Teardrop Mandolin, Cornball Fervor
Most people recognize David Lindley’s cartoon outburst from Jackson Browne’s “The Load-Out/Stay” medley from Running on Empty (#20, 1978), if not the Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs surf-doo-wop source from 1960. I saw him multiple times in Boston and Newport, and allmusic.com lists sessions for acts as varied as James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Rod Stewart, Lonnie Mack, and Iggy Pop. This review ran in the Boston Phoenix in 1988. Lindley’s death two years back (March 21, 1944-March 3, 2023) left a giant hole where silly once thrived. DRESSED MODESTLY (FOR HIM) in neon red polyester pants and an ornate '70s flower-print shirt, David Lindley, an ex-hippie, pop-eclectic virtuoso of string instruments, began his show with El Rayo-X at the Paradise last Friday with "Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” hustling the Temptations down to Kingston.Now here’s something you’ll really enjoy... Bearing into the song with giddy organ riffs, searching for redemption as much as anguish in its bald refrain, the b...