The Words and Music of Elliott Smith

Like so many people, I discovered Elliott Smith after his passing in 2003. I am not sure how it is possible that I did not hear of him sooner. As a big fan of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and other great songwriters, lyrics have been what attracts me most to great music. Elliott's lyrics are in a class alongside, and in some cases, above the likes of Springsteen and Dylan. 

His use of metaphor is second to none... and the ability of his words to resonate with so many introspective souls is unmatched.  I like to write about Elliott simply to turn people on to him. 

http://www.sweetadeline.net for an introduction.

As Elliott said himself in the Swedish YouTube interview below, the beauty of music is that each person is able to interpret it differently.  There are some pretty good (and not so good) discussions about the meanings of Elliott's various songs at the site, Song Meanings.net. 

All of Elliott's songs were not about alcohol, drugs, and suicide... he spoke of those topics sometimes directly, sometimes metaphorically.  Ben Nugent's bio of Elliott Smith provides a pretty nice discussion of Elliott that deviates from the media conception that he was little more than a depressed junkie.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The world is the problem, not Elliott Smith.

There is a really great book that just came out that dissects Elliott's landmark record XO in relation to his public image. The author, Matthew LeMay, goes song-by-song providing mostly thoughtful and insightful comments and analysis. He gets it right on. Elliott as a sad sack is a misnomer. Rather Elliott's lyrics were much more complex. I won't give the book away... some of the best conversation surrounds songs such as Baby Britain. I was somewhat disappointed with LeMay's surface scratch look at the song New Monkey (there seems to be so much more to that song than LeMay lets on), but that is a small criticism considering what a wonderful read the book is as a whole.