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Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith's intensely intimate music and open-hearted, Beatlesque pop songs have left a deep mark on a generation of fans and musicians in the wake of his tragic death in 2003. In Autumn de Wilde's remarkable photographs and conversations with close friends, family, and musicians he inspired, this is the first and only portrait of the beloved and troubled singer/songwriter by those who knew him well. Complementing de Wilde's riveting, personal images are ephemera, handwritten lyrics, and revealing talks with Smith's inner circle, many speaking here for the first time. Also included are a foreword by Beck Hansen and Chris Walla, and a live CD of unreleased solo acoustic performances.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2007
16 people are currently reading
1783 people want to read
About the author
Autumn de Wilde
6 books20 followersAutumn de Wilde is an American photographer noted for her portraiture and commercial work photography of indie musicians.
De Wilde was born in Woodstock, New York. Her father, Jerry de Wilde, was an art and commercial photographer noted for his photos of Jimi Hendrix, the Monterey Pop Festival and other icons of the 1960s. Autumn de Wilde had no formal education in photography, but learned photography from her father.
De Wilde has photographed CD covers for Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, The Raconteurs, The White Stripes, Fiona Apple, Beck, Built to Spill, and a number of other musicians. In addition, she has directed music videos for Elliott Smith, Spoon, and Death Cab for Cutie. Her portrait subjects include Willie Nelson, Sean Watkins, and Wolfmother. De Wilde's live concert documentary work includes the Flaming Lips, Spoon, and the Arcade Fire. De Wilde's photos have appeared on the cover of Spin magazine and in the pages of Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times.
De Wilde was born in Woodstock, New York. Her father, Jerry de Wilde, was an art and commercial photographer noted for his photos of Jimi Hendrix, the Monterey Pop Festival and other icons of the 1960s. Autumn de Wilde had no formal education in photography, but learned photography from her father.
De Wilde has photographed CD covers for Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, The Raconteurs, The White Stripes, Fiona Apple, Beck, Built to Spill, and a number of other musicians. In addition, she has directed music videos for Elliott Smith, Spoon, and Death Cab for Cutie. Her portrait subjects include Willie Nelson, Sean Watkins, and Wolfmother. De Wilde's live concert documentary work includes the Flaming Lips, Spoon, and the Arcade Fire. De Wilde's photos have appeared on the cover of Spin magazine and in the pages of Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
September 29, 2019
Who was Elliott Smith and why do I love this book so much? I even keep it on the Coffee Table in my Living Room and tell people about him - probably every chance I can get. This book is a snapshot of all the moments that make up his bio, or at least many years of it. Elliott Smith for me was a clear Kumara, something incredibly rare - I know of no other human being in recent times like him (and I am a historian!).
A Kumara, per Hinduism, is a being neither an “Avatar Saviour from High Heavens” for humanity nor a regular human being any longer; he or she is one in between, progressing in another way altogether.
“To people passing me by that seem to be going the other way:..when they clean the street I’ll be the only shit that’s left behind.” - Rose Parade (Elliott Smith)
“Alpha-Bet city is haunted...Constantina feels right at home.” - Alpha-Bet City (ibid)
They are like the red balloon in his video, or the white dwarf stars said to be shot out further into the universe than others but more originally from it’s primordial center in composition than most and of the most dense (or quickest vibrational?) matter other stars around them form out from.
“Everything is exactly right when I walk around here drunk every night with an open container from 7-11 in St Ide’s heaven...been out haunting the neighborhood and everyone can see I’m no good, when I’m walking out between parked cars with my head full of stars.”
- St. Ide’s Heaven
As Jim Morrison said in Shaman’s Blues:
“How you stop and think and wonder how it must feel, while I’m on the Meadow and you’re on the Field? I’m alone, for you, and I cry. Optical sweat, optical promise. You’ll be dead and in hell before I’m born. Sure thing, Bridesmaid, isn’t it amazing?”
Such Kumara, it is said in Hinduism, do not, like most humans, go to some happy mid-heaven Nebishvana only to come back fresh and new again - self forgotten and ready like some refrigerator buying Biff from the 50’s coming back as a Jock in 1989. Nor are they now beyond such and “home safe” in themselves on their journey to some higher destiny and density beyond this solar system’s options in their incarnations. They are wandering stars on a journey in between, yet not all who wander are lost.
Kumara are said to be sort of waiting or wading here now for us to wake up like them, yet are already here and not elevated masters; not yet quite at home either. They are both more here than us and more not here than us, each in the right way.
Poryphry spoke about intermediary souls in this way as Odysseus tossed and torn on the waves, being now truly beginning something but not yet consistent - however, beginning to become consistent - and as different as can be from most of us. As Gurdjieff said an ancient eastern saying goes: “blessed is the man who has a soul and blessed is a man who has no soul; but woe and sorrow to one who has it in inception.”
