Without older siblings with record collections to sift through, I coveted these moments. In your youth, the best music is that that’s bestowed upon you by someone slightly older and infinitely cooler. I forced a smile and tried to recreate Smith’s signature pose for our disposable camera and left.ĭriving away, I thought back on the first time I remembered seeing that cover. Some fan messages could be faintly seen through the layers of messy paint. Spraypaint and wheatpaste stickers smothered the wall, the red, black, and white lines barely peeking through the chaos. While I was content to go on with whatever plans were in store, I could care less about hitting the beach or the LA nightlife – the only thing I was insistent on was making it out to Silverlake and finally seeing this sacred indie rock landmark. For an artist whose music seemed best to encapsulate longing, lonely emotions, it felt like a way to be connected through enduring, communal grief.Īt 21, my girlfriend and her roommate proposed the idea of a road trip to Los Angeles over spring break. I’d read about how it’d become a memorial, practically a holy site, where Smith fans left candles and scribbled messages and remembrances on the wall. A swooping design of red, black, and white lines had become synonymous with Elliott Smith after he’d posed in front of it on his Figure 8 album, the last record he’d release before his death. Read or listen to the piece below.įor years, I’d dreamed of making the pilgrimage to the mural. This week, Dusty Henry looks back at Elliott Smith’s 2000 song “Somebody That Used To Know” and how it soundtracks fading memories and making peace with the passage of time. Each week in 2022, KEXP pays homage to a different year and our writers are commemorating with one song from that year that resonates with them. As KEXP celebrates its 50th anniversary, we're looking back at the last half-century of music.
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