Monday, August 22, 2005
Vassar Clements died last week.
That doesn't mean much to a lot of you I'm sure but suffice to say he was one of the world's best -- maybe THE best--fiddler who ever lived.
He appeared on over 2,000 albums.
He could play anything -- bluegrass, blues, jazz, rock, you name it. The classical section of the CD store might be the only place where you wouldn't find an album with Vassar on it, and I imagine I'm probaby wrong about that.
He appeard on countless must-have albums. Three you should go to Amazon and buy right now:
"Will The Circle Be Unbroken" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band;
"Aereo-Plain" by John Hartford;
"Old and In the Way," by Old and In the Way.
Vassar even shows up in the lyrics to one of my own songs: "Fiddle and Banjo Crap."
I have Vassar's autograph on a Holiday Inn cocktail napkin. I got it because my parents came up to visit me in Flagstaff one weekend and they stayed at the Holiday Inn. I met them there for breakfast one Saturday, as it happens, the night after a Vassar Clements show at a local bar. As luck would have it, there we were, eating breakfast when into the restaurant walks Vassar and his band. I quickly asked my dad for a pen and went over and got his autograph, which he was happy to give to me.
Clements was amazing live. I hope you got to see him. If not, I have something on you.
------
Not that I plan to sell it, but thinking about Vassar's autograph got me thinking about all the autographs I've gotten and LOST. And how much those autographs could get me on E-bay now if I'd only known about such things when I was younger.
SECOND BIGGEST LOST AUTOGRAPH THINGIE:
The program from the dinner thrown for Bob Uecker when the Milwaukee Brewers hired him to announce their games in 1971 (Bob continues to be their announcer to this day). On the dais that night, and among the people who autographed my program that night, were (among others): Uecker, Bud Selig, then the owner of the Brewers, now the commissioner of MLB, and Ferguson Jenkins, who of course ended up becoming a Hall of Famer.
ABSOLUTE BIGGEST LOST AUTOGRAPH OF MY LIFE:
Dwight Eisenhower.
When I was about 12 my Aunt Peg gave me some certificate she got for some kind of volunteer work that she did in the 1950s. She got to go meet the president, who presented the certificate, which was signed by him. I had this thing in a frame, and knew exactly where it was until the day we moved to Arizona from Wisconsin, after which I NEVER SAW IT AGAIN.
I hope whoever stole it lost it before HE found out about E-bay.
OTHER PEOPLE WHO'VE SIGNED THINGS AND I'VE LOST THEM:
Baseball: Billy Williams (Cubs Hall of Famer), Earl Weaver, Rollie Fingers (A's/Brewers HOF'er; GOD I'm an idiot);
PEOPLE WHO'S AUTOGRAPHS I KNOW I HAVE BUT I CAN'T FIND THEM AT THE MOMENT:
Eddie Mathews, Dick Van Patten, Harry Chapin.
PEOPLE WHOSE AUTOGRAPHS I KNOW I HAVE:
Vassar Clements, John McEuen, Members of the band Lindisfarne, Franklin Pierce, Leon Redbone, Laurie Anderson, Bo Diddley (twice!) Richard Thompson, William Hanna and Joe Barbera, and THREE MEMBERS OF THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: Don Preston, Jimmy Carl Black, Bunk Gardner (but alas, no Zappa);
And Penn and Teller. They are no longer sticky. Looooong story.....
I'm going to DragonCon next week and Roger Dean, who produced some of the best album covers for some of the most overblown piece-of-shit bands of all time (read: Yes and Asia), will be there. I'll probably plunk down the dough to get a poster with his autograph on it 'cause I really like his artwork.
I'm also figuring that since most of the people are going to this con to meet the Weasley twins from Harry Potter and the cast of FIrefly, there won't be a big line to meet Roger Dean.
For Roger's sake, I hope I'm wrong.
TT
That doesn't mean much to a lot of you I'm sure but suffice to say he was one of the world's best -- maybe THE best--fiddler who ever lived.
He appeared on over 2,000 albums.
He could play anything -- bluegrass, blues, jazz, rock, you name it. The classical section of the CD store might be the only place where you wouldn't find an album with Vassar on it, and I imagine I'm probaby wrong about that.