As a being from the next higher cosmos beyond man’s in their own consciousness (developing, quickening, now quicker in themselves than ours) they are though also here like us; yet perhaps wrongly diagnosed schizoid or bi-polar or border-line or having to drink to numb such awareness. But actually they know they are here and are an essence beyond this persona self we are born with (asleep in) and yet they know they are not able to change anyone much around them or escape their being here.
“So sick and tired of all these pictures of me completely wrong, totally wrong...Everbody’s dying just to get the dis-ease.”
- Pictures of Me
Like people stuck inside a statue among other statues, all they can do is get a few people to thaw a little. Essence becomes more self-conscious in growth over long ages in the middle of the dark night of the soul while mere personality just grows laterally on it’s own, often replacing such in many. For them the former begins to happen.
“Something’s happening, don’t speak too soon, I told the boss off and made my move, got nowhere to go, Son of SamSon..” - Son of Sam
The last time I met Elliott I asked he play his song “living will” for I saw in his eyes, like no other being I had ever seen in my life, he was awoke in his body and more than just his person and found myself crying at the back of the crowd. One can’t understand a thing about this intro here without reading those lyrics.
After that performance, one of the last in his life, he walked off right after, so I had a friend of his give him a copy I had bought him of All and Everything by Gurdjieff. I think he read it cause in an interview I came across of someone touring with him at that time they mention he was always reading and once he had the smallest but thickest book they had ever seen. When they asked him what it was about he said: “ancient world history.”
Now returning to why I think he was this unique line of inner being seldom seen. Hinduism teaches of the lower exoteric aspect of God as Brahma as opposed to “Brahmái” (the latter being that which permeates and yet is beyond all). For they are deists as we moderns say, teaching God down into and out from the Machine, “Deus Ex Machina,” as Christ taught of “God” too in the Gospel of Thomas the Contender and as Proclus taught and the 1200 year old school of Pythagoras and Plato also.
But Hinduism says Brahma (not Brahmaí) - in response to these Kumara’ wanting to stay within the Most High (Brahmai, the starlit pleroma of essence), singing and contemplating things in the heavens innocently (rather than furthering things here in denser, difficult materiality when the earth first began having beinghood of an odd sort) - cast them down as fallen angels condemned to keep repeating in their lives interweaving here among all us to progress humanity culturally.
“I’m a crash credit card, registered to ‘Smith’ - not the name that you call me with.” - The Biggest Lie
“Seargent Rock broke the key off in the lock to the place I come from, a seventh sun...I’m Riding low again high in the Sun/Soul/South/Sound.”- Color Bars
“Rode into the Sun, passed everyone...have you seen a pretty Mary K (not C for cosmos but K...)”
- Pretty Mary K
They are as insiders down here, as reluctant heroes but becoming self-conscious, until we all evolve into awake Buddha’s psychologically as they are starting, or fail as dying out persona’s resounding into nothingness, whichever happens.
One could feel this about him as I’m sure he did of himself and his way of being around others. Imagine the world if all had a conscience like Elliott’s:
“I’d say you make a perfect Angel in the Snow,
all crushed out in the way you are,
better stop before it goes too far.
Don’t you know that I love you?
Sometimes I feel like/light/life
a whole/cold/frozen still-light/life
that fell down here
to lay beside you.”
- Angel in the Snow
As anyone can tell, we are now today light years ahead of so many other generations in our development of technology but light years behind - not more than 4 year olds, bashing each other’s heads in over toys and play areas: power positions and possession lines drawn in the sand, in doberman pincher like face of full fake murderous adult abstemiousness - at most in development of Conscience. So we will see at this point in time Elliott was incarnated into what happens next culturally and if all those - such as the Elliott Smith’s living in opposing contrast to the “Slim Moon’s” who Kill Rock Stars and rob Co-bain’s child, and the Shiva stabbers - were for naught or no.
Truly he seemed like a living being caught up among statues though, a flowing Kumara as the Hindu’s say. As he said:
“I Saw you caught between all the people out...making a scene...in a bright ideal tomorrow..ehww?..don’t go too far, stay who you are...Saw you at the perfect place, It’s going to happen soon but not today. So go to sleep, make the chain/change. I’ll meet you here to-morrow: Independence Day.” - Independence Day
“Here at night where stupid shit collides, with dying shooting stars
All we’ve got to show if we really are is the same kind of scars/spars/sparks...your arm’s got a death in it.”
- Single File
Often in ancient culture’s lore and religions and in initiatic poetry and song (Bowie’s album “Black Star” is filled with this) when one hears the occasional seemingly contradictory mention of children of the night and dark somehow being of finer, more inward, moral and spiritual susbstance than people of the light - which is completely opposite from what they all usually say about the light versus the dark and sounds contradictory - these sayings were actually said to be encoded initatic inner teaching on the Kumaric Souls already progressed to the next astral, starry, realm in them of the night time beyond us and beyond “the day star god of this age” among us in this dimension.
