Kill Rock Stars has shared a previously unreleased recording of Elliott Smith’s ‘Some Song’, taken from a new archival live album called Live at Umbra Penumbra. Listen to it below.
Produced and engineered by Larry Crane, the official archivist for the Smith family, the live album will be a part of Kill Rock Stars’ 25th anniversary reissue of the songwriter’s classic 1995 self-titled sophomore album, due out on August 28. ‘Some Song’ was originally released as the B-side to ‘Needle in the Hay’ in 1995, so this version, recorded in Portland on September 17th, 1994, predates the original release. A 1997 live version was later unveiled on 2017’s Either/Or: Expanded Edition. Last year, an ‘alternative version’ of the track appeared on the deluxe edition of XO.
The new version comes with a lyric video featuring a previously unseen photograph of Smith, shot by close friend JJ Gonson. “In this shot, the hot cup from Coffee People and the wet streets tell a story; I love the way the diffuse light hits his shoulders, the top of his hands, and his hair, emphasizing the bright colors,” Gonson said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “This is a photo that satisfies me artistically, still there is no way I’m not going to notice that I am fully focused on a subject to whom I am emotionally tied. So, at the end of the day, I am happy to see him. I miss him, and I hope that I am going to help people to see the goofy, puppy-like Elliott that I remember.”
