Whit. We love you and miss you. The world isnt the same without you here. I remember a chain of happy Saturdays when I was teaching songwriting at McCabes, and Whit accepted my invitation to audit my class. So hed meet me here early morning, and wed drive to Santa Monica together talking always about songs and songwriters- about people we both loved the most, like our mutual friend Van Dyke Parks, and Brian Wilson and Warren Zevon and all like Whit who wrote and lived songs every day. And we would always be early for class, so would go and grab coffee and sit in the morning sun, and never was there a moment when there wasnt something to share, to ponder, to laugh about. Whit loved that I asked famous songwriters if there were any colors they linked with musical keys, as many of us have specific ones that often align. When I asked Brian Wilson about this, he had colors for every major key, but for every minor key I named, he said Black. Whit, who knew a lot about darkness even in the sun, loved that, and I heard him tell this story to others. He was a guy who knew music inside-out, intimately. Unlike those who boast, almost, of limited knowledge, Whit believed in learning as much as you can learn about music - about the structure of chords and harmonies and music - and words, of course. He offered as much as I did in our class, though he was ostensibly a student and I the teacher. But we both knew, in songwriting and life, were all students all the time. And sometimes teacher. Thanks for teaching me Whit. I love you brother and I miss you today.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 17:10:14 +0000
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