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Candy Man, AKG, Rec (3)

Steven's Theme

Instrumental

Pamela Brown

You're My Best Friend

1970s. Duncan Bray: I wrote a song, one of my favourites, called 'Crazy BIll and Lucky Swede.' I loved those two old geezers. Not many people liked or knew Bill, but I used to go and drink with him at his shack, and listen (with many repeats) to his wacky stories about being a speed addict in the '40s.

Pp 50-51, All Roads Lead to Wells, Stories of the Hippie Days by Susan Safyan.

Crazy Bill and Lucky Swede

Lucky liked the booze, and Bill liked Benzedrine
Drinking in the bar
Lyin' 'bout their lives

Bill once played in a country band
Lucky panned for gold when he's a younger man
Living fast and hard
No way to keep a wife

Shooting speed back in '49
Jackin' cars and doin' time
Bill had a thousand tales to tell
The little pleasures and the livin' hell
Tears in his eyes at the memories
Reaching for the remnants of a dream

Bill lived down in the tailing flats
Outhouse and dilapidated tin roof shack
Burned the damn thing down
One dark and drunken night.

Lucky'd laugh and play his game
Might have the shakes, but he could shark ya
just the same
Unless he got too high
Always ended in a fight

Lucky had come here looking for gold
Out in the hills where the black bears roam
End of the highway frontier town
He rode it up and he rode it down
Tears in his eyes at the memories
Reaching for the remnants of a dream

And I was still young, just seventeen,
Me, my guitar, and my crazy schemes

Little log cabin at the end of town
Twenty-foot snow piled all around
Keepin' the fire stoked, haulin' logs
This little burgh of three hundred
and four hundred dogs

Crazy Bill and Lucky Swede
Lucky liked the booze, and Bill liked Benzedrine
Drinking in the bar
Lyin' 'bout their lives
Drinking in the bar
Lyin' 'bout their lives
Yeah they're just livin' in the bar
Livin' out their lives.

Crazy Bill and Lucky Swede: 1970s

Somethin' Missin': 1970s

1990s. Dunc was a ham. Occasionally (ok a lot) he did these kind of comedy songs as a way to bring up important issues.

Wired: 1990s

2000s. Dunc wrote this song when he was planning on moving back to Canada after many years away in Japan.

On My Way: 2000s

Track 1 - Sound Asleep

Probably at Kootenay Music Fest 1977, musicians and backup singers not known (but I think the fiddle player might be Doug Thordarson). I think it was that festival in Castlegar, or the one in 1976 ... because that was the first time I ever saw him; I played with another band at that same gig. We met in the green room in passing, he was stashing his guitar. I thought, "Wow, what a knockout looking guy, such a nice smile". He thought it was cool that I had my kid with me and a babysitter in tow. A few months later, he was playing in Kaslo, and my friend Jack (Anderson) told me his name and recommended that we try playing together.

I met Duncan at the Jam Factory restaurant where they had a piano ... a kind of ‘blind audition’ that turned into a ‘blind date’. And the rest, as they say, is history.
 
Track 2 - Title and date not known, I call it Song for Jude, Duncan solo.

Track 3 - Long Night, probably 1984-ish with Kayda (Gagnon) + Kristen

Thanks to Michael Ireland for this history and recording.

Sound Asleep, Song for Jude & Long Night

Thanks to Naoko Tsuji for this recording.

Down the Road I Go: 2000s

Big Red Bus was written about Jude, Sky and Jewel - Dunc's young family - while he was away on the road in the 70s. 

Thanks to Naoko Tsuji for this recording.

Big Red Bus: 1970s

Duncan Bray aka "Max Fractal" was a Canadian musician with a career spanning decades from the 1970s to the 2000s. He was frequently on the road across Canada back in the day when a bar-stool blues man could make a living that way. He lived in a big red bus on tour for many years. In the 90s he discovered and fell in love with Tokyo and spent six months out of the year there from then on, where he was a popular show at a few regular spots.

He was a versatile and talented musician, a child protege, playing several instruments including piano, guitar, bass, drums, harmonica, flute, mandolin and pretty much anything else he could get his hands on. And of course, he had that unmistakable blues voice. He spanned genres however, not only into blues but folk, pop, rock and electronic.

In the 70s, 80s and 90s he was a weekly appearance at local music houses in Kitsilano, Vancouver, his hood - including the Softrock Cafe, Greers and the Kingshead Inn. He also began experimenting with production and built an impressive studio in Vancouver, eventually called dbSoundhouse Productions. This is where he spent much of his time. As well as studio sessions and live gigs, he worked professionally as a jingle artists for radio and music director for theatre, as well a stage producer for various shows, including Expo 86.

In the 2000s he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. He passed away late 2020. This channel is maintained by his family so his music, his legacy, will live on.

Drive this bus Dunc!

Duncan Bray

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