ELLIOTT SMITH REMEMBERED

Musicians and friends remember the singer-songwriter, who died earlier this week...

Tributes to the late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith have started to come in, with EELS and MOBY amongst the first to offer their sympathies.

As reported yesterday, the singer passed away (October 21) at the age of 34. His body was discovered by a friend in his Los Angeles apartment. He had a single knife wound to the body.

Smith was then taken to Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center yesterday afternoon (October 21), where he was pronounced dead shortly after.

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Elliott Smith’s label Dreamworks issued a statement yesterday saying, “We are deeply saddened by Elliott Smith’s tragic death and send our condolences to our family and his friends. He was perhaps his generation’s most gifted singer-sonwriter. His enormous talent could change your life with a whisper. We will miss him.”

A statement from his former label inn the UK, Domino, reads: “We are all deeply saddened today by this news. Elliott was a genuinely sweet, kind and good natured person, as well as being one of the finest singer-songwriters of our generation. He will be sorely missed.”

A number of artists have also posted messages to their fans on their site including The Eels who lived in the same LA community of Silver Lake. They wrote “EELS are very saddened to hear of their friend and neighbor Elliott Smith’s death. E and Elliott had talked about doing something musical together but, sadly, never did.”

E added: ‘Elliott was very encouraging to me about my songs and that meant a lot to me. He was a really sweet guy that wasn’t equipped to deal with some of the cards that life dealt him. I’ll always remember walking off stage one night after playing ’It’s A Motherfucker’ and Elliott walking up behind me in the dark and patting me on the back. That’s how I will remember him.”

Moby also posted on his website, writing, “It’s terribly sad. Elliott Smith was an amazing singer & songwriter and it’s terribly sad that he’s no longer here.”

Later, Dreamworks’ executive Lenny Waronker released a statement saying, “Elliott was the ultimate artist. When you heard his music you knew it was special, that there was something magical going on. Where he was going musically was always exciting. He was two or three steps ahead of everyone. Being around his record making process was intimidating at times because his gift and his musical knowledge were so great — as a musician, a singer, a songwriter. Sadly, he was just scratching the surface. We’ll miss his music. And we’ll miss him. He was a very tender and sweet soul.”

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Born in 1969, Smith loved music from an early age. He released five albums, the most critically acclaimed in the mid-90s, titled ’Either/Or’ and ’XO’.

His most mainstream success however came when his song ’Miss Misery’ from the film Good Will Hunting’ was nominated for an Academy Award in 1997.

At the time of his death Smith was working on a new album, which had a working title of ’From A Basement On The Hill’, which was set for completion later this year.

NME.COM has set up a special tribute board for the singer – [url=]click here to leave

a message.

Fans have been posting wondering whether Elliott Smith‘s former backing band Quasi will still be appearing alongside [a][/a] at London Shepherds Bush Empire next week (October 27), as part of the record label Domino’s tenth anniversary celebrations. A spokesperson for the band today said that as far as they were aware their performance will still take place.

See next week’s issue of NME for a full obituary.

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