It seems strange to say, but one of my best friends is a dead man I never met.

There have been times in my life where I have felt completely alone. And then sometime during my junior year of high school, I heard Stephen Paul "Elliott" Smith's voice.

And it seems like ever since then I have never really been alone. Even in the darkest of times, when friends and family had gone to bed and I'd lay awake feeling terrible, his music was always there. I could put on Waltz #1 and bawl my eyes out, and he'd be there right next to me singing away the tears.

I wish I could meet him. I'd tell him that over and over again, he has saved me from pain I thought would last forever. When I need a friend, his records are there. His voice defies time, cheats death.

And somehow I feel like I have known him all my life. I am still chasing my dreams because of him. Every time I feel hopeless he is there to sing me to sleep, turn the lights out and make me remember why it is that life is worth living.

When I need inspiration, his albums are always only a hand's reach away.

Waltz #1

Every time the day

Darkens down and goes away

Pictures open in my head

Of me and you, silent and cliche

All the things we did and didn't say

Covered up by what we did and didn't do

Going through every out I used to cop

To make the repetition stop

What was I supposed to say?

Now I never leave my zone

We're both alone, I'm going home

I wish I'd never seen your face

Oh Well, Okay

Here's the silhouette, the face always turned away

The bleeding color gone to black, dying like the day

Couldn't figure out what made you so unhappy

Shook your head to say no, no, no

And stopped for a spell, and stayed that way

Oh well, okay

I got pictures, I just don't see it anymore

Climbing hour upon hour through a total bore

With the one I keep where it never fades

In the safety of a pitch black mind

An airless cell that blocks the day

Oh well, okay

If you get a feeling the next time you see me

Do me a favor and let me know

Because it's hard to tell, it's hard to say

Oh well, okay

Oh well, okay

Oh well, okay

God bless you, Elliott Smith.