Singer, songwriter in Weird Summer and producer of One Track Mind
The thing about the B-Lovers that struck me was that AHHHH there’s that jangle sound! I’m such a sixties guy you know, so I was like THERE IT IS AGAIN! And Nick had that tremendous tone y’know? Cute anecdote from when we were recording One Track Mind at Brian Reedy’s house: I always marveled at, and was envious of Nick’s guitar tone. And so he was laying down tracks, and at one point he set it down to take a break, up against the amp. I was like, there it is, there’s the Nick Rudd rig. And I pick it up and plink! Planck! Plink! You know, same old mosquito-ey tone. I sure can’t make it sound like he did. Jesus, so much coming through his muscles, tendons, and fingers.
Early ’85 Nick and I met at the White Horse. Just me and him. We had a beer and he said, ‘I wanna join,’ and I was like, ‘Welcome aboard, Buddy!’ I remember walking out of the bar feeling like I’d just been signed to SONY Records, thinking, ‘HOLY SHIT, Nick is gonna join my band?!’
The moment when I became more keenly aware of the alchemy at work with Nick was when we did Incarnata. I went into it like it’s gonna be a Bob solo record, but it would be great to have Rick play bass and Nick was up for playing some guitar, and when those guys started playing it was like shit, I know what this sounds like. So it became a Weird Summer record. The song that really pointed it out to me was Waiting Out The Night. Nick had a demo, so he had an idea of what was going on. When we started playing it there sitting across from each other, he was like, “Oh yeah, I was thinking of something like this” and he puts a capo on the fifth fret, and played that contrapuntal guitar line right off the bat. I was like HOLY SHIT! He took it to a dimension I had never conceived of. Remarkable. All through making that record, it was holy shit. He once called up and said “I was put on earth to play guitar on your songs.” But then three weeks later, it was ”I dunno about this three guitar thing…”
The One Track Mind record: the game plan going in was to cut it, mix it, get the cover work done and send it out before he has a chance to change his mind. I thought that turned out great, and I really loved the alchemy working the other way, just serving his songs so all of us who loved his music so much could enjoy it.
He was in it for the art, not to get girls or be a pop star, like so many of us. I’m sure he found great solace in the music he loved, and he just, when it came time to do it, he could come to it with full intensity. And he was an intense guy. When you’re making music it’s all focus and it’s just hey, I’m putting this across. And he was able to do that with great intensity and with obvious valid concurrent emotion.
So lucky to be able to play music with him. I feel extremely grateful for that. Sorry we didn’t get the chance to do more. We talked about it a bit, you know, over the last several years. Haltingly, because we were aware of the good chemistry.
I did have a very profound experience when he passed away. I had had a beautiful day. Kenny Draznik sent me a birthday greeting. Then, notice of Nick’s death. So I got up and went to the living room. I have extensive metaphysical beliefs and I just sat down and said a prayer for him, asking all the light beings to make his transition as deft as possible. And I just said Nick, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you were in this much pain. I just told him, man, your music, and your guitar playing was so great, and man, when you played on my stuff…. and I just felt his energy merge. He just moved in for a hug. It was profound.