1.21.2008 | 1:31 pm

Elliott Smith – Complete Unreleased Songs: Live Recordings

elliott_smithAs most of you know, I’m a bit of an Elliott Smith discographer. (You can find my compilation of his complete live cover recordings here). Now I’ve started work on his unreleased material, no easy task – even as I was putting these songs together, I stumbled upon “Sorry My Mistake,” a song I’d never heard. In this post, you’ll find the songs that, for the most part, never made their way to the studio, most of which luckily exist in quality recordings. Almost all of them stand alongside his best work – “Flowers for Charlie” and “Mr. Good Morning” would’ve been fine full-band additions to XO or Figure 8, while “I’m Doing Okay, Pretty Good” (AKA “My New Freedom”) has long been one of my favorite Smith songs. The names of these songs have been disputed, so I’ve provided their original fan-titles and where applicable, the “official” titles handed down by various Smith associates in recent years. Tracks after the jump.

Elliott Smith – Complete Live Unreleased Material

“A Silver Chain”^: mp3
“Blue Mood”: mp3
“Flowers for Charlie”: mp3
“I’m Doing OK, Pretty Good” AKA “My New Freedom”: mp3
“Come To Me” AKA “You Make It Seem Like Nothing” (1996): mp3
“Come To Me” AKA “You Make It Seem Like Nothing” (2003): mp3
“Living in a Cage” AKA “Confusion”: mp3
“Mr. Good Morning” AKA “Just Between Us”: mp3
“So Many People” AKA “Confidence Artist”: mp3
“Dancing on the Highway” AKA “Still Here If You Want Me”: mp3
“Dancing on the Highway” (w/ full band): mp3
“Sorry My Mistake”: mp3
“Everything’s OK”*: mp3
“I Figured You Out”**: mp3
“Instrumental,” 10.14.99: mp3
“Unlucky Charm” AKA “Come Out Now”: mp3
“I’m All Over It Now” AKA “Have You Seen Her”: mp3


^ An instrumental version appears on the leaked Jackpot sessions.
* Early version of the alternate “Pretty Mary K” that appears on New Moon.
** A song Elliott gave to Mary Lou Lord because it sounded too much like the Eagles. Her version appears on her EP Martian Saints.

As always, folks, if I’m missing something or you have a better version, please post in the comments or send them my way at rawkblog AT gmail DOT com. Note: In the time since compiling these tracks, studio versions of several of them (“Dancing on the Highway” and “Mr. Good Morning,” for now) have surfaced.

Related: Elliott Smith – The Complete Live Covers | All Elliott Smith Posts

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Album versions not cutting it for you? Click below for more live Bootlegs, demos and rarities.

More posts about: Bootlegs, Elliott Smith

  • enid

    thanks for posting these. I’ve been looking for a good recording of “flowers for charlie” for about five years. now I finally have one!

  • Anonymous

    actually “everything’s ok” is a later version of pretty mary K (other version), not earlier. And there is a recording of it.

  • Anonymous

    thank you so much for this. it’s always a pleasure to find some new elliott. or, rather, to have you find it for me.

  • Anonymous

    i think there’s an earlier version of “come to me”… around september of ’96. I got it off Trash Treasury. I don’t know if its better, but its there. Thanks for all of it though! rock on!

  • Anonymous

    amazing, thanks so much

  • chris

    that is a great version of flowers for charlie. i’m not sure if i’ve heard it before.

  • Keith Berger

    Thanks soooooo much for soooooo much good stuff!

  • Patrick

    Thank you very much for putting together these songs.

    Unfortunately, I find half of them extremely hard to listen to due to an audience that just won’t shut the hell up. I am guessing that at least one of those tracks is from a performance live at the henry fonda, with annoying los angelenos chit chatting around the bar instead of listening to the actual concert.

    i had the same problem at the jose gonzalez concert – the concert was insanely frustrating.

  • Anonymous

    thanks very much for uploading the songs!!it’s amazing to have a chance to listening these songs that i have never heard them be4..

  • Hanan

    I love you.

  • Whitney

    I realize this posting is over a year old but I came across it while looking for more of Elliott’s live recordings. “Sorry My Mistake” is amazing. I’d only heard the instrumental version before. His performance is dripping with emotion. god, he was amazing…

  • http://www.myspace.com/joshnielsen Josh

    I am so happy that you put these up. Thank you so much.

    Josh

  • ABrutalKins

    I can’t download these! I need this I have been looking for them for months and I can’t find them anywhere please, please, please fix the links!

  • David Greenwald

    check back tomorrow, on their way back

  • shar

    THANK-YOU SO MUCH !

  • http://www.itsakingthing.com Brian

    i’ve been looking for a good “i figured you out” version. this one is perfect.

  • philipp

    Hi! Thanks for putting the songs up. There is also an alternate version of “King’s Crossing” here: http://www.archive.org/details/esmith2000-05-09.esmith2000-05-09.flacf. Guess you already know it. :) Sadly it’s in a bad quality.

    And “Dancing on the Highway” is so amazing, i hope a studio version will surface one day. Cheers…

  • dan

    thanks for these. what a loss

  • Jade

    is there a way to get these songs permenantly on my itunes so i can put them on my ipod?

  • http://www.rawkblog.net/ David Greenwald

    Right-click, save-as, put them in a folder, add to iTunes.

  • Jade

    is there a way to get these songs permenantly on my itunes so i can put them on my ipod?

  • http://www.rawkblog.net/ David Greenwald

    Right-click, save-as, put them in a folder, add to iTunes.

  • Mr. Nobody Man

    Hey,

    Thanks for posting these songs. I’ve been playing “flowers for charlie” in youtube for a couple years, despite the inferior sound quality. So great to have this recording. Such a great song. I still (in 2010) miss Elliott, as if he were family. Crazy, maybe. A little pathetic, for sure. But at least I know I’m not the only one.

    Love your web site.

  • Rwagoner63

    Looking for version of “Abused” with vocals… any ideas?