nice post Harvey
Man, don't tell me Dave Van Ronk died. I'd heard he had medical problems and bills and there were benifit concerts and such. I can't find it now but there was a book he wrote on the village scene I believe was called 'Baby Let me Follow You Down' after his song....it should be required reading.
I don't spend a lot of time thinking how old I'm getting except when Waylon died it sort of stopped me in my tracks. At the resort where I play my bar manager asked why I was bummed out a few nights ago and I said Waylon died. She said "Waylon who?". I said "Waylon Jennings". She said, "Waylon Jennings who?". It didn't help.
Why wouldn't people think you know those people? Geez, it comes with the territory. I've met or known some of the people on your list also, had phone numbers for a few. Yet, if I get to mentioning names in a conversation it sounds like I'm lying out my ass, even though at 55 I'm going into my 50th year of playing in public and grew up in the LA area. How the hell could I not know some of these people? 'Well you're not famous' seems to be what people think so I don't bring it up much. My story these days to explain all the lost years is that I quit the 'legit' music business in '78 to live and play in ski areas, later to retire to the desert. It's about half true and works much better than bringing anybody's name up.
