Future Mythologies

Now that Elliott Smith has killed himself, I feel bad about making jokes about his apparent sadness. That won't stop me from making these sorts of jokes in general, although jokes about sad artists are pretty lame indeed. I don't think grunge artists were any more depressed than artists from any other decade, and just because people like Michael Stipe and Eddie Vedder are famous and celebrities doesn't give them any less reason to be depressed on a bad day. Similarly, I get bothered when anyone discusses Joy Division as a depressing band. I'm not sure exactly how I feel on this subject, but a barely sensical journal entry is better than none at all, and Elliott Smith has been very important in my life.

When I was a freshman in college, I hadn't gone to any rock concerts (or shows) of artists I really liked. The first was Elliott Smith's show at the Middle East. Now I really preferred X/O over Either/Or, so I was a little disappointed that he was playing by himself. The show didn't really hit me until the last song of the last encore. He asked, "How about a cover?" and then went into "Nightime." Big Star were a very important band to me in high school, and Third helped me get through a very depressing and stressful year in my life (junior year at E. O. Smith). I knew of no one else that liked Big Star, save those I had forced them upon. When I heard him play "Nightime" I was convinced he was singing only to me, and when the song was over and the lights came up, I was amazed to remember that I don't actually know this guy.

I'm still convinced X/O is the loveliest Elliott Smith album, by the way.