They are called “little ones” by Christ (see Elliott’s song on the little one of the 7 heavens) and by Lady Hahn. They are called the epi-ouranoi, seven heavenlies, by Paul who distinguished them as those different among us but still progressing to become the Teleos or finished ones. As he said, not all have the same inner light and go to the same places on passing this mortal coil. Paul, however misguided - more often mistranslated - was, after all, I believe, a half initiate at least. I like him ok.
By the way, It is interesting both Elliott and I had a first name of Paul we didn’t like and don’t use. Also one of my first memories as a child growing up around Dallas, less than 10 minutes from where he grew up (Duncanville) at the same time as me, was of picking up a turtle and it peeing on me on the side of the road; and his was of picking up a frog and the same there by the Dallas Highway. Also we both moved out west and got BA’s in Philosophy from some mid-sized College and created a band there and did construction after college. There seems to be some odd astrological connection I have with him in the fate accompli of my life. Also my sister dated him off and on for 2 years, I think I forgot to mention that.
In any case, these Kumara - and why I like him and recommend this book - are said to be the Herculeids of Herculean Line to use Greek Lore about them and their periods (though they transcend historical periods when metaphysically speaking). Hercules worshipped the Vulture it is said because they never harm a living soul but only eat the dead (for where the body is, there the Vulture’s gather). See my book review on Cassander of Macedon to understand the 864K year old political line of the Herculeids. But rather more clearly, the Kumara are said in Hinduism to be of Indra’s line. For Indra is Hinduism’s “Hercules and lord of the Kumara.” And yet though of such noble patronage they are said by Hindu texts to be condemned by “God” (in the demiurgic exoteric sense) to keep coming back here to further humanity in the generations they are thrown into until the end of some long cycle when they are finally released to go on to the realm of the high gods, the Avatars; or as the gnostics would say: “the Pleroma within the Godhead” or what have you.
Castaneda and Plato both taught these poetic souls, the singers (Hindu’s Ghandara Kumara) in this life are the most beautiful and often short lived here but closest to the divine among all of us.
I plan on making a commemoration book of him through my complaintive ode of interpretations of the songs of my best friend in this life, and the ultimate Kumara humanity has seen in the past few millenium of history, at least of *publically known* history.
If it is wondered if he had many mystical, symbolic meanings or not that he deeply hid into all his songs (as my book is about) I think any non-possessor of hemorrhoids will already gather this after reading even the first few pages of this introduction I have placed here in embryo (much less my entire book to follow).
He is part of the coming man.
But to further confirm this for the more feeble minded skeptic types, his best friend (Sam Coombs) said once in an interview whenever he was touring with Elliott that everything seemed to just happen on it’s own and they would spend all day reading occult books; but when he was with his own group they always seemed to be spending all their time setting up and taking down their set and accidents happening.
Also Elliott said in interview he certainly does have his own unique view inside religiously about the World and God but does not just go around broadcasting it in a sort of preachy way; which he, like Tolkien and I also, always disliked.
He said he carried around a rock he wrote “I love God” on as a child. And in one of his songs he even had a friend of his say in preachy enraptured voice alot of deeply metaphysical statements he had him read then you can hear Elliott’s voice behind it at the end say: “That’s Why.” As in that’s why it is no use preaching even if he wanted to, it just pushes people away from you. So he preferred symbolic lyrics that are subtle and said even more. And he said he preferred lyrics this way in interview, that is why he preferred Neil Young’s and didn’t like Paul Simon’s he said.
He also said in interview his lyrics are at their greatest when they are like different parts of himself talking to other parts of himself. This implies multiple dimensionality and many centers in one communicating, a whole mysterious landscape I believe he reveals in his lyrics in very particular and “almost” immeasurable way in a way you can learn from no other writing publically printed.
In my work I am now working on I will go over about 111 of his 120 or so songs which have hidden, central, metaphysical meanings and include a lexicon at the end of all these that define his particular symbols of esoteric meaning he would repeatedly use in different parts of his songs throughout to both hide and further reveal as the path of the Kumara does, “so that hearing they might not hear.” I mean terms like: “broken/concrete hand,” “clinched teeth” “division day” “pictures [the food of impressions]” “soaring eye” “the moon” “the crushing” “the horse [higher emotional center]“ “the white lady” “seargant/army captain” “drugs” (which he said stand for being addicted to anything, not just substances - for example, most I’ve met who detest drug addicts are addicted themselves like the worst heroin addicts to negative judgementalism in themselves toward different types and the taste of it and feeding off that chemically and spiritually in them) and so on and so on. His symbols are revealed as to what they traditionally meant in alchemical texts he was a reader of and what they meant, used in similar ways, by him.
