Friday, April 18th, 2008
Its been a day of Losers Paradise and tears. If I drank beer I would be crying in it.
Chris Gaffney passed away today. One of my all time favorite performers. I knew he was ill with liver cancer. A hard thing to beat. I didn’t have much hope that he would make it but still managed to be shocked when Chris Laurence called this afternoon with the news that he had passed this morning.
My heart goes out to his wife Julie and his family.
I have Gaffney’s “Losers Paradise” on an ancient beat up tape cassette. Amazing that it still plays considering how much wear it got. I feel fortunate that my neighbors always tolerated my obsessive and unrelenting taste in music. Some days that tape would get played three times in a row. Loudly. Very loudly.
Back in the day I would sail down the highway toward a night of dancing blasting his music, singing “take the right turn off the wrong road and take it all the way” at the top of my lungs. It revved me up for the evening and wound me down when I got back home. Any road trip I went on was started off with a round of “I’m on the road to Indio”.
I played that tape three times today. Loudly. Very loudly.
I thought that man was the bee’s knees. His voice sounded like gravel mixed with melted chocolate. He had a face full of character and a head full of whacked out sensibilities. He took those sensibilities and turned them into great songs seasoned with acidic dry wit.
One night at the Alligator Lounge my friend Betty Sword and I were swooning over him. When I told her that I was going to ask him to autograph my chest, she said “Your not going to do that. What are you? Sixteen?” Not being one to resist a double dog dare, I ran to Gaffney with pen in hand. I ended up with an autograph that delayed bathing for days.
I haven’t seen Chris Gaffney in years. He quit playing in the LA area, I got to where I wasn’t going out as much. I wasn’t willing to drive that far.
He also changed bands. I had a hard time believing that I would like his new group The Hacienda Brothers as much as his original band The Cold Hard Facts. But of course they would be good. He wouldn’t have been with them if they weren’t. I heard how great they were but regrettably never saw them.
I took if for granted that I could go see The Hacienda Brothers some day when I was a little less tired.
Its been a very sad day
Always play your favorite tape very loudly and never take things for granted.
