Jay Bennett R.I.P

[cambot]

Sad. That's all that cen be said.

 

Just sad.

[Guest Jules]

Not all of us, apparently. New frontrunner for Insensitive and Pointless Post of 2009.

That's his thing.

[schoenfraun]

I hate to jump into this thread in this manner, because I know we are all trying to be respectful, but we need to be adults and look at this without the idol worship. Its quite apparent from reading "learning to die" and the various quotes from people about Jay since his passing, especially the guy from Blues Traveler, and just seeing the way he acted the few times I saw him in public that Jay had been addicted to pain medication for a long time. Plus, a degenerating hip at that age is a sign of alchoholism and/or drug abuse (see Eddie Van Halen) I have been around a lot of junkies in my life, and it sucks to see someone go down that road, but thats were he went. Its sad.

 

 

As I posted yesterday, Jay's friends and family members are checking in on this list every once in while--granted, not to read "idol worship"-type stuff, but just to see how folks/fans are doing, and to remind ourselves that Jay reached a lot of people out there in his short time with us.

 

I'd like to think I'm fairly adult, and I know JerseyMike doesn't know me...but I don't think he knew Jay, either. Apparently he gets his information from books written by music critics and fans (talk about "idol worship"), other "various quotes," and the comments of the Blues Traveler dude who worked with Jay for a few months. JerseyMike saw Jay a "few times...in public," when Jay was going through some bad times, but I wonder what he might tell us about the many times he spent privately with Jay. I'd be interested to hear more about them. But perhaps he didn't have much time to spend with Jay because he was hanging around with junkies instead.

 

Jay was a close friend for a long time, and I witnessed ups and downs, but it pains me to read comments like this from someone reading the equivalent of TigerBeat. Jay was never a "health nut," to be sure, he put off doctors' visits, he smoked a lot, and he loved junk food. Years of jumping around on stage, eating that way, smoking, and being otherwise sedentary, always in the studio or at home, all likely contributed to his deteriorating health. He actually fell on that hip again while pulling a stupid stunt during the filming of a Wilco video; during a break, he grabbed a column and extended himself out parallel to the floor as best he could, sort of a "hey, look at this" kinda thing, and the second he did it he fell right on that same hip, hard. It kept him from jumping around on stage a lot more in the period that followed immediately, but he still always put on a great show with Wilco. I think that split-second joke exacerbated his TLA-era hip injury.

 

As friends and family members, we've all been concerned about Jay's health for years, and we acknowledge the struggles that he had. We're not naive and we're not trying to rewrite history. But people who didn't know Jay, people who saw him once or twice, or even dozens of times, or who get their opinions based upon books, shouldn't be declaring that Jay was a junkie. The people who lived their lives with him know that he was not.

 

Of course, I know there no reason for you to trust me on this, y'all don't know me, either.

 

But to make an analogy, I'm a huge Who fan (for whatever reason...can't explain) and I've read virtually everything I can about them for decades. I have seen them in concert (post-Keith). I know what has been written about them by their drivers, their fans, the hagiographers.... But I would never spout off online that I know anything valid about them, that I have a valid or informed opinion about any of them as people, what they were truly like, or what their habits and behaviors are. I have nothing to tell you about Keith Moon or Pete Townshend, nothing at all, other than I love their music, it's brought me a lot of joy, and their work is meaningful to me. We all know what's been written about their escapades.... But I wouldn't dare presume to tell you anything about them as individuals. I have no experience with any of them.

 

Perhaps it's not the best analogy, but....

 

Please let Jay rest in peace, celebrate his music, his contributions to a band we all love, to the records we love to listen to. Please don't waste screen space with your personal judgments and uninformed, flat statements when--to give only the punchline to a joke that Jay liked--"You don't know...you weren't there."

[Guest Jules]

As I posted yesterday, Jay's friends and family members are checking in on this list every once in while--granted, not to read "idol worship"-type stuff, but just to see how folks/fans are doing, and to remind ourselves that Jay reached a lot of people out there in his short time with us.

