RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
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RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
RIP to Jesse Winchester....he was a talent who clearly stole the show this night at the Apollo! very glad to have been there for this legendary performance. see EC in awe and Neko Case brought to tears. what a song he sang for us all...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uKGWpqnS8E
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Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
What?!? My God.
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Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
Yet another great artist I came to know through Elvis.
RIP Jesse.
RIP Jesse.
If you don't know what is wrong with me
Then you don't know what you've missed
Then you don't know what you've missed
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Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
bronxapostle wrote:RIP to Jesse Winchester....he was a talent who clearly stole the show this night at the Apollo! very glad to have been there for this legendary performance. see EC in awe and Neko Case brought to tears. what a song he sang for us all...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uKGWpqnS8E
Sad news, this really is a cracking song.
I was off work a couple of Fridays ago and the show was reshown on SKY arts here in the UK.
RIP Jesse
Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
ah geez.
here's mr. toussaint in tribute last fall when he fell ill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXvBD5T9za4
here's mr. toussaint in tribute last fall when he fell ill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXvBD5T9za4
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Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
nice to hear. amazing how many reliable places had it that he was gone last night!
Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
That's really great! AT is total class!jardine wrote:ah geez.
here's mr. toussaint in tribute last fall when he fell ill.
Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
cling to life. my. now that i've already felt his passing, i"ve found that my affection for him is greater than I thought. jesse, thanks, another little lesson taught.
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Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
RIP for real this time.
Memphis-bred songwriter Jesse Winchester dies
including:
Memphis-bred songwriter Jesse Winchester dies
including:
In early April, several blogs and Twitter accounts reported his death in error, setting off a wave of premature tributes. “Elvis Costello sent me a lovely condolence note,” said Cindy. “When he learned that the rumor of Jesse’s death [was] false, Elvis replied, ‘Jesse continues to be a very surprising fellow.’”
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Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
AMEN! go with God, Jesse!
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Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
Had a chance to meet Jesse at a coffee house gig in a Montreal basement during my undergrad, about a decade ago (thank you, Yellow Door!). What a sweet, lovely man. Will be missed.
I saw Diana's show in Oakland tonight and she played a tribute to Jesse (I Wave Bye Bye, with Dennis Crouch & Stuart Duncan), dedicating it to his wife and family.
RIP
I saw Diana's show in Oakland tonight and she played a tribute to Jesse (I Wave Bye Bye, with Dennis Crouch & Stuart Duncan), dedicating it to his wife and family.
RIP
Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
An Elvis-laden tribute from the LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mu ... z2z4cemMR3
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mu ... z2z4cemMR3
Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
Jesse adopted Montreal and we adopted him.
That first album played and played , it brings back great memories of long ago heady times.
Who knew back then that some kid in Liverpool was dreaming to the same soundtrack.
Thanks for the tunes Jesse.
That first album played and played , it brings back great memories of long ago heady times.
Who knew back then that some kid in Liverpool was dreaming to the same soundtrack.
Thanks for the tunes Jesse.
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Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
Elvis writes about Jesse...
http://www.elviscostello.com/news/jesse ... out-it/576
"Jesse Winchester - Quiet About It"
It is a disquieting experience to read of the passing of a dear acquaintance, gather ones thoughts, dispatch a note of condolence and have it returned to sender…
I had just landed in London on the overnight flight from New York when news of the passing of Jesse Winchester came over the wire.
Knowing how bravely Jesse and his wife, Cindy had come through one battle with cancer only for him be confronted by a second untreatable condition, I wanted to send my respects to the family immediately.
Remarkably, Cindy took the time to reply to me within the hour, saying with startling good humour and understanding that my kind words must wait for another day, as the reports of Jesse’s passing were premature.
Roll over Beethoven and tell Mark Twain the news…
I apologized for any distress my note might have caused and concluded hopefully, “Jesse continues to be a very surprising fellow”
It was humbling to see that Cindy shared this exchange with the Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis, when just a week later I landed in Australia to once again read reports of Jesse’s passing.
This time, I feared it must be the truth.
Since then, I’ve been recalling how kind Jesse had been to me, when as a novice musician I’d approached him in a London club in 1976 to tell him how glad I was that he had written “Midnight Bus”, as I could snare a restive crowd at the clubs and coffee houses that saw no charm in my own quiet songs but would respond to that song or Jesse’s risqué and philosophical gem, “Do it”.
Actually, “clubs and coffee houses” is a phrase for our American readers, as it would be slightly romantizing the location, which was actually a dismal creperie that I played for change on the occasional wet Tuesday night.
However, my compliments to Jesse were utterly sincere.
Like many people I had first encountered Jesse as portrayed in the stark, grainy black and white cover of his first, self-titled album, an edgier affair than almost all of his other recorded output.
He looked like a cross between D.H. Lawrence and a revolutionary dissident facing the firing squad.
The songs were pretty good too.
