Smile From The Streets You Hold This arrived at my house today after a crazy day at work, and it cheered me up immensely. That may seem incongruous given the nature of the record, but it did. Many John fans might wonder why I want to own this album, or have anything to do with it. After all, it is incredibly painful to listen to in parts. We all know what John’s life was like when it was released, and why it was released. A few weeks ago, I certainly wanted to avoid it. I was fresh from watching the ‘94 VPRO interviews with John, which made me cry and feel horrified and sad, even though I knew how things turned out. I didn’t really want to delve into his work from the 90s. Eventually, though, I gave Smile a listen (thanks to a friend) and persevered with it. As I opened up to it, I began to realise how much beauty existed on the record, especially in the guitar parts. Apart from having the compulsion to own ALL the albums by my favourite artists and understand their whole body of work, my simple reason for wanting to own this album was that its beauty certainly outweighs its pain. In many parts, it’s simply gorgeous. That’s all, really. -Mel PS: For those wondering, I bought this for 20 pounds on Amazon UK.
Pop-upView Separately

Smile From The Streets You Hold

This arrived at my house today after a crazy day at work, and it cheered me up immensely. That may seem incongruous given the nature of the record, but it did. Many John fans might wonder why I want to own this album, or have anything to do with it. After all, it is incredibly painful to listen to in parts. We all know what John’s life was like when it was released, and why it was released.

A few weeks ago, I certainly wanted to avoid it. I was fresh from watching the ‘94 VPRO interviews with John, which made me cry and feel horrified and sad, even though I knew how things turned out. I didn’t really want to delve into his work from the 90s. Eventually, though, I gave Smile a listen (thanks to a friend) and persevered with it. As I opened up to it, I began to realise how much beauty existed on the record, especially in the guitar parts.

Apart from having the compulsion to own ALL the albums by my favourite artists and understand their whole body of work, my simple reason for wanting to own this album was that its beauty certainly outweighs its pain. In many parts, it’s simply gorgeous. That’s all, really.

-Mel

PS: For those wondering, I bought this for 20 pounds on Amazon UK.

Smile From the Streets You Hold - UK Amazon £19.99, ships internationally... Any JF fan understands!

I just thought that this information was worth sharing properly.  I’ve bought one copy from this seller, established its originality and bought another (which won’t be coming out of its cellophane!)  After requesting information was advised that the seller bought them wholesale, has never seen the album before and doesn’t know much about it…  Some find.  Jim, Mel, Andrew and Alex have since all invested too.

Amber

Edit from Mel (because I just have to share!): Amber and I actually bought this on the same day the other week, without each others’ knowledge. (Amber is in the UK and I’m in Australia). It only came out the next day that we’d both decided we wanted to buy this album and found it at this link, which Amber is now sharing. It’s a little thing, but I love how us JF fans are often in tune with each other and feel the same energy.

John Frusciante Interview 1997.  A month before Smile was released :-/ Much more in it that this, and I don’t mean to make light of his person at the time, but I love this (referring to his parents not really disciplining him):

“Except when they wouldn’t let me go to Black Flag show because they’d caught me smoking teabags that I’d passed off to my friends as drugs, but, what was I saying?”

Amber