THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT: THE SUNNY SIDE OF MY STREET with THE "MIGHTY MEZ" - SONGS TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD - EPISODE #47: TIKI TORCHES AT TWILIGHT by David Lindley and El Rayo-X (1988, Elektra)

David Lindley was one of a kind - The ultimate sideman. “The Prince of Polyester” played a mind-boggling array of exotic stringed instruments and musical genres with swing and inventiveness. One of the pillars of the Southern California folk-rock sound that dominated the airwaves in the 70s, this Sancho Panza to the dueling Quixotes of Jackson Browne and Ry Cooder was founder of the legendary 1960s world music pioneers Kaleidoscope, and deeply beloved. When he went solo I guess it was too hard to pin him down commercially. For example, this satirical Hawaiian Slack-Key pastiche is one of several styles covered in his “Very Greasy” album - which also includes a cover of the Temptations Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone and Bobby Freeman’s Do You Wanna Dance (in a Ska rhythm). It’s a brilliant evocation of a drunken, middle-class, luau themed office party. He was a humble genius, I suspect. When my wife went to see him in Santa Monica I asked her to have him sign my Kaleidoscope CD. She told me that when he saw it he was touched, remarking that he was surprised that anybody still listened to it. On the contrary, it remains a precious reminder of a musical giant who once bestrode the earth.