Don’t know how many of you knew him, but I was heartbroken to learn of the passing of one of my favorite coworkers and scenesters, known to many as Bookmobile Dale. The liberry posted nice words about him, along with his obit, here today.
Dale was a real music freak - he came to many of the Leppotone shows, most frequently at Harvey’s or Club Soda. He even made an appearance at my first out-of-town F&M show in Chicago, after he found out (by accident) we were there while he was visiting a friend - that was one of our best nights hangin’ out.
I knew no greater Rundgren fan (not even Gonzo) - for years now, I haven’t been able to play any of his records without thinking of Dale, which will be extra true now. We could talk on and on about Cheap Trick and Sparks and Eno, and I learned a lot more from him than he could from me about all kinds of strange and wonderful music.
Best of all, I don’t remember him saying a mean thing ever. He might have, but not around me, or anyone else I know who knew him.
I really hoped there’d be a day we could work together on a regular basis - I figured we both had a lot of years left at this place. I’ll miss him dearly.
ibid
Man, I am still stunned and shook up by this news. Like you say, Kap’n, he was just truly one of the nicest, kind-hearted dudes on the scene. I got to know him at Flipside and, subsequently, hanging out at shows. We never hung out outside of the specific music/library scene, but he’s one of those people that I was always delighted to see and talk with. Just a sweetheart of a guy, who, like Karl says, never had a negative thing to say about anyone or anything. I think of him whenever I see Sparks on a record store shelf (or Rundgren, or various crazed prog….) I’ve been keeping my grapes peeled for a while hoping to run in to Dale to ask if he’d heard Dungen yet…..
A True Star
Crud. I really liked Dale.
He came up to me at a Harvey’s gig once and thanked me for "changing his life" by selling him a copy of Something/Anything years before at The Rock Café.
I was always happy to see him, and he seemed to sincerely love all things Leppotone. I remember him being particularly fond of Goldstar.
I hope he had a chance to hear NRP’s Rundgren-esque "Let It Out" at least once, I think it would have made him happy
That's too bad. I didn't
That’s too bad. I didn’t know Dale personally but I had a pretty cool experience once with him. i was at a party at his house about 15 years ago. I saw a box of records and of course I had to paw through them. I soon discovered the box was full of Hawkwind, Amon Duul, Can, etc records. At this point I’d only read about these bands and was really amazed to see such a collection. Dale saw me grubbing in his records, came over and asked me if I was into such and such. I told I really wanted to get into a lot of the bands in his collection. He happily explained what records to start with and told me about bands I hadn’t heard of at that point. I really appreciated that he was so cool about dropping some science on me.
Dale also attended a lot of KPOWW shows which makes sense because the obit stated he was a big wrestling fan.
Such a young guy
I remember him from Leppotone shows and Flipside as well. He was always very kind, the type of person that makes a music scene enjoyable. Seemed to support everyone. Rest in Peace Bookmobile Dale.
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