“It’s not really folk, but it’s sort of like… that.”

October 13, 2023 2:15 PM

Elliott Smith playing "Clementine" for a mostly human crowd. Or as Stereogum put it, Watch An Unearthed Elliott Smith Appearance On A Goofy 1995 Morning Show Co-Hosted By A Puppet.
posted by betweenthebars (20 comments total)

Best of internet, not sarcastically.

Meanwhile, my heart still hurts for Elliot Smith.
posted by mcstayinskool at 2:26 PM on October 13, 2023 [10 favorites]

Wow.
posted by whatevernot at 2:30 PM on October 13, 2023

Elliott Smith and Tom Bergeron are not two people I'd have ever expected to see together.
posted by downtohisturtles at 2:33 PM on October 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

I feel like people younger than I am have an idea of what they 90s were like that increasingly has little to do with my actual lived experience of being a teenager/twenty-somerhing in the 90s.

This clip in all of its awkward, heartbreaking, briefly, inexplicably lovely “how did all of these people end up here together?” energy is exactly it for me.
posted by thivaia at 2:35 PM on October 13, 2023 [9 favorites]

If we’re posting early goofy Elliot Smith videos: the 1994 DEVO tribute performance has to be included. (Context)
posted by zamboni at 2:37 PM on October 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

Also, this is one of my favorite Elliott Smith songs
posted by thivaia at 2:37 PM on October 13, 2023

It’s remarkable how the vibe of everyone on-set changes when Elliott Smith starts playing the song, they all seem like people who’ve all fled their god’s command to seek truth and beauty, and then that song rises from the deep and swallows them all, even the puppet.
posted by Kattullus at 2:38 PM on October 13, 2023 [17 favorites]

God I miss him.
posted by chococat at 2:42 PM on October 13, 2023

I can only wish I'd have known about Smith in 1995. As it was, I "discovered" him by accident well into the 2000s. I started at the end with the posthumous From a Basement on the Hill. Beautiful and haunting.
posted by hydra77 at 5:00 PM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Such an amazing genius, and so sad he is gone. His songs will live forever, not on popularity, but just sheer quality. Bumping into him at some random late 90s Portland house party may be the apex of my PDX indie cred.
posted by snofoam at 5:23 PM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Username fits! Also, I can hardly bring myself to watch this, I already feel protective of poor Elliott in this weird PR mismatch.

And that must be Ross' ex-wife's wife from Friends.
posted by 41swans at 6:11 PM on October 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

Okay, everyone's rapt face almost makes up for that absurd interview, although that inane puppet head bobbing the WHOLE TIME right behind him while he's performing made me irrationally annoyed.
posted by 41swans at 6:43 PM on October 13, 2023

I watched this clip a few weeks ago and was really struck by the cheerful uncoolness of it all- something that doesn't really seem to exist any more in the age of irony and post irony and post-post irony. Elliott goes to play a song on a dorky morning show and they are visibly moved in a real way and it's slightly uncomfortable but also quite nice. Everyone today would be worried about how it looked on IG and what people ripped it to shreds on Twitter, etcetera.

I've been thinking a lot about him this month- October 23rd will be the 20th anniversary of his death. As many things from that time for me, it feels like a very long time ago and also not that long ago at all.
posted by oneirodynia at 7:02 PM on October 13, 2023 [6 favorites]

I miss Elliott's music. He's one of my top played artists of all time. I ran into him on a sidewalk in Portland, and he was gracious enough to actually have a short chat with this random, star-struck stranger.

The anniversary of his death is October 21 -- it sticks in my mind because it was not on my birthday two days later.
posted by fncll at 7:27 AM on October 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

Also, I can hardly bring myself to watch this, I already feel protective of poor Elliott in this weird PR mismatch.

These weird PR mismatches were endemic for any remotely "alternative" music in the 1980s and 1990s.

Wire meets Suzanne Somers
The Flaming Lips at 90210's Peach Pit After Dark
Husker Du: Live on Late Show with Joan Rivers
The Smiths on Charlie's Bus kids show
The B-52's play Throw That Beat In The Garbage Can on the soap Guiding Light
Aimee Mann on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I love this intro from 1992: "From Los Angeles, live on tape, it's the Dennis Miller Show. Tonight, Senator Al Gore, The Pixies, Donna Dixon, Andy Summers... and the Soporifics" Because we all just know you're supposed to slot the Pixies between Senator Al Gore and Donna Dixon... I mean, duh...
posted by jonp72 at 10:44 AM on October 14, 2023 [5 favorites]

And that must be Ross' ex-wife's wife from Friends.

I recognized her too! Actress Jessica Hecht is better known now for playing Gretchen Schwartz on Breaking Bad, but back then she would have been better known for playing Susan, the wife of Ross's lesbian ex-wife Carol, on Friends.
posted by jonp72 at 10:46 AM on October 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

I tried twice to watch this but the first part was too uncomfortable because it's TV hosts TV hosting, and the second part was too uncomfortable because it's Elliott Smith. I was a fan, saw him perform a few times, but I can't bring myself to listen to his music any more; it's still too emotional and sad.
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:21 AM on October 14, 2023

The anniversary of his death is October 21 -- it sticks in my mind because it was not on my birthday two days later.

Yes you're right- not sure why I typed the 23rd.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:06 PM on October 14, 2023

My thoughts immediately turned to this classic
posted by BWA at 5:54 AM on October 16, 2023

Evan Dando being a good sport during an awkward interview and then playing a beautiful "It's a Shame About Ray" on Regis & Kathie Lee is another classic in the "weird 90s" category.
posted by AgentRocket at 10:29 AM on October 16, 2023 [2 favorites]