Sparkey

Sparkey and me are goin' free style anymore...no percentage in less. My heads lost in Spring.

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Me and Sparkey are drinking tea and watching DIY bands make make it happen outside in the dark on the last day of August. They rolled in from Vancouver CA, and Paris, and Seattle. Go groovin.

Now it's Autumn and the temperature tumbles at night and the sun is bleary and pale today.

Sparkey and me live at the Moonbase sometimes. It's a little safer up here and keeps us from getting way burned up and blown out (which happens too often when we're not careful). It's best. It's like battle armor. With stars.

Yo, Timothy (Hull) on behalf of Spark. Drop a line if you like ~ here; tinker (at) whidbey com.

“Somewhere impossible light still shines…”

Listening to a couple of cuts off the new Ryan Adams record. There’s really not a whole lot here on this record unfortunately. Oh well. But, what there is, is a growing moon above the clouds now that the rain has let off.

Mitch Mitchell was found passed away in a hotel room in Portland this morning. Mitch Mitchell was the drummer in the Jimi Hendrix Experience band. And Mitch Mitchell was the first drummer to change my life.

Three records - that one summer when I was eleven and trying to learn how to play a guitar:

Donovan’s Greatest Hits. Ya, “Epistle To Dippy” is a fantastic song, but more-so the slowed down version of “Catch The Wind” was the first song that I ever played along with. Meaning that I listened to the cut and learned to play a C chord with my pinky finger on the E string on the Third fret and strummed away and then played F and that’s how the song went. It blew through the membrane and helped me understand how to play a guitar.

Second record in that summer when I was eleven was Sticky Fingers. “Sway” was the song off that one. I had never heard a song bigger.

The third record that summer was “Are You Experienced”. Fucking hell. I had never heard a trio play so close to the outskirts of reality before. It was amazing. Mitch Mitchell was the drummer on all three Hendrix records, and by the time that my record collection had a copy of Electric Ladyland the live “Voodoo Child” totally mesmerized me. This was big music for an eleven year old hippy guitar-player kid to discover.

I hope someday I’ll have a little kid and they can have all the fun in the world of discovering records and music. I hope that they might pull a copy of Are You Experienced off a shelf and think “Now, this looks like a weird album” and then give it a spin. And then maybe wonder – “how does he play guitar like that?” And then maybe wonder again, “Check out those drums!!”

Mitch Mitchell passed away last night or early this morning in Portland in the Benson Hotel. Ally and Tess had a little baby boy this morning at eleven. Both parents are well. The little one was asleep when I talked to Ally this evening on the phone. And it was dumping down rain all morning here, and in Portland all day also.

And to you Mr. Mearl Saunders, you passed away last week. Thank you for all the jams that you laid down with Garcia. That record from the Keystone is fucking huge. Thank you for sitting on your houseboat and helping Garcia to learn how to play guitar again. After the coma. You rock sir, and you always will.

So-long Mitch, and thank you for drumming so bad-ass with the trio, and for changing my life. I ain’t the only one, that’s for sure. Peace to you on your journey. Thanks again.

(3 years ago)

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