Paul Is Dead

I just found out that Paul Hester is dead, and that's enough to get me out of my sickbed to post.

Hester is most famous, in the States at least, as the drummer of Crowded House, one of my all-time favorite bands. I saw them live a few times and caught one of Hester's last shows before he quit the band. The news that he quit came as little surprise to me; at the end of the gig I saw, after the band came back onstage for the then-obligatory "acoustic" encore, Hester decided instead to join the audience. Emerging from backstage in a white terrycloth robe and a white towel wrapped around his head, he climbed down off the stage and watched the encore from the audience. To me, at least, that spoke volumes, not only about what a nice guy Hester was, but how some days you just aren't up to being a rock star.

One of my favorite Crowded House tracks is "Fall at Your Feet" (from the sublime Woodface), and what makes it such a great track is that the drums, though played live, never change. At all. No tom fills, no shuffles, no hi-hat chiffs, no crash cymbal. All of the tension of the song is carried through the vocal and Nick Seymour's bass guitar. And it's perfect.

For what it's worth, I'd never take my own life and leave two children without their father; in fact, I'm pretty sure my reanimated corpse would claw its way out of the grave to make sure my children were safe and cared for.