It is very hard to write about the music you like the most, or to express what you feel about your favorite musician. We asked a few fans to write about what Elliott Smith mean to them and here are the results, combined with a few others found on the internet.
‘I met Elliott's songs in 2011. I was totally lost in depression, and they started to heal it. In 2012, I met a lot of people who passed through the same experience with his songs, saying that what Elliott's voice did for them was saving their souls. So, for making so many people that I love feeling healed, Elliott Smith will always means safety to me. Like, when I'm listening or seeing something about him, even if it's the most dumb thing, like his favorite food or anything else, it makes me happy, and with the feeling that "now, everything's ok, and there's somebody to be with me.’
Johnny Dalle
‘I would like to say that Elliott is for me, the person who saved me from the darkness, it is he who is by my side when all I get back, his voice when all are silent hugs me, it is my hope, and the centerpiece of that built my life.
It is very difficult to explain in words what Elliott represents for many people, and maybe that's what makes it so special. There are no words sufficient for define him, is something you just have to feel it.’
Yami Lardín Cassatta
‘Elliott and his music embodies that feeling of my morning smoke, a cup of coffee in the afternoon, and driving around aimlessly after midnight.’
Connor Ryan
‘Without knowing the music and life of Elliott Smith I could never have known myself, one man I truly love, my brother from another mother. XO.’
Ellie S E Lowther
‘I really love his music, it immediately connects to your heart if you have had a hard life, like I have had. He used to live in NYC when my band first started, we saw him around, usually when Jon Spencer was at our shows. He used to walk around the city by himself listening to tapes. His music was very deep and for real and he rocked!’
Sal Canzonieri
‘I was seduced again by the rawness and immediacy of the pain that the man was able to capture; was talented enough to shape and record; was courageous enough to share with others. Listening to this song it is so obvious how completely depressed and hopeless he was feeling in the moment of creation. Since I am not feeling low these days, my reaction is not to identify with him (as I have identified with artists in the past), but rather to resonate in sympathy. If there is a song in the universe that better captures the spirit of self-loathing and hopelessness characteristic of depression, I don't know what it is."
Mark Dombeck
‘’Hate’ll sing the ending that love started to say'. I think that is my favorite quote of Elliott Smith. And it fits today, upon hearing the tragic news. Last night, I listened to XO, not for the first time, but it sure felt like it. I got the feeling: the nervous anticipation for the next song, the butterflies in the stomach from the melodies and the need to press repeat when the album finished. This morning I found out that he died. It is a sad day, and I am left wondering why of all the chances to hear XO in such a fashion, it had to be on that night.’
Rob Simonsen
‘The first time I heard him sing 'I'm never gonna know you now, but I'm gonna love you anyhow' I thought I was going to pass out. Elliott matched straight-up musical skills with terrifying vulnerability without ever sounding delicate or precious. It takes a lot of courage to constantly bring your humanity to the forefront. It is the essential ingredient in musical longevity, but in the end it seems to do most people in.’
Emily Haines
'Elliott Smith writes really heart breaking first person lyrics. He seems to write with blood. Every song seems to take a little bit of him. I mean, he can bring tears to your eyes. I got to see him in Portland. He lived where we lived for years. I got to see his shows. You know in America people talk through yours shows, but him, he had like two hundred people just speechless. Yes, he is a heart breaking guy. He seemed like he lived hard and wrote hard. He wrote really hard felt stuff. And he is really good at that, expressing his depression or whatever, better than almost anybody I can think of."
Willy Vlautin
‘Elliott Smith in my opinion should be regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of our time, his tales of melancholy, love lost, sadness, loneliness have touched anyone who has ever suffered from any of them. His melodies were perfect, enough to stand up against the finest of McCartney’s and Wilson’s his lyrics too. Sadly though, until an Oscar nomination for “Miss Misery” from the Good Will Hunting soundtrack, his work went largely unnoticed. And with his untimely death on October 21st a hole for another songwriter who is truly brilliant has been left unfilled.’
Ross Drummond
‘I’m a long standing Elliott Smith fan and was aware that he was sick and suffering from problems with alcohol and heroin abuse. I didn’t know Elliott Smith personally, but just the day before he died I was telling a friend how stupid I had felt because I had written a letter to Elliott asking him if he wanted to come to Dublin for a break. I knew it was a ridiculous thing to do and he would never come, but I just wanted to ask.
He was my favorite songwriter. He was a genius lyricist and a stupidly brilliant guitar player. The first time I ever heard his music it stopped my heart. I had never heard anything so honest and so beautiful. That was his record Either/Or. He had three records out at that time and over the next two weeks I bought the other two. He became the bar for me, the songwriter I most envied and admired. He made me rethink how I wrote and why I wrote. I have seen him play live a few times and I couldn’t help but notice the way everyone mouthed every word and felt every note. People who listen to Elliott Smith listen, because if you don’t you will miss the beauty of it. You can understand his music without knowing what it’s about, he puts a bit of his soul into each song. It’s Sunday morning music, it’s for you, it’s not for sharing, it’s to sing along to when you’re alone. It’s for listening to with a hangover, the booklet of the CD in your hand, reading every lyric.
I have heard people say they found him depressing. I never found him depressing. I found his songs intelligent, loving and enlightening. He wrote about what he knew and he knew hard times. He didn’t write for you or me or for MTV, but for himself like some sort of healing process – and I understand that.
I met him once and I really hoped I could meet him again someday. I wanted to play him my version of one of his songs or just sit and talk and play music with him. It probably wouldn’t have worked, he was a weird dude. Maybe he said it best himself when he compared himself to a spinning top hitting the ground as it spins in ‘Say Yes’, “I’m a crooked spin that can’t come to rest, now I’m damaged bad at best.” He is a huge loss. He was a great musician and songwriter. He felt too much, that’s what made his songs so beautiful and his life so hard.'
Ollie Cole