ANOTHER musical legend has left us...R.I.P. Dan Hicks

[Miles Archer]

http://www.danhicks.net/

Daniel Ivan Hicks
December 9, 1941 ~ February 6, 2016

My darling darling husband left this earth early this morning.
He was true blue, one of a kind, and did it all his own way always.
To all who loved him, know that he will live forever in the words, songs, and art that he spent his life creating. He worked so hard on each and every detail -- they are all pure Dan.

So, Duke, Benny, Django and Stephane -- he's on his way -- you'll be laughing soon!

Much love,
CT Hicks
Mill Valley CA
Feb. 6, 2016

[spanone]

1. damn....R.I.P.

K&R...

[panader0]

2. Damn--I never realized his connection with It's a Beautiful Day (through the violinist)

I remember you had their album cover up for a while under your old name.

[Miles Archer]

10. Yep...I had forgotten that.

Got frequent high-fives and positive comments for it too.

[hifiguy]

16. That is a wonderful record

Always has been and always will be.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

19. That was a very popular album!

Everybody loved "White Bird". You can tell I was of a certain age in college, can't you?

Didn't know the fiddler's name but was impressed by him.

Speaking of pop music fiddlers, anybody else remember the guy in The Flock (I think they only put out one album) who played the last page of Rondo Capriccioso by Saint-Saens really fast at the end of one of the songs?

[hifiguy]

20. David LaFlamme was the singer/violinist.

[klook]

24. Jerry Goodman of The Flock

later played jazz with John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Incredible musician.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

29. Yep, Jerry Goodman.

I studied classical violin when I was young and realizing that he was playing the last page of Rondo Capriccioso by Saint-Saens was pretty cool!!! It's basically a bunch of E major scales and arpeggios and it's difficult!

[Miles Archer]

32. Jerry Goodman

I was a big fan of Mahavishnu Orchestra. On his 2001 solo album "Inertia," former Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian featured Goodman on two tracks:

"Inertia" (w/ Steve Lukather on guitar):

and

"Astroglide."

[Gabi Hayes]

40. saw them live at the quiet knight in chicago

either 72 or 73.

I could see the sweat flying off Billy Cobham's sticks as he wore out his kit

never thought the Jerry Goodman I saw with the Flock would end up with this prodigious group.

this is a jump, but why not....one of the most overlooked works ever, especially the entire multi-disc set:

The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions

http://www.willardswormholes.com/archives/9368

dunno how your tastes run, but the above review says it better than I could, and if you're partial to Miles, and haven't heard this collection, you'll be amazed. the backstory contained in the liner notes is fascinating, as well

&index=15&list=RDlizJ4geXuOw

you can spend an ungodly amount of time listening to the youtube playlist to which this cut belongs

I have more miles albums/cds/rips/burns/etc than anyone else-lost count-and Jack Johnson is right up there. how does one choose, though? how can a person rank works of art?

thanks again for the Dorado. I've already listened to Family on Hoopla, the only thing immediately available through my library, but I'll be getting some CDs through Interlibrary Loan

[Miles Archer]

41. I have the "Complete jack Johnson Sessions" box set

I have pretty much every note Miles played with McLaughlin...ALL of the box sets. Other than the Herbie / Wayne / Ron / Tony years, it's my favorite era. "Right Off" is my single favorite McLaughlin performance with Miles.

[Gabi Hayes]

44. yeah...I have vinyl/cd with that group

and the circle closes, from Lifetime (JL Ponty) to Zappa, to Michael Urbaniak/Ursula Dudziak, at last, to the Hot Licks and the incomparable Sid Page, to whom I referred in my first post on this thread. A kudos to the other two violinists, but they were just setting the stage for Sid, and you can read it in the other performers' reactions. They know.

blathering on, but one last....I came here from My Goal's Beyond, long cut side, which, I'm guessing you might know/have, considering what you just wrote.

