Once again, another loss....I first met Bob meandering along Grand Street years ago....wanting to talk to him, i motioned a faint wave of the hand...he scurried away....

St. Marks Place, 10 years or so later...sitting in Mojo Guitars, i was on my ranting and raving about how the Stratocaster was the "devil's pitchfork" and how anyone worth a squirt of piss would always opt for the Tele....Bob's smile, although rare, was a real beauty...."I am the greatest living guitar player in New York", he blurted out, "and i made $3000 last year!" He was funny, in the driest way and infinitely more intelligent than the average "Punk" i'd ever met...I suppose we were both Outsiders in a way...i remember, in between nips of grog from his pocket stash of airplane hootch, that he was impressed that i was wearing a suit and trying to reinvent myself as a financial consultant...he told me of his early years doing tax work or something along those lines....and that he felt like he was up against a wall...i had the same experience working in the "music biz" and felt the same way...I sensed that he had tested friendships endlessly and was like a wet cat left out in the rain..one that you would bring home and take care of only to find the cat had pissed on your pillow....We both agreed that most friends were fair weather anyway and that music was the one thing that coulde provide sustenance to a starved soul....He opened my eyes to the genius of Mickey Baker, James Burton, (the beloved)Jeff Beck and his humor was steeped heavily in a mad genius....he was, simply put, not a man you met every day....sometimes you meey people whose hearts are too big for this life....

Rest in peace, my friend,
chris maguire