Robert Russell: King’s Crossing (Elliot Smith cover)
My Cover of King’s Crossing by Elliot Smith: (January 2020)
Kings Crossing was written by Elliot Smith and it was released along with the rest of his album From a Basement on the Hill in October of 2004. It’s quite a sad story if you are not aware of it….
Here is a link to the Wikipedia page if you are interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_a_...
To me, it is one of the most unflinchingly personal songs ever written. It is my belief that song writing can’t get more special or more powerful than this.
I’m covering a series songs in an effort to hone my skills as a musician and a recording artist… as well as discover more about the songs I’ve liked in my lifetime so far.
I have kept things simple for many of my covers, and in most cases, they are purposely limited to only a guitar part, a vocal, an upright bass part, and a drum part…. (With some exceptions)
…For this, I really wanted to push it. I love this song. After covering Are you still Dying Darling by Siouxsie and the Banshees, and bringing in Emily Elkin for the cello part, I realized that bringing in strings and perhaps a piano is something I’ve always wanted to do. So… Through a bit of hard work and planning, along with a ton of patience and talent from these fine guest players, here is my first attempt at a larger production and more lush arrangement. I’m no Mozart… And the violin players can verfy this for you, ….but Maybe Elliot would have got a kick out of it, even if only that this larger production is still on an indie budget? Who knows…
Anyway, He’s one of the all-time greatest singer songwriters.
I hope you like what I tried to do with it.
Musicians:
Lead Vocals and Guitar: Robert Russell
Piano: Phillip Krohnengold
Drums: Michael Jerome
Upright Bass: Robert Russell (And backing vocals)
Bass Guitar: Matt Thorne (And backing vocals)
Cello: Emily Elkin
Violin: Kaitlin Wolfberg
Violin: Grace Rodgers
Viola: Heather Lockie
Arrangements by Robert Russell and Matt Thorne
Recorded and mixed by Matt Thorne at MT Studios in Burbank CA
Mastered by David Donnelly at DNA Mastering
This song will be available on most major outlets on January 30th 2020.
It is licensed with Tunelicensing 34124:
The Video:
It's not really meant to be a video. I just put some fun and silly effects over the album cover art, so there is something happening... it's not supposed to be the point or part of the songs meaning. Enjoy it or don't. :)
If anyone noticed that some lyrics are slightly different, the original artist seems to have changed lyrics for different performances… so it’s not unreasonable for me to do it, and it also allowed me to perform the incredibly specific, painful, and personal lyrics he gave us in the way they relate to me when I hear the original.
Links:
Itunes
http://itunes.apple.com/album/id14946...
Apple Music
http://itunes.apple.com/album/id/1494...
Robert Russell web site:
https://robertrussellmusic.com/
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Ek...
SoundCloud
/ user-345676227-589063722
Instagram:
/ therealrobertrussell
Facebook:
/ therealrobertrussell