Elliott Smith was born today

Sad that I only got into Elliott Smith after he died, but I think his songwriting is awesome. He was born today (August 6th) in 1969 in Nebraska but was best known as being from Portland, Oregon. He died in Los Angeles in 2003, apparently stabbing himself with a steak knife at his home in Echo Park following an argument with his girlfriend. He had given up alcohol, caffeine, red meat and refined sugar and his longtime (sometimes abused) regimen of psychological medication after his 34th birthday, on this day in 2003.

You can see some of the beauty in Elliott's cool gentle personal songs in this video of the song Angeles, See Video

and here's a great song, although I guess it turned out to be somewhat ironic.

• Elliott Smith - Say Yes mp3 via rawblog