the duke is dead

chris holzhaus at church of machines studio

From: popeye-x 08-07-13 infomania

chris holzhaus died friday, july 11, 2008.
today is sunday, july 13, 2008,
gypsy doug died 3 years ago today.
life sucks, but it beats the hell out of the alternative.

popeye-x music production info re:
the guitar playing of chris holzhaus

i have a sizable recording of holz playing freestyle over a groove and  bassline i provided. at the very least its a long, uninterrupted example of holz doing his thing, mainly lead soloing in his blues mode. there are parts that are his standard thing, and also many places where he goes out on musical limbs for fun because i was giving him the ideal opportunity.

another way to look at it is i have a motherlode stash of holzhaus lead guitar samples, it is at least 30 minutes of him doing all kinds of shit. i remember one cool point where he was hitting the strings with his fist, fretting with his knuckles.

there's no question i have the best example of chris just fucking around that's on tape. i have enough holzhaus guitar lick samples to last me the rest of my life, and yes, of course i paid him to play all of it with the explicit agreement i could use it any way i wanted, giving him credit, or not. its my choice. this cost me $200 cash,

it seemed high to me at the time, but now that he's gone its very obvious i got a fantastic deal. i could even make a sample cd of chris holzhaus licks, if i wanted to, but i don't. i'd much rather keep them for my personal stash, and have him playing on my recordings any time i feel like it, that was our deal.

here's chris holzhaus at my studio,
with my mom's cat, stanley

i knew chris for almost 40 years, we always got along very well, except for one incident when he told me steve cureton was a thieving piece of shit. i didn't know the truth about cureton then, so i defended steve. holz got so fucking pissed off, he completely cancelled our long friendship, he was furious i didn't believe him, a MUSICIAN, over cureton, a social climbing engineer leech.

 this was very regrettable, but i stick by my friends, no matter what. later, i found out holz was not only right, he wasn't right enough! i apologized to chris, told him he was right all along and i was wrong. he could have told me to go fuck myself, instead, he accepted my apology and we went back to where we were before, except this bond took us much further into firm friendship that never faltered again.

i am delighted he consented to making the recording we made in lieu of paying me $200 he owed me from a previous tape recorder deal i backed out of.

i loved chris as a friend, a musician, and as one of the funniest motherfuckers i ever knew. his writings are all over this website under the name "the duke". he was rude, crude, and real, he never kissed my ass and i never kissed his. but i did let him have complete freedom to say whatever the fuck he wanted, it was the least i could do considering he tipped me off about steven earl cureton, perhaps the biggest piece of chickenshit i have ever known, except for mike taylor and bob cox, of course.

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