come and take my hand

I've spend the better part of today listening to Elliott Smith live covers and unreleased tracks. Apparently, my advice to myself simply leads to reinforcement of bad habits. So it goes. At least I'm in a pretty good mood today, so no wallowing in murky grey melancholy.

The fan site Sweet Adeline has a bunch of unreleased and bootlegged songs for download. I was hoping they'd have Elliott's cover of "Don't Fear the Reaper." I only saw him play once, at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit. I think it was 2000 or so, I guess before he was really in rough shape. I wedged myself in the front of the balcony, intertwined with the railing. Grandaddy opened, which I mostly remember because they gave away keychain bottle openers that had the band name on them. I carried it on my keys for years and it saved me from improvising a bottle opener countless times.

Overall, it was a fantastic show from one of my favorite musicians. He did two encores, one where he came out and played a bunch of roughly beautiful solo acoustic songs, and one where he came out with his band and played "Don't Fear the Reaper." It was so perfect, from the harmonies to the guitar work. Dead fucking on. I'd only liked the song okay before, but have held it close ever since.


don't fear the reaper