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Why "Alphabet Town" is Elliott Smith's BEST SONG - Elliott Smith Project [Self-Titled]
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- čas přidán 15. 08. 2024
- To Support This Project
Patreon - patreon.com/user?u=121469628
Etsy (Self-Titled Songbook!) - elliottsmithpr...
I made this book myself with love and care. It’s got complete tabs, chords, lyrics for all 12 tracks.
beats by annatto: annatto.bandca...
Alphabet Town live 1995 - • Elliott Smith - Alphab...
I’m working on videos for every song on the self-titled album. If you have any suggestions or corrections for any of these videos, message me if you know me or leave a comment and I’ll update the video as soon as I can.
I’m still learning, and I’m trying my best to do all these songs justice. Hopefully these videos can be helpful to anyone who wants to learn them.
Love, Miles
0:00 Intro
0:21 Harmonica part/Analysis
3:45 Guitar part/Lesson
6:50 Vocal part/Rhythm
7:53 Playthrough w/ Chord Diagrams
![What IS "The Biggest Lie" ?! - Elliott Smith Project [Self-Titled]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/NRynQBw5-BU/mqdefault.jpg)
![What IS "The Biggest Lie" ?! – Elliott Smith Project [Self-Titled]](/img/tr.png)
![The White Lady Loves You More LESSON! - Elliott Smith Project [Self-Titled]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7PiGBLroGOc/mqdefault.jpg)
*8th track! ! ! Lol still learning how to count past 4
Yeah so I'm going to need this for his whole discography
My thoughts exactly.
@@celam1244 idem
I'm no music expert, but I love Elliott. Maybe that note change on the "and" of the first beat is to demonstrate emotional drag.. makes me think of having to get out of bed in the morning.. it's a new bar / day / etc..
This song has a creepy timelessness about it, like all of his songs, but this one especially. Good work dude!
6:50 I think part of why this works so well is that it leaves room for us to hear the chord change on the 1, almost like vocal is sidechained to the guitar or something, gives it that ducking effect you'd hear in like a deadmau5 song. Obviously more subtle here but still very effective and cool
I’m a sucker for anyone analyzing Elliott’s amazing songwriting. Please Please do, Better Be Quiet Now.
He's doing the songs track by track for now but hey wait a few years and he might get to figure 8 lol
OH NO HE'S HOT
Dude seriously, thank you. This project is Everything.
This is amazing! I'm excited to see more. Here are the lyrics for those of us learning the song:
Alphabet City is haunted
Constantina feels right at home
She probably won't say you're wrong
But you're already wrong
You're already wrong
And you threw up whatever she shot down
Said, show me around this alphabet town
Said, show me around
There's a name you keep repeating
You got nothing better to do
And you're with someone who'll hear you say it and just not mind
Her hand on your arm, her hand on your arm
She put her hand on your arm
And told you her name you can't pronounce it
I'll show you around this alphabet town
I'll show you around this alphabet town
I know what you are
I just don't mind
I won't say you're wrong
I know what you want
And it's what I want
So let's go out, I'm ready to go out
I'll show you around this alphabet town
I'll show you around this alphabet town
cannot wait for biggest lie been waiting for someone to make a good video on that for ages
I love this song so much ahhh
to me the harmony behind this stuff is a way more interesting and personal extension of folk and blues conventions than something like jazz theory, especially when people use it to really blow up a pop song like elliott does 🤩🤩
Thanks for your time and effort on this whole series brother. Much like elliot himself it will go unappreciated on the scale it deserves but that's half the fun right. I remember yeaes ago I went to Hastings and bought this album. The clerk that rang me up went from bored out of her mind to suddenly perked up with that silent good on ya look like we just joined fight club lol. I'll never forget it. We didn't even have to talk we just knew we we're awesome lol
I LOVE this song, and i cant wait to watch this. Also it's so nice to see how many views/comments this has got in just a couple of hours! I love this little elliott smith guitar nerd community!
I've been waiting for you to get to this song, thanks for doing it so well. I was already a big Elliott Smith fan when I discovered this song, was sort of in the stage where I thought I'd sussed him out (pardon the pun) and he couldn't really surprise me anymore. Then I heard that E7 to F#b6 in this song and it was instant chills. Had never heard anything so unexpected. To me that's the essence of his sound - unexpected chord changes. I guess he'd concur with that based on interviews. Can't wait to learn this.
Was just talking to you on Reddit about this one! You got it done!
The effort and quality of this video is amazing man. Well done 👍
you are an amazing guitar player, man - really shows off the complexity of Smith's riffs
This was always my fav song too. Its so pretty!
