Arlo Parks on Elliott Smith
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Singer-songwriter Arlo Parks has been nominated for three Brit Awards at just 20 years old. Her inspiration for her debut studio album is drawn from American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith.
Matthew Parris and Arlo Parks are joined by Elliott’s friend and former manager of his band Heatmiser, JJ Gonson. They also hear from writer and college professor William Todd Schultz, author of the biography ‘Torment Saint: The Life Of Elliott Smith’.
Together they explore Elliott’s life and musical achievements; from his unsettled childhood to performing at the 1998 Oscar awards ceremony. Although nominated for Best Original Song in the Hollywood film Good Will Hunting and deemed a cult icon in the Indie music scene after releasing an impressive six solo albums, Elliott rose to fame with reluctance and eventually committed suicide at just 34 years old.
Arlo contemplates the direction Elliott’s music might have taken were he still alive today, and how his work has influenced and inspired her own.
Produced in Bristol by Caitlin Hobbs.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself. |
| 0:03.7 | My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a Load of Sport Podcasts. |
| 0:08.4 | I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with a leading journalist, experienced |
| 0:12.2 | pundits and the biggest sport stars. |
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| 0:28.8 | dedicated sports fans across the UK. |
| 0:31.2 | So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more. |
| 0:40.5 | Picture the scene. |
| 0:41.9 | The Oscar Academy Awards in 1998, a man walks out onto the stage in a white Prada suit, acoustic |
| 0:50.1 | guitar in hand and starts to sing. He looks so tense. |
| 0:59.0 | Oh, it's good to do some help from Johnny Walker. |
| 1:07.0 | Elliott Smith was a gifted, troubled songwriter who died age just 34. |
| 1:13.2 | In his short life, he released five albums and still inspires singers today. |
| 1:18.2 | So who was the loansome looking man on stage that night? |
| 1:22.5 | Nominating him is the singer-songwriter and poet, Arlo Parks, nominated for three |
| 1:28.8 | Brit Awards when she was only 20 years old. Arlo, why Elliott Smith? |
| 1:34.2 | He has been this force in my life, this musical force and I've always felt this very specific, |
| 1:43.4 | pure sense of melancholy coming from his songs and the very kind of DIY recordings and the fact |
| 1:50.9 | that his voice always seems so close to my air and so close to breaking, there's something |
... |
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