Here are the number of songs in each chapter (basically all from each album) I go over:
8 from Roman Candle
12 from Eponymous
21 in two parts, part A&B of Either/Or
14 X/O
15 Figure 8
14 From a Basement on a Hill
24 A&B New Moon
20 A&B Posthumus Songs Released
Well such is my intro for people on the person of Elliott “Eliuj” the “Smith” Kumara. Hopefully it helps you see why any kind work on him is of great value (not Schultz though! He was trained by one of the creepiest government schills in the psychological cookie-cutter industry).
This picture book in particular though here, again, is great. It is by a sweet soul and great photographer and is about the only accurate work out there...so far.
Hope you enjoyed this swirling review on Elliott and this book.
A Kumara, per Hinduism, is a being neither an “Avatar Saviour from High Heavens” for humanity nor a regular human being any longer; he or she is one in between, progressing in another way altogether.
“To people passing me by that seem to be going the other way:..when they clean the street I’ll be the only shit that’s left behind.” - Rose Parade (Elliott Smith)
“Alpha-Bet city is haunted...Constantina feels right at home.” - Alpha-Bet City (ibid)
They are like the red balloon in his video, or the white dwarf stars said to be shot out further into the universe than others but more originally from it’s primordial center in composition than most and of the most dense (or quickest vibrational?) matter other stars around them form out from.
“Everything is exactly right when I walk around here drunk every night with an open container from 7-11 in St Ide’s heaven...been out haunting the neighborhood and everyone can see I’m no good, when I’m walking out between parked cars with my head full of stars.”
- St. Ide’s Heaven
As Jim Morrison said in Shaman’s Blues:
“How you stop and think and wonder how it must feel, while I’m on the Meadow and you’re on the Field? I’m alone, for you, and I cry. Optical sweat, optical promise. You’ll be dead and in hell before I’m born. Sure thing, Bridesmaid, isn’t it amazing?”
Such Kumara, it is said in Hinduism, do not, like most humans, go to some happy mid-heaven Nebishvana only to come back fresh and new again - self forgotten and ready like some refrigerator buying Biff from the 50’s coming back as a Jock in 1989. Nor are they now beyond such and “home safe” in themselves on their journey to some higher destiny and density beyond this solar system’s options in their incarnations. They are wandering stars on a journey in between, yet not all who wander are lost.
Kumara are said to be sort of waiting or wading here now for us to wake up like them, yet are already here and not elevated masters; not yet quite at home either. They are both more here than us and more not here than us, each in the right way.
Poryphry spoke about intermediary souls in this way as Odysseus tossed and torn on the waves, being now truly beginning something but not yet consistent - however, beginning to become consistent - and as different as can be from most of us. As Gurdjieff said an ancient eastern saying goes: “blessed is the man who has a soul and blessed is a man who has no soul; but woe and sorrow to one who has it in inception.”
As a being from the next higher cosmos beyond man’s in their own consciousness (developing, quickening, now quicker in themselves than ours) they are though also here like us; yet perhaps wrongly diagnosed schizoid or bi-polar or border-line or having to drink to numb such awareness. But actually they know they are here and are an essence beyond this persona self we are born with (asleep in) and yet they know they are not able to change anyone much around them or escape their being here.
“So sick and tired of all these pictures of me completely wrong, totally wrong...Everbody’s dying just to get the dis-ease.”
- Pictures of Me
Like people stuck inside a statue among other statues, all they can do is get a few people to thaw a little. Essence becomes more self-conscious in growth over long ages in the middle of the dark night of the soul while mere personality just grows laterally on it’s own, often replacing such in many. For them the former begins to happen.
“Something’s happening, don’t speak too soon, I told the boss off and made my move, got nowhere to go, Son of SamSon..” - Son of Sam
The last time I met Elliott I asked he play his song “living will” for I saw in his eyes, like no other being I had ever seen in my life, he was awoke in his body and more than just his person and found myself crying at the back of the crowd. One can’t understand a thing about this intro here without reading those lyrics.
After that performance, one of the last in his life, he walked off right after, so I had a friend of his give him a copy I had bought him of All and Everything by Gurdjieff. I think he read it cause in an interview I came across of someone touring with him at that time they mention he was always reading and once he had the smallest but thickest book they had ever seen. When they asked him what it was about he said: “ancient world history.”
Now returning to why I think he was this unique line of inner being seldom seen. Hinduism teaches of the lower exoteric aspect of God as Brahma as opposed to “Brahmái” (the latter being that which permeates and yet is beyond all). For they are deists as we moderns say, teaching God down into and out from the Machine, “Deus Ex Machina,” as Christ taught of “God” too in the Gospel of Thomas the Contender and as Proclus taught and the 1200 year old school of Pythagoras and Plato also.
But Hinduism says Brahma (not Brahmaí) - in response to these Kumara’ wanting to stay within the Most High (Brahmai, the starlit pleroma of essence), singing and contemplating things in the heavens innocently (rather than furthering things here in denser, difficult materiality when the earth first began having beinghood of an odd sort) - cast them down as fallen angels condemned to keep repeating in their lives interweaving here among all us to progress humanity culturally.