 

I'd like to think I'm fairly adult, and I know JerseyMike doesn't know me...but I don't think he knew Jay, either. Apparently he gets his information from books written by music critics and fans (talk about "idol worship"), other "various quotes," and the comments of the Blues Traveler dude who worked with Jay for a few months. JerseyMike saw Jay a "few times...in public," when Jay was going through some bad times, but I wonder what he might tell us about the many times he spent privately with Jay. I'd be interested to hear more about them. But perhaps he didn't have much time to spend with Jay because he was hanging around with junkies instead.

 

This is not JerseyMike's first trip down asshole lane. Pay no mind.

[Oil Can Boyd]

Please let Jay rest in peace, celebrate his music, his contributions to a band we all love, to the records we love to listen to.

Nicely put, schoenfraun.

And (just a suggestion) that might be a nice way to close this thread ...

[kidsmoke]

I'd rather not close this thread because I think the grieving continues and there are members who'd still like a place to express themselves. Also, I think JerseyMike's comments have been neatly refuted here so I'll leave that be, but add that of course most of us here are offended by comments of that sort & don't agree. Any more speculation of this type will be removed without comment. Get it, people....totally inappropriate and frankly heartless and arrogant to presume you "know" things based on hearsay and speculation. Don't post it here.

[mpolak21]

I hate to jump into this thread in this manner, because I know we are all trying to be respectful, but we need to be adults and look at this without the idol worship. Its quite apparent from reading "learning to die" and the various quotes from people about Jay since his passing, especially the guy from Blues Traveler, and just seeing the way he acted the few times I saw him in public that Jay had been addicted to pain medication for a long time. Plus, a degenerating hip at that age is a sign of alchoholism and/or drug abuse (see Eddie Van Halen) I have been around a lot of junkies in my life, and it sucks to see someone go down that road, but thats were he went. Its sad.

 

This just shows such poor taste and judgment on too many levels to even get into it. I'll leave it at that.

 

--Mike

[pillowy star]

As a German who thankfully has access to immediate hip replacements if needed, it deeply saddens me that one of my alltime favorite music heroes, someone who like Jeff is hugely responsible for me still being sort of sane, had to pass away due to being forced to use something that killed him in the end, just because he couldn't take the pain anymore. Since I read about the likely cause for his death, I am trying to come to terms with this, and I am still kind of at a loss for words.

 

I miss you, Jay

[LouieB]

This pre-existing condition shit is exactly what we need to get rid of with health care reform. The man should have been able to get what has become relatively routine surgery and solved his pain. I don't really care how or why Jay passed away, but at least resolving this issue could easily have made his quality of life far better.

 

For all of those who say Obama is just like Bush, at least he wants to do away with the issue of pre-existing conditions as a reason to deny people treatment.

 

LouieB

[mattstrike]

I know y'all are here to be able to talk openly and say what's on your minds...but again, consider following Bob Andrews' advice and don't spread rumors or bother with speculations when, in fact, you may know nothing.

 

Jay's friends (like me) and family miss him terribly. This is very hard for us. I like to visit this forum and read other folks' blogs and posts because I'm seeking to validate my hope that people really did love Jay's work and recognize his immense talents.

 

So it's hard to face people's comments when they're negative, or when they're purely speculative, as the one above. I hate to pick on the one dude here, but....

 

Jay had chronic hip pain for years. It was quite deteriorated. He was using the patches as prescribed. Many of you may be aware of the recent recalls of this product due to manufacturers' defects that caused the gel to leak from the patch. Contact with the gel can be fatal. We don't know if the patch he last used was defective or not. We don't know anything about it. It's possible he could have punctured it himself when trying to take it out of the package or put it on. We don't know anything like that at this time. It's just sad because it seems like something that, clearly, did not have to happen.

 

And, again, to put the insurance "thing" to rest: Jay did have insurance, but the corporation considered his hip injury to be a pre-existing condition, and so they chose not to pay for any part of it. His insurance dilemma could happen to any one of us and likely will; his encounter with Big Pharma, churning out these problematic patches year after year, lawsuit after lawsuit, also may happen to us or our loved ones, too.

