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POPULAR FOLK MUSIC TODAY, SPRING 1991
Dear Allan:
Dave's letter you printed last fall was so inspiring... Better than any epitaph which could be written about him.
-- Pete Seeger
Indeed it is, and here It is again. Thanks, Pete.
Letter from Dave
Greetings!
Here is a sort of form letter from a guy who is allergic to form letters, but still wants to say the same thing to a wonderful group of people, and that is THANKS!!! So many folks have done so much for me in my time of trouble that I'm frankly over-whelmed trying to reply with the measure of concern that my emotions are giving me. It must be the Libra thing; I never can get a present or compliment or anything nice at all from people without figuring out how I can reciprocate their generosity — but in this situation, I've definitely reach-ed a point where mere words are going to have to try to fill the gap. Maybe none of us can repay the other exactly as wished; I think what actually happens is that we pass the goodwill along the line as best we can, kind of like a bucket in a fire brigade. Love is not to be possessed but to be kept moving at a brisk clip.
LYMPHOMA
What's it like to have lymphoma, some people half-wonder. Well, I used to joke that playing USC in football was like dealing with cancer; now I understand that dealing with cancer is like playing USC, which gives me lots of encouragement, because USC does lose occasionally though it has a tendency to beat you up anyway. So that's primarily what's going on, cancer makes you feel weak and strange and your body starts to look like something you don't want to have, then along comes chemotherapy which really makes you feel as if you had lost a big fistfight yester-day. But after the four days of rockum sockum every three weeks, you notice that symptoms are reversing themselves, familiar proportions and more normal skin and muscle tone are on the way back in fashion, and people start saying that you're looking better all the time. The main effect is on your allocation of energy. Eating, sleeping and taking medicine become your profession, your agenda. Those activities are not to be thought about because the way out of the box is to concentrate on projects as if you were in complete health, so you find yourself constantly surprised by the need to take a nap or to get to some medicine Right Now. At any rate, that's the way I'm going through it. Well-wishers have sent lots of books on the right attitude. I think these things work best if you have a tumor, where you can organize the majority of your body against the of-fending part. My problem is ubiquitous, but so is the solution — every cell is affected, I defend with every cell.
THERAPY
Philosophically, my hash is completely settled — meaning I'm ready for anything so long as it's classy. I watched a Nigerian medical physicist do this lymphoma thing for a solid month in 1975. I'd visit him every day in Stanford hospital. It was very interesting to observe a genius work on what seemed to be his last chapter, but what impressed me was the comfort he drew from his Catholicism, and that's what is happening to me with my Siddha Yoga background. I'm not selling anything but would like to say it's very solid to have pursued a line of inquiry to its very root, to be very comfortable with my notion of who's going to greet me on the other side of the curtain. You can find out what that's all about by contacting the Siddha Foundation Bookstore, P.O. Box 600, South Fallsburg, NY 12279; (914) 434-2000.
SOUL-POWER
Plus, the cavalry seems poised at all times to ride to the rescue for the short-term emergencies. Human beings of every conceivable background and persuasion have been helping me through this, but it's those four A.M. calls that only the Deep Diver comes to answer. Happily, it's very seldom four A.M. and it's been the greatest adventure of all to get to know so many wonderful people, how good they are, how strong they are. When I got to the hospital, I had about two days left in me, and it was the enormous rush of soul-power that people sent my way that gave me no option but to survive, like riding an avalanche in a direction opposite to your doom. Soon the functions of medicine took over, with blood transfusions and oxygen bottles and six meals a day. Coming back to town, I got by on codeine, tranquilizers and sleeping pills which allowed me to put in what resembled a business day, but I found myself jonesing about half-an-hour earlier every day. The painkiller would be due at five but here it was four-thirty and How's About It? So I stepped the whole prescription thing and decided to take it head-on for awhile to find out which part was the disease and which part was the built-in habituation serving the needs of the pharmaceutical industry. After about three weeks I won my freedom, and the trade-off is that I sleep whenever I start to feel lousy, and it fixes me up okay. Not very much gets done, which is why I'm so tardy with my thank-yous, but the body is definitely proceeding with the remodeling 'round the clock.
