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Each generation of the last century has its own tragic tale of a musician or actor they loved who died too soon. For most of those around my age their tale is of Kurt Cobain. While I was aware of Nirvana I was never a great fan and so his death largely washed over me. It wasn't until October 2003 that I knew how they felt. I remember clearly, sitting there at Cassie's computer in Huntington Beach checking my emails and messages. All was as usual, crappy forwards and general nonsense. I decided to finish up and opened one final message. I read the first line. 'Elliott Smith is dead'. Just four words. The thought of which still bring me close to tears today. His final album, finished shortly before his death(/suicide?), was released posthumously but I've never been able to bring myself to buy it. I think it would remind me too sharply of his absence. It's hard enough to watch the attempted suicide scene in Royal Tennenbaums, over which plays his song Needle in the Hay. For me it is the most exquisitely heartbreaking moment I've ever seen on film. Tonight I sat down to watch the movie Thumbsucker, which came highly recommended to me by a friend at the library. I became incredibly frustrated when it wouldn't work and decided to see how much it would be to buy as my brother still owes me a birthday present. During my search I found out that Elliott Smith had contributed 3 specially recorded covers to the soundtrack (including a cover of 'Trouble', a favourite song of mine). This didn't compute in my head as the film was released a good 2 years after his death. But after a little investigating I discovered he had been working on a whole soundtrack of covers for the film, a task that was left unfinished.... I now feel a burning need to see this movie. Odd, given my feelings about his final album. You must now excuse me as I feel a bought of introspection coming on, to be accompanied by some beautifully crafted music. |
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melancholy.