RIP ILX poster Rickey Wright (aka "If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up")

RIP Rrrickey. One of the good guys by all accounts.

I went down to the hospital and sang "If It's Magic" to him the other day. It just seemed like the right thing. He wasn't awake, but I'd like to think he heard me.

aw Rev that's so great ;_;

Was always drawn to his posts on ILM, this is terrible news. Rest in Peace.

oh man i just saw this. I didn't know him well but I liked his posts too. Condolences to his friends and family. Rest in peace.

Pretty much echoing what Matt DC said above; not someone I really (or ever?) interacted with on ILx - I always noticed the Timi Yuro tag and nodded my head at most of what he posted even if I didn't respond - but RIP and all best to those here and elsewhere who knew him best.

This is awful. RIP.

this is truly horrible news! christ, i was hoping against hope that this would turn out to be yet another tasteless joke thread, but no such luck. i didn't know the guy myself but really wish i had gotten the chance to now; he was my main man on the Whatcha Listening to thread.

condolences to friends and family.

this is the last exchange we had on ilm (man, what i wouldn't give to take the past two weeks back...):

Unknown Session, Duke Ellington
The Raincoats

Thanks for repping, Hurting and Kenan!

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, February 2, 2009 11:28 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I sort of forgot I had a copy of On the Rise here, then idly looked at a big stack of LPs in the living room, so:
"Just Be Good to Me," The SOS Band

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, February 6, 2009 12:02 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Just as I was starting to think "Greatest record ever?" about that nine-minute track, I found this 12-inch:
"Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick"/"There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards"

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, February 6, 2009 12:10 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Then (I was discouraged by you!):
"Wheel Me Out"/"Hello Operator . . . I Mean Dad . . . I Mean Police . . . I Can't Even Remember Who I Am"

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, February 6, 2009 12:18 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This makes me wanna take a drive, but the car I "have access to" isn't equipped with a record player:
Little Feat
"I haven't made sense in so long, I almost quit tryin'."

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, February 6, 2009 12:34 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I sure don't owe that record anything; I've gotta so much pleasure out of it and I think I paid a buck for it in Philly one time.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, February 6, 2009 12:37 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

*gotten

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, February 6, 2009 12:37 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I also listened to "Red Guitar" by Loudon Wainwright III, a song no one ever talks about, before this.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, February 6, 2009 12:41 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OK, just Side One of the Little Feat. If that's punk rock of one sort, this is it of another:
Of Human Feelings

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, February 6, 2009 12:51 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol, ur durnk?

― (a mess0 (Ioannis), Friday, February 6, 2009 12:55 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yes! How'd you know?

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, February 6, 2009 12:58 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Chuck Berry, Johnny B. Goode: His Complete '50s Chess Recordings (Chuck's da man! bought cheap!)

xp

lucky guess.

― (a mess0 (Ioannis), Friday, February 6, 2009 12:59 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Wow, I've got so much Chuck, but not that box. That's sweet, would fit well in my condition.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, February 6, 2009 1:01 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Heh, Ronald Shannon Jackson ends one track on the Ornette with about a bar of "Funk #49."

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, February 6, 2009 1:04 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Side Two of Another Green World. If I stay awake long enough, then there'll be a Blood & Fire sampler CD called Dubwise & Otherwise 2. Otherwise, 'night.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Friday, February 6, 2009 1:11 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

R.I.P Rickey

I also assumed this was going to be another one of those joke threads.

very sad news. RIP

RIP

Such sad news, he will certainly be missed. RIP.

Thia ia awful. RIP

Very very sad. All best wishes to people who knew and loved him.

Oh this is so sad. Rest in peace.

I was also hoping this would be a joke thread. alas no.

February 6, 2009 12:59 PM (2 weeks ago)

:-((( If we only could turn back time and change the course.

This is awful, awful news. Condolences to all the Seattle folks and everyone who knew him here.

Sad news. My thoughts are with his friends and family.

A long, honest, thoughtful and absolute crusher of an obit from a friend and former Amazon colleague:

http://amsterbeth.vox.com/library/post/rickey-wright.html

Don't read without a handkerchief nearby.

And somehow I had completely missed he was the guy who won the Geekus Maximus contest Rhino had a while back. That seems right.

RIP. i did not have much interaction with rickey, but i always appreciated his posts, and his username! this is very, very sad.

A great and knowledgeable ILM poster, something that's rare these days.

Ian otm. I did not know Rickey personally, but I've always enjoyed his posts. He will be missed.

very sad. from that obituary he sounds like he would have been a fascinating guy to know. condolences to those who did.

How sad!

RIP.

He was indeed a great poster. Very sad. My thoughts go out to his friends and family.

Awful news :(

RIP

Damn, too young. RIP.

So sad. I've been trying to remember when we first met, thinking it was a FAP at the Canterbury, but realizing this morning it was at Bumbershoot three or four years ago. We were in line for a reading at the Rep (George Saunders? Greil Marcus?), Rickey and I'm fairly sure the higgs were just ahead of us, having a lively conversation. Once we were inside and seated, Matos W.K. or possibly Mackro came in and introduced us all. Rickey was the kind of person you were always glad to see at a gathering; so upbeat and engaged and genuinely interested in what you were doing, or what you thought. I feel so fortunate to have known him, and so stunned and sad that he is gone.

