Yes, you swung gently into that good night.
Why rage against a fortune none of us can fight?
You kept a twinkle in your eye through tear-blurred sight
Your smile held tight
You were right
About it all.
Everything that could fall
Within your ambit
You devoured with relish
From Woody Allen to Void Philosophy
And anything covered in tempura
And that perennial smile.
You seemed a nomad
But you were at home
Anywhere you could hold a guitar or fiddle
And play – any style just seemed to flow
Out of that bow
That’s why I thought of you
That December morning outside the always-open
Sun Diner, as the street came to life with drums being tuned
As resonators slid into harmony
And somewhere a sweet, sweet fiddle swinging into brightness out of the shade.
I never found it. I looked in each bar before I hopped
On the trolley but it had stopped
Before I reached The Hall of Fame.
Between the chapel and Studio A
Some mournful echo seemed to say
Come home. So home I came.
But you were there that day.
And you were there when the spring sun
Dappled it’s way into the early evening of your last room
And twig-frail as you were
You held my hand and some spirit passed to me
You were gifted into that single, surprising, strong grip
Holding onto whatever it was we’d shared over half a century
Rubber lobsters in Snowdonia,
Pushing the old yellow van in the snow
Breakfast with a steel band and a fireeater
Crunching through broken glass
When a milk churn exploded by the Foyle stage
Everything that kept us smiling, when a tear was the most obvious option
And charged me to keep it alive.
The spirit of Frunk.²
The caress and courage of country.
The love of life however it comes at you.
And at the end no fear. No pity in that last note.
Just frog to frog, till the next session opens
For the next dance.
¹ Members of various iterations of the folk-rock-dance band Oscar the Frog perceived themselves as part of the “Frog” family. Founder polyglot/polymath Steve Sutcliffe died from throat cancer in 2024 having become terminally ill in December 2023. I was in Nashville when he was hospitalised.
² A blend of folk-rock and funk.
.
Stephen A. Linstead
Picture Nancy Sutcliffe personal collection
.