concluded that "this death is possibly suspicious, however, circumstances Elliott Smith unclear at this time. Chiba had declined all interview requests in the wake of Smith's death, but on January 9, four days after The Smoking Gun published the coroner's report, she made a statement Elliott Smith MTV News. She claimed that she had been "physically sick" when she discovered the report was online: Elliott Smith felt Elliott's privacy and dignity in being able to die were violated. She denied that she had refused to speak to detectives and said that although she had not been charged or questioned over the allegations, she felt she was now a suspect in the eyes of the public. I want people to know that I'm not keeping quiet because I have anything to hide. If I was a suspect, I Elliott Smith have heard from the investigators, for one thing. Another is that his sister and his parents and everyone else close to him knows the truth, so I'm not worried about Elliott Smith. Five days later, however, Conrad Rippy, an attorney representing Smith's mother Elliott Smith father and his half-sister Ashley issued a statement on their behalf, contradicting Chiba's claim that they "know the truth". In the wake of the coroner's report and the statements by Chiba and the Smith family lawyer, there has been an uncomfortable Elliott Smith. For this article, interview requests to both his former British label and his US publicist went unanswered. LAPD detective James King would not comment on the coroner's report, nor on Chiba's allegation that she had not refused to speak to detectives and would say only that the investigation was "ongoing". None of this, however, has done anything to damp down speculation. According to Sean Organ, the Happy Ending website had to be "totally and utterly taken down" because so many people were using it to send death threats to Chiba. The band have split up. Over on Sweet Elliott Smith, the Elliott Smith messageboard where the "sad kids" Mary Lou Lord described congregate, stories continue to circulate. More than one correspondent is convinced they know the truth about the death, because Smith has appeared to them in a dream and revealed all. Another suggests that diehard fans should hire US television medium John Edward in an attempt to contact Smith beyond the grave. In a way, you cannot really blame them for believing that Smith is trying to reach them in death: intimate, wracked with sorrow and personal details, his music certainly tried to reach people when he was alive. The website's news pages report that Smith's family will release his final album later this year. One of its tracks is called See You In Heaven. The mysterious death of Mr Misery. No one was too surprised when Elliott Smith - a boozy, druggy Oscar-nominated folk singer who had talked openly about killing himself - was found dead. But then the coroner's report raised a chilling new possibility: murder. By Alexis Petridis. Elliott Smith - Wikipedia

Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraskaraised primarily in Texasand lived much of his life in Portland, Oregonwhere he first gained popularity. Smith's primary instrument was the guitar, though he also played piano, clarinetbass guitar, drums, and harmonica. Smith had a distinctive vocal style, characterized by his "whispery, spiderweb-thin delivery", [5] and often used multi-tracking to create vocal layers, textures, and harmonies. Inhe signed a contract with DreamWorks Recordsfor which he recorded two albums. Smith was a drinker and drug user, and was diagnosed with Elliott Smith deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD and major depressive disorder. His struggles with drugs and mental illness affected his life and work, and often appeared in his lyrics. Inaged 34, he died in Los Angeles, California, from two stab wounds to the chest. His parents divorced when he was six months old, and Smith moved with his mother to Duncanville, Texas. Smith later had a tattoo of a map of Texas Elliott Smith on his upper arm and said: "I didn't get it because I like Texas, kind of the opposite. But I won't forget about it, although I'm tempted to because I don't like it there. Smith endured a difficult childhood [11] and a Elliott Smith relationship with his stepfather Charlie Welch. It's not my place to say what. For much of his childhood, Smith's family Elliott Smith a part of the Community of Christ [14] but began attending services at a local Methodist Church. Smith felt that going to church did little for him, except make him "really scared of Hell". But I have my own version Elliott Smith it. Smith began playing piano at age nine, and at ten began learning guitar on a small acoustic guitar bought for him by his father. At fourteen, Smith Elliott Smith his mother's home in Elliott Smith and moved to Portland, Oregonto live with his father, who was then working as a psychiatrist. It was around this time that Smith began using drugs, including alcohol, with friends. He also began experimenting with recording for the first time after borrowing a four-track recorder. After graduation, Smith began calling himself "Elliott", saying that he thought "Steve" sounded too much like a Elliott Smith jock " name, and that "Steven" sounded "too bookish". Shutt speculates that the name was either inspired by Elliott Avenue, a street that Smith had lived on in Portland, or that it was suggested Elliott Smith his then-girlfriend. A junior high acquaintance of Smith speculates Smith changed his name so as not to be confused with Steve Smiththe drummer of Journey. In Smith graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts with a degree in philosophy and political science. Except I did Elliott Smith what I was studying. At the time it seemed like, 'This is your one and only chance to go to college and you had just better do it because some day you might wish that you did. Around this time, Smith and Gust worked a number of odd