This Sunday how could I not write a few – bound to be inadequate – words about Dave.
He did not think he was extraordinary. “This genius thing, Ian,” he once said to me, “what you think it is? I ain’t no genius. Plenty people I know well, know more music than me. I do what I do and I love it!”
Well, Dave, that’s how it begins for sure. But what he then did in his lifetime became a master’s work that will never be forgotten in the nation and the region.
We used to exchange short notes and sometimes have longer conversations on this, that and the other things we had written about in our respective columns. Once, talking about poetry, I told him how sometimes a poem comes full blown in an instant but sometimes it needs hard work to get it right. I remember he then told me about ‘Not a Blade of Grass’ – he had done it very quickly but he knew at once that it had turned out well. Yes, it certainly had. It became unforgettable in the nation as a second anthem of resolve and defiance.
Dave achieved a lifetime of music that is worthy of a nation’s Hall of Fame and should be honoured by preserving his memory and, more importantly, creating institutions which will promote the art and glory of music in Guyana – a national Orchestra, a national Choir, a national School of Music.
When Dave died, I spoke my condolences to Annette, herself a great and creative Guyanese. She was the love of his life as he was of hers. How wonderful is their story! At the end he wanted nothing more than that she be very, very, close to him and they listen to the music they loved – and she was and they did.
I look forward to the nation honouring a good human being who became a master of his art and – along with his fellow musicians in the Trade Winds -achieved something extraordinary: giving joy to millions and bringing a country together and making it stronger.
In the end I remember Dave one time when I had rung to congratulate him on a production of his, an album of songs I think. “No man, Ian, don’t talk about greatness! You know, I felt good. It was like picking flowers and throwing them in the wind!”
