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Topic: RIP Skip Battin |
JB Arnold
From:
Longmont,Co,USA (deceased)
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Posted 7 Jul 2003 9:57 am |
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Pioneer Country Rock bassist Skip Battin passed away July 6th in a memory loss clinic. Skip was a member of most of the early country rock bands, and played on the Byrds seminal album Untitled, before joining The New Riders of the Purple Sage when Dave Torbert left. A true original, he will be missed. Much too young to have this happen.
JB
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Fulawka D-10 9&5
Fessenden D-10 8&8
"All in all, looking back, I'd have to say the best advice anyone ever gave me was 'Hands Up, Don't Move!"
www.johnbarnold.com/pedalsteel
www.buddycage.net
http://www.nrpsmusic.com/index.html
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Herb Steiner
From:
Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064
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Posted 7 Jul 2003 10:45 am
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This is VERY, very, sad. 
I've known Skip literally since I was a teenager and I'm now 55! He played bass on the very first recording session I ever did, backing up singer Alice Gunn, when I was 17 years old! We kept contact through a good number of years, but the last I saw him was in the late 70's when the Burritos came through Austin and we all hung together for the week.
That band also had Sneaky, Greg Harris (Jesse Harris' dad), Gib, Eric White, and my dear pal Eddie Ponder on drums.
In addition to the Byrds and the Burritos, Skip was half of the doo-wop duo "Skip and Flip." They had a monster hit with "Cherry Pie" back in the late 50's.
Skip was a practitioner of Nicherin Shoshu Buddhism. I'm gonna light a candle for him tonight.
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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association
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Jesse Harris
From:
Ventura, California, USA
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Posted 7 Jul 2003 11:55 am
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very sad,
a kindred spirit no doubt.
I'll light a candle as well.
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JB Arnold
From:
Longmont,Co,USA (deceased)
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Posted 7 Jul 2003 11:56 am
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I had asked Buddy how long Skip played with him.
his response
About a year and a half JB. I remember telling my wife "Oh Brother! Another S.Cal dude to deal with. NOT our style." She didn't comment. A year and change later, he called me up and said we should have a sit-down, could he come over to the house. I thought it pretty formal and stuffy but acquiesced. Actually, I figured he was coming over to hash out our musical/philosophic differences but he said' "Buddy, I'm sorry...but I'm giving 2 weeks notice" WHAT???????? "Yeah," he went on "I got an offer to go back to LA and rejoin the Byrds. I feel more comfortable there, actually."
After he was gone, I whooped it up with my wife Rose ["Neon Rose, with the frozen nose"] in jubilation! She was sad. She really liked Skip. During the visit, Skip & Rose were watching the Mary Tyler Moore on our tv, I couldn't care less - [What do they BOTH see in this stupid little show, I thought? I found out later, I guess both of them were just a little ahead of me!] I wanted a rock player/bassist to get nrps more in my direction. It wasn't till after, I started to really dig Skip's quirky little tunes - It was MY loss, after all! I never really saw him at all after that. I regretted that, still do. bc
JB
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Fulawka D-10 9&5
Fessenden D-10 8&8
"All in all, looking back, I'd have to say the best advice anyone ever gave me was 'Hands Up, Don't Move!"
www.johnbarnold.com/pedalsteel
www.buddycage.net
http://www.nrpsmusic.com/index.html
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Janice Brooks
From:
Pleasant Gap Pa
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Posted 7 Jul 2003 2:39 pm
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To whomever alerted my buddy Barry Mazor thank you very much. It was interesting to see the link here from the No Depresson board.
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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047
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Pete Burak
From:
Portland, OR USA
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Posted 10 Jul 2003 11:56 am
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From a Skip Battin fan friend of mine...
"Skip must have been with the band more than a year and change. He is on Brujo, Oh What A Mighty Time and New Riders, 1974, 75' and 76' respectively. I guess I have strange tastes. I liked Skips contributions to the Byrds, New Riders and Burrito Brothers. However from reading stuff on the web, most Byrds fans hate the later period with Skip. I think "Untitled" is their best record! I hear there is/or will soon be a live album out that captures the McGuinn/Parsons(Gene)/White/Battin period. I look forward to it."