The guy gave off a great, really positive love of music vibe that came through loud and clear even to those of us who only knew him on the internet. Having him on your thread was like having your buddy next to you while driving around in the car with the oldies radio on and you wanted to hear what he had to say about every song or even just watch him to see how he reacted. I remember once I was summoning up a certain crew of posters and I was really happy when he was the first one to check in. RIP (:

R. Dean Taylor: C/D, S&D
Rhino Musical Aptitude Test

I also remember thinking at one point "this dude seems like a really nice guy I hope he has some friends and some people watching out for him and being nice to him" so it makes me glad to read what Donut and Matos have written about him.

How terrible. I didn't know him personally, but I've been reading his posts here for quite some time. I am really sad.

I came across this post today... I wonder if he changed his mind about that one? That siren sound can be annoying.

horrible stuff. thoughts are with his family and friends.

Still too young. I always enjoyed having the same name as him; remain "Rickey" in part because shortening it seemed like jumping his turf. Very touching to read everyone's favorite things by him here; I especially love "Paint Box" and "Remember a Day." They define early Floyd in my mind as much as anything this side of "See Emily Play" itself. Rest in peace.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, September 15, 2008 6:10 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This was the bit that really got me from the Amsterbeth piece to which Ned linked:

But now that I am older, and now that I am a bigger person, my attitude is different. Rickey was extraordinary. And extraordinary people need to be protected. They need to be preserved. They need license. Why couldn’t we have seen that? Why couldn’t we have *created* the environment for someone like Rickey? Why couldn’t we have nurtured, helped, compromised? Where was the effort in finding out how to do that but not cross the line into enabling? Why can’t we do that for all people? Maybe we did to some extent just by forcing the circumstance upon him. Maybe Rickey should always have been a freelancer. There were other permanent gigs he was passed over for after Amazon. But knowing Rickey made me come to this conclusion that all gifts of all people we know need to be celebrated and accommodated, not shoved aside to fit into the lane we’ve been assigned to on the track of our little daily rat races.

OTM and, again, RIP.

Dan Gibson has a brief piece up at Idolator:

http://idolator.com/5157212/rickey-wright-rip

Fred Mills has another piece at Blurt:

http://blurt-online.com/news/view/1874/

shit, how awful...didn't interact w/rickey much but he always had a positive presence on threads. condolences to all who knew him.

really terrible news. i didn't interact too much with him but he had excellent taste in music and seemed to just be a laid-back, sharp, intelligent kind of guy.

Always enjoyed his writing in Seattle Weekly. Didn't realize he was If Timi, so at the moment it's still almost like losing two people.

I thought it was two people too until a week or two ago when I clicked on a link he posted to his Pazz & Jop ballot at which point I had a V8 hand-to-forehead moment.

I'm... kind of too stunned to write much right now. I've known he had a stroke since speaking with the Higgs on Friday, and I heard that he was not going to recover on Sunday night (I talked to the Higgs from Canter's Deli in L.A.). In the year since I've moved here Rickey became one of my best male friends in Seattle, and it was only last week we last hung out for the last time.

I want to write something longer, but I have to share with you this bit from a conversation we had walking around Volunteer Park the other day. It's not profound or beautiful, but it kind of crystallizes my memory of him. It's a paraphrase:

Rickey: James Brown had it, man. Whatever it was. In the fifties the Flames had it; they were just rock and roll - straight up. In the sixties when everything was exaggerated, there was James strutting around the Apollo big as life. The seventies were about style, and you know there's nobody who was style like him. Eighties, nineties Rocky IV, Bambaataa, MC Hammer. Honestly, he had more it in one clipping of fingernail that people like you or me have in their entire possession.

almost exactly a year ago, a good and close friend of mine died from a stroke, just a few years older than rickey. he too was a special person, who had an effect on many people's lives, and his untimely passing left many us dazed and numb and with a big hurt that still feels very raw and real. two pieces of simple advice and consolation helped me, to some extent, make sense of the senselessness of it all, and i repeat them here in the hope that they bring some measure of comfort to all the people who knew rickey, here and elsewhere, who are grieving and sad right now. firstly, that it is always good to remember the good times, the happy hours and days and conversations and letters and emails and so on- they can never be denied or erased. and secondly, those that survive strokes are often left in a reduced, awful condition that dims their spark, steals their speech, clouds their mind - in short, consigns them to the very fate they would have least wanted for themselves.

RIP

condolences to friends and family, the guy was inspiring in his knowledge of pre-60's music.

RIP you king you

RIP

damn.

RIP

it's sad to lose one of our own, and so young

but at least he ended his days in a way we'd all like to: surrounded by people who care deeply

I went down to the hospital and sang "If It's Magic" to him the other day. It just seemed like the right thing. He wasn't awake, but I'd like to think he heard me.

― The Reverend, Friday, February 20, 2009 2:40 AM (14 hours ago) Bookmark

Timi Yuro's Hurt just happend to come on as I accidentally had it in a Soul playlist. Very reflective moment. RIP

I didn't even know him personally, but I incidently stumbled upon a lot of Timi Yuro 33's today. Which was strange, for I had never seen them before at this place I go to a lot. I bought...

Rickey, you're missed.

That's horrible news. I used to read his writing in the Washington City Paper and here.

Just hearing this now. A sweet guy. Never caught 'tude from him once here. RIP.

Listen to "Whole Lotta Woman" in his honor: