Elliott Smith

I don’t really have a lot to say about what’s happening with me currently, but I have been listening to Elliott Smith for most of this evening.
I won’t give you a potted history of his terribly short life- (if you want that there is a bit about him on wikipedia) but I was watching this video of him when he sang at the Oscars ( Miss Misery was nominated). I have to admit I first came across his music through the film Good Will Hunting ( I think I was about 15 when that came out…? keep this in mind for later on in this quite rambling entry…!). I remember this performance at the Oscars and thinking how fragile he looked in his white suit, standing on the stage all alone, this whispering voice and gentle guitar. He seemed strangely out of place, watching him was almost like watching a leaf in the eye of a whirlwind. A little bit of calm in a rather hectic place. It is quite hard to watch his performance because he is so painfully nervous, but it is one of the most beautiful and poignant performances I think I have ever seen; I can’t take my eyes off him.

I am not sure he was a big fan of the environment that surrounds the Oscars; it is incredibly commercial and very superficial. I am not sure you can be an ‘artist’ in quite the idealistic way one would like to be (from the artist’s viewpoint or ironically the consumer) or was perhaps capable of a few years ago. I am not a hypocrite, I appreciate that I came across his music through this more ‘mainstream’ film and there is nothing wrong with that at all- you have to be introduced to things somehow! I also appreciate that to make money in order to continue providing the music one has to court the media circus that seems to dominate our society at present. The record companies push artists on promotional tours and interviews when perhaps the individual concerned is a very private person- showing us the deepest part of their soul in their music not being enough seems to me verging on cruelty.  I know that without that media circus we might not get to know the artists we come to love; but some people just don’t seem to want to be part of that circus and I am not sure they should have to be, it seems wrong to pressure someone into being something they are not.

There a numerous rumours that went round about this performance- one of the main ones being he really didn’t want to do it but was rather forcibly coerced into it by his record company. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmPp-o9TcJI

There is the link just incase the following video doesn’t work… again.