[A] When I reconnected with Steve in July he told me that he'd had a heart attack a few months before. Heart incidents are fairly common after 65 and Steve seemed pretty together if not quite hale and hearty when I walked down to St. Marks Place to pick up the clips we wanted to reprint, so I didn't give this news much thought. But then came a phone call from a friend of Steve's telling me he'd died of a heart attack--more or less instantly was the impression I got. I was shocked of course and started bellowing "oh no" into the phone, and soon I was worrying among other things that the renewed attention might have triggered the coronary. Which I suppose it might have, although I'm told by those close to him that he was delighted to be remembered. It turns out Steve had completed another novel. It's set in the Kansas of his boyhood and titled Heat, Then Rain. His wife asked if I would proofread it and I did. Liked it a lot. Will be sure to alert readers when it sees print.

[A] I was the musical advisor on that Joan Micklin Silver flick, for which I received a modest honorarium, although my recollections of exactly what I contributed are pretty dim 50 years later. Not much I don't think. I was on vacation during part of the shoot, no phone in our state park cabin, and recall dialing from a roadside pay phone to convey a few suggestions. And something tells me that I tried to get them to include the Bobbettes' "Mr. Lee," although not whether I succeeded. My one-man campaign to render "Mr. Lee" a recognized classic has never gotten very far, so I assume I failed.

[A] No joke--for maybe two years in the mid-'70s I did indeed work with a State Department committee charged with determining which nonclassical musical artists merited government support for their overseas tours. Details have faded, including who else was on the committee, whether we got an honorarium (small one I think--$200?), how frequently we convened (twice a year?), how travel was arranged, etc. But for sure I found the experience interesting. I'm pretty sure I was the only rock guy. My two memories are dim but real. One is that Pete Seeger's half-brother Mike, who I liked tremendously, got upset when I said something positive or maybe just matter-of-fact about folk music's debts to the CPUSA. The other is a battle royal over the Grateful Dead, accounted grooveless slobs by most of my jazz- and folk-oriented confreres (no women as I recall). I believe I ended up winning that one. Didn't remember the Fatback story, but am proud I had something to do with it.

[A] "Annoy you on every level" is such a silly overstatement I find it difficult to address seriously. First and most obvious, Paul was a mere quarter of the Beatles, not a half--remember those George and Ringo guys, I forget their last names it's been so long, but not that both were far more vivid figures than anyone in Wings but Paul himself--doesn't pack as big an impact as you're suggesting, although his melodicism was obviously crucial to what the other three Beatles put out there. Indeed, his whimsy in the Beatles context can be positively refreshing on occasion, and to choose the most obvious example, if he ever did anything as feral as "Long Tall Sally" in Wings, for some reason nobody noticed. I regret some of the language I used in my McCartney reviews, although it was more justifiable at the time--calling him "Paulie" especially, and "a convinced fool" no longer flies though it made some sense rhetorically in the moment. In addition, I came to admire Linda with the years and had nothing but respect for their marital commitment. Moreover, McCartney has become a much solider public figure over the years, and much less a public pothead, which I always found regrettable. Reports from his shows suggest that they're very well put together, and not only that--he's apparently taken to charging substantial admission to sound check rehearsals and donating all those proceeds to charity, a great idea for an icon. But am I gonna relisten to all those albums? Nah--life is too short. So my certainty that the songs on the superbly curated 1999 covers album Run Devil Run cut all but a few of his solo compositions could well be a judgment I die with.

[A] I've tried, and I've tried some more. But not only isn't Lukas a titan like Willie, which nobody would have expected or can deny, I just don't find him a compelling artist even though he certainly seems like an OK guy. Great talent is such a rare thing that for it to appear in successive generations is just about unheard of. Even in close cases like Johnny Cash-Rosanne Cash or Ornette Coleman-Denardo Coleman (never mind Bob Dylan-Jakob Dylan or Nat King Cole-Natalie Cole, please) there's still a discernible gap. Pops Staples-Mavis Staples maybe? Judy Garland-Liza Minnelli? But let it be said that all those examples are closer than Willie-Lukas. Which is not for a moment to suggest that Lukas doesn't have every right to pursue a musical career of his own.

[A] why do people too dull-witted to understand criticism keep wasting what little talent they have whining about it? and why do australians kiss british ass by retaining the useless extra vowel in the word "endeavor" centuries after their pioneering predecessors in america shitcanned it?