Great Men Gone

Back in high school, I was hanging out with my friend Jason, and I guess we were talking about The Dr. Demento Show, and he told me that he had something like a dozen episodes that he had taped off the radio. Going through those tapes was a great experience. There were so many strange, bizzarre recordings, some of which barely even seemed like comedy (a weird synth-reggae song called "Duck Butter," for instance). Probably my favorite track on the whole thing was a little tune called "I Got No Common Sense," by Ivor Cutler. It was one of the looniest songs I ever heard. I never learned any more about Ivor Cutler, and never came across any of his albums, although I did finally acquire that song through Napster back in the early 00's.

So this morning, Locust St. posted news that Ivor Cutler has passed away. Funny how you are able to learn so much more about obscure musicians when there's an obituary to be written. I didn't even realize that he played the busdriver in Magical Mystery Tour! Also, can anybody British explain this Joycean sentence from the obit?: "The bicycle was his preferred mode of transport, its cow-horn handlebars in the sit-up-and-beg position in line with his Alexander technique practice." That's a head-scratcher on par with "Other residents regard the inspector's skepticism with the strict rule of no wife, no horse, no moustache, always anger and derision."

Ivor Cutler - I Got No Common Sense (mp3)

And then (well, it's a backwards then), returning to work on my lunch hour yesterday, I was listening to The World (scroll down to find the story), and they were doing a piece on the great Malian blues guitarist Ali Farka Toure, and they kept referring to him in the past tense. Turns out he's gone too. I won't pretend I can do a decent tribute to the man--try Benn Loxo Du Tuco. But I will say that the man made beautiful music. He's featured in Scorsese's own chapter of the PBS Blues series.