I've been listening and admiring Elliot Smith's work for the past couple years or so and I have yet to find a contemporary acoustics player that meets the same level of skill that Elliot has on the acoustic. I believe he's one of the greatest and talented acoustic players in recent memory.
Examples of his skill include the song writing for Southern Belle and its chord progression. Same for Christian Brothers, Single File, Rose Parade (Live) and Roman Candle.
In most of his early albums Elliot encompasses his songs with a strange and alien guitar tuning of: C, G,C, E, G, C . The result is this gloomy haze of a sound, still so unique and specific to Elliot Smith's early records. It's a shame his presence is so low profile, despite the song Miss Misery being featured in Good Will Hunting, Elliot Smith is largely unknown to people out of the folk loop.
He very rarely used strange tunings. It's mostly just D standard.
Cooper Harris
For an Indie artist, he had a pretty high profile and was seen as one of the top singer/songwriters of his generation. He was a pretty skilled guitarist, even though he himself would say otherwise. Even better than that, was his creativity and sense of melody on the guitar, allowing him to create his songs and progressions. He really was a treasure and it's a shame he went through such emotional pain and left so soon.
Aaron Hill
He's probably not as good as smith and certainly not Sup Forums approved but check out Conor Oberst. His first album with the mystic valley band and a few bright eyes albums are absolutely fantastic imo. He uses intelligent songwriting like smith. I think some of his stuff is the best written from this current generation of artists
Anthony Green
I like a lot of older Bright Eyes songs but this comparison has angered me for over around 15 years now. It's like comparing Billy Joel to Wesley Willis.
Kevin Miller
Just curious what you've listened to and what you like from Conor? His catalog is pretty fucking huge
Grayson Hill
The only song I've liked from him was Weather Reports. The few other things I've checked out I haven't liked as much.
Is there an album where the songs are in a similar vein?
Dylan Richardson
I've heard damn near everything he's made. A few girlfriends of mine were very into him. The first Desaparecidos album, Fevers and Mirrors, Every Day and Every Night, Lifted. I like plenty of his stuff. I just feel like Conor and Elliott are barely playing the same game.
Elliott was a very good songwriter, and his playing worked well for the songs he wrote, but you can find plenty of people that matched him skill wise on acoustic.
And lmao, that's not an "alien guitar tuning". That's just the incredibly common Open D tuned down a whole step, so technically just open C.
And jesus christ he's not "largely unknown to people out of the folk loop". He played on the fucking Oscars, and is more or less a pop culture staple for the kind of music he plays. Most of his fans don't even seem to listen to that much folk music, Elliott himself didn't even really listen to folk music. When Rick and Morty makes a joke about you then you're not "low profile".
I really like his music, but his die hard fans have this tendency to treat him like the 2nd coming of Christ and its so ridiculous. He was a great songwriter with a strong intuitive sense of melody who wrote about personal struggles that many people can relate to, which in turn causes them to overstate that importance due to the personal connection they feel.
Holy shit what is up with this place. Nick Drake is 100% a better guitar player than Elliott Smith, and IMO an overall better songwriter but I have my own biases there. Fahey's genius lies in composition and inventiveness, not technical ability. Pretty much all the other big players in the genre he fucking created are better guitar players. Joanna is great but she's not related to any of these artists at all so I don't understand why she's even worth mentioning.
Brayden Bennett
...yeah, in terms of pure skill Drake was definitely better. You're right.
By Fahey'shis genre you mean primitivism, right? I admit I don't know much about it, would be very interested in hearing these artists you mention. Think I've got some Robbie Basho, but that's it.
Joanna, I just thought op might like her based on what he said of his musical tastes.
Jose Baker
>Elliott himself didn't even really listen to folk music That's not necessarily true. He was known to do the occasional Bob Dylan cover, and had played a few other folk songs. He was definitely more influenced by pop artists like The Beatles, Elvis Costello, Big Star, and other big name artists like that. You're pretty spot on with all the other stuff though.
Everyone listens to Bob Dylan, I don't think that really shows that much. But yeah, my point is he comes far more from a pop songwriter kind of lineage than a folk one. You can hear it in his guitar playing alone, he doesn't use the kind of syncopated travis picking that basically all of the american folkies use.
