Elliott Smith OPO

Love "Needle in the Hay," and it may be the first ES song that really caught my ear way back when, but I always think of the song as an unrepresentative outlier in his catalog for some reason.

happiness

I refuse to be moved by this guy but can say that "Happiness" is both well-constructed and well-performed

obviously listening to this guy is very tangled up in the context of his life, &c, but it's so moving to hear him, imo - like i don't think it is projecting too hard to say that his voice sounds, just based on the reading of what the tones & volumes of a regular-human-speaking-voice carry, like something that is coming pretty hard, is pretty hard-won. i like that thing somebody said about alex chilton, about how he wasn't someone who could competently use his talent, that his voice cracked in all the wrong places; there are a bunch of elliott recordings which are def shooting for an emotional affect in their phrasing & close & whispery singing, &c, but for the most part i feel like a lot of them are moving just as an extension of hearing him, like him, talk or sing (like: in addition to being just tremendously moving as songs, not solely cause of what he betrays tonally). there is that really beautiful coda in happiness that gets to such a pure hope that it would sound trite, but yeah i mean it sounds hard won cause he's all wavering. i am talking about live recordings here mainly, probably. opo: st ides heaven, rogue polemical pick would be a basement jam from the henry fonda shows or something like it, or else him playing wouldn't mama be proud acoustic, cause it's a really good song & i don't really like him in electro-beatlesy mode.

Thanks for that excellent link to the Jon Brion, PTA thing, scubasteve, There used to be all these great cover versions by him over here http://www.sweetadeline.net/multimedia.htm, but now the links lead to one of those generic they-forgot-to-pay-for-their-domain-name-so-now-please-forward-to-us sites. Would love to hear his version of "Chelsea Girls," "These Days" or especially "Walk Away Renee" again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNKFVKCacJ0

(Get out your handkerchiefs)

More Big Star, Kinks and John Lennon with his old band
http://www.rawkblog.net/2009/02/elliott-smith-the-complete-live-covers/

Wow! Thanks for that link. I thought I'd heard most of his covers, but nope, not even close.

I really like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFdHazy_4Nw

the song "either/or" is pretty great. i dunno if that would be my OPO... prolly have to go with "Christian brothers."

oh damn i forgot christian brothers

Christian Brothers really creeps under your skin and is pretty fascinating lyrically.

Pitseleh. i can't believe i'm the first person to say it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrtdazkYzSU

:'(

at the moment it's this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_LCi9NtqvE

Dad's little hands sat in his lap
Like a couple of crabs who got caught in a trap
And he shook my hand from so far away that
He looked like a spot on the sun
And I guess that's where I get it from

"You're no good, you're no good, you're no gooooood"

You're everybody's second home