Students react to Smith's suicide

The suicide of singer-songwriter Elliot Smith last month has left his largely college based cult following with an intense sense of loss. Although individual opinions are varied, his compelling and disturbing lyrics are what seem to have most affected his listeners.

Rachel Olanoff, a freshman affirmed that "Elliot Smith's death, while not completely surprising, was devastating to a bunch of us. Many of the white boards on my floor had some kind of dedication to him ... although he wasn't popular on the mainstream level so to those who knew his music he was truly a legend."

Smith may be next on the list for a misunderstood artist docudrama - the young artist battled with Hollywood's overwhelming atmosphere and society's inadequacies as a whole. Smith, who was 34 when he ended his life, channeled these grievances concerning love, life, and addiction into his music, simultaneously capturing his infatuation with the beauty of the world with a degree of utter splendor.

"There's just something about his music that makes you feel sad and so happy to be alive at the same time," according to freshman Sarah Ballou. Her favorite Smith tune is "Say Yes," one of the many featured in Gus Van Sant's 1997 film Good Will Hunting. "I love ["Say Yes"] because it's about personal growth and how it can make your relationship with someone else even stronger," Ballou said.

Other Smith fans like Junior Ben Hagopian found his addictions and self-loathing disturbing. "I think the most tragic part about the whole situation is how destructive Elliot Smith was. You can only take his music in doses, because he had a beef with almost every part of America including himself." For example, the line "the people you've been before that you don't want around anymore," from the song "Between the Bars" most likely alludes to his own volatile emotional state, according to Hagopian.

Freshman Becky Hayes said "he'll be remembered as one of the great, underrated songwriters of our generation."

His mellow acoustic guitar riffs and reflective lyrics evoke a positive response in some. In an attempt to heal his listening audience, but more importantly himself, his lyrics resonated with many.

"It was amazing how such beautiful melodies combined with sharp perceptive lyrics could flow from someone, who as a person, seemed timid and unimpressively hermitlike. In a way his death was eerily poetic," Olanoff said. "Not to romanticize it but there is just something so tragically beautiful about stabbing yourself in the chest.

Mirroring Kurt Cobain (a grunge-rocker who committed suicide in the early 90s) in both life and death, Smith's emphasis on anti-image paradoxically became his image. Smith suffered from a Cobain-esque desire for nonconformity, and strived to rebel against the demands that pop-culture placed on the artist.

During 1998's Academy Awards ceremony, Smith performed his Oscar nominated song, "Miss Misery," wearing an old t-shirt as a sign of his personal rebellion against the superficial fashion standards of the event. His frustration with stardom was so great, it was almost as if he was drawn to failure and struggle, making comments like, "Hell is like really posh restaurants full of winners. I hate winners."

Smith's torment was directly manifested into his lyrics, such as "drink up, baby, stay up all night/the things you could do, you won't but you might/the potential you'll be, that you'll never see."