They were better than “good”, they were as enduring and resonant a group of songs as any produced by his early 70s songwriting contemporaries who went on to sell records in the multi-millions. It is a mystery to me that this success eluded this most gifted, if self-effacing, of writers.
One of those early songs, in fact Jesse’s first composition, “Brand New Tennessee Waltz” contains these beautiful lines:
“When you leave it will be like I found you, dear
Descending Victorian stairs”
It’s an entire storyline implied by fourteen words.
The occasional arcane reference in the language seemed to have something in common with the songs of The Band and Robbie Robertson did produce that first record and play some of his best guitar on the rockers like “Payday” which itself includes two of the funniest lines in any rock and roll song:
“I’ve got me this long-legged gal to help me to spend my dough
Her heart as big as your Mama’s stove and her body like Brigitte Bardot”
A more typical tone of elegantly restrained balladry was established from Jesse’s “Third Down And 110 To Go” onward.
That said, the album did include the romp of, “Midnight Bus”, a kind of rocker with a romantic twist:
“Ride me, ride me, far and wide me
I’m young and I am curious”
This was a sentiment that spoke to me when I had not ventured further than the late night bus or Underground train to the suburbs, after another dispiriting night of having my own songs ignored.
However, many of Jesse’s songs that I’ve carried with me over the years are those that seem suitable for playing in the late and hushed hours while an infant was sleeping in the next room. This is how I understand some of them to have been written and this is how I learned them.
“Nobody told me about this part”
That line comes from Jesse’s superb song “A Showman’s Life”.
It speaks of the romantic disillusionment of a tarnished vocation but it is a song utterly without rancor, bitterness and self-pity. If the author had ambitions they were poignantly expressed in this song and not pursued in any undignified fashion in his career.
Jesse’s songs were covered by many highly successful performers who happened to be good judges of great songwriting from Joan Baez to The Everly Brothers and Emmylou Harris.
There was even a decade in which Jesse took a step back from the performing spotlight and had many successes as a songwriter in Nashville before so much of the output of that town came to resemble the bad outtakes of a Glam-Metal band with a decorative fiddle.
When Jesse had followed his conscience over the border to Montreal rather than to Vietnam in the mid-60s, he ended up playing in a rock and roll band called Les Astronauts that dressed in space suits, which is perhaps a little hard to imagine for the author of the more thoughtful and measured, “Skip Rope Song”, “Defying Gravity” or “Dangerous Fun”.
However, the silly heart rock and roll remained present in Jesse’s songs from “The Nudge” to the extraordinary “Sham-A-Ling Dong Ding” from his penultimate album, “Love Filling Station”. It was a celebration of the nonsense lyrics to which people attach their heart’s desire.
Now I had briefly corresponded with Jesse when I wrote some liner notes for his “Best Of Jesse Winchester” collection. I say, “corresponded” - I wrote my words on the core of an Apple and received a letter of thanks written with a fountain pen in an impeccable hand - but Jesse and I were to meet again properly in 2009 on the stage of the Apollo Theatre in Harlem when he was one of the guests on the television show, “Spectacle”.
It was approximately 39 years after I’d first heard him sing on record and it was worth the wait.
This edition of the interview and performance show of which I was briefly the host took the form of a guitar pull, in which contrasting songwriters sang and spoke briefly in turn about their experiences.
If I tell you that Jesse’s performances that day had the effect of making Ron Sexmith’s beautiful singing seem as if it embodied the showiness and bombast of say, Freddie Mercury, then you will get the idea of the restraint and poise of Jesse’s performances.
He both stole and stopped the show with an astounding rendition of his then current song, “Sham-A-Ling Dong Ding”, which brought members of both the crew and cast to tears and left me speechless and almost unable to continue the taping.
I’m struggling to convey how it felt, better still see it for yourselves…
http://www.elviscostello.com/news/jesse ... out-it/576
"Jesse Winchester - Quiet About It"
It is a disquieting experience to read of the passing of a dear acquaintance, gather ones thoughts, dispatch a note of condolence and have it returned to sender…
I had just landed in London on the overnight flight from New York when news of the passing of Jesse Winchester came over the wire.
Knowing how bravely Jesse and his wife, Cindy had come through one battle with cancer only for him be confronted by a second untreatable condition, I wanted to send my respects to the family immediately.
Remarkably, Cindy took the time to reply to me within the hour, saying with startling good humour and understanding that my kind words must wait for another day, as the reports of Jesse’s passing were premature.
Roll over Beethoven and tell Mark Twain the news…
I apologized for any distress my note might have caused and concluded hopefully, “Jesse continues to be a very surprising fellow”
It was humbling to see that Cindy shared this exchange with the Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis, when just a week later I landed in Australia to once again read reports of Jesse’s passing.
This time, I feared it must be the truth.
Since then, I’ve been recalling how kind Jesse had been to me, when as a novice musician I’d approached him in a London club in 1976 to tell him how glad I was that he had written “Midnight Bus”, as I could snare a restive crowd at the clubs and coffee houses that saw no charm in my own quiet songs but would respond to that song or Jesse’s risqué and philosophical gem, “Do it”.
