Tribute Thread for the Recently Passed Greats

Last last month it was revealed that Mike Seeger was suffering from Leukemia, and that it had gotten much worse and he declined treatment and entered a hospice. Mike Seeger died last night at home with his family at age 75.Mike Seeger was an incalculable influence on Bob Dylan, and he wrote about him extensively in Chronicles.I saw Mike Seeger last May on the New Lost City Ramblers farewell tour. At the time, I did not know the reason for the farewell, and from Seeger's performance that night, you would have never known anything was wrong or amiss. He was a brilliant musician and a very aware and very hip (in the original and best sense of the word person). He excelled on just about every string instrument imaginable and was the only person I ever saw play fiddle and harmonica at the same time.Here are some relevant quotes from Chronicles:"He was extraordinary, gave me an eerie feeling. Mike was unprecedented. He was like a duke, the knight errant. As for being a folk musician he was the supreme archetype. He could push a stake through Dracula's black heart. He was the romantic, egalitarian and revolutionary all at once -- had chivalry in his blood.""He played on all the various planes, the full index of the old-time styles, played in all the genres and had the idiots mastered -- Delta blues, ragtime, minstrel songs, buck-and-wing, dance reels, play party, hymns and gospel -- being there and seeing him up close, something hit me. It's not just as if he just played everything well, he played these songs as good as it was possible to play them.""I listened to The New Lost City Ramblers. Everything about them appealed to me - their style, their singing, their sound. I liked the way they looked, the way they dressed and especially I liked their name. Their songs ran the gamut in styles, everything from from mountain ballads to fiddle tunes and railroad blues. All their songs vibrated with some dizzy, portentous truth. I'd stay with The Ramblers for days. At the time, I didn't know that they were replicating everything they did off old 78 records, but what would it
have mattered anyway? It wouldn't have mattered at all. For me, they had originality in spades, were men of mystery on all counts. I couldn't listen to them enough."Mike Seeger and Bob Dylan recorded "The Ballad Of Hollis Brown" for Seeger's album Third Annual Reunion (available on Rounder Records). While the person who post this to YouTube has the info totally wrong, you can listen to that version here, which was recorded Los Angeles on May 19, 1993.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8Oz8z26VnE

RIP, indeed.

quote:

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And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead.
--Bob, Masters of War

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Elvis Costello’s hate letter to Thatcher, Tramp the Dirt Down sample lyrics: when they finally put you in the ground, I’ll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down may rank as the nastiest, but Billy Bragg was arguably better known for railing against the Iron Lady in song. He’s had more than one gem on the topic Thatcherites, Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, Between the Wars and will likely trot them out tonight for his show at MacEwan Hall at the University of Calgary.

I think his raising awareness about the environment is one of the reasons that there was an effort to clean up the river.

it says bob Dylan once called him a saint and he responded "what a terrible thing to call someone."