Elliott Smith

It's not that odd--he had attempted suicide before.

I saw him three times in concerts. He was like a walking vacuum on the stage until he started singing--he was always hunched over, trying to avert all eye contact, looking depressed. I am not at all surprised he killed himself.

Janeane and Elliott.

Madge's terrible cover of "Between the Bars"

She likes him now that he's a tragic footnote.

R1 LA or Portland? I believe his early/mid career gigs were supposed to be great but he lost the plot completely on stage towards the end?

Needle in the Hay

As someone who was a huge fan of his music and has probably heard nearly everything he had done ...

[quote]Weird that someone who made such gentle sounding music could have met such a violent and fucked up end

It "sounded" gentle but it's not weird at all. Most of his music, if you listen to the lyrics, was about drug abuse, alcoholism or just feeling like a worthless piece of shit.

Songs like "Say Yes" were rare.

Occam's razor. He passed himself away. Will always miss him, though.

R5 ∆ I read somewhere that the "Haystack Charm" Was a reference to the pro wrestler "Haystacks Calhoun who was 7 ft tall and 600lbs and wore a horseshoe on a chain around his neck for good luck.

[quote] [R1] LA or Portland?

I saw him twice in Portland and once (on tour) in Atlanta. He was fine on stage once he started singing and playing.

R6 Indeed. Lyrically his music is incredibly angry and rage filled as anything Cobain ever wrote.

I think he was murdered.

R11 You're not the only one.

R11 Im on the fence. The circumstances are strange and the girlfriend dodgey. But he was very mentally Ill. I once knew a guy who slit his own throat in front of his whole family. These things do happen.

Seems like he was a good person at heart, kind, sweet natured guy and however it happened it was a real tragedy.

Yeah I've met a few people over the years who knew him and said he was very ethical and brave.

He was meant to have been a wonderful brother to.his younger siblings.

I love Elliot Smith. What a sad ending to a great talent.

Waltz#2 is one of the most sad and beautiful songs ever written IMO. He so perfectly sums up everything he wants to say. Without being hateful or resentful.

The Mysterious Death of Elliott Smith...

Interesting memories of Elliott by the woman who ran th recording studio

R18 pretty creepy stuff. Sounds like dysfunctional personality disordered chaos.

She is/ was a very creepy person. She sued his family after his death for part of his estate.

R30 See I can kind of see the logic of her wanting some of the estate if he'd agreed to give her money. I can also see her hating his family and thinking they were the ones indirectly responsible for his death.

.....

OP, his death has "overshadowed" his music only among dreary, necro-creeps such as you.

Fuck off R23 we can't all be cool indie kids like you.

Judging by the fact that his autopsy showed only prescribed drugs like antidepressants, and not heroin or other painkillers, I think he was murdered. But he was a ticking clock, and would have relapsed and probably would have committed suicide anyway, unfortunately. Poor soul.

Wow, I had no idea about the circumstances of his death. It sounds at least somewhat off and at most *highly* suspicious.

Not saying she killed him, but none of her story makes any sense at all. There are in fact, killers that are strictly opportunistic, meaning they kill only once and never again because they stars don’t line up for them ever again to warrant killing. I think John Ramsey is like that, and this chic could be too.

Holy shite, reading the next door neighbor’s story about the studio and Chiba, it was scary. I wonder if the police ever did handwriting comparisons on his “suicide note” in which he spells his own name incorrectly. Chiba is highly litigious too, don’t be surprised if she gets this thread shut down.

My all time favorite performer. Saw him in late, late 2002, a few months before he offed himself, at The Echo. I was in college and dealing with finals. Went anyway. Great show.

Most Elliott Smith posts on DL are posted by me.

R26 the name was actually spelled correctly on the note. The police report just spelled it incorrectly.

Chiba can kiss my ass. But having said that I think there's plenty that points to suicide. Not least that he'd attempted it before.

History of self mutilation, history of suicide attempts and threats, history of sexual and physical childhood abuse. He was on Strattera and Paxil, both of which can increase suicidal ideation. He was probably suffering from drug induced schizophrenia.

Also Kings Crossing is a blatant suicide note.

Obviously something weird going on in that side of his family. They didn't do much to push the investigation either by the sound of it.

Does the entertainment field create mental illness in performers, does it attract the mentally ill to performing... or both?

r31 I think It does both but there are a lot of unhappy creative people out there who use art to survive. In his case he never really had a chance to be normal with that childhood.

For balance

He lived in one of the Snow White cottages in Los Feliz. Diane in Mulholland Drive scenes in her house were filmed there too.

r34 Is that were he died?

Any decent documentaries about him?

I still can't listen to his music. I was unfamiliar with the details of his suicide. The girlfriend took the knife out of his chest? No, that's not suspicious at all.

R35, he was living in Echo Park at the time of his death.

If she killed him, she had the perfect cover, just as if Courtney Love killed Kurt Cobain. Going around telling everyone you're a depressive who has attempted suicide makes it easy to murder you and have no one suspect it's not a successful suicide attempt.

I just watched Madonna at the Oscars and she doesn't smirk. She smiles at the audience because they picked up that they were supposed to applaud after each nominee is read.

r39 Plus a shower is an exellent alibi if you've just stabbed someone in the heart.