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Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and lived for much of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity. Smith's primary instrument was the guitar, though he was also proficient with piano, clarinet, bass guitar, drums, and harmonica. Smith had a distinctive vocal style, characterized by his "whispery, spiderweb-thin delivery", and used multi-tracking to create vocal layers, textures, and harmonies. After playing in the rock band Heatmiser for several years, Smith began his solo career in 1994, with releases on the independent record labels Cavity Search and Kill Rock Stars (KRS). In 1997, he signed a contract with DreamWorks Records, for which he recorded two albums. Smith rose to mainstream prominence when his song "Miss Misery"—included in the soundtrack for the film ''Good Will Hunting ''(1997)—was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category in 1998. Smith suffered from depression, alcoholism, and drug dependence, and these topics often appear in his lyrics. In 2003, aged 34, he died in Los Angeles, California from two stab wounds to the chest. The autopsy evidence was inconclusive as to whether the wounds were self-inflicted. At the time of his death, Smith was working on his sixth studio album, ''From a Basement on the Hill'', which was posthumously completed and released in 2004. == Early life == Steven Paul Smith was born at the Clarkson Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, the only child to Gary Smith, a student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Bunny Kay Berryman, an elementary school music teacher. His parents divorced when he was six months old, and Smith moved with his mother to Duncanville, Texas. Smith later had a tattoo of a map of Texas drawn on his upper arm and said: "I didn't get it because I like Texas, kind of the opposite. But I won't forget about it, although I'm tempted to because I don't like it there." Smith endured a difficult childhood and a troubled relationship with his stepfather Charlie Welch. Smith stated he may have been sexually abused by Welch at a young age, an allegation which Welch has denied.〔Gowling, Liam. ("Elliott Smith: 'Mr. Misery' Revisited, 10 Years After the Singer-Songwriter's Controversial Death" ), ''Spin Magazine'', New York, Original Article December 2004. Reprinted on October 2013. Retrieved October 2014.〕 He wrote about this part of his life in "Some Song": "How they beat you up week after week, and when you grow up you're going to be a freak."〔lyricsfreak.com ("Elliott Smith - "Some Song" Lyrics, LyricsFreak © 2014. Retrieved November 2014. )〕 The name "Charlie" also appears in songs "Flowers for Charlie" and "No Confidence Man." In a 2013 interview, Jennifer Chiba, Smith's partner at the time of his death, said that Smith's difficult childhood was partly why he needed to sedate himself with drugs as an adult: "He was remembering traumatic things from his childhood – parts of things. It's not my place to say what." For much of his childhood, Smith's family was a part of the Community of Christ but began attending services at a local Methodist Church. Smith felt that going to church did little for him, except make him "really scared of Hell." In 2001, he said: "I don't necessarily buy into any officially structured version of spirituality. But I have my own version of it." Smith began playing piano at age nine, and at ten began learning guitar on a small acoustic guitar bought for him by his father. At this age he composed an original piano piece, "Fantasy," which won him a prize at an arts festival. Many of the people on his mother's side of the family were non-professional musicians; his grandfather was a Dixieland drummer, and his grandmother sang in a glee club.〔 At fourteen, Smith left his mother's home in Texas and moved to Portland, Oregon to live with his father, then working as a psychiatrist. It was around this time that Smith began using drugs, including alcohol, with friends. It was during this time that he began experimenting with recording for the first time after borrowing a four-track recorder.〔 At high school, Smith played clarinet in the school band and played guitar and piano; he also sang in the bands Stranger Than Fiction〔 and A Murder of Crows, billed as either Steven Smith or "Johnny Panic." He graduated from Lincoln High School as a National Merit Scholar. After graduation, Smith began calling himself "Elliott", saying that he thought "Steve" sounded too much like a "jock" name, and that "Steven" sounded "too bookish".〔 According to friends, he had also used the pseudonym "Elliott Stillwater-Rotter" during his time in the band A Murder of Crows. Biographer S. R. Shutt speculates that the name was either inspired by Elliott Avenue, a street that Smith had lived on in Portland, or that it was suggested by his then-girlfriend. A junior high acquaintance of Smith speculates Smith changed his name so as not to be confused with Steve Smith, the drummer of Journey. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Elliott Smith」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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