Elliott Smith Either Or Songs

[Bartolome Beacham]

DirectorGus Van Sant was highly impressed with the album, incorporating three of its songs; "Between the Bars", "Angeles" and "Say Yes" along with a new song, "Miss Misery", into the Good Will Hunting soundtrack. "Miss Misery" was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1998 Academy Awards, and was performed at the televised ceremony in an abridged version by Smith, backed by the house orchestra, briefly propelling him into the international spotlight. In 2020, the album was ranked at 216 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Smith wrote and recorded a song entitled "Either/Or" during the sessions for this album, but it was not included on the final release; however, the song was later included on New Moon, a posthumous compilation of previously unreleased material by Smith.

The album's title derives from the Sren Kierkegaard book of the same name, in which "either/or" refers to the contrast between aesthetic/subjective experience and ethical/objective being. This existential title is reflective of Smith's interest in philosophy, which he studied at Hampshire College in Massachusetts.[8]The lyrics contain many references to Portland such as the neighborhood of Alameda, Division Street and the Portland Rose Festival.

Smith would briefly be cast into the international spotlight early the following year when he performed his song, the 1997 standalone single "Miss Misery", at the 1998 Academy Awards ceremony, following the song's appearance in the major motion picture Good Will Hunting and its subsequent Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. Following this appearance, Smith was signed to major label DreamWorks and started work on his fourth studio album, XO.

In its retrospective review, Tiny Mix Tapes opined: "Simply put, the songs on Either/Or are Elliott Smith's best".[9] Trouser Press called it "even more fully realized" than Elliott Smith.[31]

The album inspired Gus Van Sant to invite Smith to contribute to the soundtrack of the film Good Will Hunting. Three Either/Or tracks were incorporated into the soundtrack, as well as a new song, "Miss Misery." Smith was briefly pushed to the forefront of popular culture after performing "Miss Misery" from Good Will Hunting at the 1998 Academy Awards ceremony. Van Sant later also used "Angeles" in his 2007 film Paranoid Park. The song was again featured in the 2020 series Normal People.

this might be my favorite of his unreleased songs. He really really should have left this one on either/or, it clearly deserved to be on there.brave or bored, champion or chore, posing as harcore, up against and for - either or.Exactly. The choices in life, the polar opposites, one or the other.. whatever. I love his wordplay in this song. He really made it sound good rather than focus on a story with a message inside it. There is a message, but its a different song for him.Filling in these blanks that you createEvery time you win some petty scorePosing as hardcore, oh yeah, either/or-i have felt this many times with peopleEither/Or - taken from a great book by Kierkegaard... oh existentialism, how i love you.

I am fairly certain that this song was highly inspired by Kierkegaard's Either/Or. Like myself, Elliott was a philosophy student and was most likely a fan of Kierkegaard's work since he even mentions that the album Either/Or was named after the book by Kierkegaard.

The book is basically a comparison between the aesthetic and ethical lifestyles. The aesthete, named A, writes about boredom and always searching for something new to occupy time with. The ethical character, Judge Vilhelm, writes letters to A in hopes of showing him how the ethical lifestyle is better.

i agree, this is probably one of my favorite unreleased songs but as much as i love it, i honestly couldn't see it fitting in with the either/or cd. I can understand why he didn't release it although i think it is quite sad that more people won't have the pleasure of hearing this song...but maybe thats good in my jealous mind-set sort of way. heh.

have you ever written something, a poem or a song or whatever, and just ripped it out and threw it away later? I have.something about "one day you'll know what you're talking about" just really reminds me of poetry, that you write and then you think it makes no sense but it does.

the melody always reminded me of school house rock haha. I can't fathom why, but I just think of that.'You're strong, you're stubborn nowIn an endless symbolic warBrave or bored, either/or'I love that part.

Goodbye gentle soul. Goodnight. How sorry I am to see you go. But you were maybe too beautiful for this world. So beautiful that it hurt to be in it. I hope that you are not hurting anymore. I hope everything is good wherever you are. I hope that you are happy. Everything reminds me of you.

this has really touched me deeply as a huge elliott smith fan. we all felt like he were close to us, even when most have never met him. his work encouraged me to be the artist that i am today. i know personally how hard it is to find cool elliott smith merch so i started up a page with a wide variety of merchandise

that features my work inspired by the elliott smith memorial wall, and his album either/or. i would greatly appreciate your contribution to my own work.

The album's title derives from the Sren Kierkegaard book of the same name, in which "either/or" refers to the contrast between aesthetic/subjective experience and ethical/objective being. This existential title is reflective of Smith's interest in philosophy, which he studied at Hampshire College in Massachusetts.

Director Gus Van Sant was highly impressed with the album, incorporating three of its songs; Between the Bars, Angeles, and Say Yes along with a new song, Miss Misery, into the Good Will Hunting soundtrack. Miss Misery was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1998 Academy Awards and was performed at the televised ceremony in an abridged version by Smith, backed by the house orchestra, briefly propelling him into the international spotlight. Online magazine Pitchfork ranked Either/Or 59th in its list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1990s. Spin ranked Either/Or at number 48 on its list of the best albums from 1987 to 2012. Blender ranked it thirty-sixth in its "100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums Ever" list. In 2013, NME placed "Either/Or" at number 149 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Consequence of Sound ranked the album No. 97 on their list of best albums ever. Rolling Stone ranked the album at 216 on the 2020 re-release of their 'The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time' list.

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