Status

Smith/Pickering/Denbow/Merritt-band song

Written By

Elliott Smith

Recording Sessions

March 1984 (Unknown studio, Portland, OR) - instrumental, uncirculating
July 1984 (Welch Residence, Duncanville, TX - July 1984 Solo Keyboard Demos) - vocals added to March 1984 instrumental, uncirculating
July-August 1984 (??, Duncanville, TX - Summer 1984 Rehearsals) - uncirculating
July-August 1984 (Pla-Back Recording, TX - Summer 1984 Studio Session) - uncirculating

Availability of Official Release

In an interview with the Portland Radio Project podcast, Kevin Moyer shared a 1:58 clip of the March+July 1984 demo.

Lyrics

Tide comes in and tide goes out
Along the lonely moonlit shore
Seashells by the hundreds lay
Just beyond my door
Solitary wave that’s been many miles
Comes to rest upon the beach
The tides come up to flood my house
And just beyond its reach

And as I watch the silent sea
Serenity and mystery
The magic of the ocean
Takes control of me

I peer out at the endless moon…

Note

Leading up to the official relase of Heaven Adores You, Kevin Moyer, one of the film’s producers, revealed the following in an interview with the Portland Radio Project:

“So this song is something from 1984. Elliott was 14 years old. … It’s interesting because it’s one of the first songs that as they were writing, Elliott would make lyrics for it. It’s keyboards, guitars, and Elliott singing. They did the keyboards and guitars first, and the Elliott came back and Steve Pickering convinced him, for demo purposes, to sing. I don’t think Elliott was a singer at that point, but they kind of pushed him to sing it, and he did. It’s probably one of the first songs that they did that actually has lyrics.”

This is song is also noted in the 2013 psychobiography about Elliott entitled Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith as being recorded at the rehearsals performed by Elliott and his band at the time consisting of Steve Pickering, Kevin Denbow, Mark Merritt, and his on-and-off girlfriend Kim. Based on this information, we have deduced the following:

* Elliott and Steve Pickering recorded an instrumental version during Steve Pickering’s trip to Portland in March 1984, despite Elliott having some tentative lyrics in mind at the time.
* When Elliott returned to Texas later that summer, he was convinced to add lyrics to the existing demo, so Elliott added his lead vocal. This is the same session where he recorded his “reference demo” of “Outward Bound”
* The full Smith/Pickering/Denbow/Merritt band recorded two versions during their rehearsals, one with Kim on vocals, one with Elliott on vocals.
* The version recorded at Pla-Back Recording features Kim on vocals.

Audio