Pork Pie, and good bye

the above, obviously not from MGB, but closer to the version I saw him do at around the same this one was recorded

[juxtaposed]

3. hicksville

?list=PLngaePRYW_doswtCbvXo-vFg8fBhC3YuG

[2naSalit]

4. Oh Noooo!

I love his music! Have since the early 70s.

He's been performing the past few years, glad I got to hear him.

RIP

[marzipanni]

5. My husband just exclaimed "OH, NO!" from the next room.

We are both saddened by this news.

My little personal story, about meeting Dan.
I have the same birthday, December 9th, as Dan. I turned 21, and he 30, in 1971. We happened to sit next to each other at the bar at the Old Mill in Mill Valley. I was there to celebrate turing 21, and said so, and he said he had just turned 30.
I got the impression he was there to dull the pang of turning the dreaded age of 30. I tried to light-heartedly cajole him into feeling better, and he said, "What do you know, you're just a kid", and continued to nurse his drink.

[musette_sf]

46. A heart to you

for an Old Mill Tavern story.

We shall now have a Virgin Wallbanger toast in Dan's honor:

[Bluenorthwest]

6. That is sad, he was very great.

nt

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

7. I was long considered weird by many friends, but

Dan Hicks and his Hotlicks "Where's the Money" album has always been one of my favorites.

RIP

[dorkzilla]

8. Oh NO!!!

I was just talking with my Dad about him the other day...Dad turned me onto him and I was telling him how funny he was during a gig with the short-lived Acoustic Warriors band was.

Here is one of the best songs from that era. Hysterical...

[Brother Buzz]

12. That violin player is Brian Godchaux

Brother to the late Keith Godchaux, former Grateful Dead member. Brian often plays with ex-SIL (former Grateful Dead singer), Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay in one of her bands.

Dude in the blue suit laying down those hot, hot licks on the Selmer guitar is Paul Mehling. An asshole by most accounts in the music industry, but they grudgingly admit he plays the cleanest interpretation of Django Reinhardt Gypsy Swing.

(Note: the two guys doing "la pompe"; you don't need no stinking drums when you got the pump going, something Dan Hicks, a former drummer, instinctively did with his rhythm guitar.)

[dorkzilla]

15. One of the first gifts my now-husband bought me was a CD of theirs

And Paul Mehling is good but I doubt he could hold a candle to Dorado Schmitt, Django-wise. Plus Dorado has the added bonus of not being an asshole I see Dorado & Co every year at Djangofest, if you haven't seen them, do. They're amazing!

https://m.

[Brother Buzz]

30. Attending The Festival de Jazz Django Reinhardt in Samois-sur-Seine is on my bucket list

There's a good documentary floating around (maybe Netflix), and Dorado Schmitt is prominently featured in it.

Dorado, to his credit, is pushing the envelope of Gypsy jazz. Paul, short of mangling his hand, delivers a sound that even Django Reinhardt would approve of.



My wife and I have known Dan Hicks for years, so we would always catch him when he performed in our neck of the woods. When the Acoustic Warriors were scheduled to play, we scratched our heads but I said, "Hell, I'd go" with an anticipated meeting with him at intermission. Didn't happen!

Lights went down and the members entered the stage, my wife discovered her cousin (by marriage), Brian was playing the violin, and our friend with us also knows Hicks as well (and has been repeatedly asked to join the band), is a world authority on eclectic musical instruments, and zeroed in with laser vision on that Selmer.

At intermission, my wife went and talked with Brian, I went with our friend to talk with Paul Mehling. I learned a ton of stuff about guitars listening to them talk shop. Dan just gave us a nod as we returned to our seats

[dorkzilla]

31. My husband is a jazz guitarist

So I know waaaaaay more than I should about the nuances of all sorts of guitars.

