Jim Jones R.I.P.

Longtime Cleveland resident, friend , artist and photographer , and noted International musician Jim Jones is dead at the age of fifty seven, a few weeks shy of his Fifty eight birthday.

Known by many , loved by all. Jim passed away in his comfy chair at home on the evening of Monday February 18th.

Jim's health had been in severe decline these past few years... A familiar figure on the Cleveland and global musical scene. Jim was a creative force in such noted bands as Pere Ubu, and The Easter Monkeys...

I first encountered the peace loving Mister Jones in the late nineteen sixties when he was an employee of the downtown Cleveland Record Rendezvous store located at 300 Prospect Avenue. Jim was a full-time member of the Cleveland underground scene. At that time Jim wore his locks long and appeared to be the doppleganger for the Dutch Boy paint poster boy with longer flowing locks, and seemingly jumped off the paint can into life. I was employed at the time by Kay's Bookstore a few Prospect storefronts away.

We would often visit each others place of employment on lunch hour. Jim having a keenly developed appreciation for all matter of aesthetics pertaining to cinema , literature, and a consummate bibliophile.

We often attended many of the same rock and roll events and after parties. Sitting together in the last balcony row of Cleveland's Music Hall for David Bowie's initial United States concert September 22nd, 1972.

We were both happy to be there courtesy of RCA records, and often joked afterwards for years how that with all the hype and media juice poured into the Bowie concert launch , that the event was over before it began... Indeed, rock music was over for quite sometime the following year with the release of The Stooges RAW POWER , which was recorded in London, England during that very September 1972 week while Bowie premiered Ziggy Stardust in Cleveland"s Music Hall.

Year's later, Jimmy introduced me to English music critic Jon Savage who proceeded to play for the three of us the freshly produced 1997 version in Jimmy's kitchen music nook. We were blown away by the Iggy version as opposed to the muddy 1973 Bowie produced version of RAW POWER... When Captain Beefheart played Cleveland's Club in the early 1970's we were there.

[Ry Cooder opened this Warner Brothers sponsored small venue tour.]

Ditto Jones was in the tent for many of the Musicarnival shows , including the notable theater in the round Mothers of Invention tent show in 1970.Jimmy was fond of bestowing crafty self made cd mix tapes of various musical artists as gifts , and his kindness in this chapter of his creative life the material of legends....Such diverse musical taste did JJ possess.

Richard Thompson and Marianne Faithfull from stem to stern, all forms of worldly worthy music. A clever palate of Middle Eastern ragas and guezels, served up with African and Latin flavors, musical stews from Jamaica, and Island ska for kicks.

Jim Jones was a musical scholar of no small talent. Truly an encyclopedic and intuitive genius and artist. A gracious host. Polite , well-mannered man. Story teller of retail days spent with fellow clerk and full processed soulful brother Cecil Stewart.

Carnivalesque outrageous full process hairdo Cecil baby. Leo Mintz, who is said to have first coined the phrase "rock and roll" , was the balding , cigarette in the chops , hard drinking owner that assigned the vue tasks , putting away orders , working the counters and his prowess spawned the ancient wooden 78, 45, and 33 and 1/3 listening booths.

It was still a do at the vue to spin a 78r.p.m. jump blues record from the nineteen fifties in the year nineteen eighty!

Jimmy could imitate Leo's gravely camel-throated husky blasts to a turn. The vue was located between two Greek bar and food joints: The Clock and The Columbia.

We drank copiously and ate decent sit-down fare along the lines of meats, potatoes, and salads at both restaurants. Leo Mintz drank at both Clock and Columbia, amid giant plumes of smoke and shots of strong libation being quaffed by all who could afford.

The street flower vendor trade met every working evening at the clock to settle up and hand off the leftover limpid flowery dollar and down trade ending in bars closing hours , and then the after hours. Nightlife people. Jimmy walked with understanding among the street circus characters of lower Prospect and around the Central Market for many years.

Jimmy told all kinds of great stories about many aspects of his life. His powers of memory very sucinct. We were fortunate to have Mister Jones as a member of the Old Erie Street Book Store staff in the nineteen nineties.

His great ability to organize and hand-sell books was a pleasure to witness. Working with Jimmy was a pleasant study in his calm intelligent humble presence with clients -- Many of whom still inquire concerning him to this day.

