Jimmie Spheeris

Folks I know who are fans of Jimmie Spheeris stumbled upon his music while flipping through record bins or listening to college radio.

Spheeris recorded fewer than a half-dozen albums, toured a good bit, but hit a creative slump for nearly a decade before recording new material and dying in a motorcycle accident, killed by a drunken driver in Santa Monica on the Fourth of July, 1984, the night he finished the record. He was 34 years old.

Safe to say, many (most?) people have come to Spheeris posthumously. And discovering his story might be as fascinating as listening to his music.

Spheeris was born in Alabama, into a family that ran a carnival. He was a brother of the celebrated filmmaker Penelope Spheeris. Friends have written that Spheeris was gay and a Scientologist, which caused him great distress.

Spheeris' more cherished songs are melodically rich, contemplative and ruminative, impressionistic scenes more than stories. Blue Streets closes out his third album, The Dragon is Dancing (1975), and is one of his prettiest compositions wrapped around images of hiddenness and detachment. So powerful.

Streets of scarlet, streets of blue

Child from the wishing well's bound to you

Moons of madness, moons in you

Pull you like the ocean to the blue streets

And sunlight thru the lace

Is throwing shadows on some stranger's face

So you get up and pull the shades

Blind the black eyes of the blue streets

Dreams of scarlet, dreams of blue

Fade in the alleyways you walk thru

Eyes of fire, eyes so sweet

Beg you, resurrect you on the blue streets

And sunlight thru the lace

Nothing seems to see you in this stranger's face

So you get up and pull the shades

Like lids for the eyes of the blue streets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slYS7FL4XgQ