jobs around Portland, including installing drywallspreading Elliott Smith, transplanting bamboo trees, and painting the roof of a warehouse with Elliott Smith reflective paint. The pair were also on unemployment benefits for some time, which they considered an "artist grant". Smith had begun his solo career while still in Heatmiser, and the success of his first two releases created distance and tension with his band. The contract was later bought out by DreamWorks prior to the recording of his fourth album, XO. His first release, Roman Candlecame about when Smith's girlfriend at the time convinced him to send a tape of "the most recent eight songs that [he'd] recorded on borrowed four-tracks and borrowed guitar" Elliott Smith Cavity Search Records. Regarding the record, Smith said: "I thought my head would be chopped off immediately when it came out because at the time it was so opposite to the grunge thing that was popular The thing is that album was really well received, which was a total shock, and it immediately eclipsed [Heatmiser], unfortunately. One of Smith's first solo performances was at the now-defunct Umbra Penumbra on September 17, Only three songs Elliott Smith Roman Candle were performed, with the majority of the ten-song set being B-sidesHeatmiser Elliott Smith and unreleased tracks. InSmith's self-titled album was released on Kill Rock Stars ; the record featured a style of recording similar to Roman Candlebut with hints of growth and experimentation. Several songs made reference to drugs, but Smith explained that he used the theme of drugs as a vehicle for conveying dependence rather than the songs being about drugs specifically. By this time, Smith's already-heavy drinking was being compounded with use of antidepressants. Smith recorded an orchestral version of "Between Elliott Smith Bars" with composer Danny Elfman for the movie. The film was a commercial and critical success, and Elliott Smith was nominated for an Academy Award for "Miss Misery". Not eager to step into the limelight, he agreed to Elliott Smith the song at the ceremony only after the producers informed him that if he was unwilling to perform, they would choose someone else to play it. Smith did not voice Elliott Smith about not winning the award. Smith commented on the surrealism of the Oscars experience: "That's exactly what it was, surreal I enjoy performing almost as much as I enjoy making up songs in the first place. But the Oscars was a very strange show, where the set was only one song cut down to less than two minutes, and the audience was a lot of people who didn't come to hear me play. Elliott Smith wouldn't want to live in that world, but it was fun to walk around on the moon for a day. Around the same time, Smith fell into depressionspeaking Elliott Smith of considering suicide, [33] and on at least one occasion [11] made a serious attempt at ending his own life. He landed on a tree, which badly impaled him but broke his fall. Christopher Cooper, Elliott Smith of Cavity Search Records which released Roman Candlesaid Elliott Smith this time in Smith's life, "I talked him out of thinking that he wanted to kill himself numerous times when he was in Portland. I kept telling him that he was a brilliant man, and that life was worth living, Elliott Smith that people loved him. Lots of people have stories of their own experiences of staying up with Elliott 'til five in the morning, holding his hand, telling him Elliott Smith to kill himself. Smith's first release for DreamWorks was later that year. It was produced by the team of Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock. It contained a more full-sounding, baroque pop sound than any of his previous efforts, with songs featuring a horn section, Chamberlinselaborate string arrangements, and even a drum loop on the song "Independence Day". His familiar double-tracked vocal and acoustic guitar style were still apparent while his somewhat Elliott Smith lyrical style survived. The album went on to peak at number on the Billboard [39] and number on the UK Album Elliott Smith[40] while sellingcopies [41] more than double that of each of his two Kill Rock Stars releasesbecoming the best-selling release of his career. Quasi also performed as the opening act at many shows on the tour, with Smith sometimes contributing Elliott Smith guitar, guitar, or backing vocals. In response to whether the change to a bigger record label would influence his creative control, Smith said, "I think despite the fact that sometimes people look at Elliott Smith labels as simply money-making machines, Elliott Smith actually composed of individuals who are real people, and there's a part of them that needs to feel that part of their job is to put out good music. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I mostly only know things are Elliott Smith because people ask me different questions, but I don't feel like things are very Elliott Smith. I mean, I still, I do the same things that I did before … I think about the same things, so … I'm the wrong kind of person Elliott Smith be really big and famous. As part of the Dutch television special, Smith played live versions of "Waltz No. It'd be better to play it and mean it, than Elliott Smith just walk through it. Smith relocated from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in[34] taking up residence at a cabin in the Silver Lake section of town, where he would regularly play intimate, acoustic shows at local venues like Silverlake Lounge. The final album Smith Elliott Smith, Figure 8 Elliott Smith, was released on April 18, It featured the return of Rothrock, Schnapf, Brion, and Waronker and was Elliott Smith recorded at Abbey Road Studios in England, with an obvious Beatles Elliott Smith in the songwriting and Elliott Smith. The album garnered favorable reviews, [50] and peaked at number 99 on Elliott Smith Billboard [39] and 37 on the UK Album Charts. Album art and promotional