Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Christian Brothers (1995)
Elliott Smith was a complicated and troubled guy. He was also extremely talented. Smith became known to the mainstream thanks to his songs on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack, but he had been knocking around for several years before that.
In 1987, Smith formed a band, Swimming Jesus with Neil Gust while they were students at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. After they graduated in 1991, Smith and Gust moved to Portland, Oregon, where Smith grew up, and formed Heatmiser with Smith's high school friend Tony Lash. Later, Sam Coomes joined the group on bass. The sound was loud indie rock, but they only made three albums before splitting up.
Smith had been working on quieter solo material and after he lost his job, he spent more time working on his solo songs. He released his first album, Roman Candle, in 1994. It didn't get much attention, but it definitely stood out in the grunge era as a solo acoustic album.
He released a self-titled follow-up in 1995 on Kill Rock Stars, a dark, minimalist effort. "Needle in the Hay" was the first single and got a fair amount of attention, being covered by several artists and used in the movie The Royal Tenenbaums. It's a haunting album, but "Christian Brothers" has always been the standout track for me.
The general interpretation of the song is it details the use of Christian Brothers, a brand of whiskey, to dull the pain from Smith's childhood, in which he was allegedly abused by his stepfather.
"No bad dream fucker's gonna boss me around/Christian Brothers gonna take him down/But it can't help me get over/Don't be cross, this sick I want/I've seen the boss blink on and off/Fake concerns is what's the matter, man/And you think I ought to shake your motherfucking hand."
Smith's addiction issues were well-known, so the song may be explaining why he felt the need to self-medicate.
"Well, I know how much you care/Don't be cross, this sick I want/I've seen the boss blink on and off/Come here by me I want you here/Nightmares become me it's so fucking clear."
Heatmiser also recorded a full-band version of the song that is pretty great around the same time as Smith was making his album (see below).
The album didn't chart, but it has since been acknowledged as a one of the best of the '90s. Smith's next album, 1997's Either/Or, was again a critical favorite and caught the attention of director Gus Van Sant, who featured three of its songs ("Between the Bars," "Angeles" and "Say Yes") along with a new song, "Miss Misery," on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack. "Miss Misery" ended up being nominated for Best Original Song at the 1998 Academy Awards, and Smith performed it during the awards ceremony.
During this time, Smith was adding antidepressants to his heavy consumption of alcohol. He signed a deal with DreamWorks Records, but also became severely depressed and suicidal. At one point, Smith was heavily intoxicated in North Carolina and ran off a cliff, landing on a tree and becoming seriously injured.
Smith released two more albums, 1998's XO and 2000's Figure 8. He was becoming more prominent as an artist, making appearances on Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and the Late Show with David Letterman, but he was also growing more depressed. Smith developed a heroin addiction toward the end of the Figure 8 tour and grew increasingly paranoid. He recorded about half an album before scrapping it and his behavior grew erratic. He died at his home from two stab wounds to the chest in 2003, although the autopsy couldn't determine whether the wounds were self-inflicted. Smith was 34.
At the time of his death, Smith was working on the album From a Basement on the Hill, which was released posthumously in 2004. His legend has only grown since.
As for "Christian Brothers," Queens of the Stone Age did an excellent cover of it as a B-side for their 2007 album Era Vulgaris. They kept it acoustic and it's nearly as powerful as the original.
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