No, REALLY

I find it interesting the way 'rock deaths' make an impression on me. Because it's often not the way I think it might be.

The first rock death I remember is John Lennon; I was 15, I remember being very upset, I may have cried. Strange, because I didn't know much about him, but Beatle music made up much of my early childhood, so maybe I was mourning 'the end of an era'. I dunno. I also remember feeling foolish later, for having been upset about it. I'd been buying Beatles LPs for awhile at that time, trying to catch up, but it must be remembered that in those days, before Amazon, before the vast reissue market we expect today- there was no perceived reissue market. The majors didn't do that. So, it wasn't trivial finding a Beatles LP... shortly after Lennon's death, I went to the local indy record store (not that there were any chains!) and they had a copy of "'Yesterday' and Today", they'd had it awhile, I really wanted the John Lennon album (Double Fantasy) but no one had it, it was completely sold out everywhere... so I decided to buy Yesterday And Today, even though it didn't seem good value for money. Cotton-picking Capitol reissues. So I go up to pay for it, and the guy behind the counter snorts, "gee, I wonder why you're buying THAT?". I was a bit flustered, I mean, I'd been picking up Beatles albums for awhile... but I couldn't think of anything to say back.


The next rock death that really struck a chord wasn't for another 11 years- in 1991 when Johnny Thunders died. Now, don't get me wrong, I was never a rabid Thunders fan (although plenty of smart people are), but I loved to bits the LAMF record (even "Going Steady"!), and obviously the Dolls stuff is, well, being critique... Johnny's death took awhile to sink in, because I didn't expect it to be a big deal. But, I think the reason it mattered so much to me was that there was nobody- nobody- that seemed more alive, more vibrant on record that Johnny, and the idea that he was dead, even the idea that he could be dead, was at odds with, you know, my Perceived Rock 'n' Roll Reality. I remember wandering around, muttering... 'dead? no. really?' Then I'd put LAMF back on, and just think- no- there's a mistake, it's just a coma, he's had them before, I'm sure.


Now, just as disjointed as skipping from John Lennon to Johnny Thunders, I'm skipping to- the death of Jeffrey Frederick. Unless you've googled your way to this page, it's unlikely you've heard of him. He was part of that sub-genre I've-seen-described-as... acid folk. The best example of this is the legendary Have Moicy album, but a kind of super-group... Jeffrey Frederick and the Clamtones, The Unholy Modal Rounders, & Michael Hurley. Again, the vitality hidden inside those black grooves- surely these people never die! Listening to Peter Stampfel squeeze out Griselda (later resurrected by Yo La Tengo), the forbidden romance of Robbin' Banks, the pop jewel of Sweet Lucy... but through this, Jeff Frederick didn't jump out of the mix, Stampfel steals the show at the end. No, it was Frederick's Spiders In The Moonlight album- pure Jeff Frederick, laid-back, ribald, finding joy in the playing, the singing, the arranging, the writing... singing about rotten lettuce, falling off the toilet seat, Jaunita-I-need-ya, the joys of everyday life ooze forth. Of course, on tiny Rounder records, no one heard the news. And now he's dead. I expect, in our nostalgia oriented culture, he won't fade and be forgotten, or even become a footnote, but rather a growing cult figure, people are always on the lookout for new cult figures, right?