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 Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:36 am Post subject: RIP James Gurley |
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Site Admin
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
Posts: 159
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James Gurley died of a heart attack today 20 December 2009 in a hospital in Palm Springs, California.
I wrote about him just this last week that at The Maritime Hall in San Francisco, sixteen years ago, he played such great solos at our benefit for Chet Helms. He was on fire that night, and we have that on video tape so there will be no doubt about it. When conditions were right, the man could really play.
James was the most unusual person I ever met, a pioneer, a real original, a very funny man and truly alive with an energy that not many people have. When James was around, life seemed to be magnified. Everything was more interesting, had more meaning, was more vital. He kept that energy right up to now, really. He and I did a set of interviews together in San Diego at the beginning of last summer and he was as wry and spry as ever.
When Big Brother lived at our Lagunitas house a few miles from where I am sitting, we all had our first Christmas together, was it 1967? We both had birthdays right around this time and James handed me a small present and growled, “Let’s put the X back in X-mas.” It was a bah, humbug moment that I know he would truly appreciate now. James has gone to the great X two days shy of his birthday, and two days after mine.
For me and for many people, James was the real 1960s, the real exemplar of that counterculture, the forerunner. Peter Albin, Chet Helms and I founded Big Brother and the Holding Company, but James was the spirit and the essence of the band in its early days. He showed us the way as a Zen master would show the way, without sermons, without lectures, with as little talk but with as much humor as possible.
When I met James in 1965, he was going to die in two weeks. Of pleurisy. It was always something. James was such a hypochondriac that I was sure he was going to outlive all of us. Now he is gone.
Goodbye, old friend. Ave atque Vale.
Sam Andrew
Big Brother and the Holding Company
It is with heavy heart that the original remaining members of Big Brother & the Holding Company announce the passing of James Gurley. He died at home of a heart attack on Sunday, December 20th. Our hearts go out to his dear wife, Margaret Nelson Gurley, his sons, Hongo Ishi Gurley, Django Gurley, and his sisters. There will be a memorial for James in San Francisco sometime in January. We will dearly miss this gentle person who was one of the most unique guitarists of our time.
Peter Albin
Big Brother and the Holding Company
James and Margaret
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| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:54 pm Post subject: James Gurley |
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Site Admin
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
Posts: 159
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James Gurley
My first memory of James was after I had met Peter Albin but before I had joined the band as the drummer. I had gone to see Big Brother play at the Fillmore, ‘The Peace Rock’ show, February 10th 1966. The first song they did was “Oh My Soul”. Peter came out front first, singing and playing bass like a madman, but when James’ guitar solo started the whole audience was drawn toward the stage. I’d never seen anyone play guitar like that, heard a sound like that. It was this frenzy of notes that took one to the kind of place that people like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane were trying to reach, not something you expected to hear from a rock band. The energy was incredible. The last song was “Hall of the Mountain King’ and at the end of this song, again this crazed guitar player blew everyone’s mind by embracing and shaking his amplifier and banging it against the stage to produce the sound of thunder and a storm Maybe it was the storm of what was coming in the next two years
After I joined the band James and his wife Nancy became my closest friends. We spent many a nights together in their apartment on Oak Street getting high and rolling on the floor laughing for hours at a time. Those were sweet times in the early days of Big Brother and the Holding Co.
James was the star of Big Brother and then Janis came along.
Much has been written of the following two years but the first chapter of BBHC ended late in 1968. We had, as a band scored the number one album in the world, Janis was leaving the band and James’ life was in disarray. As Sam went off to play with Janis in the Kozmic Blues Band and Peter and I went off to tour Europe with Country Joe and the Fish, James’ life really hit the skids, maybe bottoming out with the death of Nancy from an OD and James being charged with second degree murder for injecting her (he was aquitted)
Now here’s something incredible: After this James re-invented himself and so did Big Brother and the Holding Co as a band, James cut his hair short, started playing the bass, moved out of the City and into my house in Marin for about a month, (during the period of his trial) then eventually bought a house in Marin. He also fathered another son during this period. This was also a very creative and beautiful time for Big Brother and we produced music that I’m still proud of today. James was the bass player, Peter moved over to guitar. James’ bass playing was creative, and unique and it allowed me, inspired me to be just as creative with what I played on the drums. This period again lasted about two years but eventually was brought to ruin by drugs, egos and the weight of our own history.
In the early 80s I lived in LA and James and Robin (his girlfriend and musical partner) would come to LA from Palm Desert and stay at my house. We had some good moments together and I still felt that we were close, were family.
When Robin left James he was really hurting bad and almost suicidal. He came up to LA and I remember driving him back to Palm Desert one afternoon, trying to give him some hope, being there for him in his darkest despair and his despair was as dark and heavy and any I’ve ever known. I took him to an AA meeting. I remember that time as maybe the last time we truly connected.