“I’m a crash credit card, registered to ‘Smith’ - not the name that you call me with.” - The Biggest Lie
“Seargent Rock broke the key off in the lock to the place I come from, a seventh sun...I’m Riding low again high in the Sun/Soul/South/Sound.”- Color Bars
“Rode into the Sun, passed everyone...have you seen a pretty Mary K (not C for cosmos but K...)”
- Pretty Mary K
They are as insiders down here, as reluctant heroes but becoming self-conscious, until we all evolve into awake Buddha’s psychologically as they are starting, or fail as dying out persona’s resounding into nothingness, whichever happens.
One could feel this about him as I’m sure he did of himself and his way of being around others. Imagine the world if all had a conscience like Elliott’s:
“I’d say you make a perfect Angel in the Snow,
all crushed out in the way you are,
better stop before it goes too far.
Don’t you know that I love you?
Sometimes I feel like/light/life
a whole/cold/frozen still-light/life
that fell down here
to lay beside you.”
- Angel in the Snow
As anyone can tell, we are now today light years ahead of so many other generations in our development of technology but light years behind - not more than 4 year olds, bashing each other’s heads in over toys and play areas: power positions and possession lines drawn in the sand, in doberman pincher like face of full fake murderous adult abstemiousness - at most in development of Conscience. So we will see at this point in time Elliott was incarnated into what happens next culturally and if all those - such as the Elliott Smith’s living in opposing contrast to the “Slim Moon’s” who Kill Rock Stars and rob Co-bain’s child, and the Shiva stabbers - were for naught or no.
Truly he seemed like a living being caught up among statues though, a flowing Kumara as the Hindu’s say. As he said:
“I Saw you caught between all the people out...making a scene...in a bright ideal tomorrow..ehww?..don’t go too far, stay who you are...Saw you at the perfect place, It’s going to happen soon but not today. So go to sleep, make the chain/change. I’ll meet you here to-morrow: Independence Day.” - Independence Day
“Here at night where stupid shit collides, with dying shooting stars
All we’ve got to show if we really are is the same kind of scars/spars/sparks...your arm’s got a death in it.”
- Single File
Often in ancient culture’s lore and religions and in initiatic poetry and song (Bowie’s album “Black Star” is filled with this) when one hears the occasional seemingly contradictory mention of children of the night and dark somehow being of finer, more inward, moral and spiritual susbstance than people of the light - which is completely opposite from what they all usually say about the light versus the dark and sounds contradictory - these sayings were actually said to be encoded initatic inner teaching on the Kumaric Souls already progressed to the next astral, starry, realm in them of the night time beyond us and beyond “the day star god of this age” among us in this dimension.
They are called “little ones” by Christ (see Elliott’s song on the little one of the 7 heavens) and by Lady Hahn. They are called the epi-ouranoi, seven heavenlies, by Paul who distinguished them as those different among us but still progressing to become the Teleos or finished ones. As he said, not all have the same inner light and go to the same places on passing this mortal coil. Paul, however misguided - more often mistranslated - was, after all, I believe, a half initiate at least. I like him ok.
By the way, It is interesting both Elliott and I had a first name of Paul we didn’t like and don’t use. Also one of my first memories as a child growing up around Dallas, less than 10 minutes from where he grew up (Duncanville) at the same time as me, was of picking up a turtle and it peeing on me on the side of the road; and his was of picking up a frog and the same there by the Dallas Highway. Also we both moved out west and got BA’s in Philosophy from some mid-sized College and created a band there and did construction after college. There seems to be some odd astrological connection I have with him in the fate accompli of my life. Also my sister dated him off and on for 2 years, I think I forgot to mention that.
In any case, these Kumara - and why I like him and recommend this book - are said to be the Herculeids of Herculean Line to use Greek Lore about them and their periods (though they transcend historical periods when metaphysically speaking). Hercules worshipped the Vulture it is said because they never harm a living soul but only eat the dead (for where the body is, there the Vulture’s gather). See my book review on Cassander of Macedon to understand the 864K year old political line of the Herculeids. But rather more clearly, the Kumara are said in Hinduism to be of Indra’s line. For Indra is Hinduism’s “Hercules and lord of the Kumara.” And yet though of such noble patronage they are said by Hindu texts to be condemned by “God” (in the demiurgic exoteric sense) to keep coming back here to further humanity in the generations they are thrown into until the end of some long cycle when they are finally released to go on to the realm of the high gods, the Avatars; or as the gnostics would say: “the Pleroma within the Godhead” or what have you.
Castaneda and Plato both taught these poetic souls, the singers (Hindu’s Ghandara Kumara) in this life are the most beautiful and often short lived here but closest to the divine among all of us.
I plan on making a commemoration book of him through my complaintive ode of interpretations of the songs of my best friend in this life, and the ultimate Kumara humanity has seen in the past few millenium of history, at least of *publically known* history.
