― Sami (Sami), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 18:26 (twenty years ago) link
― Jonathan (Jonathan), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 18:35 (twenty years ago) link
I'm filing through my Elliot Smith memories now. All the times I've ever said his name to anyone, or vice versa. They're all positive.
― David Allen, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 18:42 (twenty years ago) link
― peanut (peanut), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 19:06 (twenty years ago) link
I wonder where he was. I've been in some rotten moods in my day, and have imagined slipping away into calm oblivion, but not once EVER have I thought that things might be better if I STABBED MYSELF IN THE FUCKING HEART! And what the fuck kind of knife gets through a breastbone? Did he take a running start? That's extreme violence, extreme pain, extreme punishment. It's so grim, it's fascinating.
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 19:16 (twenty years ago) link
i shared a smoke with him once, then went inside the venue to realize --hey thats elliot smith, i guess he doesnt have bleached hair anymore. it was a small going away gig for lou barlow moving to la. 75 people there maybe. everyone sitting on the ground. acoustic set. heavy metal horns, then elliott. he kept skrewing up chord shifts. but it didnt matter. mark p on the money. his guitar playing was so fucking out there.a very sad day.
― kephm, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 19:34 (twenty years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 19:39 (twenty years ago) link
― elliott smith, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 19:47 (twenty years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 20:03 (twenty years ago) link
― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 20:05 (twenty years ago) link
RIP.
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 20:15 (twenty years ago) link
― Felcher (Felcher), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 20:19 (twenty years ago) link
― shut up, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 21:41 (twenty years ago) link
― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 21:49 (twenty years ago) link
― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:09 (twenty years ago) link
― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:11 (twenty years ago) link
― johnny fever (johnny fever), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:16 (twenty years ago) link
It's unreal that he is gone. I didn't know him. But it feels like I did.
― , Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:19 (twenty years ago) link
― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:19 (twenty years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:23 (twenty years ago) link
You should calm the fuck down, oh brave anonymous poster. Ned was answering a question which I thought was valid to answer, and just left it at that, and then responded to J0hn's followup. Or do you prefer that no one is allowed to express polite dissent anymore? Ned did NOT just pop in unprovoked and go "Ho ho! well sad that he died, but i never cared for him. so nyah". (for the record, i never really cared too much for elliott smith's music at all -- but this event makes me incredibly sad and nervous and sickened nonetheless).
― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:23 (twenty years ago) link
1. He voiced his opinion with a sickly false respect for the dead. If he really didn't want to be "crass" he wouldn't have said anything at all. His post made the exact same point as saying "hey, i don't like elliott smith". It just reeked of "no thread is complete without my two cents" egotism.
2. This isn't a classic/dud thread. Every other post is pretty much just people expressing their positive feelings for the man and his music, and it was amazingly refreshing and suprising to see such heartfelt discussion is possible in this forum.
― shut up, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:31 (twenty years ago) link
― Aaron W (Aaron W), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:41 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:46 (twenty years ago) link
All your presumptions (which i disagree with) about Ned's statement and attack came off as far more crass than Ned could ever be accused of in this thread. And I forgot that opinions were only allowed on C/D threads. How could i have forgotten?
And don't get me started about the irony of you accusing people of "two cents egoism". If you were really concerned and hurt, you would have emailed Ned off-thread about this instead. (and maybe you did), of course you'd have to take the brave step of actually faking a new anonymous email account for that to remain anonymous for, ur, important reasons, I'm sure.
― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:53 (twenty years ago) link
― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:53 (twenty years ago) link
As for Smith himself, I'm in complete shock. This is the most "out of leftfield" music thing to happen in a long, long time. The thing that gets me is that in like the last six weeks, we've lost Warren Zevon, Johnny Cash, and now Elliot Smith.
― Charles McCain (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 23:02 (twenty years ago) link
I spent a long time living with that never could give it a name and when you don't know what you're looking at makes it much harder to tame mostly they'd meet when he was asleep and have some sick exchange that struck him as wrong and moved him along closer to division day
I can't make an exception for a bad connection that only goes one way sell out for a song where I don't belong with you on division day
the moon stood up on the ridge looking down where the water shines and a man looking over the bridge like he'd done so many times thinking about how to stay out out of trouble's way flying to fall away from you all it's over division day beautiful division day
― spittle, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 23:11 (twenty years ago) link
His recording techniques were obviously very influential. Alot of dry, double tracked vocals, four-track sounding records came in his wake.
And I'm sadder still when I realized we were born about two month away; he started his first band at almost exactly the time I started mine... It makes me feel old, which might be what he was feeling. Still, I'll just drink a bunch of Michelob and get up tomorrow to do it all again.
― Andy, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 23:14 (twenty years ago) link
rest in peace, elliott.
― j.elliott, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 23:17 (twenty years ago) link
― j.elliott, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 23:21 (twenty years ago) link
still not sure what you're asking me though.
― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 23:32 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 23:41 (twenty years ago) link
Anyway, I owned the grand total of one Elliott Smith CD (XO), and I can't say I either loved or hated his music, but this is just plain fucking awful and sad.
― David A. (Davant), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 23:58 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 23 October 2003 00:00 (twenty years ago) link
― David A. (Davant), Thursday, 23 October 2003 00:17 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 23 October 2003 00:19 (twenty years ago) link
― Aaron A., Thursday, 23 October 2003 00:50 (twenty years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 23 October 2003 00:58 (twenty years ago) link
don't tell me to Shut Up.
― shut up, Thursday, 23 October 2003 01:54 (twenty years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 23 October 2003 02:09 (twenty years ago) link
― A Girl Named Sam (thatgirl), Thursday, 23 October 2003 02:29 (twenty years ago) link
― ___, Thursday, 23 October 2003 04:08 (twenty years ago) link
― nathalie (nathalie), Thursday, 23 October 2003 06:08 (twenty years ago) link
Here's something my friend Julia wrote. I think it's pretty important.********We have all of this euphamistic, false language that we use surrounding suicide so that we don't have to talk about mental illness as a true illness. To me, saying "he killed himself" is really odd, because it implies a lot of free will and many many people who "kill themselves" are suffering from addiction, depression, or psychosis that keeps them from logically deciding to die. Suicide victims often suffer from diseases that have the common symptom of death. Saying "he took his own life" is also really weird to me. It makes it sound like now he possesses his life, like he wrestled it from the hands of an oppressor and now has it to do what he likes with it. Suicide victims don't take their lives, they have them taken by horrible debilitating diseases. I wish that msn.com and mtv.com would run stories that said "Singer-songwriter Elliot Smith died today of knife wounds associated wiht drug-addiction and depression, two diseases that our culture refuses to effectively treat or recognize as pathologies rather than personal flaws. As a result of our culture's refusal to take mental illness seriously, we have lost an influential young artist." The cruelty of depression is that part of initiating a cure has to be the courage and self-love to recognize and admit that you are ill, but those are the very properties of which the disease robs you. We don't expect people with tuberculosis to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, we call ambulences, feed them soup and antibiotics, hold the bloody rag into which they are coughing, and recognize that they are victims. This is (figuratively) how we need to treat victims of depression.
― Kevin Erickson, Thursday, 23 October 2003 08:59 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 23 October 2003 09:03 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 23 October 2003 09:06 (twenty years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 23 October 2003 09:12 (twenty years ago) link
I guess one point made by Kevin Erickson is that part and parcel of depressive mental illnesses is that you can lack the desire or ability to help yourself.
― mentalist (mentalist), Thursday, 23 October 2003 09:33 (twenty years ago) link
I don't. That's opinion, not news.
― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 23 October 2003 10:37 (twenty years ago) link