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JB Arnold
From:
Longmont,Co,USA (deceased)
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Posted 10 Jul 2003 12:39 pm
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I don't see how anyone can hate that period of the Byrds. Untitled IS just about their best album. Not only is the live album awesome, but the studio lp is great as well. This cotains the studio version of Chestnut Mare-one of the greatest country rock songs ever, for my money.
JB
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Fulawka D-10 9&5
Fessenden D-10 8&8
"All in all, looking back, I'd have to say the best advice anyone ever gave me was 'Hands Up, Don't Move!"
www.johnbarnold.com/pedalsteel
www.buddycage.net
http://www.nrpsmusic.com/index.html
[This message was edited by JB Arnold on 10 July 2003 at 02:13 PM.] |
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Jesse Harris
From:
Ventura, California, USA
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Posted 10 Jul 2003 1:02 pm
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| Anyone who cannot appreciate Clarence's guitar work on the live portion of "Unltitled" has been born without a part. And Skip's driving bass was part of that sound. |
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Joerg Hennig
From:
Bavaria, Germany
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Posted 11 Jul 2003 1:07 pm
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He was a true original, one who did things his own way. Although Torbert was more THE NRPS bass player for me, I really dug the way Skip performed his own tunes. He had such a quirky way of singing and a lot of elegance at the same time. And of course the Byrds "Untitled" is a timeless classic, and does anybody know about Skip´s period with the Flying Burrito Brothers? I have a live record they cut in about 1985 and it has Skip performing "Citizen Kane" and "Don´t Go Down The Drain" just him singing and playing piano, and it is really something different, like a trip into a by-gone era. Skip was a real class act.
I´m sure he´s having a great jam with Clarence White now.
Regards, Joe H. |
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JB Arnold
From:
Longmont,Co,USA (deceased)
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Posted 11 Jul 2003 5:14 pm
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from Haight Street music news On Line
by Don Aters
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
(Death of Skip Battin)
It's tragic when the heroes of your youth succomb to medicinal maladies of the day, they are the Gods of youth and should remain timeless. Skip Battin lived in virtual obscurity for most of his career, known
only by a distinct cult following and revered by others of his ilk amidst the musical community. Chris Hillman was once quoted as saying, "The Byrds invented country/rock, Gram Parsons and I refined it
and The Eagles took it to the bank", I concur with the thought but along the way, Skip Battin had no small role in the developement of this genre. Always congenial, charming, accessible and with the
perfect hair, he leaves a massive void that may never be filled. On stage he was charismatic, a prime example of ethereal "Rock n' Roll". He deftly handled
his bass playing with distinct vocals and his
transition from "mainstream" to obscure tours with other fading icons was merely a musical matriculation. Skip had a vision, a passion to interject the tunes of the mountains into AOR and his disdain for the
banality of commercialized music would see him become a cog in the musical wheel of such luminary bands like The Flying Burrito Brothers, New Riders Of The Purple
Sage, not to mention the embryonic days of Skip & Flip and their eponymous release back in the day. His passing leaves the torch in the hands of what precious few remain from that genre, i.e., David Nelson, Bill Laymon, Buddy Cage, John Dawson, Chris Hillman, Herb Petersen and a few others. As we collectively weep for the passing of Skip
battin, it's best to remember the size of his heart. With a career that spanned five decades, it is now up to us to see that he is not forgotten and somehow try to keep others like Skip from walking "The Boulevard
Of broken Dreams". A requiem by the masses is not to be, as he left this life as he lived it, quietly, unassuming but...with the elegance that should be synonymous with a musician of his magnitude but....rarely happens. Skip Battin was a diamond in the rough, always on the verge of huge success and expanding the realm of music as he knew it. He leaves with more than just a body
of work and a legacy of an unheralded musician, he leaves as one of the truly "good guys" in the music industry and an ambassador of that sound. As Jerome John Garcia would say;
Skip Battin - 1934 - 2003
"We bid you good night"
Amen
JB
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Fulawka D-10 9&5
Fessenden D-10 8&8
"All in all, looking back, I'd have to say the best advice anyone ever gave me was 'Hands Up, Don't Move!"
www.johnbarnold.com/pedalsteel
www.buddycage.net
http://www.nrpsmusic.com/index.html
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