Having lost so many significant musical figures in such a short span of time, whether to covid or other causes, hasn’t exactly helped slow the playlist parade. Kenny Rogers, Bill Withers, the great Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne and so many other things — they all merit playlists of their own. As does, of course, the singular John Prine, whose deceptively simple genius and lasting importance still isn’t as widely felt or recognized as it ought to be. Don’t be surprised if an entire side of a future LCKDWN20 double-LP is devoted to a personal Prine Top 5.
Yet, much as I will continue to mourn his loss too, the unnecessary death of the past week that has hurt my heart the most is that of Hal Willner, an utterly unique talent who, like Schlesinger, was an offbeat hero of mine and legions more. Whereas Schlesinger, a marvelously gifted songwriter with an uncanny knack for carving gems out of well-worn idioms, remains proof that one can steadily forge a path to music-legend status without ever being a star or even a recognizable face, Willner’s career as a producer/conceptualizer was, to me, a uniquely fractured ideal I’d give most everything to enjoy for just a month. He requires an introduction.