“Son of Sam (acoustic)”
written and performed by Elliott Smith
1999 // Produced by Elliott Smith, Rob Schnapf & Tom Rothrock
KEVIN MOYER: We use the alternate version here rather than the released version. Although the release sleeve on the single doesn’t specify this as the acoustic version, it is much different from the Figure 8 release and this version appears as a B-side on that album’s first single “Happiness”. Elliott really only pick strums on this acoustic version, whereas he had an electric riff on the Figure 8 version. “Something’s happening, don’t speak too soon I told the boss off and made my move…” is a really good lyric for this part of the film too, I think. And this is a great moment where we hear about how Elliott could be so connected, even in fleeting moments. Spending time with him would often feel so intense and personal, and if you could get him to open up to you it felt like you were going to be best friends forever, and then the next day it would be like it never happened.
MARC SWANSON: I think some of that was the drinking too. But there were evenings that we would be out until the early morning hours talking about incredibly deep and personal things, and then the next morning we would wake up and go get a bagel like it was just another day. And with fans, he felt that anyone who would spend the time to come see him play or listen to his music deserved respect, and he would be sad or bummed if someone approached him and for some reason left and walked away from the encounter disappointed. So he was always putting himself out there in a big way to his fans, often complete strangers, and he was always really kind to people anyways, we would go out and he would always talk to them for a long time. His friends wouldn’t have had seen him for a long time, but he would be at the bar talking with some fans he just met for an hour!
KEVIN MOYER: And strangers feel like they know him because his music becomes so personal to them. His music the way it is delivered can feel so confessional, sometimes sung in whispers or hushed tones, and the lyrics seem like they could be just torn from someone’s diary, and they are delivered like he is telling you a secret. And to share those moments with an artist, even just by listening to their music in times of need, I think it’s easy for the listener to feel like his songs are speaking to you, or for you, and that can make the connection between artist and audience so much more powerful.
MARC SWANSON: And there was this really funny thing that I noticed too. Some people just felt the need to touch him. Like, when he wouldn’t notice, they would reach out and touch him. They would touch his arm or something, like meeting him wasn’t real unless they touched him.
“Independence Day (live)”
written and performed by Elliott Smith
2000 // Recorded by Paul Thomas Anderson
KEVIN MOYER: This is Elliott performing live on the Jon Brion Show pilot. An early edit of the film had a couple songs here, but we only showed him singing a line from each of the few to make the same point. To me this is one of the saddest parts. His performance here wasn’t one of his best as he was in a bad state health and mind wise, and had also just flown back into town just before showing up after, I believe it was, his grandmother passing away. So for a variety of reasons, both physical and mental, he just was not all there and the performance suffered. To me, watching him sinking on that stool makes me want to hug him and try to pull him up straight but he would have just slipped away. Others tried at this time too and for me this part of the movie signifies the breakup of a very special relationship between Elliott and Jon Brion and Flanny because of his drug use. The title “Independence Day” takes on more meaning there because of it too.
“Saudade”
2013-2014 // SCORE // written and performed and produced by Kevin Moyer
KEVIN MOYER: I did this score piece with an ebow on an electric and an acoustic. This one I actually had in mind for this part of the story when I recorded it, but never said that to Nickolas and he used it that way without knowing. In this scene he is gone, but not yet gone for many.
NICKOLAS ROSSI: When I first heard this score, it felt like a lingering, gnawing stomach ache, buzzing, swirling, and uncomfortable.
KEVIN MOYER: The word Saudade doesn’t have any direct translation to English and is used to explain the feeling of missing something or someone and a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia for something or someone. Often for something that might never happen again or for someone who might never return. It’s the recollection of feelings, experiences, or memories that once brought happiness, and now triggers the senses and makes one live again. It brings sad and happy feelings all together, sadness for missing and happiness for having experienced the feeling. It can be an emptiness, for something that should be there in a moment but is missing, and the absence is felt. So I named it that because it is exactly what I was feeling when I recorded it and how I feel when I think of Elliott too, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that feeling either. Further, I am really glad that we used score music here because it’s a sensitive part of the story, with Dorien recalling getting that phone call from him and how he wasn’t doing too well, and the darkness that Elliott was descending into.
I don’t think it would have been fair to use one of Elliott’s own songs here, I would have hated to have added some unintended weight to something he wrote that he never intended for. Elliott has lots of songs with drug references, most from before he ever used drugs, and most also just metaphors for other things instead… so to take something that had a surface seeming drug reference and use it here, to give an already existing composition a color that he never intended, I didn’t think we should do that. So I’m glad that we used a piece of score music here instead of one of his own compositions.
“LA LA LIE (Brompton Cocktail)”
2013-2014 // SCORE // written and performed and produced by Kevin Moyer
KEVIN MOYER: This is another piece of score that was blended into the tail end of the previous, and it samples vocal audio taken from a voicemail that Elliott left on an answering machine cassette tape. At one point he had gotten a loop box and was experimenting with it and he was leaving this on the answering machine of friends. So I made this taking a portion from that, with the idea of showing what it might sound like in Elliott’s head if there were a bunch of voices and distortion of thought. There were already loops of Elliott’s voice singing La La La – i thought it was a good metaphor for Los Angeles being La La Land, and I looped it over itself even more than it already was and added that outside influence of effect and it started to begin to sound like the La’s were beginning to sound like he was saying “Lie Lie Lie”. Again, lots of parallels with the sunny atmosphere turning to darkness, and the rumors that were down there at the time alongside some of what was also really going on too. Just confusion. And at the same time it is almost a sound of childlike naivety and experimentation in the melody which also makes sense with what I was trying to communicate too, playfully repeating until it turns really dark and then just suddenly drops off. This was one of the few score pieces that I made with full idea of where it should be used in the film. I mean what else could that be used for really? It’s such a small part but it packs a load of weight alongside the schizophrenic footage.
NICKOLAS ROSSI: So haunting, almost like Elliott is mocking himself.