If it is wondered if he had many mystical, symbolic meanings or not that he deeply hid into all his songs (as my book is about) I think any non-possessor of hemorrhoids will already gather this after reading even the first few pages of this introduction I have placed here in embryo (much less my entire book to follow).
He is part of the coming man.
But to further confirm this for the more feeble minded skeptic types, his best friend (Sam Coombs) said once in an interview whenever he was touring with Elliott that everything seemed to just happen on it’s own and they would spend all day reading occult books; but when he was with his own group they always seemed to be spending all their time setting up and taking down their set and accidents happening.
Also Elliott said in interview he certainly does have his own unique view inside religiously about the World and God but does not just go around broadcasting it in a sort of preachy way; which he, like Tolkien and I also, always disliked.
He said he carried around a rock he wrote “I love God” on as a child. And in one of his songs he even had a friend of his say in preachy enraptured voice alot of deeply metaphysical statements he had him read then you can hear Elliott’s voice behind it at the end say: “That’s Why.” As in that’s why it is no use preaching even if he wanted to, it just pushes people away from you. So he preferred symbolic lyrics that are subtle and said even more. And he said he preferred lyrics this way in interview, that is why he preferred Neil Young’s and didn’t like Paul Simon’s he said.
He also said in interview his lyrics are at their greatest when they are like different parts of himself talking to other parts of himself. This implies multiple dimensionality and many centers in one communicating, a whole mysterious landscape I believe he reveals in his lyrics in very particular and “almost” immeasurable way in a way you can learn from no other writing publically printed.
In my work I am now working on I will go over about 111 of his 120 or so songs which have hidden, central, metaphysical meanings and include a lexicon at the end of all these that define his particular symbols of esoteric meaning he would repeatedly use in different parts of his songs throughout to both hide and further reveal as the path of the Kumara does, “so that hearing they might not hear.” I mean terms like: “broken/concrete hand,” “clinched teeth” “division day” “pictures [the food of impressions]” “soaring eye” “the moon” “the crushing” “the horse [higher emotional center]“ “the white lady” “seargant/army captain” “drugs” (which he said stand for being addicted to anything, not just substances - for example, most I’ve met who detest drug addicts are addicted themselves like the worst heroin addicts to negative judgementalism in themselves toward different types and the taste of it and feeding off that chemically and spiritually in them) and so on and so on. His symbols are revealed as to what they traditionally meant in alchemical texts he was a reader of and what they meant, used in similar ways, by him.
Here are the number of songs in each chapter (basically all from each album) I go over:
8 from Roman Candle
12 from Eponymous
21 in two parts, part A&B of Either/Or
14 X/O
15 Figure 8
14 From a Basement on a Hill
24 A&B New Moon
20 A&B Posthumus Songs Released
Well such is my intro for people on the person of Elliott “Eliuj” the “Smith” Kumara. Hopefully it helps you see why any kind work on him is of great value (not Schultz though! He was trained by one of the creepiest government schills in the psychological cookie-cutter industry).
This picture book in particular though here, again, is great. It is by a sweet soul and great photographer and is about the only accurate work out there...so far.
Hope you enjoyed this swirling review on Elliott and this book.
October 30, 2009
When anyone would ask me what I wanted to go to college for, I would reply with "I want to grow up and be autumn de wilde." Whenever I'm photographing people, I always remind myself of this book. I've never felt such a personal connection between the relationship of Elliott Smith and Autumn De Wilde. I did a ten page artist report on their relationship for my History of Photography course, and having to look at her photographs and read about Smiths horrible depression really struck something inside of me. There is a foreward by chris walla of death cab for cutie, talking about how De Wilde shot some photographs of him in Scottland while the sun was going down, using the light only from neon signs in little stores. These are the kind of photographs I live for- no obnoxious studios and bright lights. There has to be a connection and a relationship behind a photograph, and I use this book as a constant reminder of that aesthetic.
December 30, 2007
A wonderful tribute to an amazing man. Photographer Autumn De Wilde tracked down a lot of Elliott's old, close friends (as well as other musicians he's had an influence on) and gave them space to open up about their (often warm and/or hilarious) memories of him. In addition, she adds her own reflections on knowing Elliott, on the difficulty of being a fan, a friend, and a collaborator all at the same time, and fills the book with many of the pictures she took of Elliott throughout the years. What emerges, in the end, is a much more fair and accurate portrait of Elliott Smith than is usually given, especially since his death. The Elliott in this book is compassionate, creative, hilarious, obsessive, sad, happy, and human. And he loved The Scorpions, Chicago, and Phil Collins' "Against All Odds". :)
June 30, 2021
I've been carrying around this book for almost 15 years because I needed to be in the right space to read it. Elliott is dead so my access to new Elliott content is limited. Because of this I've been rationing. I read Big Nothing when it came out, like, 16 years ago and it left a bad taste in my mouth. As far as his music, I've gone through phases of being obsessed with some of his albums, but I haven't allowed myself to really give some of them a chance yet. I'm rationing, allowing myself time to fall back in love with his music. Elliott Smith, Either/Or, XO, I have an intimate relationship with these albums, but I'm a passing acquaintance with Roman Candle, Figure 8 and From a Basement on the Hill.
