Paul Buckmaster Musical Genius, Humanist and Friend
Paul Buckmaster once told me shortly after I had done "Second
Contribution" that in order to write one (1) second of music for an 85 piece
orchestra, it requires up to 9 hours to notate depending on complexity. 9
HOURS FOR ONE SECOND!!! We made "Collaboration" next and a few months later
when the time came to make another record for A&M, Paul came over to my
house one day and almost apologetically and with great humility presented me
with an orchestral score he had done, completely on his own volition, simply
because he loved a particular song. I had already recorded that song once on
"Contribution", with voice, guitar and harp, played by Harpist Skaila Kanga.
It was for the song "L'Ballad". For this score, the orchestra consisted of
89 players. Remember 9 hours for one second? That's 540 hours of labor for
one minute of music by that orchestra. The song according to the tempo he
chose would run for 7 minutes. That's 3,780 hours he spent composing and
notating the arrangement for "L'Ballad". When I asked him how he did it, he
said, "well I would work or 2 or 3 days at a time nonstop over several
weeks". Blew me away!!! So when came the time to record "Faces", I had huge
battles with the people that were "handling me at the time", to get them to
pay the budget for what it cost to record that song again. I won. Paul's
extraordinary arrangement of L'Ballad" went on "Faces".
The point I
am trying to make about Paul, was that he put the same amount of creativity,
love, labor and intensity into everything he did, for everyone he ever
worked for or with, always.
When he was not involved in anything
musically, as a social person, he was an extraordinary humanist. His empathy
for those less fortunate was what I would term almost unbearable compassion.
He would rail on for hours about the inequalities between the rich and the
poor and what the reasons were for those states of existence in humanity. To
bring a note of levity to this homage to Paul, there were times when he
would call either Juliette or me, depending on if I was at home, or on the
road somewhere, and talk for up to 3 hours. Juliette had the patience to
deal with it most of the time, and the courage to say "I have to get off the
phone now Paul". I, on more than one occasion had to secretly wave at
Juliette, and silently mouth, "Yell at me that it's time for dinner", she
would and that would allow me to say, Paul, dude, I got to go. Dinners
ready. I love you. We'll talk soon".
Paul Buckmaster 13 June 1946 - 7 November 2017
Something else he did, that we will never forget, is, from the moment our
son was born, he never failed to remember his birthday. He would send 3
separate MP3 versions of his slightly warped idea of "Happy Birthday", that
he would compose on piano. One thing stood out above everything else
though…….we never ended a call without telling each other that, "I love
you".
When among close friends, there were so many moments of
absolute hilarity, it's impossible to count. As with 98% of the musicians
working in those days, our time was spent in a fog, literally a fog, of hash
smoke. We would speak to each other in musical phrases, like
"Skabodabogotsk, ponthrebbleflom", or some other nonsense. Paul did some
work for a film once and in the credits at the end, he asked to put his
assistant's name. (he didn't really have an assistant). They said OK, so he
put in "Peggy Nackapont Sockthwait! One time, we made up names for
ourselves, which stuck with us for years after. Paul Buckmaster, was "Foul
Blackmonster". There was also J. Peter Robinson (keyboards), Barry De Sousa
(drummer), and Jon Gustafson (bass). Peter Robinson was "Pilfered
Rottingsocks", Barry was "Balancing Your Forkheuser", I was "Short
Fittings". Jon was "Gone Just After"....that one destroyed us all in
laughter till we couldn't breathe!!!
Paul Buckmaster will be missed
by everyone who ever had contact with him and even those who didn't. He
touched them in another way. He singlehandedly changed music and
consequently raised the hair off the backs of the necks of millions of
people all over the world with the beauty of his vision of how music should
sound. Sometimes like we envision heaven's clouds, other times like black
ecstasy, and then he would put you face to face with creation itself. His
consciousness yet pervades our lives. He is in Peace!