By the way this channel is my favourite thing to see on youtube this year! Ive always wanted to learn more about ES. He made me learn how to play the guitar :)
I’m so glad you’ve got to this song already! This whole project is wonderful
Great video, im a big fan of ES, with some covers of my own on my channel. I appreciate this project and the analysis you worked on, thank you
Good break down of a great song. Great to see some material detailing his works since there's not a lot out there. Looking forward to the rest of it. For the next album you'll have to go back as the self titled actually came after Roman Candle.
Thanks again for your hard work. The timing on this one always perplexed me.
P.S: Not sure if you saw, but they recently uncovered video footage of Elliott in 2002 at The Echo in LA. On the video is the clearest footage (by 2002 quality standards) of Good To Go that I've seen to date (he didn't play it live often). It should help greatly with your project here. Thanks again, and I can't wait for St. Ides Heaven!
I just caught that! incredible find, wish it’d been up when I was first learning Good To Go haha
Best video yet! Really loved the theory and breakdown parts. I could watch and listen things about Elliott’s music all day long. It’s that good and interesting.
I search alphabet town guitar and there you are 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Hey buddy you’re genius too!!! I really enjoy your videos and would be watching whatever you decide doing.
Awesome breakdown! Did you see/hear the completely unplugged version played at Aquarius Records "Elliott Smith - 5/9/1997 Aquarius Records, SF CA", nothing beats the sound of his guitar.
! ! ! Your upload of that performance was HUGE for me getting this transcription together. the most beautiful singing, too. If anyone hasn’t seen that yet GO WATCH
I ❤❤❤❤ that performance!!!
I'm impressed.
You are so underrated. You deserve much more subs and views. Please, keep doing what u're doing.
Agreed before watching the video
Awesome work as always. I always pull out my guitar when you drop a new vid, I always learn something new about these songs I've been playing for so long.
For the coda/outro thing, I always played it as C/G (3-3-2-0-1-0) into some kind of B7 thing (2-2-1-0-0-0) into the A7/E. Tried confirming if that's what he's playing in live videos but the quality isn't good enough in any to tell.
Glad to see you're really gaining traction on YT! Keep it up. Really looking forward to Good To Go, that prechorus has had me stumped for years.
Thank you for supporting !
oh yeah, real fun trying to break the habit of playing a wrong chord that you've been playing for the last five years!
this is an amazing video! thank you so much for this work!
This series had been an answer to my thoughts! Every video has been incredible. It's not easy trying to figure out his tunes note for note, but you're spot on.
The strumming on this song has perplexed me since first trying to learn it, but this will help immensely.
It's great to know that there are other people out there who recognize his brilliance. Looking forward to the rest!
your dedictionis amazing man
I think it’s interesting that you…
….be just as correct to invent an “Alphabet Town” key and create symbolic relationships between the notes that hang together in the way they do in the song. That’s what Elliott did, I think -- He speaks a lot about mood and his process was internal.
I appreciate what you are doing…
Thank you so much
this is excellent! thank you!
Dude. Right. On. Even including a bit of theory/ chord analysis? You're awesome homie, keep crushing it and know these vids are a very helpful resource. 👍
3:02
Me whenever someone tries to explain anything Music theory related.
Awesome video! will definitely give this Song a go. I know i'm jumping the Gun a bit here, but have you done any Songs from Roman Candle? I'd really love to know how to play Kiwi maddog 20/20 (the instrumental Song) but the majority of Tabs/lessons online aren't that great.
The Roman Candle album is up next 👀
I love this project, thank you so much for doing this!!
Your breakdown of this song is wonderful!!! I remember being in my early teens listening to this song on repeat with my cd player 😅
I've been obsessing over which Elliott Smith album is the best for literal decades of my life. First it was S/T, then I got REALLY into the XO/Figure 8, then a was exclusively listening to New Moon and Grand Mal, then last year I finally started being like "ok maybe Either/Or actually is the best one", but I was driving home listening to S/T again and it finally clicked that it's just perfect from top to bottom. There are songs I don't love (Good To Go, Need In The Hay tbh) and ones I played to death in high school (Christian brothers, southern belle, st ides heaven), but the "pissed off ghost of a career addict" is as perfect as it is pervasive, and Alphabet Town might just be THE most haunted song ever written.
That said, I've always wondered if the theory in his work was intentional. Obviously he knew a lot about theory as a big Beatles/Big Star student, but he pretty much alludes to his writing being off the cuff in every interview where he talks about songwriting. Maybe it's just an element of his influences or just innate talent, but I could never imagine coming up with a progression like Alphabet Town or I Better Be Quiet Now without really putting in the effort of making it ~classically~ good. Like oh ok, you just had that F#b6add4 locked and loaded in the back pocket, huh? Didn't realize I was talking to Charlie Parker over here
Bless you for this project good sir! I will be deep diving on all the videos, love the harmony analysis too!!