He appeard on countless must-have albums. Three you should go to Amazon and buy right now:
"Will The Circle Be Unbroken" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band;
"Aereo-Plain" by John Hartford;
"Old and In the Way," by Old and In the Way.
Vassar even shows up in the lyrics to one of my own songs: "Fiddle and Banjo Crap."
I have Vassar's autograph on a Holiday Inn cocktail napkin. I got it because my parents came up to visit me in Flagstaff one weekend and they stayed at the Holiday Inn. I met them there for breakfast one Saturday, as it happens, the night after a Vassar Clements show at a local bar. As luck would have it, there we were, eating breakfast when into the restaurant walks Vassar and his band. I quickly asked my dad for a pen and went over and got his autograph, which he was happy to give to me.
Clements was amazing live. I hope you got to see him. If not, I have something on you.
------
Not that I plan to sell it, but thinking about Vassar's autograph got me thinking about all the autographs I've gotten and LOST. And how much those autographs could get me on E-bay now if I'd only known about such things when I was younger.
SECOND BIGGEST LOST AUTOGRAPH THINGIE:
The program from the dinner thrown for Bob Uecker when the Milwaukee Brewers hired him to announce their games in 1971 (Bob continues to be their announcer to this day). On the dais that night, and among the people who autographed my program that night, were (among others): Uecker, Bud Selig, then the owner of the Brewers, now the commissioner of MLB, and Ferguson Jenkins, who of course ended up becoming a Hall of Famer.
ABSOLUTE BIGGEST LOST AUTOGRAPH OF MY LIFE:
Dwight Eisenhower.
When I was about 12 my Aunt Peg gave me some certificate she got for some kind of volunteer work that she did in the 1950s. She got to go meet the president, who presented the certificate, which was signed by him. I had this thing in a frame, and knew exactly where it was until the day we moved to Arizona from Wisconsin, after which I NEVER SAW IT AGAIN.
I hope whoever stole it lost it before HE found out about E-bay.
OTHER PEOPLE WHO'VE SIGNED THINGS AND I'VE LOST THEM:
Baseball: Billy Williams (Cubs Hall of Famer), Earl Weaver, Rollie Fingers (A's/Brewers HOF'er; GOD I'm an idiot);
PEOPLE WHO'S AUTOGRAPHS I KNOW I HAVE BUT I CAN'T FIND THEM AT THE MOMENT:
Eddie Mathews, Dick Van Patten, Harry Chapin.
PEOPLE WHOSE AUTOGRAPHS I KNOW I HAVE:
Vassar Clements, John McEuen, Members of the band Lindisfarne, Franklin Pierce, Leon Redbone, Laurie Anderson, Bo Diddley (twice!) Richard Thompson, William Hanna and Joe Barbera, and THREE MEMBERS OF THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: Don Preston, Jimmy Carl Black, Bunk Gardner (but alas, no Zappa);
And Penn and Teller. They are no longer sticky. Looooong story.....
I'm going to DragonCon next week and Roger Dean, who produced some of the best album covers for some of the most overblown piece-of-shit bands of all time (read: Yes and Asia), will be there. I'll probably plunk down the dough to get a poster with his autograph on it 'cause I really like his artwork.
I'm also figuring that since most of the people are going to this con to meet the Weasley twins from Harry Potter and the cast of FIrefly, there won't be a big line to meet Roger Dean.
For Roger's sake, I hope I'm wrong.
TT
Comments:
Oddball autographs: I've got Jimmy Hoffa's, Jeffrey Dahmer's and Mojo Nixon's, but I seem to have lost Bruce Campbell's.
My dad once had John Wayne sign a $5 bill, which he spent on beer a short time later. :-)
See ya at DragonCon!
Debora K.
My dad once had John Wayne sign a $5 bill, which he spent on beer a short time later. :-)
See ya at DragonCon!
Debora K.
# posted by 
: 7:52 PM
: 7:52 PM
Deb: I forgot -- I have Mojo Nixon's autograph, too, as well as Skid Roper's.
Definitely can't wait to see you guys! See you next week!
TT
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Definitely can't wait to see you guys! See you next week!
TT
