My Only Elliott Smith Concert

We were literally up in the rafters…literally. Smoke, born of the glowing cigarettes below us, slowly danced its way up past our dangling legs, imbuing our tired eyes with an ever-brightening hue of red. It was by no means the most glamorous way to see my first (and only) Elliott Smith concert, but I was just glad to get in.

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The concert begins, and despite my benumbed legs, I’m enjoying every moment. It’s election night, and Elliot is keeping us all posted on the “wild and wooly” goings on of our “wild and wooly” country. In a tone somewhere between a desperation and a dry-heave, some drunk screams “PLAY ROSE PARADE,” over and over again. Someone finally tells him to shut his cake hole. Between sets, a girl on the front row pleas for Elliott to play Miss Misery, and in a sincere tone, he apologizes: “Sorry, but I don’t own that song anymore.”

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I still think about that moment from time to time, and it bothers me. It bothers me to think that someone can be so fully robbed of their own creation. It bothers me that some people think that music can be assigned this sick sense of property. It bothers me that I never got to hear Elliott Smith play Miss Misery.

And so, as I sit and listen to the alternate version of Miss Misery found on Elliott’s latest resurrection (New Moon), I can’t help but feel a little sad, a little hopeful, and a little angry.

-mixtape

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Tags: Elliott, Smith, New, Moon, Miss, Misery

~ by mixtape on June 27, 2007.