Jesus. All of this. Starting with I'm in no way qualified or really inclined to weigh in and yet I think I can remember in some detail every encounter I had with the man - and reading the outpouring, it has become clear that he had hundreds of thousands of encounters like this, all of them marked by respect, intelligence, and humor, as were mine with him. So affected by the stories was I, I had a dream about him last night. He was crying. I was crying. I hugged him and assured him no one ever dies. Everything that ever happened keeps happening. No idea wtf. But clearly the *idea* of Albini burns bright in everyone who ever met him, and many who didn't.
Proper words. I've been struggling with how to talk about Albini for a while now because I left Chicago before he began changing and, possibly, apologizing for his earlier fuckery. It just seemed like, at the time, he was a walking mess of cynicism - whether it was on stage, at a party, at the "Wizard," or even visiting the store to check out what "crap" we were peddling. In the end, I'm glad he developed a bit more gracefully in recent decades. I've had to rely on the words of others who were real friends and neighbors as well as well-written tributes like this one to come to some peace with this loss.
Jesus. All of this. Starting with I'm in no way qualified or really inclined to weigh in and yet I think I can remember in some detail every encounter I had with the man - and reading the outpouring, it has become clear that he had hundreds of thousands of encounters like this, all of them marked by respect, intelligence, and humor, as were mine with him. So affected by the stories was I, I had a dream about him last night. He was crying. I was crying. I hugged him and assured him no one ever dies. Everything that ever happened keeps happening. No idea wtf. But clearly the *idea* of Albini burns bright in everyone who ever met him, and many who didn't.
Thanks for writing this! I read that article in The Guardian a while back and it really stuck with me.
Thank you very much for this. We all are grappling in our own way, but the sense of community in loss tempers the sorrow.
Thanks for this, Peter. Well said
Great text, Peter. Thanks for not getting into the “we were best friends”, “i knew him so well” kind of thing that happens when someone like him dies.
Proper words. I've been struggling with how to talk about Albini for a while now because I left Chicago before he began changing and, possibly, apologizing for his earlier fuckery. It just seemed like, at the time, he was a walking mess of cynicism - whether it was on stage, at a party, at the "Wizard," or even visiting the store to check out what "crap" we were peddling. In the end, I'm glad he developed a bit more gracefully in recent decades. I've had to rely on the words of others who were real friends and neighbors as well as well-written tributes like this one to come to some peace with this loss.