PERFORMER: Area, Moon Seven Times, Ack Ack
I feel like I met him at Record Service first, but maybe it was a house party or a Mabel’s show?
Back then, in the 80s, I had been in Crucial and Mode Zero and Ack-Ack, and we were doing a lot of gigs. I really liked Weird Summer and went to their shows when I could, and we did a few shows together. Bob Kimbell was in a post Ack-Ack group with me, the Judy Gang. During the Judy Gang year, I got sober, and things started changing for me really fast. I dropped out of the live music scene in late ’87 but recorded songs with Steve Jones for Area. Steve and Nick were also close at the time, and Nick was recording with him too. We have some overlapping tunes there.
We both worked on campus, so it was easy to start dating over lunch hour. We moved in together after several months. This was my first sober relationship. He was sort of struggling too, similar demons. We talked about being in orbit because we were both sort of floating, although also doing a lot of writing, reading lots of books, and talking about big, important, cosmic stuff. Those years were a little rough but very sweet, and we were so young.
When we were together, he was doing some pretty wild music. He and Brian Reedy and I would get together a bit, and the two of them were pretty outside. That was really fun and interesting, but you know, somebody who can write a great pop tune has magic. We listened to a LOT of jazz back then. I don’t remember him trying to play it, but he was definitely absorbing it.
I was with Nick the night Josh Gottheil died. They had been very close, and when Josh got sick again, this was a heavy time, and we talked about it a lot. When he passed, we saw the curtains blow in, and we both felt like he was there for a second to visit Nick. This also happened to me when Nick passed away, and I think I’m not the only one.