I wanted to share this comment I left, because as it reads (and as my nearest dearest loved ones know) man oh man do i think about elliott smith alot. because i love his music and because i am aware of the weird weird weirdness that ensues in the widespread consumption of music/art and the sheer fact that an industry for it exists. shit man, it’s my job! and i know i am an obsessive person and probably have the predisposition to become a stalker, let’s get serious. maybe that’s one of the reasons that i tend to go overboard with elliott. he’s gone, so i know there’s no way i can tread on him as a living individual.
That said, it’s five years since he died, and I’m feeling real haunted. Very aware of his chronology as reflected in the albums he put out into the world, and the discussion that surrounds them. Last night I was all high and deep-thinking and said to ruby and kelly, “you know, every song, it’s like a painting. and the artist signs their name”. i haven’t always thought about albums/songs as having that type of intention. but i think that’s how we tend to respond to them, and the reverence they create. which creates a dialogue between the “art” and the person who is exposed to it that takes a life of it’s own, and emerges separate but connected to the the creator. what response is that person to have? like elliott, kurt cobain, john lennon and cat stevens even (he has disowned all the music he made!) there tends to be a dissonance, and why wouldn’t there be, but how do we make sense of it, love the music and it’s maker and yet avoid the fetishisation that makes life impossible.
I don’t know at all. I do know I want and need to start making.
http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/opb/user/act/117ae2625cebf35e27799bc54cd14174/2009805.page#2140413
as a young oregonian living & working in the independent music scene, i greatly appreciated this episode. i spend a great deal of time thinking about elliott’s life and music and the way in which music & art interacts with the lives of individual people. i am strongly affected by elliott’s music personally, but i am also involved, through my work with distributor CD Baby, in the burgeoning scene of “independent music”. this episode points out the fact that this music is made possible by the work that elliott and his fellow musicians did in the 90’s and beyond. as the people alive in this world right now struggle to keep alive and make sense of the society and civilization we’ve inherited, i’m developing faith in the fact that the creation and creative destruction that music makes possible is something more and more of us will turn to. i’m thankful for all that elliott created and destroyed, and I will be following his voice and his lead.
