Thursday, December 12, 2019
Dear Leon,
I didn't even know you were a composer and an organist, man! We recorded three radio shows of my music and you never even told me you were a musician yourself!
I was a kid and figured you were just some guy with culture and a good ear, kindly manner toward just-starting-out singer-songwriters. I figured you'd studied Music History or English or something...
So you were a composer and even scored films...and yet you made me feel like I was gifted, that I had a future as a composer although I could barely write music.
So I've been trying to get in touch for months, lately via Holly, who I didn't even know was your daughter until I read an article about you. It's her agent who wrote me back today.
The last time I saw you, you let me crash on your couch in St. John; it was '82 or '83 and there was a baby. You might have told me about your being a composer and an organist that night except Jacqui--who I'd just met--and I talked about "The Boys on the Bus" and Watergate and journalism. lol
And you knew I was from Boston but I don't even remember you telling me you loved the Red Sox--my childhood revolved around the Sox! When they finally won the World Series, I was on the phone from Montreal to my grandfather in Boston within seconds--he'd been waiting 86 years…
So why have I been trying to get touch?
Because I wrote a book that you (and especially Jacqui) would like and I wanted to send it. And I wanted to tell you that I graduated in Composition from U. de Montréal...and thank you for helping that happen.
Plus, ever since I found out you were a composer and an organist--an organist! do you know how hard an instrument that is?! I guess you do but you'd say it wasn't all that hard, being modest--I've wanted to apologize for not asking you more about YOU.
Here's something your kids don't know...That last recording session we did? After having done one with my band and one with my band in concert, you let me come in and do a bunch of songer-songwriter stuff, JUST me and my guitar. You joked about it being music from my "embryo period".
But it allowed me to travel from Montreal to Moncton to spend a week with my girlfriend. That's the main reason you let me do it, to be a nice guy, a producer who brings people home and feeds them and lets them sleep over. A friend.
I'll miss your being on this planet, man. And I send my love to Jacqui and Holly and the ex-baby and everyone else in your tribe. But I'll always remember the glow...in your eyes and smile and the very skin of your face, the warmth, the encouragement, the love.
--Dan MacLeod
