One of the great songwriters of our time has passed on.
Mark Moss, the editor of Sing Out!, writes the following:
Here's what I've cobbled together since I got a call this morning: Jack was diagnosed with cancer a few weeks ago, but was adamant that no one was to know, so, beyond family, very few of his friends were even aware he was sick. He finished his first round of chemo yesterday, which left him very weak. He was experiencing discomfort in overnight, they upped his morphine, but he passed in the early hours this morning.It doesn't yet seem possible to me that a person as full of life and full of swagger as Jack could no longer be among us.
Note: With respect to the commenter who suggests that this post should be taken down in accordance with Mark Moss's admission that he announced the news hastily and without fully taking into account the extent to which Jack's family had been informed, after briefly taking down the post, I have decided to repost it. Jack's Facebook wall has been covered in remembrances; his Wikipedia entry has been updated based on the original blog post; and Steve Ide, Sharon Goldman, Jonathan Byrd and presumably others have begun to share the news in other places. Certainly, I mean no disrespect to Jack's family and only wish to have the post up in tribute to his memory.
3 comments:
This is indeed sad news -- but as far as being 'gone', Jack touched the lives of his friends, family and fans too deeply to ever be completely gone. He was one of a kind, a true bard with immense talent and the generosity to share it. Saying that he'll be missed doesn't begin to cover the feelings...
and in his next message posted a few minutes later, Mark writes:
"Dear Everyone -
I had no right to pass this info along, and I want to apologize for
stepping beyond my bounds with any of the info I passed along. This
is all very new, and fast, and difficult for the family ... so can I ask that everyone please give folks time to digest what has happened. Regardless of my intentions -- which I how everyone know came from a try admiration of Jack and his work -- it was really not my place to put any info out there ... please, for Jack's family and close friends, it would be great if my mistake didn't get compounded."
We should respect Mark's wishes.
Source: http://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1103b&L=folkdj-l&T=0&O=D&F=0779056992689685&S=&P=51888
I just spent the past 30 minutes reading the reminiscences on his Facebook page. It left behind that strange set of contradictory feelings that are always associated with the death of someone so special: sadness for the loss, gratefulness for all that he left behind.
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