 

It's hard to read comments like the one above because, while the member's heart may be in the right place, he shouldn't be making such statements unless he's Jay's physician. His parents, other family, and friends are still out there and still dealing with this enormous loss. I can't even tell you how hard this is for us.

 

Just keep him in your (good) thoughts, when you can. Listen to the music he gave us and enjoy it. We miss him.

 

Thank you. Well said.

 

And as someone who can relate to living with extreme chronic pain every day (I have permanent nerve damage in my neck), it really irks me when folks make assumptions about medications and the prescribed use of those meds. Especially when they obviously know nothing about it, except perhaps what they gleaned from a Wikipedia entry. Chronic pain and the medications we have to take to regain some sense of normalcy, are all too often met with cries of "junkie" by people who's only reference is an article in People about some idiot abusing Oxycontin. The truth is, when even the strongest pharma-opiates are used correctly, they are very safe, and more importantly, helpful.

[schoenfraun]

I don't know if any of you saw the DeRogatis blog post the other day, but it made me a bit angry; apparently I'm not the only one. See the post below:

 

http://rockproper.com/blog/jay-journalism-and-health-care.html

 

Within this post is a link to the crappy DeRogatis blog post, as well as a nice piece written by a fan who became an e-mail friend of Jay's. That story is great, I think, in that it demonstrates what a sweetheart Jay was. I miss him, those marathon conversations in person or on the phone, hours and hours, laughing or getting into serious discussions or arguments. Jay could talk about anything, it seemed: film, architecture, bad TV, politics and government, education, physics and mathematics, fiction.... It was just non-stop.

 

He was kind, I just wish you all could know, he loved to talk to people, to find out what their interests were, to share ideas or hear jokes or whatever. I think the writer's personal story (again, through this link above) shows Jay's sincerity and deep kindness, that he befriended someone who really just wanted to say "hi, I like your music." That's what made Jay special, I think. He was such a sweet person, an amazing intellect. Unbelievable, really. I'm still in total shock, and it's been a month...

[eisler]

i wouldnt be the wilco fan i am today if it weren't for jay, and in all honesty feel that they have lost something since his departure. rip jay.

 

 

I totally agree with you.

[greyhippo]

I haven't been round here in a long while and was just passing through looking for info on the new album when I saw this thread. Shocked and stunned and deeply saddened. A tragedy for anyone so young to die so needlessly. There is no reason for anyone to be judgmental, what good does it do? My thoughts are with his family and friends.

[dylan_1]

The song "One Wing" reminds me of him and JEff. I dunno.

[grateful dead]

but it hurts sometimess.

[choo-choo-charlie]

Back in '05 I walked into a record store at school looking for some Wilco, not having heard the group and being extremely curious, due to my friend's constant raving about AGIB. All the store had was Summerteeth, I bought it, and life was never the same. That's the record that pulled me in and sparked my obsession with all things Wilco. I remember forcing my roommate to listen to "She's a Jar" about 1000 times...

[conezone]

I remember forcing my roommate to listen to "She's a Jar" about 1000 times...

 

haha... man i think weve ALLLL been there. "wait. wait.. listen to the end. listen to the end. awww man... hits you out of nowhere right?"

[Wilco Worshipper]

Summerteeth...and life was never the same. That's the record that pulled me in and sparked my obsession with all things Wilco.

That's the one that did it for me too. I listened to it back and forth during my commute every day for like three months straight.

[joshead]

So this isnt pinned anymore?

[Ghost of Electricity]

when was Jay's last show with Wilco?

[ginandcigarettes]

when was Jay's last show with Wilco?

 

I have it as July 4, 2001

[choo-choo-charlie]

I have it as July 4, 2001

 

Get the recording at Owl & Bear. It's of great quality and it almost serves as a "greatest hits" of the time for that lineup and has some nice live versions of YHF tunes...gives one a perspective how those songs might have sounded had Bennett remained in the band after that show.

[Ghost of Electricity]

getting it now. thanks owl and bear.

[jff]

I got my new issue of Tape Op magazine yesterday in the mail. There's a really nice Jay Bennett tribute/story at the end of the issue. It's far and away the best thing I've ever read about him. I doubt it's available online, but I might have time to transcribe it tomorrow.