Big Brother re-united in 1987 and has been performing since that time. James left the Band in 1997. I have decided that at this time I will not write about what happened between James and me or between James and other members of Big Brother. It wasn’t pretty; it wasn’t a happy ‘parting-of-the-ways. Yet despite that, and despite all the things
that happened and whatever negative things he’s said about me or about anyone else in Big Brother over the last 12 years the bottom line is that I still had and have a lot of love in my heart for James and I cried a little yesterday
James was a large personality. He had real charisma. He was as unique an individual as they come. For a moment in time he was ‘the man’. His guitar playing was original and there is no question that his approach to life and music had a profound effect on me, on Janis, on Sam and on Peter, as well as on everyone in the San Francisco music scene of the 60s. I will forever remember him and be grateful that I knew him and that he was a part of my life.
Dave Getz
December 21, 2009 |
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| kozmicthrills |
| Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 3:44 pm Post subject: With Respects |
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Music Lover
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 8
Location: Hamilton ON CA
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Wolfgangs's vault is now charging to download their Big Brother and the Holding Company gigs.What a better time than to write the address below,I'm sure they'd love to be inducted especially now that they've once again paid for the privilege with their dearest blood.For you Janis fans out there,think about it.She'd get in twice once on her own and as a member of Big Brother and the Holding Company.It's about time the boys got another break.They've been still touring up until recently,must of been all the flashbacks from the psychedelics they took in the 60's.Could'nt expect them to learn another trade or to stay home and weep.Groovy ain't in anymore unless you want a home with alot of inexplicable nooks and crannies.
For questions about the induction process, write to the following postal address (the Foundation does not have an e-mail address):
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation
1290 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10104 |
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| tommy-toms |
| Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 11:12 pm Post subject: James Gurley |
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Joined: 26 Dec 2009
Posts: 2
Location: San Juan Bautista
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| I'm not sure where to start with my thoughts about BBHC & James Gurley. I've never really been shocked by the death of celebrites but for some reason the death of James Gurley has hit close to home with me. I guess BBHC being from S.F., I always thought of the band as "our" band, or "my" band. I originally got turned on to Big Brother by my older brothers, and in 1969, saved money from my paper route and went down and bought, along with, The Stones "let it bleed" and Iron Butterfly's, "Inna-godda-da-vida" Big Brother's "Cheap Thrills" Album(Which I still have on my shelf), I was not quite 10 years old at the time! I still listen to that album! It's a little worse for the wear now. I'm trying to articulate my feelings,... The music from that era always and still evokes strong memories for me, it is hard to explain, such golden, unfettered, free times for me(grew up in Campbell, Calif) I've always been a Big Brother(the band) fan as opposed to a Janis Joplin fan, not to take anything away from Janis. I've seen Big Brother many times over the years, and have great memories, I hope to continiue to see them perform, my heartfelt wishes go out to James Gurleys' family and to BBHC |
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| bluesprof |
| Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 1:12 pm Post subject: Big Brother in the Rock Hall |
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Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Posts: 1
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I was the first curator of the Rock Hall and it pained me no end to see Janis get in without Big Brother. Janis obviously deserved to be in, but it was with Big Brother that Janis rose to stardom. And let's not forget that BBHC was a popular SF band before she joined. Cheap Thrills is one of the all-time classic albums. I personally don't believe that anything she did after BBHC surpassed her efforts with the band. You have to understand Rock Hall politics. They are "star f%$#ers" as it were. I could tell you amazing stories, but a great example is how they ignored Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys. Bruce joined the band in 1964 and was on their seminal Pet Sounds album and remained with the band until the 1990s. That's 30 years with the band. If that doesn't qualify you as a real member of a band I don't know what does. But when the Beach Boys were inducted into the Hall he was ignored, left out, excluded. This is typical of the way the Hall approached things. It didn't even come close to changing until the Grateful Dead were inducted and they said, point blank, that unless all their members were inducted they wouldn't accept at all, hence there were 12 people inducted as "members" of the Grateful Dead. Had Janis still been with is one can only assume that she would have urged for the same" inclusion of BBHC as part of her induction.
The list of people who haven't even been nominated by the "board" is embarrassing. ABBA gets in but Steve Miller has never even been nominated. I could go on and on and on, but it was, and still is, a crime that BBHC did not get in with Janis. |
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| Merc8 |
| Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:59 pm Post subject: James Gurley |
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Joined: 20 Feb 2010
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| The first place I landed in San Francisco in 1963 was James and Nancy's apartment in North Beach, a one room place covered in tapestry and oriental rugs. I lived up stairs from them on Pine street and played "spontanous music" with them often. We were all part of the ex-patriot Detroiters involved in the light show magic and the Family Dog productions. I was there at some of the earliest BBHC rehearsals and the first time Janis played with the band in the loft at old firehouse in Mouses' studio. What a memory! James was larger than life with a perception and music talent unlike anyone else. He once sat down in front of us and played classical guitar pieces, some from memory some just made up on the spot for at least an hour without stopping. I remember his astonishment upon hearing Jimmy Hendricks play for the first time at Monterrey, it was the only time I ever saw him in awe of another guitarist. Many many memories and saddness now to learn of his passing. A great and very passionate musician has left the room. Farewell my friend, and my regards to Dave, Sam, and Peter. Best Wishes for the future, James Moilanen. |
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