The Zimmermann Note

I was going through my singer-songwriter phase of my life and looking back at that time, I guess I never realized just how depressing some of the music that I was listening to actually was. Elliott Smith came around to my life about the time that I got interested in Wilco and was pushing away slightly from the R.E.M. elephant that was getting a bit too difficult to push up the stairs. Elliott Smith could be listed in the dictionary under “Troubled Artist”.

I still remember hearing Waltz #2 for the first time on WXRT and thought that this was just a fantastic song. Smith had written a song that was perfect for the lyrics because of a certain correlation to the lack of emotion and formality of a waltz, to that same lack of emotion the subject of the song displays. However, in the live version above there the starkness offers something more haunting. For me it was often the differences between the pop song and the acoustic versions that posed different emotions and meanings and it also shows, in my opinion how musicians such as Smith decided to display their music.

(For those of you that are keeping score at home, as you know I do post videos and such for every review and I have been picking the appropriate videos normally as I revise my initial thoughts and post to “The Note”. It has been difficult in certain cases in viewing this live material knowing that Smith is no longer among the living and the Jools Holland video did seem especially difficult to watch).

Depression and drug problems aside Smith had several talents as well and on XO, we do see a growth in his work

Smith was a talented artist that was able to combine both the lyrics as well as weaving great songs that only comes a couple times in a generation. For me, it was always the production value, which made this album the pinnacle of his career. While I definitely appreciate his earlier stripped down efforts, XO, suggests there was a burgeoning talent beyond the lyrics.

Often times when you revisit albums such as this you forget how it seems so easy for these individuals to write such poignant works while at the same time try to find that in today’s artists.
I think when it comes to Smith that the initial parallel in music style/life issues would have to be Nick Drake but I think that might be a little bit different if things had turned out better.

There are songs such as “Bled White” which feed both his inspiration and despair; that the protagonist cannot write without being high.

Often times when you revisit albums such as this you forget how it seems so easy for these individuals to write such poignant works while at the same time try to find that in today’s artists.
I think when it comes to Smith that the initial parallel in music style/life issues would have to be Nick Drake but I think that might be a little bit different if things had turned out better.