We'll find out if we'll miss him

February 7, 2016 7:28 AM

Dan Hicks, Bay Area music icon, dies at age 74. Last night Clare Wasserman announced that her husband, musician Dan Hicks, had succumbed to liver cancer.

Hicks, along with his ever-changing band The Hot Licks, started in the same 60s San Francisco psychedelic rock scene that birthed Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead but followed a separate path with an acoustic sound that incorporated Western Swing, Hot Club of France, jazz and folk.

Here's the classic Hot Licks from 1972 performing "By Hook or by Crook" and "Shorty Falls in Love".

A more recent performance at Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch of "The Piano Has Been Drinking".

And finally his signature song, "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away?".

posted by tommasz (31 comments total)

Goddamit, 2016.


.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:41 AM on February 7, 2016 [4 favorites]

I always thought of him and the band as emerging from the great nostalgia moment of the early '70s that also gave birth to the Pointer Sisters', Bette Midler's and Manhattan Transfer's initial incarnations.

Terrific tunes, including this one, which I first heard on a Thomas Dolby album.

aav.

.
posted by the sobsister at 7:41 AM on February 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Saw this last night. Very sad.

I sure got the Payday Blues now.
posted by freakazoid at 7:43 AM on February 7, 2016

2016, you suck something fierce, as does that bitch cancer. Fuck you both.

.
posted by dbiedny at 7:44 AM on February 7, 2016

.
posted by pt68 at 7:46 AM on February 7, 2016

. Saw him about fifteen years ago opening for Ricky Lee Jones at Carnegie Music Hall here. He was a lot of fun.
posted by octothorpe at 8:14 AM on February 7, 2016

.
posted by Cash4Lead at 8:20 AM on February 7, 2016

"I always thought of him and the band as emerging from the great nostalgia moment of the early '70s ..." - given the look and music of Hicks' previous band, The Charlatans, I don't think he had to travel very far stylistically to get to the Hot Lick's look & sound

I hope the going away was not too harsh.

.
posted by King Sky Prawn at 8:20 AM on February 7, 2016

So long, strange friend I never actually knew.

.
posted by eotvos at 8:25 AM on February 7, 2016

.
posted by joetrip at 8:26 AM on February 7, 2016

Somewhere somehow when I was about 11 or 12 years old in the mid-90s I heard a Dan Hicks song and bought the Striking It Rich album (I was always partial to this one for the weird exaggerated voice). Looking back I still don't know how it would have even been on my radar, but I'm glad I found it. Thanks Dan.
posted by downtohisturtles at 8:29 AM on February 7, 2016

But his feet they keep on movin'
He's wacky but he's groovin'
There ain't nothin' he ain't doin'
He may be nuts
but he ain't in no ruts
He's a crazy cat to act like that
posted by readery at 8:31 AM on February 7, 2016

I came to Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks for their collaboration with Tom Waits I'll Tell You Why That Is and I stayed for everything else.

I hope they let you play your cello up there, Dan.
posted by komara at 8:48 AM on February 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

.

2016 is unrelenting...
posted by mosk at 9:36 AM on February 7, 2016

.
posted by colie at 10:12 AM on February 7, 2016

.
posted by the Real Dan at 10:34 AM on February 7, 2016

Another great one gone. One of Tom Waits' true predecessors.

RIP.
posted by jonmc at 11:18 AM on February 7, 2016

For me, this hits harder than Bowie (whose death made me realize I'd never actually listened to a Bowie album all the way through).

I love the 1969-71 recordings the most -- News from Up the Street, Canned Music, I Scare Myself, How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away, Waiting for the '103'....man, that's some classic music. Gives me shivers whenever I listen.
posted by saintjoe at 12:30 PM on February 7, 2016

2016, the Year the Music Died of Cancer

.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:45 PM on February 7, 2016 [5 favorites]

So, my dad's name is also Dan Hicks, so we had a bit of a running gag that they were the same person, although there was really no confusing the two. While it wasn't really the sort of music my parents would normally listen to, they still owned several of his albums. When my dad set up a personal webpage, back when personal webpages were a thing, the first page was a disambiguation between him, Dan Hicks, and the NBC sportscaster.

I suppose I should give my parents a call.

.
posted by ckape at 12:57 PM on February 7, 2016

I Scare Myself used to get pretty regular rotation on KLOL in Houston in the 70's, & that was my main exposure to him. Always loved the song, & seem to recall that he really respected Thomas Dolby's version of it. I knew Dolby was cool , but I really KNEW he was cool when he was cool enough to cover Dan Hicks.

Very sorry to see him go. What a shit year music, so far. I really think we should have a moratorium on this nasty business of great musicians dying.

.
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:07 PM on February 7, 2016

The Dolby version of I Scare Myself, because it's a truly remarkable cover.
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:13 PM on February 7, 2016

I am sorry to hear this. I remember seeing him and the Hot Licks way, way back in the day at the San Francisco Sound, a local light show emporium started by the infamous Matthew Katz.
(True fact: there was a period of about a year or two here when one said 'we went to a light show' rather than 'we went to a concert...')

He was supposed to be the opening act for John Hammond, who in turned got lured away by a bigger pay day to open for Neil Young at the Arena. Oh, man, was Hicks mercilous about that. He had us all in stitches. He was a witty, witty guy.
posted by y2karl at 1:15 PM on February 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

.
posted by valetta at 2:15 PM on February 7, 2016

.

Enough of this already, 2016.
posted by snowymorninblues at 3:26 PM on February 7, 2016

.
posted by motty at 5:44 PM on February 7, 2016

When I was sixteen or seventeen a metaller friend came up to me in the college canteen, clapped headphones on my ears, and said 'You have to listen to this.'

Wasn't what I was expecting but he was right. I did. Been listening ever since.

Thank you, Mr Hicks.
posted by motty at 5:54 PM on February 7, 2016

.
posted by allthinky at 6:50 PM on February 7, 2016

A cheeky but not unsympathetic comment from Youtube: "74 is the new 27."
posted by Chitownfats at 11:59 PM on February 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

.
posted by Dean358 at 6:21 AM on February 8, 2016

.

Godspeed, good sir.
posted by On the Corner at 3:48 AM on February 9, 2016