{"id":806233,"date":"2020-04-09T12:26:18","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T18:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=981106"},"modified":"2020-04-09T12:26:18","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T18:26:18","slug":"nick-cave-on-hal-willner-a-combination-of-genius-wonder-and-near-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/nick-cave-on-hal-willner-a-combination-of-genius-wonder-and-near-chaos\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Cave on Hal Willner: \u2018A Combination of Genius, Wonder and Near-Chaos\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Hal Willner<\/a> died earlier this week after experiencing symptoms consistent with the coronavirus, the music producer, <\/em>Saturday Night Live music supervisor and connoisseur of all things left-field and eccentric left behind more than just a series of offbeat and acclaimed tribute albums. Those collections mixed and matched everyone from Tom Waits and Keith Richards to Sun Ra, the Replacements and Sting. Willner also nurtured deep friendships that resulted from those collaborations, including with Elvis Costello (who called him \u201cmy dear friend\u201d<\/a>) and Bono (who described him  as \u201ca gigantic soul\u201d<\/a> in a tribute post).<\/i><\/p>\n

Another longtime musical collaborator and ally was Nick Cave<\/a>, who met Willner in the late Eighties<\/em> on<\/em> Night Music, the eclectic music showcase that Willner served as music coordinator. Cave would go on to<\/em> work with him on numerous projects, including a Marc Bolan tribute album that Willner was wrapping up upon his death. Here, Cave recalls some of his musical adventures with Willner over the decades. <\/em><\/p>\n

Our dear friend Hal Willner passed away Tuesday. The news came a day after his sixty-fourth birthday, and with it took away one of the strangest and most sustaining friendships I have ever had. It is impossible to exaggerate the devastating effect Hal\u2019s passing will have on the collective of people that circled around him, esoteric artists he would corral together to participate in his rambling, hair-brained schemes, that were always a combination of genius, wonder and near-chaos.<\/p>\n

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I first met Hal on the set of Night Music<\/em> where I was somehow convinced to sing a cover of \u201cHey Joe\u201d with harmonica player Toots Thielemans and jazz giant Charlie Haden. No one knew what we were doing, but there was a perverse and unexpected glory in the whole thing that I was to learn was pure Hal.<\/p>\n

This kicked off a 30-year collaboration, where I found myself regularly and blindly drawn into Hal\u2019s limitless imagination \u2014 the eternal Leonard Cohen travelling circus, the five-hour Harry Smith tribute at the Festival Hall in London, the two Rogue\u2019s Gallery<\/em> albums, the bizarre and deeply moving recording sessions with his beloved friend Marianne Faithful, the Kurt Weill project, the Marc Bolan record, the soundtracks, all characterized by a weird and eclectic mismatch of musicians who played their hearts out, under Hal\u2019s wayward direction.<\/p>\n