Taking Sides: Elliott Smith vs. Nick Drake.

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Battle of the Troubled Troubadours....

http://images.jambase.com/bands/elliotsmith/elliott.jpg http://www.mic.gr/dbimages/1454_1.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 17 June 2005 06:43 (twenty years ago)

based on those pics, elliott definitely had the better hair (tho not by much).

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 17 June 2005 06:46 (twenty years ago)

DRAKE. The greatest voice of all time

― Michael Costello (MichaelCostello1), Friday, 17 June 2005 06:53 (twenty years ago)

Hardly.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 17 June 2005 06:56 (twenty years ago)

Drake.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Friday, 17 June 2005 06:57 (twenty years ago)

Greatest voice of all time? He wasn't even as good as Colin Blunstone.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 17 June 2005 06:59 (twenty years ago)

i fucking hate nick drake.

― latebloomer: We kissy kiss in the rear view (latebloomer), Friday, 17 June 2005 07:00 (twenty years ago)

I don't hate him; I just don't think his is the greatest voice of all time.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 17 June 2005 07:01 (twenty years ago)

drake was an excellent guitar player.

― metal detective (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 June 2005 07:02 (twenty years ago)

x-x-post

well i cant truly say i hate him, its just he IRKS me horribly for some reason.

― latebloomer: We kissy kiss in the rear view (latebloomer), Friday, 17 June 2005 07:02 (twenty years ago)

I'll give you the Colin Blundstone. But he had the best Male Folk Voice

― Michael Costello (MichaelCostello1), Friday, 17 June 2005 07:07 (twenty years ago)

I'll go with Elliott, because he tapped a wider range of emotions and sounds. Course, he had a bit longer to do that, but I reckon two thirds of Figure 8 is better than Nick's work.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Friday, 17 June 2005 08:03 (twenty years ago)

That "XOYO" or whatever it's called is a fiver in Fopp. Should I?

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 17 June 2005 08:06 (twenty years ago)

XO? Hell yes. The best of his more "produced," post-Kill Rock Stars albums, and has "Waltz no. 2 (XO)," form my money the best song of his entire career.

― Telephonething, Friday, 17 June 2005 08:37 (twenty years ago)

Thanks. Will do, then.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 17 June 2005 08:40 (twenty years ago)

It's not as good as "XOYO" by the Passage, though.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 17 June 2005 08:56 (twenty years ago)

Dick Witts!

He was the head at South hill arts centre for a while. Tried to close down the comedy club I believe, well according to Mark Lamarr, the resident compere at the time.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 17 June 2005 09:01 (twenty years ago)

dick witts is such a great name. i use it more than fuck witts.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 17 June 2005 09:33 (twenty years ago)

i suppose even elliott smith would have admitted that his music couldn't touch nick's. come on. i never saw nick drake live but the one time i saw smith, it was pretty sad.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:15 (twenty years ago)

I've heard Nick's gigs were pretty shit too. What's that got to do with anythink?

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:24 (twenty years ago)

Ah yes, Nick's gigs, all one of them.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:32 (twenty years ago)

(I was going to put gig singular but I couldn't remember if he'd managed a couple more than that.)

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:33 (twenty years ago)

Nooh, he did a few. Apparently, he supported Genesis. "You guys are crazy" was his comment to Phil.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:35 (twenty years ago)

If he'd lived long enough to join Genesis when Peter Gabriel left, that would have been one crazy band.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:37 (twenty years ago)

One crazy series of auditions, anyway. Nick Drake, Nick Lowe...

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:39 (twenty years ago)

And arguably Phil would be a session drummer by now. Oh Nick, why did ye leave us????

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:40 (twenty years ago)

drake, by a wide margin. he may have been maudlin, but at least he didn't change his name from "steve" to "elliott." i don't even know what to say about that. i know it's an unpopular viewpoint, but ES never did it for me at all. too self-indulgent.

― junior, Friday, 17 June 2005 13:35 (twenty years ago)

Well thanks a bunch. I just bought XO.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 17 June 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

Drake, on all counts...although I do enjoy Elliot.

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Friday, 17 June 2005 13:43 (twenty years ago)

"Dick Witts!

He was the head at South hill arts centre for a while. Tried to close down the comedy club I believe, well according to Mark Lamarr, the resident compere at the time."

Are you talking about South Hill Park in Bracknell, Mark?

I wonder if Mr. Witts was the guy that Marc "Swordfish"* of The Magic Mushroom Band and Astralasia had so much trouble with when he was trying to manage the recording studio there?

(* - can't sem to remember his real surname: which is bloody irritating and bloody stupid, because he engineered / produced just about every demo by just about every band I've ever been in!)

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 17 June 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

Yes indeed. I bumped into M.Lamarr at a petrol station in Ealing, and asked about the supposed closure. He mentioned that they hadn't closed it and all was well. (I do remember being informed that dick's middle name was 'fuck' back then)

DO you remember that long-faded request pinned up on the wall regarding Fiction records' request for demos? (the non-fiction label. That worked. Not)

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

I met someone who saw Drake supporting someone or other (Free or some other hairy band). 'What was he like?' I ask. 'He was alright I suppose, didn't say much'. I guess that's how legends are built.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

My dad was at a recording session for John Martyn's "London Conversation" album, where Nick and some other friends of friends of my dad were. I asked him if he remembered "a tall lad, didn't say much". He said no.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:04 (twenty years ago)

"DO you remember that long-faded request pinned up on the wall regarding Fiction records' request for demos?"

Since I spent most of the time during most of our recording sessions cramped into that tiny control room with Marc, while the rest of the band fannied about with their instruments and stuff, I actually remember very little.... except that Marc was always the perfect host....

