RIP David Lindley

[UTCzech III 2907]

Talk about somebody having their own guitar sound.  I remember this coming out in the early 80's, right about the same time George Thorogood started getting some airplay, lotta great slide blues on the radio at that time.

And of course, goes without saying..

 

[Paul Wesley 3278]

Wow.  

"Running on Empty" is easily a top-10 desert island album for me.  I discovered it when I was maybe 14 and just about to buy my first acoustic guitar.  Everything about it was a peek into an adult world - songs about love and loneliness and drugs and addiction and life on the road.  It was (and is) a masterclass on songwriting, and those ideas were animated by brilliant musicians who served the song above all else.  

And part of that was Lindley's solos.  They're just incredibly lyrical and tasteful.  They have perfect phrasing, they have ideas that build and morph, they have beginnings and endings. IMO, the only other soloist who compares in those respects is David Gilmour.

I remember an interview with him where he talked about collecting wild polyester clothing from the 50's to 70's, and the interviewer asked him where in the world does he find thrift stores that have those things?  "Salt Lake City, man.  That's the Mecca."

I'm gonna raise a glass to him tonight.   

[G650 14263]

I just read this elsewhere. What a loss

[G650 14263]

 

[Gil Bang 25975]

I used to see the dude around town when I frequented Claremont a few decades ago.  Just having lunch or coffee in The Village, or occasionally at Rhino Records or The Folk Music Store (owned by Ben Folds and family).  

Let's just say that nobody would have mistaken this cat for Steve McQueen.  

[Massive Horn 41]

 

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by Massive Horn

[G650 14263]

9 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

I used to see the dude around town when I frequented Claremont a few decades ago.  Just having lunch or coffee in The Village, or occasionally at Rhino Records or The Folk Music Store (owned by Ben Folds and family).  

Let's just say that nobody would have mistaken this cat for Steve McQueen.  

Ben Harper's family, not Folds.

[Gil Bang 25975]

4 hours ago, G650 said:

Ben Harper's family, not Folds.

You are correct.  I  may have been overserved when I made that post. 

I haven't been in there in 20 years, but it used to be a terrific store. 

[tbone_ 14129]

Damn. Dude was a unique talent.

[nbmishoid 949]

No kidding.  And had to spend all those years with Jackson Brown.

[TexPx 2323]

This was a go to party album for us in the 90’s. Fun intoxicating blend of reggae/tex-mex/Caribbean/rock…
Some of the coolest covers ever. Werewolves of London, Papa was a Rolling Stone and others.

Nothing like a room full of very greasy and lubricated heathens singing along to “Tiki Torches at Twilight”

“Tiki torches at twilight
Hula girls at the bar
All the guys from the office
Are throwing up in their cars”

Also, just found this at the thrift store last month.

[Gil Bang 25975]

\

[Rip76 4943]

Jackson Browne’s post.

David Lindley, the guitarist, lap steel and fiddle player who gave his personality and his inspiration to so many of my songs, passed away on March 3rd. The outpouring of love, and the widespread recognition of his mastery has been very moving. I want to join in the resounding chorus of appreciation for his gifts, but nothing I write seems quite good enough. Words have never been enough to describe what David Lindley brought to a song. 

I played with David for the first time in a dressing room at the Troubadour in 1969. My friend Jimmy Fadden of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band had brought him to say hello, and pointed out that David had his fiddle with him, saying he would probably sit in if I asked him to. I already knew him from the band Kaleidoscope, whose first album, Side Trips, was one of my favorite records.

We started to play my song These Days, and my world changed. His playing was so emotional, and immediate - it cast a spell over me and everyone there. It didn’t matter that he had never heard the song before. What he was playing made it more emotional and more real than it had ever sounded in the years I had played it alone.

David was in England playing with Terry Reid when I made my first album. When he came back, I tried putting together a touring band with him, but it wasn’t as good as with just the two of us. I decided we would tour that way, as a duo, despite having a single on the charts that required drums, bass, and congas to play properly. We didn’t even play it. We played a lot of songs I had written up until then, some old songs we both knew, and songs friends had written. Eventually I did have a band with him, and it was a rich and varied musical environment. We co-headlined a national tour with Bonnie Raitt. That was the band on my third album, Late For The Sky.

David is a very large part of me - who I became, and who I remain. No one ever played like him. In my later bands, after David left to form El Rayo - X,  we would play the songs’ structure, more or less based on what he had played, but it was, and still is today, up to the players to summon their own Lindley nature. Good luck! It's a very good thing to go for. He didn’t play the same thing each time. He was always exploring, always hearing something new. Always in the moment.

David’s musical interests were so far ranging, and his genius so evident, he attracted and played with many of the great artists of our day. Ry Cooder, Linda Ronstadt, Graham Nash and David Crosby, Warren Zevon, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen. But it was his band, El Rayo - X, that became the rich and fertile environment that gave him free rein to develop and mix his influences, and create the unique synthesis that will now and forever be known as David Lindley.

With Henry Kaiser, David continued the exploration of world music that he had begun in Kaleidoscope. I’m grateful to Henry for posting his Requiem For David Lindley, and for all the other posts and clips on the internet that attest to the many different cultures David navigated, weaving them into one world. 

My own world is shattered by David’s passing. He was my friend and my teacher. It was with great pleasure and certainty that I revisited our special connection over the years. I guess I thought that he would always be around.

I've been struggling to write something and post it for the past two weeks. It was hard to begin, and it’s hard to conclude, I guess, because I don’t want to let him go. David was kind to everyone, and so funny. Incapable of uttering a dishonest word, or playing a dishonest note. There will be tribute concerts, and a documentary about him, for sure. There will be ways for us to continue to celebrate his life. And we all know there will never be another David Lindley.

- Jackson Browne

 

[Paul Wesley 3278]

Very nice.  Thanks for sharing that.