[jff]

I've transcribed below the Tape Op article about Jay Bennett. This is the best thing I've read about him since his passing. Despite his falling out with Tweedy/Wilco, I can see from this article why it must've been inspiring to work with Jay.

 

-----------------------------------------

 

Jay Bennett, by Jason T. Lewis

 

I feel like I have to say a little about Jay's passing. He was one of those rare people that came into my life at a time when I was ready to learn and he taught me more than I can say about recording, music and how to be an open, giving presence in life. He taught me how to hear and record music in ways I'd never imagined. And now I'll never have the chance to properly thank him. I am profoundly grief stricken.

 

I got the chance to record with Jay back in 2002-2003. I was just coming out of my band of six years and Jay was not long out of Wilco. I needed to do something on my own, but i felt I needed a guide. Jay and I had met several times before, and when I had a batch of songs together I got in touch with him and went out to Chicago for a week to work on the songs - just the two of us. When I got to the studio I came up the stairs to the loft space and found the door open, a pile of stuff in the stairway, an acoustic guitar with a throw rug duct taped to it and a trail of blood leading into the studio. What the hell was going on? I called out. There was no answer. I ventured into the space, following the trail of blood until I found Jay asleep on an air mattress in a back room. I woke him up and he told me he'd been recording the night before and was trying to get a mic flown as high as he could in the stairwell, when the mic stand broke and the mic fell and smashed him in the face. That explained the blood.

 

I tell this story because to me, that's what Jay was all about. He was willing to try anything to get the sound, anything at all, and sometimes at his own peril. In the course of those sessions we hung an amp from bungee cords in the same stairwell at it's highest point and blasted a drum loop through it so we could have the natural reverb of the space. We crtanked a Vox AC30 about as loud as it would go at 5 a.m. with all the windows open to get the guitar sound we needed for that song. I learned so many other little tricks from him that I can't catalog them all here. generally we would work from 1 p.m. to 6 a.m., sleep a few hours and then get back to it. One morning, about midway through the week, I crashed and Jay kept working. I woke up hours later to find him in the control room, working on a bass part for one of the songs. He said "I just finished three bass parts for this song - one's crazy, one's in the middle and the last one's simple. Listen to them and decide which one you like." Then he went off to sleep. He was so bleary that he could barely keep his eyes open as he wandered away, but it was clear that nothing had been more important to him than getting those bass parts out. He had to get them. And as soon as he did, he was released.

 

Jay was a unique musician and recordist, but not simply because of what he could do. On my project, it was what he wouldn't do that stood out to me. I expected to go out there, play him my songs and then he'd work his magic on them, play a ton of instruments and that would be that, but we got a couple days in and he hadn't played a single note. I kept trying to get him to do stuff and he was reluctant. Finally he just said, "Look, I could do that. I could play a bunch of stuff and I could Wilco all over your record, but then it wouldn't be you. You know what you want and I know that you can do it. I'll step in when I need to." I was floored. I can't tell you how much it meant to me at that time in my life to have someone say that to me. After that moment we were equals in the project. I had confidence in what I was doing. There are not a lot of folks as gifted as Jay was who could step away and let someone else do their thing and trust what was happening.

 

That's the Jay Bennett that was absent from the I Am Trying to Break Your Heart documentary, and largely from the public eye - the enigmatic artist willing to try anything at all to get the sound, including letting someone else make it if that's what was right. Toward the end of that week we were listening to what we'd done, talking about mixes and what needed to happen to get the project completed. Sitting there in the control room he turned to me and said, "I'm really glad you came out here to make this record with me, but you know, you didn't have to. You knew what you wanted these songs to be. You had the vision. You didn't need me." It meant so much for him to say that. But he was wrong. I did need him, even if it was just to give me that confidence to know I could do it myself. This was his gift to me, and I'm sure countless others who had the priviledge to work with him. That's why he was a very special man.

 

Thank you, Jay. You meant a lot to me. You did everything you could to get the sound. Now rest in peace.