happy birthday, elliott

Today you would have been 36. You are loved and missed as much as ever. I always remember you blowing the audience a kiss as you left the stage the last time I saw you play. Thank you for your "help" ensuring that your songs are always on heavy rotation on my iPod. I'm happy that every time someone asks me about what's on my arm I have a chance to introduce you to someone who may not have heard of you yet.

Ben Folds gave you a beautiful tribute - not only the lovely song he wrote about you, but also what he said about the process of trying to write it:

The hardest song to write, Folds says, was "Late," a song about singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, who died on October 21, 2003. "I toured with Elliott and knew him a little bit. His music was absolutely inspiring to me in every way. When I thought I wanted to quit music or quit anything, I found his music uplifting and reassuring. On top of that, he was a good guy. Trying to get that across in a song in a humble way without being cliché is a dodgy proposition." The prospect of failing terrified Folds and kept him in knots for three days trying to write lyrics that would convey his sadness at losing Smith and his happiness for having known him only for a while. "I wanted to write about the Elliott Smith that I saw on tour, who seemed shy and fragile one minute then playing super aggressive basketball the next, whose music got me through some hard times," Folds says, "and when I felt bad about playing some gross club with profanity scrawled all over the ceiling, I knew Elliott was out there somewhere making beautiful music in the middle of the same kind of stink. Poets are inspired because they look up at the same sky that Wordsworth used to look at. I was inspired because I looked up at the same starscape of 'Dookie,' 'Nirvana Sux' and 'Eat Me' that Elliott used to look up at. Hopefully people will hear the song and five more people will go out and buy his records or think about what he meant. If it keeps him alive for another few minutes, then I accomplished what I wanted to do."

I hope someone brings you the most incredible ice-cream cake ever today. XO

A few random Elliott quotes that I like:

Re: "I Figured You Out": "Okay, here's a song I gave to Mary Lou [Lord], because I thought it sounded like the Eagles, you can tell me. But I'm still convinced it sounds like the Eagles. But you know... I don't really care. Glen Frey and Don Henley are just not my fucking responsibility. It's not my fault, whatever they did."

"You know, I think my songs reveal whatever they reveal, they say certain things about who I am, whereas Will Smith singing 'Gettin' Jiggy With It' reveals certain things about who he is. Like for one thing that he doesn't mind singing a senseless song."

"Sometimes my hands just make it up without me even being involved in it, 'cause I play guitar a lot during the day. I watch TV and play guitar at the same time. So my fingers just do whatever they're doing while I'm watching General Hospital. Sometimes I go, 'Oh, good job, fingers! I liked that.'"