The worst thing about thinking of what you want for yourself, must undeniably be as you're trying to think of what's best for other people. Maybe even when their interests conflict with your own.

Elliott Smith struggled with depression and drugs and one night, after arguing with his girlfriend, asked forgiveness on a piece of paper and killed himself.

I've often championed his post-humous "From A Basement On The Hill" as the best album of 2004. The album is highly personal, a symbol of a great song-writer and guitar-player who, at the end of his life (a point that of course should have been his creative peak instead of the end of him) could craft songs like none other at the time, while constantly developing.

When Smith was nominated for an Oscar for one of his songs that appeared in the film "Good Will Hunting" I didn't think much of it. Sure, nice track, good frettage, but where's the volume? Turn it up! I listened to his three first albums and got the picture: I desperately wanted to amp this guy! Smith Goes Electric.

Then he released this track, "Son Of Sam", the first single off his penultimate album, "Figure 8", and my wish came true.

Combining his truly excellent feel for arrangement with an original song-structure, good lyrics and an amped-up yet extremely crisp sound, this song killed me on its release, and still does.

I miss Elliott Smith. His collaborator and friend Rob Schnapf is right now roaming the vaults of Anti-Records to see if Smith has left any material that can be released. I'll be patiently awaiting any scraps from that table, any time. His unreleased demos can be found here.

As usual, this track will be deleted within a week.

[audio:https://niklasblog.com/wp-content/2007-01-16-sonofsam.mp3]