Thank you, Autumn. This is exactly what I wanted and needed.
<3
Thank you, Autumn. This is exactly what I wanted and needed.
<3
April 4, 2008
It gets five stars for (1) not being cheesy; (2) memorializing a crapload of bad haircuts; (3) reproducing a letter from Sallie Mae informing Steven Smith that he paid off his school loans(!) and it's addressed to an apartment just a few blocks away from my own; (4) includes some very honest thoughts from friends about the mythology of Elliott Smith and his hand in creating it; and (5) an interview with his younger sister (by seven years) talking about how he would spend hours cutting her hair and how important those times were to her in getting to know her big brother. It will break your heart.
(And, I've read reviews in which people wrote the author/photographer included too much of herself in the book. I disagree.)
(And, I've read reviews in which people wrote the author/photographer included too much of herself in the book. I disagree.)
January 16, 2016
A book of photography and interviews about one of my favorite musicians. The photos (especially those from the Figure 8 era) are intimate and beautiful, and show a different side of an all-too-pigeonholed singer/songwriter. The interviews, conducted with close friends and family members of Smith's over the years, are equally sweet and revealing. Not to mention the accompanying CD, which is amazing :)
February 20, 2011
Elliott Smith is one of my favorite musicians of all time. His guitar playing is so beautiful and his lyrics are heartbreaking. This book is a series of interviews with those closest to him. A little window into a very troubled soul. RIP
March 5, 2021
A beautiful look into the life of Elliott, through amazing photos and interviews. I could seriously page through this for hours. There are so many great stories about Elliott in here that every fan should read, they’ll make you smile.
May 23, 2023
Maybe the most beautiful way to show love to someone - talking about their idiosyncracies, and sharing stories without putting them up on a mythical pedestal. A very thoughtful tribute.
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September 6, 2025feels impossible to rate a book like this, seeing how many people truly loved Elliott and had to watch him self destruct. That he was kind, silly, and someone who just loved meeting people and having a drink with them. Maybe he could’ve recovered but, we’ll never know.
i broke down listening to the last song on the cd, hearing him laugh and fumble through that country song cover. everyone else in the room laughing with him. maybe now he’s settled down.
i broke down listening to the last song on the cd, hearing him laugh and fumble through that country song cover. everyone else in the room laughing with him. maybe now he’s settled down.
December 3, 2018
Es un tributo hermoso, intenso y brutal al legado de Elliott Smith. Hay algunos textos y entrevistas que hablan sobre la relevancia de su discografía. Pero lo más hermoso es la recopilación de retratos. Donde Autumn hizo una selección nostálgica y poderosa de tal vez su mejor momento creativo. Incluyendo las sesiones de grabación de Figure 8. Y sí, también lloras.
June 30, 2024
so so so beautiful
March 2, 2008
Excellent photographs, good live CD, beautifully put-together quality hardback. The interviews are interesting and give the reader some insight into Elliott Smith's life. I'm so glad I got this book. I came rather late to his work and listen to his music very often. It's so sad there won't be any more. I can't help feeling that he probably wasn't quite such a consistently great guy as everyone says: he must have had a unique and messed-up vision to write those songs and was probably a royal pain in the backside at times. But, who isn't sometimes ? A friend of mine worked at a label in LA and said that it wasn't unusual for him to come into the offices in a state of extreme disarray and confusion fairly frequently. That doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the tunes.
February 16, 2015
Rating what is really a photography book on Goodreads seems weird, but the interviews here go into less polemic aspects of his life while also showing another side of the polemic aspects. It's mainly sad to see his closest friends had already mourned for him years before he went, and it all makes you wonder if there is anything that can be done to stop certain people from going down this road or if, one or another, they will find a way to self-destruct eventually. Paired with the stunning photos, it's a great book for fans who aren't afraid to see their idols as very screwed up people, but not at all graphic or triggering.
June 9, 2015
This book is mostly a collection of photos by the author of her subject, the singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, who killed himself in 2003 at the age of 34. Interviews with people who knew Elliott comprise the rest of the book, and while the interviews are interesting, they paint less a picture of Elliott and more how the interviewees were affected by him. A comprehensive biography it ain't, but the pictures are beautiful.
January 10, 2009
A fantasic collection of interviews with some great music-related people (Larry Crane is the best), and even more fantastic photographs of Elliott Smith, some right around Sunset Blvd. in Echo Park. Included is a CD of five songs from an acoustic gig in LA, including Hank William Jr.'s 'All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down'. A great book for your collection, if you are a music geek.
