Remembering David Ball
British rock guitarist. Died April 1st, 2015
Every so often I’ve been fortunate enough to find myself in the company of certain characters, those kinds of people that make you think, ‘what the hell?’ David Ball was one such.
I knew of David, having a connection to the music industry and having heard him play on stage with Procol Harum. Dave was a career musician, not a star, not a lead, just a guy in the back who knew what he was doing.
I really got to know him well after he left Procul Harum, and signed with Chrysalis, under Chris Wright. Dave and John Baldry, (Long John) played together. But Dave played anywhere, at any time, for anyone.
Jenny and I went to see him in 2007 when he again joined up with Gary Brooker (Who can forget a Whiter Shade of Pale).
Dave’s story isn’t a complete one, it is made of fragments, and I was lucky to know him and befriend him in the last fragments of his life. I’m not intending writing this in order to discuss music, just this man, his quirkiness, but it would be impossible not to put an instrument in his hands and within an hour or two he will play you some complicated riff, where he’s found a note or chord, and everything is suddenly transformed.
Dave was not a competitor, not a soothsayer but a truth sayer, one who will slay the word dishonest like a knight slays a dragon. He liked to see all sides of everything before being sure of anything. He lived simply, had a childlike humor, but said things in such a way one thought of him as a prophet.
To this day no man I ever heard spoke the word ‘shit’ in such a charming fashion as Dave.
One often hears in the world of pop music, heavy metal, whatever, that stars rise and fall. Dave didn’t fall. He never rose to anywhere that falling would be uncomfortable, unless it was his couch.
Dave never marched to anyone’s drum. I could write a volume on the times we shared, but I just want to recall my memory of him today.
The thing I want to leave with you about David Ball is this: You could hear him play on the street corner, or in any arena around the world.
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