Of the many inimitable skills Elliott Smith possessed, one that comes to mind this month amid KRS’s trip through the vaults was his knack for tweaking tunes while leaving the track’s core sentiment intact. He altered songs constantly and, as Smith said in interviews, sometimes the released take was simply a matter of running out of time (such as the great “Stupidity Tries” line, “Another drunk conquistador conquering the governor’s ball,” which he had intended to change). Today’s version of “Ballad of Big Nothing” is a good example, as it comes with a few different lyrics from the Either/Or original, but shows off just how well this attention to detail subtly factored into brilliant consistency in the overall result. Hear it above or along with all four newly released recordings here.