His ability to catalog and describe books for sale came natural. If I had the presence of mind to take the book business online in the late 1990's as Jimmy suggested, we would be better off today. Yes, Jimmy was that kind of human. A class act in the old school fashion.

Mister Jones always in possession of an active mind and acerbic wit tempered with gallows humor...

Our Mother's cooked from the same Betty Crocker cookbooks during our formative years in the nineteen fifties and early sixties, we discovered years later. Jimmy was often a visitor to our home for meals around the Holidays , and was a favorite of our Family ... Now those of us who knew and loved him will find a darker visage to great our days. Jimmy was not a fan of the modern changes that occurred in downtown Cleveland and was vocal in his criticism.

He preferred Otto Moser's on East Fourth Street not Playhouse Square . Felt that Captain Frank's seafood restaurant belonged on East Ninth Street, not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He pined for a breakfast again at the former Nahra's Restaurant once located at East Second and Prospect. Describing Nahras as "complete with steaming vats of corned beef and potatoes boiling away in its windows alone were enough to take the chill from a cold and windy Cleveland's day".

Jimmy's had a special love for canine's and always kept a hound or two about.

His latest pair "Sammi the meathound ' , and the confused canine " Rollo" , both survive him..... Now we face a number of cold and sad days without the staid comfort of Mister Jones friendship and place in our collective lives. I will admit to deep sadness with Jim's passing.

Believe me folks it hurts to lose one of your own . A chill wind blows down Prospect Avenue today , The VUE is shuttered , most of the old familiar places and faces have left town. Our world is a bit sadder today. Jimmy takes his great tales with him, and though a few of us may attempt to account some of them. Jimmy told them best! A gentle pisces , whose passage occurred within his astrological season.

A service and tribute will follow. May Jimmy now rest in peace. He will not be forgotten.

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Bring back Captain Frank's Restaurant

