Caught in the eye

I bought Elliott Smith's self-titled CD in the previously mentioned indie store I frequented when I was living in CT--the store was possibly best thing I came across my two years there (well, excepting L., of course. All together now: awwww....okay, that's enough of that.) I fell in love with CD right then and there in their little sound booth.

I knew of Elliott Smith, thanks to my source of all indie and bootleg music in college, but this was the album that took me beyond mere acquaintance and into full blown crush-into-fangirl-into-deep seated admiration. It is, to this day, my favorite of all his all too few albums, and the fact that it was released almost to the day on my birthday has always made me think of it as my album.

Of all the songs on the album--and they are all superb--Needle In Hay was the one that just stood out from the rest, not necessarily ahead, but to the side, noticeable by being possibly the most deceivingly unassuming song I'd heard up to (and probably since) then. Here is where I will confess the depths of my obsessive nature when it comes to music I love: I have listened to this song on average at least once a day since I bought it in August 1995. You do the math.

I'll never tire of it.

***

I confess, I never looked for a cover of the song. Oh, I've looked for (and found) and coveted pretty much any live recording of it ever made by Smith himself, and would possibly die just a little bit of happiness if I could ever come across and just hear the original mix (versus what was released on the album). It's why, despite all the knuckle-headedness of recording companies over the uploading of studio versions of songs from their labels and the resulting lack of less and less readily available songs to listen to and share, I still love youtube because of access to live versions of the songs I love that I otherwise would have never seen (or heard). It was on such a search recently--I was looking for a particular version of the song that I'd forgotten to tag as a favorite for easy reference--that I came across the charming cover by Melissa Laveaux (and subsequently became charmed by her). And, as it was with Elliott himself, her live version is actually better than the studio one. A true artist.

Needle In The Hay (Live/cover) - Melissa Laveaux
Here is the link to the official video/version off her album.



Needle In The Hay (Live) - Elliott Smith