All these years, I just assumed that the Elliott Smith school of songcraft was directly influenced, if not exclusively informed by, the tunesmithing of John Ono Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Jason Pementer has an interesting idea on this subject:
Just a working hypothesis, but I’m beginning to think that everything Elliott Smith learned can be traced back to Long, Long, Long from The White Album.
A cursory listen to George Harrison compositions, such as the above ‘Long, Long, Long’ and ‘I, Me, Mine’ from Let It Be, provides the necessary supporting evidence.
On a related Elliott Smith tip, check out ‘Junk Bond Trader’ from 2000′s Figure 8, featuring a cameo from the Attractions’ Pete Thomas behind the drumkit. Super solid work from Messers. Thomas and Smith.
George Lucas’ work is culturally pervasive and here in Germany this is certainly no exception. The other day, I was teaching a music class of first year students and did a quick survey as to their favorite music. I was expecting pop hits, both German and otherwise or childrens jams such as ‘Head Shoulders…’ or ‘Frere Jacques’ but was amazed at the responses I received. Certainly by no means a scientific poll, my impromptu query resulted in a shocking amount of youth crushing on John Williams’ theme from Star Wars are their identifiable favorite ‘song.’ In fact, the only delineation of the class favorite was not among boys vs. girls, but rather, the upstart ‘Imperial March’ and the theme itself.