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Audio from the June 14 KPFA tribute to Vince is now available here

The complete playlist is here

I got this in email from Prairie Prince this morning, and he gave me permission to post it here.

Both Vince and Prairie started out in the Phoenix, Arizona, area. Vince was in The Beans; Prairie was in a rival outfit called the Red, White and Blues Band. Prairie eventually joined the Beans, and in the early ’70s they moved to San Francisco and eventually became The Tubes. Prairie also played with Vince in The Affordables, opening some JGB shows in ’92, and he was also a member of Missing Man Formation for a while.

Prairie plays drums with Paul Kantner’s Jefferson Starship Galactic Reunion, and also with the Tubes.

Ode to Vince
1951-2006

the cheshire cat, the cool cat caller,
waterbed loafer, yellow mg
big black cruizer sedan.
Turquoise skids under the catman do.
Monkey posture, cigs n’ beans,
chile n’ reef, ear to ear kind,
red head to toe.
Mucous mambo, samba in the rain,
oh my baby, o, a life in pain.
The comedy and tradgedy of mr. Vw.
An ode to the man,
true blue on report, walkin in the
sand, shortness of breath the
sandman sleeps now, forever, until
the music rises again.
In all the glory that was then.

A musicologist,he taught us to count.
West sider, next of kin baby brother
called “the kid”.
Long way to go home
from high to west high.
Big eyed bean from phoenix.
Oh my, oh my heart, my heart.
The angels’ grin, she sparks
in his eyes, the devil’s red wife.
The beast with ten fingers.
Ebony and ivory keys to every city.
So proud, so dedicated.
Life on the road took the tolls.
Southwestern skies tumble
and fall down with rain on route 66.
Leo the lion fish, the bosa nova king.
Wild indian woman, totem pole life
blows it’s stacks, chopped down
in mid carving, the frog jumps
and cries, the horse swats a fly,
sheds a tear, and flies away from
the smog farm.
Don’t want to wait anymore,
feel it,
feel it coming,
affordables, formation of the missing
man, now the one.
Pima indian patterns on a
broken clay pot, apache tears with a
long, slow burn… all for a song.

Tubular brother where art thou?
Now eaten the cosmos, swallowed you
poland whole.
The dark star, the stark bar,
the long car with the little wheels
in your head telling you
that when you die,
you’re gonna be a long time dead.

P.P. 6-14-06