I saw him live a couple times (he was mostly East Coast, I mostly West), have all his albums and a copy of his book.
I posted a comment a few days ago on a DU thread including lyrics from Bill's song North: Death With Dignity
I was sad when Bill died. He and Greg Brown did a great album together, Friend of Mine (1993).
In 1994, Greg wrote a song The Poet Game with the verse:
I had a friend who drank too much and played too much guitar
And we sure got along.
Reel-to-reels rolled across the country near and far
With letters poems and songs..
But these days he don't talk to me and he won't tell me why.
I miss him every time i say his name.
I don't know what he's doing or why our friendship died
While we played the poet game.
I don't know if Greg wrote that about Bill, but it seemed likely to me. Bill wrote moody, odd songs and, though I only met Bill at a show, exchanging dollars for a CD, I thought he might be a difficult spirit to know.
But we don't need to worry about Bill now. I got a letter from him just the other day. He said "It's a great life here in heaven!"
And just last night in a bar room, I bought Robert Johnson a beer
Yeah, I know, everybody’s always surprised to find him here
= new reply since forum marked as read