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April 7, 2008There are some really beautiful pictures in this book - particularly the polaroids. The accompanying CD contains 5 alternate versions of some of Elliot Smith's greatest songs.
July 31, 2011
I liked reading this, but this is perhaps because I'm just a tad obsessed.
August 24, 2020
“No human being can be there for you the way a record can.”
October 17, 2025
This is going to read less as a review and more as a sort of log or journal entry because it's far too late and after finishing this book in one sitting I'm feeling quite a lot with very few words attached.
Oughhh... oh my god. What a stunning book. I avoided this one for a long while because it can be a lot to take in new Elliott content sometimes just because of how strongly I love his work. It always feels like it hits my soul directly to learn anything new about him. This book is amazing. Not only does it include a beautiful collection of photography, but so much wonderful insight into many aspects of Elliott; not only himself, but his process, his work ethic. The conversational/interview format works incredibly for this.
It was really weird hearing about all the little habits and quirks he had, because so many of them are things I do, or ways of thinking I've fallen into my entire life. The rumination and obsessive tendencies, the sense of intention and creative focus. The weirdest one for me is that long before I'd paid Elliott's music any attention or knew this story, I also spent several hours straight listening to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on repeat! I've never actually known anyone else to listen to music in that way, with the same song on repeat for hours or days.
I'm always grateful to learn more about Elliott.
Oughhh... oh my god. What a stunning book. I avoided this one for a long while because it can be a lot to take in new Elliott content sometimes just because of how strongly I love his work. It always feels like it hits my soul directly to learn anything new about him. This book is amazing. Not only does it include a beautiful collection of photography, but so much wonderful insight into many aspects of Elliott; not only himself, but his process, his work ethic. The conversational/interview format works incredibly for this.
It was really weird hearing about all the little habits and quirks he had, because so many of them are things I do, or ways of thinking I've fallen into my entire life. The rumination and obsessive tendencies, the sense of intention and creative focus. The weirdest one for me is that long before I'd paid Elliott's music any attention or knew this story, I also spent several hours straight listening to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on repeat! I've never actually known anyone else to listen to music in that way, with the same song on repeat for hours or days.
I'm always grateful to learn more about Elliott.
March 1, 2019
This book is absolutely stunning. There’s about 70 pages of interviews with some of Elliott’s nearest and dearest friends and relatives. The rest is comprised of photos of him and various other memorabilia such as lyric sheets and notes.
This is mainly focused on his Figure 8 era, however Autumn also includes some throwback images from the XO and Either/Or periods throughout her collection too.
It also comes with a bonus Live CD which adds a nice touch to the whole package.
Highly recommended for any E.S. fans who want to know who the enigma really was from the perspective of those who were closest to him.
This is mainly focused on his Figure 8 era, however Autumn also includes some throwback images from the XO and Either/Or periods throughout her collection too.
It also comes with a bonus Live CD which adds a nice touch to the whole package.
Highly recommended for any E.S. fans who want to know who the enigma really was from the perspective of those who were closest to him.
May 25, 2019
This was the better of the books about Smith. I loved the photos and the funny stories. It was also pretty honest. Sometimes I think brutally. It's so long ago that I read it but some stories and personal feelings his friends told about were just hard hitting. I remember thinking, jeeze, take it easy, the guy's dead and grimly remarking to someone "with friends like these..." I'm sure Elliott knew how to be bitter and hard hitting himself, so maybe his friends were experiencing some of the anger phase of grief.
January 13, 2019
Autumn de Wilde's book starts off with photos but quickly transitions into very personal interviews with some of Elliott's best friends over the years. This puts the remaining photos into greater context.
Central to the interviews is the idea that Elliott was as complicated a human being as the rest of us -- a wonderful musician, but someone capable of doing good and bad to those in his personal life.
Central to the interviews is the idea that Elliott was as complicated a human being as the rest of us -- a wonderful musician, but someone capable of doing good and bad to those in his personal life.
January 22, 2019
Beautiful photographs, and insightful transcriptions of conversations between some of those closest to Elliott. This book features some of the same people who are interviewed in the film Heaven Adores You, and some of the information is the same, but I found that in this book they also shared some more intimate and quirky things about Elliott that will make you feel like you knew him.
December 30, 2024
sentimental book for me, because of the person who gave it to me, the person it's about, and everything in between. some parts of the dialogue are moving but this rating is more about what this all represents for me.
definitely a gift I'll remember
definitely a gift I'll remember
April 22, 2018
Kind of a quaint history of the musician. The chummy vibes countered with the artistic celebration worked really nicely.
December 27, 2018
It was good to balance this more lighthearted approach with Todd Schultz' Torment Saint. Great photos.
January 26, 2019
Perfect book full of beautiful photographs and wonderful interviews. Paints a beautiful picture of a beautiful human being.
October 1, 2019
Elliott would be proud of this.
May 27, 2020
Full of amazing photos and discussions with people who knew Elliott or were fans. Really touching and something I will revisit often.
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