Beautiful May day
Just back from the house
Checked on the roof
Got a call that an old friend died
His name was Butch
He was tough as nails
You couldn’t kill him if you tried
He was tough as an ox but there on the floor he died
Next to a 40. and a hot plate
Next to the sound of a band rehearsing through the walls of a rehearsal space
Butch was always there and yet we took him for granted
Butch was a cool cat from another planet
We though he’d last like a piece of granite
On your grandmother’s kitchen cabinet
We thought he’d always be there like the stars and the moon
But we’re all gonna end up ashes in an urn or bones under a tomb
He’d watch over us down there in the TL
He’d watch us rock out to our music and was always supportive as hell
He worked for Fishbone and George Clinton when he was younger
To be around music Butch had an insatiable hunger
(Butch) Butch could show you respect and uplift your spirit
(Butch) Butch could lay down the law and make you fear him
(Butch) Butch could make you laugh and smile if you earned it
(Butch) Butch had that Sunny Liston stare down if you deserved it
I remember Thanksgiving out at my house just a few years ago with Caroline and
Butch and Nathan. We watched Drugstore Cowboy and Butch gave Caroline tips on
how to cook a turkey. She thought Butch was charming and sweet and he really
took to her too. Matt Dillon’s character in Drugstore Cowboy was after Dilaudid,
the Holy Grail of pharmaceuticals. Butch knew what Dilaudid was.
He was older than me so there were things you didn’t have to explain to Butch.
There were things he just got and understood. When someone is older than you
always take the time to listen to them. A person older than you knows something
that you don’t. At the very least Butch knew what it meant to be black and born
in 1952. Do you? Because I don’t know shit about that. I remember the wood
burning stove and the heat was really cranking in the living room.
Nathan kept getting up to remove himself from the heat and to have a smoke
outside. But Butch didn’t budge unless he needed to go to the bathroom.
Butch wasn’t the agile mother fucker he used to be and he needed a damn good
reason to get up off of that cozy chair. Butch’s favorite part of the turkey
was the drumstick and when they left, at around midnight or so, Butch took
almost all the leftovers with him. That was Butch. If he was in your backstage
area forget it. He had a relentless hunger and thirst and he cleaned your
backstage area out
Butch makes sure no one stole no microphones
Butch makes sure that safely, you return home
Butch makes sure no one stole your keys to your car or your wallet
Butch makes you clean your own fucking piss off the toilet
There’s no fucking around with Butch
He’d shake you down
He’d put you in check until you felt like a fucking clown
Every day he’d watch the pigeons flutter
He saw the bums sleeping in the gutter
And San Francisco’s tenderloin
He walked the streets but I couldn’t say if he felt joy
And when my time comes for me to die
I hope I see Butch again and to pass some time
I’m sorry man I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye
But I hope you like my little Butch lullaby
I’m sorry man that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye
But I hope you like my little Butch lullaby
This one’s for you
This one’s for you
This one’s for you (Butch)
This little lullaby (x10)
(Butch) Butch was the resident mayor of the tenderloin
(Butch) Butch was into Red Hot Chili Peppers Funky Monks video
(Butch) Butch threatened a guy with a machete who was messing with Equipto
(Butch) Butch was there when I cut Old Ramon in the studio
May 28th, 12:58 AM, 2016
I’m just back from Butch’s memorial. I stopped and got a bouquet of poppies
along the way. It was a sparse attendance when I first showed up but it filled
up pretty quickly. I stayed out back for a while in the alley with a handful of
people sharing stories about Butch almost directly under the room where he died.
Stories ranged from Butch chasing people with sickles, to his times with
George Clinton, to his always entertaining mood swings people encountered over
the years. I asked a friend when it was exactly that Butch began working at
Hyde Street and he said that Butch turned up with George Clinton’s entourage
about 20 years ago or so. That he just never left. He said that there were
several times he wanted to strangle Butch but that he had an unexplainable
affection for him that kept him around. Everyone had a lot of love for Butch,
but seemed to have experienced some kind of confrontation with him except for
me. All of my experiences with him over the years were pleasant and I asked
someone why that was
Somebody said, «Because you’re Mark Kozelek»
And I said, «No seriously really»
And they said, «Well, that’s because you never told him what to do»
That was correct. In all the years I’ve known Butch I have no memory of ever
telling him what to do. I mean I’ve seen him get serious and angry before but
it was always out of protectiveness and he was never hostile towards me.
At some point a couple asked me if I wanted to go smoke a joint with them,
with a group of people, up in the echo chamber. I said well I don’t smoke pot
but sure, I’d be happy to join them and that I hadn’t been in the echo chamber
for years. The last time I was in the echo chamber it had been a storage room
filled with amps and 10 inch tapes. We went up there and a girl liked the way
her singing voice sounded with all that echo. She sounded like Janis Joplin and
we all hummed along and tapped our feet as a joint that looked like a small wet
cigar got passed around. When we left the room several of the people began
climbing the long ladder that leads to the roof. They asked me to join but I
said, «No fucking way, I’m too old». It was late and I was ready to go home.
As I left a band was playing in the main room and lots of pizza boxes were
everywhere and beers all around and girls were dancing. Butch would’ve loved it.
I hugged a few familiar faces goodbye and headed out onto Hyde Street into the
heart of the Tenderloin like I’ve done so many times over the years.
This time Butch didn’t follow me out like he would often do asking me to buy
him a 40