My favorite Elliott Smith song is up today for some Top 5 digging in. I love so many of Elliott’s songs, but this one has always held a special place in my heart. “Say Yes” is uncharacteristically hopeful, for Elliott, even if there are some shadows in the song, too.
What is your favorite Elliott Smth song? Did you ever get to see Elliott Smith play live?
“I’m in love with the world,
through the eyes of a girl,
who’s still around the morning after.”
“Say Yes” by Elliott Smith
from the album, Either/Or (1997)
My Top 5 – March 14, 2011
1. Elliott Smith is one of my all-time favorite singers ever.
2. I have always felt such a deep connection to Elliott’s songs. This one is definately a favorite of mine. At first it seems like a simple love song, but there is more too it than that. It is lighter that his usual songs, though even within the happy feelings there are tinges of sadness and regret, held together in a fragile wrapping of wistfulness and hope. It is beautiful to me, this song. It feels real, the way love and relationships actually are, and what we want to find within them.
3. Elliott was asked about this song. He stated that it is about “someone particular and I almost never do that. I was really in love with someone.”
4. This song reminds me of my own relationship, in all its happiness and hope, and the bumps and rough patches due in part to the damages and baggage we bring along with us. It doesn’t make it any less beautiful though, the relationship or this song – just more real.
5. I wish I’d had the chance to see him play. I wish I could have baked you cupcakes and told him how much his music has meant to me, that there were nights his songs kept me going, kept me breathing, and made me feel less alone. More than anything, I wish he was still among us, making music, and finding his own bliss.
