Jefty
I know I should probably put this on Facebook, where tons of people will see it, but I like Livejournal so much better than Facebook, so here.
My friend Jeff died last month. Some of you knew him. He was my manager at Princeton Record Exchange, and I continued being pals with him each of the three times I quit working there. He was a very major part of the fabric there. They think that Jeff had a massive heart attack, either before or after a shower. He died on his day off from work, which totally sucks, and totally would have happened to him. Basically our friendship revolved around eating a lot of pizza and going to really good concerts. I could elaborate on these experiences, but the one I want to really remember is this.
Sometime in the late nineties Jeff was at some type of festival or concert event where Lenny Kravitz had performed. Jeff had been drinking; probably a bunch of fruity girl drinks with small umbrellas, because that was his thing. He was feeling the effects of the booze, and he went up to the bar to get another drink. He was waiting for the bartender, when suddenly Lenny Kravitz came up next to him to get a drink too. He tapped Lenny on the shoulder to get his attention, and when he turned his head, Jeff said "Hey man. Are you gonna go my way?" Lenny Kravitz ignored him, and walked away to another part of the bar. Later on, Jeff saw Lenny walking near the bar again. Even more drunk now, he walked straight up to him, and once again asked him "You gonna go my way?", and once again, Lenny ignored him and kept walking. Some more time passed, and again, Jeff found himself crossing paths with Lenny Kravitz. So of course, he again asked him if he was going to go his way, and again, was ignored. Now making it his personal mission to repeatedly annoy Lenny Kravitz, Jeff did this two or three more times, only to be ignored by the legend. But Jeff could tell he was getting increasingly more fed up, and so he went in for one more quandary as to whether he was going to go his way. The final time, Lenny Kravitz got close to his face and told Jeff he'd "better leave him the fuck alone". So Jeff left him alone, drank some water to sober up, and went home.
This is the story I want to remember about Jeff, although it isn't such an accurate representation of his life. He was actually pretty shy, quiet, and sensitive, and he wasn't about bigtiming people, or deliberately pissing them off, for the most part. But I guess that could come out sometimes. I remember him playing this song I fucking hated on Sundays when I worked at the record store. It's called "Lazy Sunday", and it's by the Small Faces, or maybe just the Faces (I don't even know what the difference is). But it's a very quirky, very British, cartoon-y little ditty, and it starts off with some gross cutesy little piano melody, and then the dipshit singing it says "Woooldn't it be noice, to get on with neighbaah?" and it's just really annoying and corny and stupid and sooooo over the top British. It sounds like some shit from Monty Python. It drove me up a wall, and I would always get pissed when he played it every Sunday. So he always did. It was like he got some type of personal amusement from my hatred of the jovial tune. So maybe the patronization of Kravitz was coming from a similar place.
Anyway, RIP Jeff. Thanks for sharing that story.
My friend Jeff died last month. Some of you knew him. He was my manager at Princeton Record Exchange, and I continued being pals with him each of the three times I quit working there. He was a very major part of the fabric there. They think that Jeff had a massive heart attack, either before or after a shower. He died on his day off from work, which totally sucks, and totally would have happened to him. Basically our friendship revolved around eating a lot of pizza and going to really good concerts. I could elaborate on these experiences, but the one I want to really remember is this.
Sometime in the late nineties Jeff was at some type of festival or concert event where Lenny Kravitz had performed. Jeff had been drinking; probably a bunch of fruity girl drinks with small umbrellas, because that was his thing. He was feeling the effects of the booze, and he went up to the bar to get another drink. He was waiting for the bartender, when suddenly Lenny Kravitz came up next to him to get a drink too. He tapped Lenny on the shoulder to get his attention, and when he turned his head, Jeff said "Hey man. Are you gonna go my way?" Lenny Kravitz ignored him, and walked away to another part of the bar. Later on, Jeff saw Lenny walking near the bar again. Even more drunk now, he walked straight up to him, and once again asked him "You gonna go my way?", and once again, Lenny ignored him and kept walking. Some more time passed, and again, Jeff found himself crossing paths with Lenny Kravitz. So of course, he again asked him if he was going to go his way, and again, was ignored. Now making it his personal mission to repeatedly annoy Lenny Kravitz, Jeff did this two or three more times, only to be ignored by the legend. But Jeff could tell he was getting increasingly more fed up, and so he went in for one more quandary as to whether he was going to go his way. The final time, Lenny Kravitz got close to his face and told Jeff he'd "better leave him the fuck alone". So Jeff left him alone, drank some water to sober up, and went home.
This is the story I want to remember about Jeff, although it isn't such an accurate representation of his life. He was actually pretty shy, quiet, and sensitive, and he wasn't about bigtiming people, or deliberately pissing them off, for the most part. But I guess that could come out sometimes. I remember him playing this song I fucking hated on Sundays when I worked at the record store. It's called "Lazy Sunday", and it's by the Small Faces, or maybe just the Faces (I don't even know what the difference is). But it's a very quirky, very British, cartoon-y little ditty, and it starts off with some gross cutesy little piano melody, and then the dipshit singing it says "Woooldn't it be noice, to get on with neighbaah?" and it's just really annoying and corny and stupid and sooooo over the top British. It sounds like some shit from Monty Python. It drove me up a wall, and I would always get pissed when he played it every Sunday. So he always did. It was like he got some type of personal amusement from my hatred of the jovial tune. So maybe the patronization of Kravitz was coming from a similar place.
Anyway, RIP Jeff. Thanks for sharing that story.