That part at 3:00 makes me giggle and boggles my brain at the same time!
omg, thats the best tutuorial for this songs, thank you a lot !
this is beyond valuable!!!!
Love these vids
Your videos are awesome dude! thank you so much for all these
aight, to me the the halting quality of the "and" vocal descent on the chorus feels like crying, lilting sobs
getting my first tattoo in about a week, and it will be of the figures falling on this album cover as it means so much to me haha
Best video out there on this song, good shit. Love this project. Technical question though: any tips for hitting the hammer-on on that C chord? I cant seem to do it because my index finger is muting the bottom string 😿. Maybe i just have to curl my index finger more?
no honestly that chord is just hard as shit haha you'll get it though!
@Songbook Yup, it's already getting easier. Thanks man. Btw i forgot to mention, love the chqotic editing style you have, really stands out and makes these videos that much more uniquely you. And you manage to blend that with a wealth of information. Its awesome. Keep it up.
it's like these videos were made for me
Dope work
I bought a harmonica just for this song.
Love the track-by-track deep dives! Are you sticking with the Elliot Smith discog for your next album or moving onto different artists?
I would love some suggestions!
cool video man
love the vid
Thank you for using your powers for good! 😂 This stuff boggles my brain but Elliott’s music fascinates me so I watch. Do you have any recommendations on how to get a very basic understanding of this music theory you speak about? Any basic book or link? I play guitar but I just learn the songs and don’t really understand all this. But I’m interested. Thanks!
Thanks for watching! music theory can definitely be confusing and hard to learn! I can't say for sure what might be the best way to learn, because I think everyone makes sense of it differently, but I will say - I'm pretty new to guitar, but I think it could be hard to approach learning music theory from guitar. I've always heard it's alot easier to understand music theory with a piano - you can see everything in front of you, and I think that makes it easier to make sense of things like scales. I did a quick search and I think this video could be a good place to start czcams.com/video/rgaTLrZGlk0/video.html. Quick caveat that "music theory", which usually means "music theory of a specific era of high-class western-european music", is a super narrow lens, and alot of the ideas don't easily fit modern music (3:00 lol). BUT *it can absolutely still be helpful and fun to learn!*
Thank you for this. That’s a really helpful perspective. I really appreciate your reply.
🤯🤯🤯🤯
Can you do a video about the lyrics etc?
there's a spot where it says Cadd9/g but shows a regular C/G the add 9 is 3 fret
❕❗Yes! The high E string is tuned down from E to D, so it looks like a C/G but isn't. Adds cool color to alot of the chords, like turning the open E into E7 and the Am into Am(add4)🤘
@@_E_S_P 6:34 what you show on screen is just a c/g here.. add9 moves the B string to D
if you alter tune the e to D then you're playing someting weird idek where to respond.
No worries - the usual chord shape for Cadd9 on guitar includes the 3rd fret of the B string for the note D (the 9), like you said. Elliott Smith often wrote his songs with alternate tunings, and he wrote this one with a down-tuned high E string. So any time that high string is being played open, it's adding the note D to the chord, not E!
I show the tuning at 3:56, if that helps 🤘
great content here..i found out about Elliott in my late teens/early 20s.., back in like 2008.., he's been my favorite musician since.., i can play a good number of his songs,, but never bothered to learn this one..
definitely one that I want to acquire now,, you did a great lesson on it.. im finally getting back into playing music after some years of IV addiction,, failed relationship, homelessness, etc.. four years clean now and im only just trying to put myself back out there,, i always identified so well with Elliott,, his bravery and vulnerability gives me some strength 🥲 thanks again
What editing software do u use?
how do i tune the e string string to d?
Eh what is the strumming pattern?
4:05 That's E major not E7
It would normally be, but the thinnest string is tuned to D and so it becomes an E7 when you strum through.
@itsgonnbeok7249 It's definitely a confusing aspect of this song! just like @caketits2723 pointed out, Elliott Smith often wrote songs using unusual tunings, and in this song the high E string is tuned down to a D, which not only turns the E chord shape into E7, but also turns C chords into C(add9), as a previous commenter pointed out, and turns Am into Am(add4). That open D string on top is one of my favorite parts of the song, it's a beautiful sound!
Adrianne Lenker has a gorgeous song called Two Reverse that uses the same tuning.
Made this very easy to learn , epic explanation of the song as well😎🫡