XPost: rec.arts.poems, alt.arts.poetry.comments, rec.music.makers.songwriting   
   XPost: rec.music.makers   
   From: will.dockery@knology.net   
      
   On 1/20/08, Robbie Wright wrote:   
   >   
   > Hey Will,   
   >   
   > My favorite musician died yesterday.   
      
   Really sad... he was one of ther greats, and sadly overlooked by the   
   mainstream.   
      
    His death is getting almost no   
   > press coverage. Could you please forward this on to everyone you know,   
   > like you have before with stuff about like Bob Dylan and others. I was   
   > supposed to email him for Playgrounds, but - now it's obviously not   
   > going to happen.   
      
   I remember that... too bad it never happened.   
      
   > John Stewart wrote, "Daydream Believer," "Runaway Train" and had his   
   > own Top 40 hit, "Gold" which featured Stevie Nicks and Lindsay   
   > Buckingham.   
   >   
   > This was not written by me, but here is what I would like you to pass   
   along:   
   >   
   > My friend John Stewart died this morning in San Diego, California ..   
   > in the hospital he was born in on September 5th, 1939 ... 68 years   
   > ago.   
   >   
   > John suffered a massive stroke or brain aneurysm early Friday morning   
   > in San Diego. Doctors had determined that any difficult surgical   
   > remedies that might have been employed to save his life-- even if   
   > successful -- would had left John immobile and unable to speak. It   
   > wasn't generally known, but doctors had told John in recent years that   
   > he had apparently experienced various minor strokes, likely in his   
   > sleep   
   >   
   > In the early 1970s, Stewart wrote "Cooler Water, Higher Ground," one   
   > of his many highly personalized songs, in which he sang "I was born in   
   > the heat of September, and I died in the cool of the fall ... borning   
   > and dying we do all the time, it don't mean much of nothing at all."   
   > But his passing will mean so much, to so many, around the world.   
   >   
   > John's all-time companion and wife Buffy, and his children -- Mikael,   
   > Jeremy, Amy, and Luke -- were at his side when he passed peacefully   
   > around 7:30 a.m. Pacific time. John never regained consciousness after   
   > collapsing in his hotel room late Thursday/early Friday, and was not   
   > in pain during his time at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego.   
   >   
   > John Stewart leaves a compilation of musical excellence unparalleled   
   > in his time. He recorded over 45 solo albums following his seven years   
   > in the Kingston Trio, 1961-67. He worked all the way up to the time of   
   > his death, having recently completed his latest as-yet untitled album.   
   > It is estimated that he wrote more than 600 unique and highly personal   
   > songs, many of them constituting a modern musical history of his   
   > beloved America.   
   >   
   > He leaves behind a wide-ranging group of fans who have felt a passion   
   > for him and his music that bordered on fanaticism. Chief among them   
   > are the Bloodliners, a hard-core legion of supporters who communicated   
   > via computer everyday in discussing John and his career.   
   >   
   > It can now be said that John was told last summer, shortly before Trio   
   > Fantasy Camp 8, that he was suffering from the initial stages of   
   > Alzheimer's disease. That news was kept from the public in the hope   
   > that his condition would stabilize and allow him to work in the   
   > following years until the disease took its eventual toll. Indeed he   
   > had stabilized in the time since Camp, and was able to bravely perform   
   > several concert shows and do the studio work on his new album.   
   >   
   > If there is a blessing in his passing, it is that he will now be   
   > spared the true ravages of that awful disease. He will not suffer the   
   > gradual personal mental reductions caused by Alzheimer's, though he   
   > had already lost his ability to drive, owing to California law. In   
   > fact, one of the new songs on the upcoming album is "I Can't Drive   
   > Anymore," a typically honest and emotional personal reaction to his   
   > situation.   
   >   
   > Speaking personally, losing John creates a hole in my soul. I had   
   > agonized for months over the Alzheimer's prognosis. But after talking   
   > with many of his friends and family yesterday, I can see that --   
   > facing a debilitating future -- it was -- and this is so hard to say   
   > --the right time for him to go. This is what he would have wanted, in   
   > light of what he ultimately faced.   
   >   
   > Johnny always drew a crowd, and there was a gathering of friends at   
   > the hospital in San Diego over the past two days. Starting with Nick   
   > Reynolds from John's Trio days and his wife Leslie, John's entire   
   > family had been joined at his bedside by longtime sidekick Dave "Dave"   
   > Batti, John Hoke, Chuck McDermott, Greg Jorgenson, John's boyhood best   
   > friend George Yanok, who flew in from Nashville upon hearing the news,   
   > and other family, friends, and acquaintances. A kind of "Irish wake"   
   > was held throughout Friday and into early Saturday, with the friends   
   > and old bandmates sharing many of the limitless John Stewart stories.   
   >   
   > No plans have been announced yet for any memorial observations. I'll   
   > let you know as soon as Buffy decides.   
   >   
   > I'm so sorry to have to write this, to have to tell you this. Outside   
   > my closest family members, John was the brightest light of my life.   
   > This creates an emptiness that can never be filled. If you are tempted   
   > to mourn to great lengths today, as so many of us surely are, we have   
   > to remind ourselves of what a gift he was for all of us. And how lucky   
   > we all were to have had the opportunity to have shared in his amazing   
   > music and stage artistry. We might, each of us, have missed him, you   
   > know. But--lucky for us--we didn't.   
   >   
   > He hated moping around, and looked for the bright side, and laughter,   
   > in everything. He wouldn't even allow me to be 'down' about having   
   > cancer. He even berated me at one point about it. He had amazing   
   > drive, and a creative force within him that was stunning in its   
   > intensity and breadth. And some day his amazing personal songs will be   
   > discovered by a mass audience, and the world at large, and he will   
   > receive the wide-ranging accolades he was denied in his time.   
   >   
   > Trust me. Think about him today, listen to that incredible body of his   
   > work, think about the electric personality we experienced in EVERY   
   > show he did ... in the literally thousands and thousands of   
   > performances in which he gave us everything he had, stretching from   
   > venues big and small, from coast to coast, from 1957 to 2007. You will   
   > smile when you do; and eventually laugh when recalling the magic of   
   > his art and personality. We will not see his like again, but we have   
   > been so lucky to have shared him across the decades -- and found each   
   > other through him, because of him. It does not feel like it, but we   
   > are the lucky ones today. That will become evident in the time to   
   > come.   
   >   
   > Because, like you ... I loved him too.   
   >   
   > Tom DeLisle   
   >   
   > --   
   > Robbie Wright   
   >   Playgrounds Magazine - Reporter/Writer   
   >   www.myspace.com/civilianrobbie   
      
   --   
   "...The authority which derives from having recorded the /definitive/   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)