His songs have been covered by Billie Eilish, Julien Baker and Mac Miller, sampled by Lil B and interpolated by Frank Ocean. Though Smith had clearly come of age studying the melodies of Lennon and McCartney, his river of influence has split and spilled outward in surprising directions, resonating worlds away from its source. Parks’ tattoo is the title of Smith’s definitive 1997 LP, a record that, 25 years later, has become both blueprint and spiritual text for a generation of artists who discovered the singer-songwriter’s work well after his death in 2003. When I'm in the studio, almost every time I’ll think of him: What would he do, or how would he approach the story I have in my head? So, I thought, ‘Why not carry him with me in some way?’” But I see him almost as this presence that follows me. “It’s funny,” the UK singer-songwriter tells Apple Music, “because I know a lot of people-a lot of artists-with Elliott Smith tattoos. On her 21st birthday, Arlo Parks decided to get a new tattoo-the words “Either/Or” inked on her ankle in her close friend’s handwriting.
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