Caleb Ortiz
Cheers, I'll check these out.
Christian Phillips
OP, here. Love all those people. I'll check Fahey out, thanks. For you I'd recommend Bert Jansch and Dick Gaughan .
>That's just the incredibly common Open D tuned down a whole step, so technically just open C.
I put the wrong tuning in, I had written it down but can't find it. That's a mistake.
>largely unknown to people out of the folk loop".
Everyone I know has never heard of Elliot Smith, I'm Gen Z. He's super unpopular with the people I know - Kurt Cobain is the big guy.
I agree with Drake being the better song writer but not with him being more skilled than Elliot. Although, Drake bootleg covers are amazing and form those I believe you can really see how great a player he was. An extremely talented individual.
Carson Reyes
>syncopated travis picking
pretty sure he does that on the Biggest Lie, some others on Either/Or I think
David Scott
>Everyone I know has never heard of Elliot Smith, I'm Gen Z. He's super unpopular with the people I know - Kurt Cobain is the big guy. That doesn't necessarily mean he's unknown though. Your group != everyone. Most of the people I hang out with aren't into rock, I'd bet none of them would know The Velvet Underground, that doesn't mean The Velvet Underground are some unheard of indie band, at least not in 2017. I talked with at least two of my high school english teachers about Smith.
Ryan Jackson
>Sad white boy on the guitar
Stop this meme faggots. Listen to some hip-hop .
Evan Bell
@73906470 post your bait elsewhere
Colton Sanders
Stay mad whitey.
John Stewart
>yfw ween does elliott smith better than elliott smith
God, you Sup Forums faggots just don't know anything. This guy is mediocre at best at guitar. I won't say anything about his writing, but he definitely is nothing special at guitar. Check out Jon Gomm, Antoine Dufour, Antoine Boyer, Stochelo Rosenberg, fucking Al Di Meola. Guys who are actually good at guitar (and writing for that matter).
but the songwriting isn't there at all, would much rather listen to elliott
nick drake feels like he has aspergers, like his feels don't match what he's saying as well as elliott. it just doesn't feel right. elliott is a fucking god.
Josiah Torres
i could play that lmao
>but the songwriting isn't there at all, would much rather listen to elliott that's what i'm saying. it just sounds bad so i don't give a shit if it's harder to play
Ethan Rodriguez
these are my thoughts exactly OP, he was a god among men
Oliver Sanders
Drake is far less self-pitying than Elliott though. He can actually write an emotional song without stooping to the typical confessional topics like "muh drugs" or "muh breakups".
>hurr he turned his knobs and tapped the body, what a guitar hero I cringed watching that shit.
Ryan Lopez
drat
Justin Wood
I didn't say that he was unknown, at least to a lot of people my age, unless they're into music they wouldn't have known about Elliot.
Brayden Lee
Style over substance, load of crap
Kayden Moore
You need to find other people to hang out with.
Luis Adams
I don't really know many people my age who listen to a lot of music. Most people I hang out with like hip-hop/trap rap etc I like that stuff too but I can't really talk to them about Elvis Costello or Jackson C. Frank. There's the odd musical acquaintance who i'll have a good conversation with. It's a bit more complicated
There's lots of people who like that kind of shit though, you don't need to go all "hurr le wrong generation" because the person who sits beside you in class doesn't like what you like. I mean that's a given, most people aren't that into music anyway. Any given random person has probably never heard of Aphex Twin either, that doesn't mean he isn't extremely popular.
Miss Misery was all over the radio and Elliott Smith is one of the best known entry level singer songwriter people.
Jordan Bailey
this is the first time in my life i've ever seen joanna newsom compared with elliott smith and it better be the last.
never say her name in the same sentence as godkind elliott again.
Gavin Ward
newsom is a much better singer and songwriter than smith is
Zachary Barnes
Nick Drake > Elliot Smith >>>> Bob (((Dylan)))
Evan Foster
yeah you probably have a nice fidget spinner and fedora collection as well kek
