Gold Watch Forever

Sometimes, I wonder about what happens to people who write perfect songs like this one.

Lots of things happened to Jackson C. Frank. He lived in London, he became famous, and Paul Simon loved his songs. And he made lots of other people want to make music. And then people stopped listening to him, and started listening to other things, and then his legs became paralyzed, and then he lost sight in one eye.

For a long time, people believed that he was tending bar in Detroit under an assumed name. Or they believed that he had disappeared to Sweden and married a beautiful blonde woman. Or they believed that he was still in London.

Not true at all.

From a 1995 interview with TJ McGrath in Dirty Linen:
He took a bus into New York City, hoping to find Paul Simon, and ended up sleeping on the sidewalks. A series of medical problems struck Frank, leaving him destitute. He became a ward of the state, moving from one tenement building to the next.

Twin Beaks