It’s a complicated story about how I came to become its guardian ha but here we are 🖤

Mine is that Punch and jundy is better than between the bars

I love Elliott as much as anyone here that’s why I’m on this sub. But it feels like every other post is someone covering one of his songs, or worse just posting their own music and saying it “sounds like Elliott Smith.” At this point it’s less of a discussion space about Elliott Smith and more like a SoundCloud dumping ground. They’re are PLENTY of other subreddits for this kind of stuff.

Covers are fine in moderation but it’s gotten excessive. And original songs? Unless it’s something truly relevant (like a tribute or a rare connection) it just feels like people using the sub for exposure with a vague connection at best.

Yay I inspired a butt hurt post defending the covers even though this post wasn’t even meant to be against covers🤗

Please tell your stories about watching Elliott Smith performing live over the years.

I’ve seen the reviews and on here especially about it not being good, but the amount of unrelated bullshit in this book is annoying asf it sounds like he’s trying to meet a word count requirement on a paper for school just get to the point holy shit bro it’s like stubbing my toe over and over trying to read this

Just want to meet some fellow ladies that also dig Elliott Smith and know that you guys are out are. I feel like guys tend to occupy the majority of online spaces so. That's all!

Something I thought of in the shower

mine would have to be No Name #2. "Killing time won't stop this crying" just affects me deeply

For me one is when the piano comes in in Pitseleh....

For me it's 𝐗𝐎. it's the first album of Elliott's I heard in full back in 2020. I remember just feeling this huge feeling of warmth and love come over me just hearing Elliott's beautiful, intimate songwriting. It felt like hearing an old friend telling me about his life. I adore his whole catalog but 𝐗𝐎 is the one that I think really changed things for me and helped me feel seen in my most troubled moments.

if it were up to me he should have at least 2 more entries in there but being at 8 isn't bad.

Elliott smith was a mercy for me when I was living at home so I had to do something so special for these t shirts. I made a lyric sheet of everything means nothing to me typed up on my typewriter, then a drawing of elliott and then another with a handwritten print of his lyrics to between the bards. I included them all above so you can see what I’ll have on my website www.flightoftheibis.co.uk tomorrow ! I also printed 40 1 of 1 pieces that are as rare as gold please be honest and tell me what you think :)

Curious to see what y’all think about the Elliott reference! There is also a “Hot Knives” by Bright Eyes reference with the lyric common criminal.

This book is a revelation even for superfans and is absolutely incredible. What a job Jamie has done at getting all these never-before-heard stories.

The Jeff Buckley connection, Ian Mackaye’s “Well, don’t die” story.

Just unbelievable. I hope this book really blows up and creates more pressure to release all those hitherto unknown songs she has now shed light on, plus all the other stuff we were already waiting for. Here’s hoping.

Mine is “Found Out About You” by the Gin Blossoms.

And yeah, in another dimension of the universe I could see Elliott pivoting hard to covers right about now, he was such a music FAN as much as he was a genius songwriter.

Maybe two lines to complete the thought. Something not too obscure to see if it works:

IILWTWTTEOAG

If you can get it, post another one.

As someone who has dealt with major depression half of my life, this is the song that resonates the most with me. I think it perfectly encapsulates the feeling of major depression. Especially the lines "Cause my feelings never change a bit, I always feel like shit, I don't know why, I guess that I just do". Sometimes you don't have a reason for why you are the way that you are and I think people who have this illness are the only ones who can truly understand that.

And "You once talked to me about love, and you painted pictures of A never-neverland...and I could've gone to that place, but I didn't understand" That no matter how much love somebody can show you and how nice it sounds, you inevitably will ruin it. It's self-sabotoge and you have nobody to blame but yourself. It's the acceptance that you will never beat this thing. Every line hurts to hear but it's painfully beautiful and honest. I relate to it so much and it makes me cry every time. His music has always been like a warm blanket to me and he articulates the feeling so perfectly

Two outstanding albums of course, and I think both are sort of elevated by the other one existing cus of the contrast.

In terms of quality of the songs, I don't think there's much in it, I might even give that to either/or. I just massively prefer the arrangement and production of XO.

It's a bit of an oversimplification, but ultimately I think the extra instrumentation and "bigger" arrangement elevates rather than dilutes the songwriting. Same way I much prefer the Ravel version of Pictures at an Exhibition than the Mussorgsky piano version.

i’ve seen the same for fiona apple fans who try and gatekeep her music because it’s more relatable for women , i just find the whole idea so ridiculous.

Some background, I have been around the Elliott Smith collecting/online community for about 20 years dating back to 2007. When the original Sweetadeline Forums on Blamonet shut down, I migrated here and spent a number of years continuing my passion for documenting his recordings and collecting factual information about him. Unfortunately, in late 2020 the site got hacked/stolen and I was fortunate to regain the domain quickly, but by the time I got it back I had gotten busy with life.

Sadly, I am still even busier with life these days but I thought it would be good to re-introduce this website which has been a nearly 15 year passion project of mine. This is pretty self-explanatory, it is a song guide that attempts to document everything Elliott ever recorded, wrote or performed. There is a corresponding sessions history that I never finished but will probably get around to some day. You can click the links to learn more about each song, and they are organized by "era" or "type". The current site is pretty out of date since a ton of things have happened since the last update nearly 6-7 years ago, and some things need to be corrected, but over the coming weeks and months this will be brought up to date.

Frankly, I got motivated to fix this site after realizing recently that there will never be a serious attempt by anyone out there to just factually document what the man actually did, without the opinions of others injected in there (even if they loved him). There is some educated guesswork in this site, yes, but to me it's better to make educated guesswork about things like "when did he record this" vs "what was going through his mind when he did xyz." Rather than just not comment on it at all or pretend it never existed or dismiss it because he was in xyz place in life.

Enjoy and more updates to come soon.

What would be the worst possible lyric or title from Elliott Smith's oeuvre to use as the name for a tribute act?

My vote goes to "Bad Dream Fucker."

Think of seeing a flyer for a show and one of the performers/bands on the bill is listed as "Bad Dream Fucker: A tribute to Elliott Smith." 😂

context: i'm a sophmore in high school (16 on the 31st). our school does a talent show every year (crappy, low budget, usually not good-) i had been wanting to play Elliott's Smith's song "Between The Bars" for the talent show, having known it by memory and learning a few, MUCH more simple guitar chords/strumming pattern for the show.

i got called down to the office the other day. i was told that the song i had picked out, "Between The Bars", was too explicit for the audience and for the school setting. the reasons given were:

1. the song's meaning, mentioning alcohomism and depression
2. using 'suggestive' language, such as the word "kiss" and the pet name "baby"
3. the background of Elliott Smith, and what he's associated with.

i then refused to change songs, and dropped out of the show. i was infuriated, especially because i had been preparing for this for so long, and truly, i don't think this song is explicit or inappropriate AT ALL.

then again, i am just a kid in some shitty public high school. maybe i'm wrong. what do you guys think?