Long John Baldry

One of my favourites - Long John Baldry died recently. I hope he was happy in his final years, he was young to die, I think he was only in his early sixties. He lived in the West End of Vancouver, here in B.C.

Before I moved out of the city, about thirteen years ago, I lived in Vancouver's West End. Then it was an area of prostitution and all that goes along with that. It was (and still is), a place where a lot of gay people live. I image John Baldry felt at home there. I hope he had a nice life. I'm playing one of his old records right now, I have several.

I saw John Baldry once, a few years ago. He used to play quite often here in Courtenay, in a restaurant/pub called The Whistle Stop, just a few blocks from my apartment building. Two years before we broke up, x and I went to a "poor man's concert". Baldry was playing at the Whistle Stop, but we couldn't afford tickets, and so we found a solution. The whistle Stop has a big picture window at the back of the building. If a person peers into this window, you look right onto the stage - the band is right there on the other side of the glass, not three feet away. X and I went first to Safeway and bought a barbequed chicken. We had a cooler with several drinks each, in the trunk of the car. We arrived at the Whistle Stop, and took our cooler over to the window. There were plastic milk crates stacked up against the wall, so we arranged them into two chairs and a table between us. We took our seats and waited for the show to begin.

The sound was excellent, we could probably hear even better than the people inside. We were easily able to see the band, they were right there in front of us, big as life. They didn't seem to be able to see us, though a couple of the band members glanced out the window a few times. Baldry sang all his familiar songs, including 'don't try to lay no boogie woogie on the king of rock and roll', and 'black girl'. I got up and danced my heart out.

During intermission, x and I went back to the car and got the chicken from the trunk. We sat at one of the outdoor tables, and ate our meal, then walked around the building for a short stroll along the nearby beach. Suddenly, there was Long John Baldry! He was climbing the fire escape that went up the outside of the building, to a little room at the top where he and the band were staying. One of the other male band members was climbing the stairs ahead of him, and two women were with them as well. I thought Baldry looked a bit worn out. Actually he gave the impression of sad resignation. He was sort of following them up, as though the other three were a seperate party. The others seemed to be in the spirit of things, but not Long John. I remembered that he was gay (or was he bi?), and thought maybe that was why he seemed out of place. I wanted to call out hello to him, but was seized with shyness, and could only stand there looking.

I guess he's singing up there among the clouds now. He has a lot of good company.