Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith

By William Todd Schultz

Elliott Smith was one of the most gifted songwriters of the nineties, adored by worshipful fans for his subtly melancholic words and melodies. The sadness had its sources in the life. There was trauma from an early age, years of drug abuse and a chronic sense of disconnection that sometimes seemed almost self-engineered. Smith died violently in Los Angeles in 2003, under what some believe to be questionable circumstances, of a single fatal stab wound to the chest. By this time fame had found him, and record buyers who shared the listening experience felt he spoke directly to them from beyond: lonely, lovelorn, frustrated, fighting until he could fight no more. And yet, although his achingly intimate lyrics carried the weight of truth, Smith remained unknowable. In Torment Saint, William Todd Schultz gives us the first proper biography of the rock star, a decade after his death, imbued with affection, authority, sensitivity and long-awaited clarity.

Torment Saint draws on Schultz's careful, deeply knowledgeable readings and insights, as well as on more than 150 hours of interviews with close friends, lovers, bandmates, peers, managers, label owners, and recording engineers and producers. This book unravels the remaining mysteries of Smith's life and his shocking, too-early end. It will be an indispensable examination of his life and legacy, both for Smith's legions of fans as well as readers still discovering his songbook.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Oct 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781408840009

William Todd Schultz

William Todd Schultz is a professor of psychology at Pacific University in Oregon, focusing on personality research and psychobiography. He edited and contributed to the groundbreaking Handbook of Psychobiography, and curates the book series Inner Lives, analyses of significant artists and political figures. His own book in the series, Tiny Terror, examines the life of Truman Capote. Todd Schultz blogs for Psychology Today.

Reviews for Torment Saint

[poetontheone · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

William Todd Schultz's biography of Elliott Smith is not particularly definitive, though it at least attempts to fill an obvious void in well-researched accounts of his life; many readers having been unsated by Benjamin Nugent's previous attempt that seemed rushed to publication shortly after Smith's death. One of the key strengths of this book is its supremely fine focus on Smith's early years growing up in Dallas, followed by the move to Portland and his time with Heatmiser. The detail and insight in this first half of the book is captivating, with regard to both the development of the man and his music.The only drawback in this first half, one which occurs throughout the book, is Schultz's use of lyric snippets from Smith's songs to garnish some particular moment, explicitly referencing which song that lyrics derives from every time this device is employed. This tactic, used far too frequently to retain any charm, quickly begins to grate and distract from the text.The second half of the book, starting around the release of the self titled album, meditates on that album's preoccupation with heroin by someone who at that point was not a user. This is an intriguing observation, but it also marks the starting point of a narrative shift. The complexity of the subject slowly begins to dilute into that of a tortured genius gradually plummeting towards death. Who constructs this narrative? Schultz is the author, but he is not entirely responsible for this. For one, what Schultz has at his disposal is ultimately sparse. All he can rely on is the music, published interviews, and oral histories from friends and collaborators, and then only those willing to share. Several members of Smith's family and other intimate relations did not talk to Schultz and it is doubtful they will ever talk to anyone about him on record. It is also not much of an exaggeration to say that Smith crafted or bought into this narrative himself, and began to mold himself around it. This has the potential to inhibit and sabotage objective or open attempts at biography.It is not impossible, though, to subvert the "tortured artist" narrative, whether Smith purposefully adhered to it or not. The best biographies aspire to and sometimes succeed in holding the subject in question, in order to uproot mythos and to create the most fully realized representation possible. Edmund White's biography of Jean Genet and Jon Lee Anderson's biography of Che Guevara come to mind. Schultz, his background in psychology, would seem more apt than any rock historian to attempt such a feat, but that does not come to pass here.Smith transforms in Schlutz's book from tortured genius to junkie savant, becoming more and more a flat character, the book petering out into speculation for ten or so pages about the nature of his death. Though the question is pertinent, Schultz's adamant and drawn out conclusion of suicide cloyingly reiterates Smith's lifelong despondency and diverges into apologia for Jennifer Chiba, who in the end is significant to Elliott's life, though these last pages in the book hardly deal with Elliott at all. He is talking about a death scenario, a woman caught in its devastating aftermath, and a knife. The knife serving as a maudlin if not insulting metaphor of an existential wound, because the metaphor nearly negates the importance of the music, oversimplifies the man, and dampens what could have been a potentially great biography. Smith's narrative is simply hard to navigate in and of itself, one that may never be fully uncovered, but what the budding lineage of his biographies indicate is that the possibility for illuminating interpretations is there. Schultz's addition is flawed but devoted; a cracked light bulb.