My only personal encounter with Dan was when I was waiting outside a small venue to see him and went up to the window to see if I could catch a glimpse of anything going on inside. Ever the joker, Hicks popped up in the window and scared the shit out of me and we both ended up laughing on either side of the glass. When the set started I was in front and pointed to me and said "sorry if I gave you a few gray hairs!".

So sad he's gone.

[Brother Buzz]

34. I lived in Mill Valley

He was a fixture in my drinking hole back during his drinking years when he wasn't holding court at his Monday night 'Open Mike' at the Old Mill tavern (his drunken antics - yes, ever the joker - at the Old Mill were legendary). The late seventies through the early eighties were not his best years, but he cleaned up his act and was able to essentially launch a second career.



I will miss him horribly.

[BuddhaGirl]

37. I lived in MV from 1999-2011

So had to look up Old Mill Tavern...now Vascos - but there was a cool pic of Dan Hicks in front of the old place

[Brother Buzz]

39. That's Dan's Christmas Jug Band

Dan Hicks had a weird thing about Christmas and all its irrelevance; his Christmas shows were a sight to behold.

I would love to know who painted Dan's cowboy guitar. I wish the photo was clearer so I could nail it.

There were no ferns at the Old Mill when I was a kid. It was just a plain building with classic saloon batwing swinging doors on the corner.

[BuddhaGirl]

42. Wished I could have seen Mill Valley

as it was in the 70's! It is SO different now...the downtown still had some funkyness when we moved there but it's pretty much gone now.

The new Sweetwater is pretty nice, though

[Brother Buzz]

43. The new Sweetwater is the old Masonic hall

Bob Weir owns a stake it it. Not bad for a dyslexic high school dropout who repeatedly dropped acid with Neal Cassady.

In the 50's and 60's Mill Valley was even better. I used to catch trout in the Corte Madera creek (under the lumber yard). Today, all you can snag are dead shopping carts: Times Have Been Better.

[musette_sf]

47. And I too.

My DU handle is a take on "Early Muses".

[Brother Buzz]

53. Ah, I seem to remember you had a business association with our dear friend a few years back.

Early Muses, I have not encountered that album, but I did have a chance to listen to a bootleg reel to reel tape of the Charlatans playing at Brown's Hall, next door to the Duce (2AM club) in Mill Valley. The hall is now the Buddhist Temple on Miller Ave.



To invent a time machine and visit the Red Dog Saloon in 1965 is on my bucket list.

[Gabi Hayes]

36. thanks for that link! great interview/tunes

truly amazing music

django and grapelli set a very high standard.

Schmitt etal carry on in high style

[dorkzilla]

38. you're welcome! Try and see them if you can...

He usually tours in autumn, I always see him in NY in early November and i know he traverses the country but you can usually catch him at the annual Djangofest at Birdland in NYC. He now plays a smaller theater up the river a bit in Peekskill so it seems he's expanding his territory a bit. Last tour, he brought out his youngest son to play with him and the kid was unbelievable! The adorable thing was that Dorado kept going over and hugging the kid when he was done, he was that proud!

[PufPuf23]

9. RIP Dan Hicks. Lots of deaths recently in the music world.

Dan Hicks was in the Charlatans, an early San Francisco rock band, before the Hot Licks.

A reunited Charlatans played a 50th anniversary show in Virginia City, NV Summer 2015.

The Charlatans played in Virginia City to learn to be a rock band and also dressed western.

One of my old friends from high school and concert goer went to the 50 year reunion told me after it had occurred (I would not have gone anyway).

[ghostsinthemachine]

11. Damn, I just saw him too....

He does a Christmas show every year in December and he came to my home venue, the Auburn event Center (Auburn CA). Looked pretty tired then. Also saw him, with the Charlatans in June at the Red Dog Saloon. Since then two of the Charlatans have passed.

[marzipanni]

22. Did they do Carol of the Bells at the Christmas show?

It always makes me laugh, and I get a scat earworm!

