Music of the Moment: “Sweet Adeline” - Elliott Smith
Let’s get this out of the way first: No, Mark, I’m not invoking Elliott Smith just to piss you off.
I don’t know why I queued Elliott up other than I re-ripped a few of my favorite albums in Lossless format for my listening pleasure, XO being one of those albums.
There’s a line in the album’s first song, “Sweet Adeline,” about Old Man Winter being in the air. That’s appropriate because today, if you squint, you can see microscopic snowflakes falling on Huntsville today. TheWifeToWhomI’mMarried says people are already driving like jerks. 11 says there’s a great episode of King of the Hill that deals with snow in the Deep South. I need to see that.
It’s also interesting to me the way you can listen to a song billions of times and the lyrics seemingly fly right by you. I’ve sung “waiting for sedation to disconnect my head” countless times with Elliott, but never put the words together and allowed the phrase to mean anything to me. I don’t know if I ever would have formed that phrase on my own, but I’ve experienced a conglomeration of feelings that would lead me to think it.
To me, that’s one of Smith’s greatest gifts. Many of his best songs have fantastic word play, but a lot of it can float right past you because they’re coated in beautifully-crafted melodies. “Sweet Adeline” opens with just Elliott’s voice and a simple acoustic guitar. Before the song ends, you have syncopated rhythms and crashing into pianos, Smith’s layered vocals blooming in the middle of it all.
It’s one of his best songs on his best album.
Filed under: Tags: Elliott Smith, Music of the Moment
you’re not gonna piss me off because of Smith. heck i even occasionally list to that live recording that i sent to you.