Elliott Smith Memoral Wall
Elliott Smith Memorial Wall Defaced In Roger Waters’ Promotion
"It's My Guess That He Would Have Been Sympathetic To That Message."
May 05, 2010
As reported by LA Weekly, former Pink Floyd leader Roger Waters paid street artists to promote his upcoming tour by posting a Dwight Eisenhower quote about peace in strategic locations. Clever marketing, right? That is, until one street artist defaced the Elliott Smith memorial wall. Immortalized on the cover of Figure 8, the wall became a depository for fan messages to the fallen troubadour shortly after his death.
Fans, naturally, were not amused.
Today, in an interview with LA Times, Waters apologized for the incident. "It was absolutely an accident," Waters said. "I didn't want to disrespect Elliott Smith's fans, and I've instructed [the team] to remove the wheat paste immediately. It was a random pasting in the normal course of this, and I want to make it public that we had no intent to offend or cover up something precious." He continued to say, "I would guess, and this is only a guess, but it's my guess that he would have been sympathetic to that message." Waters also admitted to not knowing who Smith was before this incident. It seems that as a viral marketing campaign this has actually worked, but not in the way Waters intended.
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May 5th 2010
7:56pm
Hmm…really astonishing memorial for the every person really respecting and living him.
May 5th 2010
8:06pm
To be honest it does seem like Smith would have appreciated that kind of message.
May 5th 2010
9:07pm
Wow. Hopefully, it will be removed without much damage to the layer underneath. Otherwise, the question is, “How many times will this wall have to be repainted?” Although I agree that Elliott would have most likely appreciated the message, I think he also would’ve agreed that not one fan’s tribute should be sacrificed for the sake of it. I can understand why people would be upset… I wrote my message on the original layer (which was then repainted after being defaced the first time), and like so many others, my work was lost. Now, I have to hope I can make it back to L.A. to do it again. I know firsthand how frustrating and disheartening it can be.
May 5th 2010
9:07pm
As a lover of both artists, the greatest tragedy in the matter is that Waters didn’t know Smith existed.
The matter of the fact is that the figure 8 wall has to be repainted from time to time anyway cause it gets tagged by all sorts of non-ES related sprayed messages. The Eisenhower quote, however, is very fitting. I just wonder how large the images are.
May 19th 2010
9:15pm
Now, I have to hope I can make it back to L.A. to do it again. I know firsthand how frustrating and disheartening it can be. Think so.
nice words that really encourage me.
January 26th 2011
6:13pm
This kind of guerrilla marketing can be very powerful but not at the expense of others. Clearly many were offended by this so I’m glad Waters came out and cleared the air.
October 2nd 2011
11:35pm
Both Eliot Smith and Dwight Eisenhower were great men. I liked the quote that was pasted on the wall, but ultimately it was bad to deface the memorial wall.