Actually, “clubs and coffee houses” is a phrase for our American readers, as it would be slightly romantizing the location, which was actually a dismal creperie that I played for change on the occasional wet Tuesday night.
However, my compliments to Jesse were utterly sincere.
Like many people I had first encountered Jesse as portrayed in the stark, grainy black and white cover of his first, self-titled album, an edgier affair than almost all of his other recorded output.
He looked like a cross between D.H. Lawrence and a revolutionary dissident facing the firing squad.
The songs were pretty good too.
They were better than “good”, they were as enduring and resonant a group of songs as any produced by his early 70s songwriting contemporaries who went on to sell records in the multi-millions. It is a mystery to me that this success eluded this most gifted, if self-effacing, of writers.
One of those early songs, in fact Jesse’s first composition, “Brand New Tennessee Waltz” contains these beautiful lines:
“When you leave it will be like I found you, dear
Descending Victorian stairs”
It’s an entire storyline implied by fourteen words.
The occasional arcane reference in the language seemed to have something in common with the songs of The Band and Robbie Robertson did produce that first record and play some of his best guitar on the rockers like “Payday” which itself includes two of the funniest lines in any rock and roll song:
“I’ve got me this long-legged gal to help me to spend my dough
Her heart as big as your Mama’s stove and her body like Brigitte Bardot”
A more typical tone of elegantly restrained balladry was established from Jesse’s “Third Down And 110 To Go” onward.
That said, the album did include the romp of, “Midnight Bus”, a kind of rocker with a romantic twist:
“Ride me, ride me, far and wide me
I’m young and I am curious”
This was a sentiment that spoke to me when I had not ventured further than the late night bus or Underground train to the suburbs, after another dispiriting night of having my own songs ignored.
However, many of Jesse’s songs that I’ve carried with me over the years are those that seem suitable for playing in the late and hushed hours while an infant was sleeping in the next room. This is how I understand some of them to have been written and this is how I learned them.
“Nobody told me about this part”
That line comes from Jesse’s superb song “A Showman’s Life”.
It speaks of the romantic disillusionment of a tarnished vocation but it is a song utterly without rancor, bitterness and self-pity. If the author had ambitions they were poignantly expressed in this song and not pursued in any undignified fashion in his career.
Jesse’s songs were covered by many highly successful performers who happened to be good judges of great songwriting from Joan Baez to The Everly Brothers and Emmylou Harris.
There was even a decade in which Jesse took a step back from the performing spotlight and had many successes as a songwriter in Nashville before so much of the output of that town came to resemble the bad outtakes of a Glam-Metal band with a decorative fiddle.
When Jesse had followed his conscience over the border to Montreal rather than to Vietnam in the mid-60s, he ended up playing in a rock and roll band called Les Astronauts that dressed in space suits, which is perhaps a little hard to imagine for the author of the more thoughtful and measured, “Skip Rope Song”, “Defying Gravity” or “Dangerous Fun”.
However, the silly heart rock and roll remained present in Jesse’s songs from “The Nudge” to the extraordinary “Sham-A-Ling Dong Ding” from his penultimate album, “Love Filling Station”. It was a celebration of the nonsense lyrics to which people attach their heart’s desire.
Now I had briefly corresponded with Jesse when I wrote some liner notes for his “Best Of Jesse Winchester” collection. I say, “corresponded” - I wrote my words on the core of an Apple and received a letter of thanks written with a fountain pen in an impeccable hand - but Jesse and I were to meet again properly in 2009 on the stage of the Apollo Theatre in Harlem when he was one of the guests on the television show, “Spectacle”.
It was approximately 39 years after I’d first heard him sing on record and it was worth the wait.
This edition of the interview and performance show of which I was briefly the host took the form of a guitar pull, in which contrasting songwriters sang and spoke briefly in turn about their experiences.
If I tell you that Jesse’s performances that day had the effect of making Ron Sexmith’s beautiful singing seem as if it embodied the showiness and bombast of say, Freddie Mercury, then you will get the idea of the restraint and poise of Jesse’s performances.
He both stole and stopped the show with an astounding rendition of his then current song, “Sham-A-Ling Dong Ding”, which brought members of both the crew and cast to tears and left me speechless and almost unable to continue the taping.
I’m struggling to convey how it felt, better still see it for yourselves…
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Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
It's interesting that Elvis mentions "Midnight Bus," which was incorrectly reported as performed in Fremantle. Perhaps Elvis told this story before playing "Quiet About It," and that was the source of the confusion?I’d approached him in a London club in 1976 to tell him how glad I was that he had written “Midnight Bus”, as I could snare a restive crowd at the clubs and coffee houses that saw no charm in my own quiet songs but would respond to that song
Re: RIP JESSE WINCHESTER!
nice post from EC on JW. Definitely from the heart. He make-a-me cry...