His next stops were Portland, Oregon, where he lived with his father-a preacher turned Air Force pilot turned psychiatrist-and Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He left as a teenager, a decision he attributed to a town full of bullies and an abusive step-father.

He described his earliest compositions as more like transitions than actual songs as he reflected to Under the Radar in one of his last interviews, he didn’t understand why every part couldn’t be the best part.įrom Omaha, Smith and his mother moved to Dallas. When he started writing his own music, he followed this blueprint, accidentally stumbling upon the avant-garde. His favorite song was the multi-part “ A Day in the Life,” which he might have heard like a television constantly changing channels, each one landing on the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Smith’s first love was the Beatles, a band whose career lasted less than 10 years, so their every move carried immense weight and meaning for those discovering it in retrospect. He soon learned to seek the same thrill in music.

Elliott smith either or lyrics