What made Silver Jews' David Berman such a brilliant, beloved and ultimately fragile artist? A longtime friend remembers:
David Berman’s mind was always doing unexpected things, and this was what made him such a fascinating writer and also such a maddening person to know. In both his capacities as poet and leader of the rock bands Silver Jews and Purple Mountains, he was beloved for the couplets and stanzas that poured out like tiny Escher drawings, each a jewel in the crown of a song or poem that usually had many of them, each one surprisingly portable. “Half hours on earth, what are they worth? I don’t know.
I was shocked. Later this would seem like a silly response. The guy talked openly about suicide and depression. But, but, but … he had just made a record, his first in a decade! It was really good! He was about to go on tour. Days away from the first show.
The tote bag guy felt otherwise, went to the phone and produced a lyrics website attesting to, “I only poured you half alive.”The lyrics and the song are referencing Robert Bingham, who lived in Manhattan at 38 White St., just off Church Street, in a loft that contained the office of Open City, which for the first nine years of its existence was a literary magazine. The books part came about when Bingham wanted to publish the debut poetry collection of his friend David Berman. I was against it.
But I listened only once, and didn’t listen to the rest of the record. After a few weeks I realized it might be rude to not respond. I want to tell you of one Berman moment that always stayed with me, an example of the way his mind worked:
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