Like so many here on Audities, I had a great admiration for Elliott 
Smith's beautiful melodies, delicately hand made music and his 
startlingly eloquent expressions of his own exquisite and often self 
inflicted pain. Today, as I heard the news (first on Audities by the 
way, then horribly confirmed later on other outlets) I thought of 
lines in songs like "Baby Britain" and "Say Yes", the last song off 
Either / Or.  The guy was an accident waiting to happen, and if you 
know anything about depression and addiction, it's quite miraculous 
that he survived to his 34th year.  And like Cobain before him, I 
find it jarring that people who spend so much of their waking life 
trying to dull their reality and soften their edges, would end up 
going out in such violent and bloody ways.  But such is the logic of 
suicide, sadly over romanticized in our culture from Mishima to Kurt, 
it is often one last violent attempt at demon slaying....still so 
fucking pointless like a glimpse into the abyss that could take any 
one of us (by the forgive me if I sound a little Goth just there, but 
these words are truly felt and carefully measured.)
My own personal brush with Elliott came at the Largo club in L.A. a 
few years back.
I was opening for Jon Brion at this regular Friday night gig.  During 
the set I had noticed a few people that I admired in the crowd, as is 
often the case at Jon's gigs.  As I left the stage  I spotted Elliott 
Smith standing with a few friends, who frankly looked like drug 
buddies, back by the bar in the corridor between the kitchen and the 
soundboard.   He was looking as scruffy as his press photos in a 
light blue T Shirt with some sort of Texas logo on it.  I knew who he 
was, I had only recently been blown away by Either Or and the sight 
of the "Serious New Voice" of songwriting, the descendant of Cobain, 
the heir to Jeff Buckley, was intimidating. And besides, I'd heard 
that he was the sort to get into a fight. What if he wanted to punch 
me?  As it turned out, I had nothing to be afraid of.  Still I didn't 
want to introduce myself at first, having just come off the stage, 
clearly he had seen a couple of songs and I didn't need to be 
reminded of my comparitive lack of originality.  But then he did 
something I've never forgotten. He leaned out and  touched my arm as 
I walked by, stopping me and making me look back.  Then he spoke 
directly to me, with a wide smile on his otherwise scrunched up face.
"Nice songs", he said.
"Thanks man, " I replied, looking over my shoulder to see if someone 
else like Aimee Mann or Jon Brion was right behind me. They were not. 
Now of course, musicians are often conditioned to just say something 
nice, like "good set" or "you rock" but still I can't help thinking 
that he got what I was doing.  And like I said, if he didn't, he 
could have just punched me.
So that's my personal brush with a man who is sure to become a legend 
in the next while, as those who never heard his truly moving music 
discover, a little late, but better than never, Elliott Smith.  Maybe 
Gus Van Zant will do a documentary about his life, maybe there'll be 
a Behind The Music, Or maybe we'll all just continue sneaking a few 
songs on to our mixed tapes, CD comps and iPods, and letting  our 
music loving friends discover him, one song at a time.

X/O
Paul.