My principal new area of amusement has been listening to the short wave broad-casts from everywhere. This whole planet is putting itself together faster than it's coming apart. It's beginning to resonate more intelligently — who ever thought they'd be around to witness this level of mutual co-operation? Locally things might be wild and wooly but globally, humanity is on the way to greatness, primarily because the alternative is so unattractive.
MUSIC
Musically, it's almost all listening for me recently. I have thought up a few projects and done a little experimenting in some promising directions, so there will be enough to work on when the energy is available. Four records have endeared themselves to me. and I'm not sure what your taste is, but these are very respectable examples of craftsmanship:
1. The Return of The .Juju King by King Sunny Ade on the Mercury label, endless jolly grooving, lots of simple riffs but play-ing in about four keys al once. Nigeria's most popular musician with over 100 albums out.
2. Sahara Elektrik by Dissidenten on Shanachie: Morroccan tribal singers backed by powerful German synthesizer rhythm section, Over 20% of Berliners are non-European, and this is the music that's being born.
3. November 1989 by Benny Andersson on Mono label (available in Sweden). Benny wrote all the melodies for ABBA. and now he's putting out albums that sound as if they came from 1939, but using the latest technology.
4. readin, ritin and rythmatic by a new British group called The Sundays, I'm not sure of the label, the BBC just plays it a lot. Big, simple, gorgeous tunes. — Well, those are the records I've discovered on short wave, which is not the whole musical story, because with this very letter I'm ex pressing my gratitude to some of the greatest performers and composers of all time. If I were King of the World I'd have a TV series featuring the fabulously talented and compassionate people who have done so much to help me out. But famous or otherwise. I'm remembering everyone in a real down-home way. I wish you would call or come by anytime, and when I get mobile I'll be glad to shake your hand wherever we meet.
SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE
In addition to Western medicine, spiritual discipline and Universal human kindness, there are three other things that are making my life a lot more comfortable:
1. Taoist herbal formulas are rebuilding my body
and keeping me from serious energy deficiencies. These are available from John
Lindseth, 27 E. 13th Street, Apt. 2E. New York, NY 10003: (212) 242-1410. The
Chinese have been at this for 3,000 years.
2. D.A.V.I.D. Junior light-sound unit available from The Enlightened Mind, 37 Mount Vernon, Charlestown, MA 02129, 161fi i 241-0225. Goggles and earphones that produce patterns in the brain-wave range of ecstacy and esthetic paradise.
3. A number of neurological acoustic tapes which work with the frequency-following response of the brain. They give you sounds at the same rate of vibration as the EEG readings of people who are
experiencing states of, shall we say, coherence. My favorite tapes come from four companies, and it's very interesting to read their catalogs.
> Metamusic tapes from
Interstate Industries, Route 1, Box 175, Faber, VA 22938; (804) 361-1252.
> Probe 7 tapes from Valley of the Sun, Box 38, Mailbu, CA 90265; (818) 889-1575.
> The Basic Brainspeak System from the Whole Brain Learning Institute, 609 South Vulcan Avenue, Suite 301, Encinitas, CA, 92024; (619) 632-7771.
> The Mind Power Library
from Gateways Institute, P.O. Box 1778, Ojai, CA 92023; (805) 646-8908.
Well, that's about all the space left on the page. I was going to talk about ten projects I'm working on, but Buckminster Fuller said never show unfinished work, and he, was completely right. Again and again, THANK YOU!
Dave Guard
Dave was a very very important man when he got involved and started the Kingston Trio. He brought a new vitality and brought folk music to a whole new young generation. The Kingston Trio were in great part responsible for the big folk revival sort of thing. Certainly the Weavers would've been a strong force but the Kingston Trio coming along and bringing it to the college students gave it all this youthful vitality and started all the intensity.
And certainly Dave was always very conscious of the music itself right up until his death. He was very involved with sea chanteys. As a matter of fact, he asked me and I went and sang in the chorus on a few of these songs.
He was so involved in the good, traditional music and was a very important part of It. Dave was a very vital man, and an interesting man. You could always get a vast amount of information from him about anything whenever you were speaking with him. It is indeed a great loss.
-- Tommy Makem
Dave Guard, in his work with the Kingston Trio and Beyond, helped to bring the American consciousness of folk music into the mainstream. He was a gifted and important part of our contemporary folk music history.
-- Peter Yarrow
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