Man, I don't know about you but I need a break on this board from KDB fallout and Buford back and forths...

So.. a question: When did you first hear DB's music?

I was working in a community mental health program in Seattle in the mid-80's  when one of my long-time clients, Mike, brought me a tape of Boomtown as a gift. He'd "picked it up" at the local Tower Records. Since Mike didn't have any money I wasn't sure what "picked it up" meant and I didn't ask.

Mike was a young guy in his mid-twenties with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. I don't know how accurate the diagnostic label was but it was clear he'd had a hard road since flunking out of college where he'd gone on a football scholarship. He'd been living on the streets of Seattle & in & out of jail for several years when we met.

Despite his mental illness he somehow managed to keep up on new music and I trusted his taste. He really liked Boomtown and I did too.

I worked with Mike for almost five years as his case manager. A few months after I left the program for another job Mike was shot to death by a pistol-packing drunk in downtown Seattle. Mike had gone off his  meds, and large, psychotic, ex-footballer that he was, he was just too scary for somebody too drunk to think and too impulsive not to pull the trigger. 

A few years later I heard the review of "Triage" on NPR's Fresh Air. The reviewer described DB's song-writing as being like a guy who's spent too much time in his room reading "In These Times". I thought "this is my kind of record".

I still consider Triage to be David's masterpiece but I always think of my client- and my friend- Mike when I think of DB's music.