Geoff was important in
many ways to a lot of people. My experience with him was as one of the knobs
who hung around at his record/toy store, Flipville Records (1936 N. Farwell Ave). Geoff possessed a
phenomenal intellect and expressed himself in an authoritative but low-key
manner. Once I was lambasting some phony guru who made promises of “universal
knowledge” and Geoff replied, “Well, it depends on what universe you mean…I
have my own universe…of weirdness.”
Geoff looked like a guru
and was, in fact, my cultural guru. I learned so many interesting things from
him about Buck Owens, Porter Wagoner, “The Lawrence Welk Show,” Link Wray, Gene
Vincent, Joe Meek and Geoff’s favorite movie of all time, Bill and Coo (1948). In a mysterious combination of open-minded
bohemianism and pragmatic commercialism, Geoff constantly reminded me that
everything—good, evil, and in between—exists because somebody thought they
could make money off of it. Geoff sold and gave me so much wonderful crap,
which I will always treasure. Stoic and immensely private, he lived life on his
own terms. He was my hero.
I’ll miss the sound of
his raspy baritone voice, the sight of his penetrating eyes, and the odor of
the constantly employed air freshener in his beloved Flipville. His departure
leaves a big hole in a lot of people’s lives, but he’s very much alive in my
thoughts. Wherever someone takes delight in the off-key singing of a
12-year-old kid, strums an out-of-tune three-string Fisher-Price toy guitar
with the finesse of Andrés Segovia, or refers to anyone as a “knob,” the spirit
of Stinky will surely live on.
Paul Host will present a tribute to Geoff 3 p.m. Saturday, May 8, on WMSE, 91.7 FM (www.wmse.org).
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eloquent as all hell. and i thought i was a writer!
In the early seventies and in the early am, Bucky Byron and I were drinking and tripping on acid when Bucky said he had a friend named "Stinky" who," had a Super 8 movie of a live Rooster on film!" so we went over to his house on Albion Street to see it! I remember laughing when he came to the door and I thought he looked like Rasputin. But Stinky was so kind to us and told us to come back tomorrow to see the film which we did.
A few years later when I was curating "The Leo Feldman Christmas & Craft Show" I asked Stinky and Peter Balisteri and their band, "The Ghostly Trio" to play and they did it for two years and they were the best band to play there. Sorry "Hollywood Autopsy", "Master Zaster Blaster" and "The Killer Watts" but that's show biz! Later a little brain dead I billed my craft show, "a craft show from hell" forgetting to give credit to "The Ghostly Trio" cause they billed themselves ,"a wedding band from hell". Please accept my apology.
The last time I saw Stinky I needed someone to appraise my one hundred and sixty eight water damaged albums from a fire in my building. I contacted two record stores who wanted a arm and a leg to appraise them or it was just too below them, except Stinky who said, "I'll charge you twenty bucks and come back in a hour,". I was so stressed at the time but Stinky's appraisal was so honest with no padding just like him.
Walking into his record store was like walking into a music and art history site specific art installation without the twenty dollar entrance fee or snobby art historian. Where else could you get a original hand signed autographed "GOD BLESS TINY TIM" album?
RIP & GOD BLESS STINKY!
Even though I knew Geoff, you have put into words how you truly understood him. I want you to know that reading this brought tears to my eyes and also made me laugh. Thanks for writing it and sharing it with everyone.
The Ghostly Trio was light years ahead of its time. I will never forget the band's version of The Flintstones theme. I especially enjoyed the fact that Peter and Stinky continued to perform as the Ghostly Trio even after they became a duo. RIP Stinky. We'll miss you.
Geoff was one of the great guitarists the Midwest has ever spawned. As a strictly "rhythm guitar player," I consider him a peer of Keith Richards and Johnny Ramone. I know this, as I attended show after Sunday night show he did with Pete Balistreri as the Ghostly Trio at Quarters in Riverwest during the mid-90's. Such a regular gig allowed the pair to refine and soar with their sublime, strange interpretations of the fringe American Songbook --- "Waltz across Texas," "The Man on the Flying Trapeze," etc. I believe Jeff and Peter's contribution to Milwaukee and American culture has to be be recognized as the visionary force it was.
My poem-tribute to composer Ornette Coleman concludes with a reference to Coleman's legacy in Pete and Geoff's work --- their continuation of the freedom embodied in (to use Greil Marcus' phrase) the "weird, old America." A true, subterranean America which the Ghostly Trio renewed and furthered. I try to evoke the spell Geoff and Pete cast those intoxicating nights at Quarters in the final lines. Can be read at www.myspace.com/hanrahandan
I thank Geoff for his courage, his brilliance which all of us who knew him or heard his music or shopped at Flippville were so fueled by.
Thanks Dan, What a dear and fully-twisted heart. We're all knobs this week.