Endless War
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As soon as news of Bill’s death started getting around, I saw the most beautiful tributes on social media. From family to bandmates to close friends to acquaintances and fans. It makes me sad, everything makes me sad but it’s been so comforting to see how loved he is, to have my whole feed just be Bill for a few days.
I’ve been struggling to write much myself. How do I sum up someone I’ve spent almost all my time with for over 25 years? Someone who did so much to foster the punk scene, playing in an unreal number of bands that never followed trends but sometimes started them, setting up shows, putting out records, recording bands, connecting people and creating communities, evangelizing for the music he loved, doing a million things to encourage and help out other musicians. He taught me about the values of DIY, he taught me that ZZ Top is not just a horny novelty band, he pretty much singlehandedly introduced me to a bunch of really well known 70s hard rock that I totally skipped over. But he also introduced me to Jonathan Richman and passionately argued that “Barbie Girl” by Aqua is a feminist masterpiece. His mind was always open to new kinds of music and he learned a lot from me too. He’d happily jump in and figure out any song I wanted to cover or write a parody of. He loved children and animals and they loved him. He put me before himself, always. I don’t know what I’ll do without him.
The Dissidents’ next record comes out in a few weeks, it’s a split LP with our friends D.O.V.E. called “A Better World”. It’s vehemently political and sappily optimistic. I’m so glad we had the chance to make it and I’m so so sad that Bill won’t get to see it completed.
This is the final song on our side of the record, and we knew it would be the last song as soon as we finished writing it. Bill was particularly proud of it and said it was one of the best songs he’s ever written. We all could tell it was special right away and we poured our hearts into our parts. It ends with a chanted refrain that includes everyone in the band. When we were recording it, we all expected him to chant with the rest of the band but instead he started SINGING. Bill doesn’t sing. He might scream on tune occasionally and he was never afraid to do a shouted backing vocal but he was shy about really singing even just in front of me, even though i had a feeling he could really sing and always encouraged him to. But this time he was singing, following along with the guitar line, clearly nervous but gaining confidence with every take, his voice hanging in the spaces between the chanting in a haunting and beautiful way. We were all sitting in the control room grinning at each other in disbelief and I was tearing up. To lose him now is so wrong, unbearably impossibly wrong. But there is something beautiful in this being his last song. Love you forever Bill, my sweetie. - Rachel
all proceeds from the sale of this track will benefit Gaza Soup Kitchen.
- 13:32
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