Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)

Subject: RE: Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Jul 17 - 02:45 PM

Just came across this thread by total serendipity. Sometehing set me thinking about a song Nic Jones used to sing, "the jukebox as she turned", and that got me trying to find out something about the man who wrote it, one Jeff Deitchman, so I tried looking on Spotify, and the only thing that showed up was his name as a backing singer on a track on a record called Life's Trolley Ride by this man I'd never heard of called Jonathan Eberhart. And when I did that I was blown away by his voice and his songs.

So I googled him, and up came this thread. And he turns out to have been an amazing man. Folk music is full of these geniuses who are unknown outside a circle of people who appreciate them properly.

So to anyone who knew him who opens this old thread again, congratulations. And to anyone who's never heard of him, I urge you to rectify that.

Subject: RE: Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 10 Jul 17 - 09:38 AM

Jonathan's not truly left us -- I think of him more often than I can count. I'd met him in the 1980s when the Boarding Party performed at The Press Room in Portsmouth, NH, but later -- 1992 -- got to spend more time in his August presence at Indian Neck. He and Ted Dawson and Don Duncan usually held cour at a rickety table on the screened porch at Camp Isabella Freedman, curmudging and solving the problems of the world. My late husband Tom Hall (Mudcat's Curmudgeon) was immediately embraced as a fellow curmudgeon and completed the fourth side of the table.

Truly some of my fondest memories of that era.

Linn

Subject: RE: Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 10 Jul 17 - 09:40 AM

That's "court" of course.

Linn

Subject: RE: Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Jul 17 - 05:18 PM

I posted about Jonathan up there ....

Some bits & pieces of him are all over my house... from music he made to 'stuff' he collected, to things I made for him in his last years.

It is great to see his music & influence(s) are still making the rounds.

His memorial service was something beyond 'special'.......

Subject: RE: Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Jul 17 - 08:34 PM

And not just in folk music.

There's apparently a prestigious prize for scientific journalism awarded annually, set up in his memory by Science News for which he wrote, about planets Here

And I've been listening to his "Lament for a Red Planet" on Spotify. Who'd have thought anyone could make a genuinely touching song about a dead planet?

Subject: RE: Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Jul 17 - 11:58 AM

Kevin... that is the one song of his that I have chosen as my way to remember him in appropriate singing situations. A couple of other folks have chosen other songs...(One lady sings "The Winnie-the-Pooh Rag")
   Once, at an FSGW meeting, I sat next to Jon and noticed that he was making odd little dots in his notebook, then crossing some of them out in odd patterns and drawing a line after the 'set' and starting a new set. I finally asked if this was some sort of 'solitaire' game with rules. He replied.. "Um..yes.. but it is pretty complicated to explain."

After we finished sorting out his apartment, I was given one of his notebook with a number of those games in it... along with notes about NASA meetings and various reminders to himself of questions to explore.

I have never found a source for an explication of the game. I will try to scan it and post an image in hopes someone will recognize it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)
From: Bob Hitchcock
Date: 12 Jul 17 - 06:33 PM

Bill, I remember the game also. I think he called it "Life" or something like that, he would play it in my car on the way to BP gigs when he wasn't writing songs or playing those silly traveling games mentioned above. He tried to explain the rules once but gave up as they were so complicated even he had trouble putting them into words.

I still think about him fondly and on a regular basis.

Bob.

Subject: RE: Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Jul 17 - 07:22 PM

Wow! Thanks, Bob... I googled "game of life" and LO!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life

and

http://www.conwaylife.com/

Subject: RE: Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 13 Jul 17 - 07:52 AM

I appear to have missed Jonathan's passing back in 2003. Reading through all the wonderful comments I am struck not only by how well he was thought of but also by the number of names on this thread of people who have left us. It helps us appreciate Jonathan and all those no longer with us. I have now added him to his rightful place in the "In Memoriam" thread.

Peter

Subject: RE: Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)
From: Nancy King
Date: 13 Jul 17 - 03:33 PM

What a trip to read through this thread after so much time has passed. Oh, the memories! Thanks, all!

--Nancy

Subject: RE: Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Jul 17 - 05:56 PM

The Mudcat has so many treasures in its back pages. But this one really is a classic - especially because it's got so many people we've lost, as Waddon Pete said. It's a genuine wake, songs and all. And warts and all too.

Subject: RE: Obit: Jonathan Eberhart (18 Feb 2003)
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Jul 17 - 08:13 PM

One of the reasons that Mudcat grew so quickly with so many knowledgeable people is that the database originated sort of 'locally' with Dick Greenhaus and Susan of DT, who used to attend the FSGW Getaway... and so many FSGW members were wide-ranging in both interests and travels. We had sort of a 'critical mass' with the Folk Archive of the Library of Congress to draw on.
   Once Max met Dick & Susan and decided to host the database in the fairly early days of the WWW, searches brought in great numbers of other folkies from all over the world.... with the UK being the most obvious. It was Jonathan and all the people that knew him that had seeded the garden that Mudcat grew in so easily.
   I often wonder how Mudcat would have gone if Jonathon had remained healthy as the WWW developed.