[musette_sf]

50. I went to the Freight, and to City Winery Napa

for Holidaze in Hicksville. And I had tickets for the show he had scheduled for 3/5 at the Throckmorton Theatre, "Up From The Vaults".

Re Charlatans: Ferguson passed some years ago. Wilhelm's still kicking. George and Richard also still around.

[musette_sf]

54. Someone took a video in Auburn of "Seasonal Jobs For Christmas"

An instructional film by Dan and Ernie Fosselius:

(the March show was going to have a new instructional film on "How To Be A Dan Hicks Fan&quot

[davekriss]

13. Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks - one of a kind!

Dan, you will be missed, wherever you are now. Thanks for the many hours of fun pleasure you gave my life.

[hifiguy]

14. This has been a horrible 6-8 weeks for music.

Lemmy, Bowie, Pierre Boulez, now Hicks.

[Mr.Bill]

17. He has long been one of my favorites.

You had to be there, but that was some damned important Hippie music back in the day.

[hifiguy]

21. I always got a big kick out of

"How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?"

[Miles Archer]

49. I've quoted that one a million times

I've always considered it to be a kinder, gentler version of Harry Nilsson's "You're Breaking My Heart."

[musette_sf]

51. I am heartened by the fact that

at his last public performance on this Earth with us, he was funny as hell and ripped off a few big Eff Words, as was his wont.

[ghostsinthemachine]

26. Paul kantner, Singe Anderson too.....

Jefferson Airplane....Singe was the original chick singer for the JA who died on the same day as PK.....

[Loge23]

18. This one hurts the most.

We have lost too many great musicians lately, but Dan Hicks' passing is particularly tough to take.
Last night we attended the touring production of the Buddy Holly story at the Sunrise Theater in Fort Pierce FL.
As we were leaving this marvelous show, we were reminiscing about some of the great performances we had seen at the Sunrise over the last ten years. Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks (March 2007) immediately came to mind and were noted. Now today, he's gone.
Frankly, the Dan Hicks show (which was typically fabulous) was truly one of the concert bucket list cross offs for me after following him for the last four decades. He was truly one of a kind and is irreplaceable. Worse still is the fact that Dan's music is dying off. The exacting combination of Django jazz and pure Western swing that Dan built with the Hot Licks is just not heard anymore and that is truly sad.
All of us who grew up to the music and have seen so many of our music "teachers" sail off the planet know that for the grace of God go us all - and will soon enough. May he rest in peace.

[dorkzilla]

23. There is a huge interest in Jazz Manouche now

Django is currently experiencing a resurgence and there are many young practitioners of it. I'm right outside New York City and they even have a local group of teens/early 20s college kids that play some great gypsy guitar (including a girl who is pretty amazing). So maybe they'll also look into Dan's particular manouche/texas swing hybrid and keep it going too.

[RoccoR5955]

25. Geeze. Another musical genius gone.

Sincerest condolences.
Another one whose music shall live on and on.

[ghostsinthemachine]

27. If you like Dan Hicks' style then you will LOVE this.....

The T Sisters.

While a bit more bluegrass, and a lack of a male vocalist, this band reminds me of Dan Hicks...a lot. I can imagine that they will be doing some DH and the HL covers.......

[Botany]

28. Damn "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away."

Last edited Sat Feb 6, 2016, 08:03 PM - Edit history (1)

[Gabi Hayes]

33. God stopped everything at 5:16 of your link

and rested for 2 1/2 minutes, so he could sit back and enjoy his finest creation

[U4ikLefty]

35. Maybe we will get another OP from a "charming" DUer telling us that his music sucked, but

it's a shame that he died.

[musette_sf]

45. two hearts for you in thanks

my heart is broken

[Miles Archer]

48. Thank you Musette.

It's been a tough year. I hope the pace slows down, and soon.

[musette_sf]

52. The O Song

For some, their first introduction to Dan Hicks was via Sesame Street. I present to you today, "The O Song", with music by Dan and animation by Ernie Fosselius.