and please tear down that ugly old fake and big mistake the rock n ' roll hall of fame.I admit that while set up in my invisible magic psychedelic swirling tent perched next to the aptly named sculpture FREE STAMP located next to Cleveland City Hall , on the bluff overlooking the former perch of Captain Frank's Seafood Restaurant on the East Ninth Street Pier near Cleveland's downtown lakefront and tawdry rrhf. Confession time.Yes I admit to having sold baseball shaped rocks plucked from Lake Erie waters and embellished by felt magic marker with the musical artist of one's choice then loaded into my rock launching catapult and aimed at the glass roof of rock n' roll hall of fame below at water's edge from this shelter of shady sculpture. Psst? Hey buddy , wanna get your favorite rock and roll act in the hall of fame? Follow me. Sold two NRBQ rocks that locked and loaded in for a glass splitting thrill. Then another dollar crossed my palms , MC5 whizzed in with a righteous crash , Sun Ra and all his arkestras followed , then Captain Beefheart and His Magic Bands, and our perennial hometown favorites Pere Ubu , then The Meters and Doctor John the nighttripper flew in with mojo poppin' and crashin'.Breaking roof glass . Wetting up the oh so hush, hush very secret stained and soiled rock stars underwear collection. Stuck in ditty bags inside the ffhf buildings gothic eaves. Rocks land with a thud near the slumbering night clothing clerk whose job is to guard the secret underwear stash . Hell , I even sold some sucker from down in the mashed potato belt south of our city near North Royalton , a rock with south side johnny and da jukes scrawled upon it. south side johnny is from new jersey and very popular with the southwest side of cleveland types. Medina as well goes for the south side act. The new jersey rock bounced off the roof .No way did south side jersy penetrate the glass ceiling. Many other weak acts failed to gain airborne entrance this year. I will set up my swirling tent again this coming spring . You see the question posed here is aesthetics? Aesthetics be damned! Money is the issue here. I admit to whoring out and selling the southside johnny rock , with no regrets. The inclusion of talent a foreign thought when considering the amount of recorded product sold as the primary criteria for entrance via the election process that opens the artist to the dubious inclusion of enshrinement into the rrhf. Hell , we always snuck into rock shows in Cleveland via fire escapes and rooftops , why not climb into the I.M. Pei napkin holder building in the same fashion? My catapult rocks the real deal! If you want a read on what the rrhf is all about have a look see at opening time any morning between now and April 15, 2008. The pigeons , rats , and propped up ugly guitars that loiter around it's entrance will out number any live humans seeking entrance . If it were not for the school busses and children fed" lies , damn lies , and statistics" , from the career incompetents that staff the rrhf , very few people would actually visit this moth ball laden rag museum. Ho Hum! Waters around the back end of rock n roll hall of fame are murky. A Voinoditch to be exact. Their creepy and phony little back waters is were Captain Gobi chums for the special three eyed glow in the dark catfish once caught with great regularity all along Cleveland Harbor and especially at East Ninth Street Pier . Captain Frank's was great fun to visit . Drinking at Captain Frank's tiny ten stool bar a must when attending an event near the lakefront downtown. Within it's narrow confines often could be found an inebriated Jim Backus type , who was so loopy on booze that he would continue to buy rounds for the bars patrons until he plunged into the sauce headfirst. We would drink and eat at Captain Frank's , before and after Cleveland Indians games at the old and glorious Cleveland Municipal Stadium , never failing to find a parking meter at any hour of the day or night. The East Ninth Street pier was also a fine and handy spot for fishing 24 hours a day , 365 days per year. In importance of quality of life Captain Frank's was a better fit for the city that lies to it's south. The rrhf is a greasy little back water joint that looks like a paper napkin holder .The rrhf possesing the aesthetic sense of a mute , and all the exiting qualities of a corporate fun house for sweaty old clothes , with some busted up and worn out musical instruments tossed in for weak flavor. Captain Frank's allowed for dining until three a.m. or later seven days a week , and was a true beacon of life and safe harbor for the citizenry of Cleveland for many years until the rock n' roll hall of fame gang rode in from new york and shut the East Ninth Street Pier down. What a lousy location for a tourist attraction, and part of a major problem with Cleveland's lakefront and the rest of it's downtown. No connection between the two exists save the laborious and dangerous hike up and down the hill over the railroad tracks , and across a very busy automotive intersection. Not very bright place for an amusement attraction , and believe me not at all connected with the remainder of downtown Cleveland. It is lamentable that I have read recently that the rrhf gang would like to attract a restaurant to serve the visitors of this used clothes and skivvy collection that is the rrhf.Seems we had a great year around public accessable restaurant in Captain Frank's . Perhaps just recreating Captain Frank's complete with a facsimile of it's major nautical tack neon sign of the Captain at the wheel would serve us citizens better. I resent the lack of common sense and crooked politics that removed our public access top the East Ninth Street Pier , and the urban lakefront flavor that it was. The greedy craniums of the rrhf gang and it's new york city corporate sponsors stole our pier! Of all the promise this facility offered to a challenged city such as Cleveland , every last detail concerning the creation and delivery of this overrated flea circus of moldy rags and greasy pickups is flawed. Location , location , location. The annual induction ceremonies are seldom held here , robbing those locals who might benifit fiscally by it's absence, so why not refer to this phony joint as the small town gyp joint that it is. Would have preferred the rrhf designed as a large promotional record with cash falling from it's jacket , or perhaps a building desinged as an open brief case stuffed with cash and promotional records , drugs , and chits for prostitution falling from it's purse. Later man , time to fold my tent. Sold out all of the rocks I had for sale today , and will probably not return until sprigtime due to the rough winter's weather. In the meantime folks , do yourself a favor and help us boycott this loser of yet another ill concieved and corrupt Cleveland place of business! Perhaps if we get lucky we can cut it loose from it,s moorings and it will float off to Canada and be put to some use. If not retrofit the rrhf into a card room or budget casino. /////////////////For a real Cleveland tourist attraction observe the surreal dogpound located on West 63rd street between Stock and Storer Avenues , on the cities southwest side. A howling good time! Streaming video will follow on this site!/////////////// Bookselling Time! Save your gasoline , and the time you would waste visiting Cleveland and it's ugly little clothes bin , the rrhf , purchase instead the classic well illustrated history of cloth in rock and roll , Mablen Jones' GETTING IT ON : The Clothing of Rock and Roll. Thrill to the book's cover featuring photographs of a bloated, bathrobed and seriously debilitated Ozzy Osborne , a ridiculous Mick Jagger in clown gear , and a spike haired , c guitarist named Lita Ford stabbing Ozzy in the jewels with her priapic guitar neck. Purchase this doozy between now and Christmas and we will toss in a music book of our choice free of charge on all domestic orders. Such a deal! A whole lot better of a deal than the citizens of Cleveland received from the rrhf. Bring back Captain Frank's !

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