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:05 (twenty years ago)

B-b-but aren't they both twee...and dead, too?

Pink Moon= my alltime top ten
Either/Or= my alltime top fifty

― MV, Friday, 17 June 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

It's difficult to separate the melodrama of Elliott Smith, The Very Exremely Troubled Man from his music...having known people whose depressive tendencies rivaled ES's, I can't say that I find it appealing in the slightest. Therefore, Nick wins.

― The Landlord's Daughter (The Landlord's Daughter), Friday, 17 June 2005 14:51 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, `cos Nick was such happy-go-lucky party boy, wasn't he.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:09 (twenty years ago)

**I wonder if Mr. Witts was the guy that Marc "Swordfish"* of The Magic Mushroom Band and Astralasia had so much trouble with when he was trying to manage the recording studio there?**

Ha! I recorded there with Marc. I don't know his surname either. He always had some technical problem or other when we went there, and he had the really irritating habit making you listen to other people's demos. We did get a really good session done in 1994 with the band I was in then. I remember our singer being sent across the field to get some food and booze from Tescos and coming back with news that 'that lead singer from Nirvana has gone and topped himself'. Happy days.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

"But he had the best Male Folk Voice"

Uh no. I'll take Ian Matthews any day of the week.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:13 (twenty years ago)

I recorded a track for the 'Too Loud To Scream' Reading compilation at SHP. I think it was pre-Marc though. Do you have that lovely artifact - Mark & Stew? Danny (can't remember his surname) put it together.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

I'm just glad someone finally spelled "Elliott" correctly.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

xpost yes I do. I nearly joined one of the bands on that album, and got given that album as a 'primer' to the band. Decided against.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:24 (twenty years ago)

xpost Oh which one mark? I was in A Nation Mourns. We're on side 2 IIRC. I still think our track sounds great.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 17 June 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

I have to say, I love them both -- but a little Nick Drake goes a looooong way (for me, anyway). Elliott's music generally has a bit more color to offer. This is not to say that everything Drake did was maudlin and dour and ripe for rainy day listening with a big box of Kleenex at your side, but there are moments of genuine joy in Elliott's catalog that Drake would never have approached.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 17 June 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

Drake was a really unique guitar player. I remember when I was much younger, I had only heard Pink Moon at the time and one of his songs from another album came on in a store. I think it was 'Day is Done'. He hadn't started singing yet but my immediate reaction was "Hey, Nick Drake." I'm still really impressed that he's identifiable solely by his guitar-playing, especially for someone like me, who's completely useless with instruments.

That said, I prefer Elliott Smith. Wider emotional range - there's always a couple of bright, happy songs on each album, and genuine moments of humour. Smith was an unhappy guy, sure, but I always felt he tried quite hard to fight it whereas Drake's music just seems sad all the time.

Also, Basement on the Hill = under-rated.

― Roz (Roz), Friday, 17 June 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)

I love Nick Drake, but Elliott Smith... well... uh... changed my life. Not in that corny "I totally identify with his pain and lonliness" kind of way, but because he was the first non-hardcore/metal artist I really fell for in my high school years.

Granted, I don't listen to much Elliott Smith these days, his music still resonates for me. Total nostalgia. Sitting up in my room totally drunk just home from a party, trying to wrap my head around how this guy could write such crushing shit and turn it into some of the best tunes I've ever heard. He could do minimal, he could do maximal. I mean, his talent and lyricism still knock me on my ass now and then and though I don't love some of his stuff like I used to, his self titled album remains one of my favorites ever.

― - (smile), Friday, 17 June 2005 18:17 (twenty years ago)

Either/Or and XO were both very big albums for me. Not just for emotional resonance, et al, but because they were chock full of catchy pop goodness. Plus I was in Finland in the beginning of winter when I got into Either/Or, so it warmed my belly like a shot of good vodka.

― p.j. (Henry), Friday, 17 June 2005 18:28 (twenty years ago)

this is why the ILM is a good thing. i could never have imagined that anyone would've said Elliott Smith was better than Nick Drake, not even his mum. but now i know better the joy of the variety of human experience.

― Lee F# (fsharp), Saturday, 18 June 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

rockaction to the thread!

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Saturday, 18 June 2005 21:00 (twenty years ago)

Nick Drake. No contest.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 19 June 2005 02:30 (twenty years ago)

xpost Oh which one mark? I was in A Nation Mourns. We're on side 2 IIRC. I still think our track sounds great.
-- Dr. C (petethane...) (webmail), June 17th, 2005 4:39 PM. (link)

Late response:

You know, I couldn't tell you, apart from not yours, and not the Complaints.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 20 June 2005 08:08 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

this guy chooses both:
http://www.millertheatre.com/Events/EventDetails.aspx?nid=1241
http://www.millertheatre.com/Events/EventDetails.aspx?nid=1242

he's also appearing 4/29/09 at the Cerritos PAC in a solo recital of works TBA

― gabbneb, Saturday, 26 July 2008 15:57 (seventeen years ago)

elliot smith sucks. cept about 5 songs are good but same can be said about bright eyes.

― CaptainLorax, Saturday, 26 July 2008 20:02 (seventeen years ago)

Nice to see some of the world's top intellectuals deconstructing the tired old trope of the drugged-up sub-folky here.

― Party Sausage, Sunday, 27 July 2008 01:16 (seventeen years ago)

sometimes being a good guitar player isn't enough

― CaptainLorax, Sunday, 27 July 2008 22:17 (seventeen years ago)

But talking way off the topic about/from the Reading Contingent is always classic

― Mark G, Monday, 28 July 2008 20:49 (seventeen years ago)

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