Following the demise of notable Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist David Lindley at age 78 on March 3, his long-time collaborator Jackson Browne shared his ideas in a heartbreaking assertion shared with Billboard.
The gifted musician — whose guitar and fiddle expertise made him a go-to collaborator for icons like Browne, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart and others — had been in poor health for quite a few months, based on the Los Angeles Instances. A explanation for demise was not supplied.
Learn Browne’s full tribute to Lindley under in his personal phrases, as he remembers the historical past of their great private {and professional} relationship, and the qualities he’ll at all times bear in mind of his late pal.
David Lindley, the guitarist, lap metal and fiddle participant who gave his character and his inspiration to so lots of my songs, handed away on March third. The outpouring of affection, and the widespread recognition of his mastery has been very transferring. I need to be part of within the resounding refrain of appreciation for his items, however nothing I write appears fairly adequate. Phrases have by no means been sufficient to explain what David Lindley dropped at a tune.
I performed with David for the primary time in a dressing room on the Troubadour in 1969. My pal Jimmy Fadden of the Nitty Gritty Grime Band had introduced him to say whats up, and identified that David had his fiddle with him, saying he would in all probability sit in if I requested him to. I already knew him from the band Kaleidoscope, whose first album, Facet Journeys, was one in all my favourite information.
We began to play my tune These Days, and my world modified. His enjoying was so emotional, and fast – it forged a spell over me and everybody there. It didn’t matter that he had by no means heard the tune earlier than. What he was enjoying made it extra emotional and extra actual than it had ever sounded within the years I had performed it alone.
David was in England enjoying with Terry Reid once I made my first album. When he got here again, I attempted placing collectively a touring band with him, but it surely wasn’t nearly as good as with simply the 2 of us. I made a decision we’d tour that method, as a duo, regardless of having a single on the charts that required drums, bass, and congas to play correctly. We didn’t even play it. We performed quite a lot of songs I had written up till then, some outdated songs we each knew, and songs mates had written. Finally I did have a band with him, and it was a wealthy and diverse musical setting. We co-headlined a nationwide tour with Bonnie Raitt. That was the band on my third album, Late For The Sky.
David is a really massive a part of me – who I grew to become, and who I stay. Nobody ever performed like him. In my later bands, after David left to type El Rayo – X, we’d play the songs’ construction, roughly primarily based on what he had performed, but it surely was, and nonetheless is immediately, as much as the gamers to summon their very own Lindley nature. Good luck! It’s an excellent factor to go for. He didn’t play the identical factor every time. He was at all times exploring, at all times listening to one thing new. At all times within the second.
David’s musical pursuits have been to date ranging, and his genius so evident, he attracted and performed with most of the nice artists of our day. Ry Cooder, Linda Ronstadt, Graham Nash and David Crosby, Warren Zevon, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen. However it was his band, El Rayo – X, that grew to become the wealthy and fertile setting that gave him free rein to develop and blend his influences, and create the distinctive synthesis that can now and eternally be generally known as David Lindley.
With Henry Kaiser, David continued the exploration of world music that he had begun in Kaleidoscope. I’m grateful to Henry for posting his Requiem For David Lindley, and for all the opposite posts and clips on the web that attest to the various completely different cultures David navigated, weaving them into one world.
My very own world is shattered by David’s passing. He was my pal and my instructor. It was with nice pleasure and certainty that I revisited our particular connection through the years. I assume I believed that he would at all times be round.
I’ve been struggling to jot down one thing and publish it for the previous two weeks. It was arduous to start, and it’s arduous to conclude, I assume, as a result of I don’t need to let him go. David was type to everybody, and so humorous. Incapable of uttering a dishonest phrase, or enjoying a dishonest notice. There will probably be tribute live shows, and a documentary about him, for positive. There will probably be methods for us to proceed to have a good time his life. And everyone knows there’ll by no means be one other David Lindley.
