Lloyd Cole
“Just last week my girlfriend and I went to see him here in Seattle. He did a solo show. He’s an English guy who was in a band called Lloyd Cole and the Commotions in the ’80s and has been putting out solo records since the ’90s. He’s now is in his mid-fifties and has amassed this huge body of work. In the ’90s I was a fan of his but not a huge, huge fan. And over the years I became more and more fanatic and more influenced by how he writes songs. There was this moment where we were watching him—he was just solo acoustic, played for like two hours and change, and the songs were so great, the audience loved him so much, and he was so gracious and elegant and he was funny. I turned to my girlfriend and said, ‘This is what I want to be in 20 years. This is the guy I want to be. I want to be the guy who has amassed this body of work who can just go out with a guitar and charm the pants off people.’ We were probably the youngest people by 15 years at the show. It was the moment where you’re looking around and seeing a lot of gray hair and thinking, ‘It’s pretty phenomenal that after all these years, you’re looking at a guy who has been making records since the ’80s, and a lot of these people were listening to these records when they were 20, and those records affected these people’s lives enough that they’re still coming out.’ It was clear to me what the power of a songwriter can be and something to aspire to. You continue working and building a body of work that can live with you throughout your entire life.”
Read the whole article here…