Missed Linkous

...AMONGST THE SHIT AND LIFE WE LOST THIS YEAR, LET US RECOUNT MARK LINKOUS.

...will I have anything to say about a guy who changed my musical tastes?
Keep checking this blog. I intend to add thoughts.
This one hurt as much as Vic Chestnutt and Mik Miano; Hunter, too, yeah. Geez.
So much left for us to witness without them and this whiskey is...
SPARKLEHORSE

SPIRIT DITCH
I want my records back
and that motorcycle gas tank
that I, spraypainted black
the owls have been talking to me
but I'm sworn to secrecy
...and oh HELL...lest my friends think that I don't mourn the passing of Dr. Van Vliet, too, here is something:


I woke up in
a burnt out basement
sleeping with
metal hands
in a spirit ditch

the moon it will rise with such
horse laughter
it's dragging pianos to the ocean
if I had a home
you'd know it'd be
in a slide trombone

I woke up in
a burnt out basement
sleeping with
metal hands
in a spirit ditch

(mum on answerphone interlude)

I woke up in
a burnt out basement
sleeping with
metal hands
in a spirit ditch


...I remember the day I found the album VIVADIXIESUBMARINETRANSMISSIONPLOT in the stacks at Vintage Vinyl...I was with my dear friend, Marcia Pandolfi. We had eaten and had some drinks at the old Cicero's. I saw this case with the colors and the blurred visions and the mashed up title indicative of Beefheart's TROUTMASKREPLICA. Why this association? I don't know.
I used to get drunk and shop.
Fuck you!
I bought my first NEGATIVLAND album on a similar impulse.
I even remember the transaction at the cash register. The VV cat was very excited to tell us that Mark Linkous aka Sparklehorse had recently taken too many sleeping pills while on tour and had fallen out of bed. His legs had lost circulation and he had to finish the tour in a wheelchair.
This astonished Marcia.
It was only interesting to me because of the enthusiasm with which the merchant delivered it. Of course, it spiced my purchase.
Short story fucked: I loved the album. It is a beautifully lyrical collection and it is ornery as HELL...AND lest my friends think I don't miss the passing of Dr. Van Vliet, check this out, too: