Six years ago I turned on KALX in the middle of the afternoon and heard a song called Needle in the Hay. The song was by Elliott Smith. Not two days later I was urged by a friend to pick up his self titled record, which I did. Then I bought his first album, Roman Candle. I wondered if he sounded too much like Paul Simon. I remembered I really used to like Paul Simon so who cares? A month later either/or came out and I bought that. I lived inside these records during a grey period in my life. Elliott Smith sang simple truths about difficult subjects: "help me kill my time, because I'll never be fine." If his words didn't have a resonance with someone I had a good indication that that person didn't see life with the same eyes I did. The first time I saw Elliott Smith he was opening for Half Japanese at the Bottom in SF. Probably 90% of the club was there to see him and filed out when his set was over. He played a shitty guitar and looked nervous. Everyone felt like they were in the presence of something really special. The last time I saw Elliott Smith was a year and a half ago, headlining the Music Hall in SF. The place was so packed you couldn't see him unless you were up front. Everyone had heard terrible stories about his health, his substance abuse, his inability to finish songs live. He played shakily and his voice wavered but the songs were good and though everyone filed out with concerns about him I really thought he sounded just like that nervous guy I'd seen five years earlier, just thrown in front of an audience three times the size. I have never seen a better guitar player. Elliott Smith turned little melodies into concertos.