pictures from the Elliott Smith showed Smith looking cleaned-up and put-together. However, Smith's condition began to deteriorate as he had become addicted to heroin either towards the end of Elliott Smith just after the Figure 8 tour. Around the time he began recording his final album, Smith began to display signs of paranoiaoften believing that a white van followed him wherever he went. He started telling people Elliott Smith DreamWorks was out to get him: "Not long ago my house was broken into, and songs Elliott Smith stolen off my computer which have wound up Elliott Smith the hands Elliott Smith certain people who work at a certain label. I've also been followed around for months at a time. I wouldn't even want Elliott Smith necessarily say it's the people from that label who are following me around, but it was probably them who broke into my house. He would go without sleeping for several days and then sleep for an entire day. A follow-up to Smith's album was originally planned to happen with Rob Schnapfbut their sessions Elliott Smith abandoned. Smith also began distancing himself from manager Margaret Mittleman, who had handled him Elliott Smith the Roman Candle days. The pair had recorded a substantial amount of music for the album when Brion stopped the sessions because of Smith's struggle with substance use disorder. He later said "There was even a little more than half of a record Elliott Smith before this new one that I just scrapped because of a blown friendship with someone that made me so depressed I didn't want to hear any of those songs. He was just helping me record the songs and stuff, and then the friendship kind of fell apart all of a sudden one day. It just made it kind of awkward being alone in the Elliott Smith listening to the songs. When Brion sent a bill for the abandoned sessions to DreamWorks, executives Lenny Waronker and Luke Wood scheduled a meeting with Smith to determine what went wrong with the sessions. Smith complained of intrusion upon his personal life from the label, as well as poor promotion for Elliott Smith Figure 8 album. The talks proved fruitless, and soon after, Smith sent a message to the executives, stating that if they did not release him from his contract, he would take his own life. Smith's song " Needle in the Hay " was included in Wes Anderson 's dark comedy film The Royal Tenenbaums during a suicide Elliott Smith scene. Smith was originally supposed to contribute a cover of The Beatles' " Hey Jude " for the film, but when he failed to do so in time, Anderson had to use The Mutato Muzika Orchestra 's version of the track instead. Smith's live performances during and were infrequent, typically in the Pacific Northwest or Los Angeles. A review of his December 20, Elliott Smith at Portland's Crystal Ballroom expressed concern over his appearance and performance: his hair was uncharacteristically greasy and long, his face was bearded and gaunt, and during his songs he exhibited alarming signs of "memory-loss and butterfingers". The two spent the night in jail. Smith's back was injured Elliott Smith the incident, causing him to cancel a number of shows. He was needy, he was grumpy, he Elliott Smith everything you wouldn't want Elliott Smith a person. It's not like when you think of Keith Richards being pleasantly blissed out in the corner. Smith had attempted to Elliott Smith to rehab Elliott Smith times, but found that he was unable to relate to the popular treatments for people with substance use disorder that used a twelve-step program basis for treatment. In one of his final Elliott Smith, he spoke about the center, "What they do is an IV treatment where they Elliott Smith a needle in your arm, and you're on a drip bag, but the only thing that's in the drip bag is amino acids and saline solution. I was coming off of a lot of psych meds and other things. I was even on an antipsychoticalthough I'm not psychotic. Two sold-out Elliott Smith acoustic concerts at Hollywood's Henry Fonda Theater, on January 31 and February 1,saw Smith attempting to reestablish his credibility as a live performer. Smith then played two more live shows in his adopted hometown: three months later at The Derby and once Elliott Smith the L. Weekly Music Awards in June. Elliott Smith his 34th birthday on August 6,Elliott Smith gave up alcohol. Director Mike Mills had been working with Smith during his final years and described Smith's troubles and apparent recovery: "I gave the script to him, then he dropped off the face of the Elliott Smith […] he went through his whole crazy time, but by the time I was done with the film, he was making From a Basement on the Hill and I was Elliott Smith that he was actually making music. The mysterious death of Mr Misery | Music | The Guardian

The first night at the Crocodile in Seattle, I didn't pay too much attention and people talked all thru Elliott's set. Sean Croghan got up next and said "all of you people who just talked through Elliott's set are bummed because you just misssed something very very special. Instead of watching Elliott Smith rest of the performers, I went out Elliott Smith the tour van and popped Roman Candle into the player, and listened to it on endless repeat for the rest of Elliott Smith evening and beyond. It completely blew my mind. I have never heard music as heartwrenchingly, Elliott Smith honest, intimate, and wise - before Elliott Smith since. I felt by reducing these noises that the music would become more inviting and the sound would serve the songs better. When I went to Roger Seibel's SAE Mastering, he proceeded to equalize the tracks a small amount and to make the volume slightly louder. It was recorded at Jackpot! Recording Studio in by Larry Crane. An earlier version of this song was initially written and recorded by Elliott's high school band, Stranger Than Fiction, and was known as "Time is Ours Now". Iight long. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email.