Damn, we’ve lost another great one. While reading the excellent Any Major Dude blog (see the link on this page) earlier today, I saw the “In Memoriam” list of musicians that died last month, and was shocked to see that Jackie Leven had passed away on November 14. I was playing his album Lovers at the Gun Club at home last night, totally unaware the great singer-songwriter and guitarist had died.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I didn’t hear about it at the time. I was travelling in Myanmar that week, in Mandalay to be exact, so I wasn’t exactly tethered to my normal online realm. But even if I had been home in Bangkok, sitting in front of my PC, I’m not sure that I would have heard about Jackie Leven’s passing right away. He never garnered much press outside the UK and the death of such an “obscure” musician would not have been a hot topic on the various wire services that day. Doubly sad.
Like Gil Scott-Heron’s death earlier this year, I feel a personal sense of loss with the passing of Jackie Leven. I loved the albums that his old band, Doll By Doll, made in the late 70s and early 80s, and the many solo albums that Leven has recorded in the past two decades have moved me deeply. He wrote emotionally potent songs, all caressed by a sweet, almost angelic voice. Although Leven received a smattering of critical raves during his career, I don’t think he ever really earned the positive press that he deserved. For example, my favorite music magazine, Mojo, has never done a proper article on Jackie Leven to my knowledge. I suppose there will be the obligatory obituary, but probably not much more. It’s a tragedy that he was so under-appreciated by the musical movers and shakers.
I wrote about Jackie Leven earlier this year on this blog.
https://garlicneversleeps.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/jackie-leven/
garlic never sleeps 