Trailer: "Heaven Adores You (An Elliott Smith Project)"

Here's the trailer for a work in progress on the legacy of my friend Elliott Smith, singer, songwriter and musician extraordinaire. The director/cinematographer and co-producer is Nicholas Rossi.

Revolver covers Steven Stills' "Helplessly Hoping"

Revolver is a French band that formed in Paris in 2006. In the Wikipedia entry, their music is ungrammatically described as "a bridge between pop and classical music or even the Renaissance or the Baroque and [their] influence everything from Beatles to Bach, from Benjamin Britten to Elliott Smith."

Blues Break: Allen Ginsberg - "Father Death Blues"

From an interview with Ginsberg on the BBC's Face to Face (date unknown, but probably not long before his death in 1997) . The poem, which is Part IV of "Never Grow Old," appears in Plutonian Ode: Poems 1977-1980. Here's the full text:

"Father Death Blues"

Hey Father Death, I'm flying home
Hey poor man, you're all alone
Hey old daddy, I know where I'm going

Father Death, Don't cry any more
Mama's there, underneath the floor
Brother Death, please mind the store

Old Aunty Death  Don't hide your bones
Old Uncle Death  I hear your groans
O Sister Death  how sweet your moans

O Children Deaths go breathe your breaths
Sobbing breasts'll ease your Deaths
Pain is gone, tears take the rest

Genius Death  your art is done
Lover Death  your body's gone
Father Death  I'm coming home

Guru Death your words are true
Teacher Death I do thank you
For inspiring me to sing this Blues

Buddha Death, I wake with you
Dharma Death, your mind is new
Sangha Death, we'll work it through

Suffering is what was born
Ignorance made me forlorn
Tearful truths I cannot scorn

Father Breath once more farewell
Birth you gave was no thing ill
My heart is still, as time will tell.

(Over Lake Michigan)

In loving memory of Elliott Smith
Friend - Songwriter - Musician
(August 6, 1969 - October 21, 2003)

Blues Break: Elliott Smith - "Angeles"

Elliott Smith's double album, New Moon, is out today. It's a powerful piece of work, as good as anything that Elliott has done. He was such a prolific songwriter and musician that only 3 of its 24 songs, all accompanied by Elliott's acoustic guitar, have previously been released. It's engineered by Larry Crane, who developed Jackpot Studios in Portland with Elliott in 1997. The songs were recorded between 1994 and 1997. As they've done in the past, Elliott's family will donate a portion of the proceeds to Outside In, a free clinic in Portland for low-income adults and homeless young people.

The Lucky Three video was made by Elliott and Jem Cohen in 1996, two years before Elliott's Oscar nomination for Miss Misery. Filmed in Portland, it was the first video of Elliott's solo career.

On a personal note, I'm proud to claim Elliott—and his wonderful family in Portland, New York and Minnesota—as friends. He is loved and dearly missed by all of us and by his legions of fans around the world.

The people you've been before
That you don't want around anymore
That push and shove and won't bend to your will
I'll keep them still

—Elliott Smith, Between the Bars (from Either/Or, 1997)