This week of musical casualties began with the death of a pirate.
Terry Dolan, of the band Terry & the Pirates, passed away on January 15 at the age of 67.
My first exposure to Terry & the Pirates came about via a record store I used to frequent during my high school years. Steve Bailey, owner-operator of “Phonograph Records” in Sunnyvale, told me about a new group featuring John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service. I used to love the band Quicksilver Messenger Service, especially John’s guitar skills, but I was too young to see them during their prime, and they’d broken up ages ago. This new band with John didn’t really sound like Quicksilver to me, but they had a rootsy-blues vibe I appreciated. It was an interesting group of musicians that featured some other San Francisco veteran players like Greg Douglass, David Hayes and Greg Elmore, who was another alumni from Quicksilver.
When Steve hired Terry & the Pirates for a very special show at the Country Store in Sunnyvale, I volunteered to shoot some photos of the event. From that point on, I wound up going to a lot of their shows, including some that included their part-time keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, who recorded with the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, George Harrison, and numerous other rock ‘n’ rollers whose music were a big part of my musical upbringing.
Ten or so years after my initial exposure to Terry & the Pirates, I reconnected with the universe of Terry & the Pirates, thanks to my new pal Jesse Block, another video production guy that had a great passion for music. With the death of John Cipollina in 1989, Jesse and I produced video of his memorial concert at the Fillmore Auditorium, which led to production of the John Cippolina documentary that Jesse co-directed with Jim Draper.
As Jesse and I worked on the John Cippolina documentary “Electric Guitarslinger,” we captured some great stories about John, and his adventures with Terry.
Terry was proud to call himself a “pirate.” He embraced the swashbuckling, carefree, loose approach to life and music.
For that want to pay respects to Terry, there will be a public service for Terry at Our Lady Of Loretto Church in Novato CA. on Thursday January 26, 2012 at 11:00 AM at 1806 Novato Blvd.
Gonna miss that guy…
(As far as I know, he never performed LOUIE LOUIE)
REFERENCE:
Terry & Pirates page at Bay-Area-Bands.com
San Francisco Music and Beyond – home to Keeper of the Flame
Saw the show Steve put on with Terry @ The Bold Night. Still have the original Concert Bill in my Studio. My brother John was asked to sit in with them. Turned it down. What a great Show !
Eric,
John is my brother. He is five years younger than me. Now lives in San Rafael.
NINO
i remember the shows at the bold knight and the show in boulder creek,,loved phonograph records and terry and the pirates