a handshake is worthy if it's all that you got

i miss bill.

bill berry,that is. he was the drummer for r.e.m. in those halcyon days...

i've never heard anyone say bill was one of the great drummers,but he's one of my faves,along with stewart copeland(police),larry mullen jr.(u2),and strangely enough,phil collins.i especially love his drumming on howard jones' 'no one is to blame'.

got into these thoughts while listening to my much-adored reckoning/file under water,the album with the UGLIEST album cover ever. well,maybe not...some of those metal bands have some really really ugly album cover art,which i'm sure is the point.

bill really rocks on this record especially...pretty persuasion is amazing. i think i loaned out my 'dead letter office' cd which includes the 'chronic town' ep,on which there's an amazing murder mystery song called 'stumble' which is carried along by the amazing drumming.

oh,and i'm pretty shy but once i was with some more outgoing folks and i got to meet bill after a show in boston and he even let me give him a hug.
i'm such a dork.

Another Greenville, another Magic Mart, Jeffer, grab your fiddle

p.s. bill is,thankfully,not dead. as far as i know,he's still running his farm in georgia these days.