Whew, those nights I passed in that basement at Chicago and Dearborn. My brother, Richard, was down there the night the two Bobs made the Live At The Gate Of Horn LP album. Later, they tried to re-create that record at Holstein's on Lincoln Ave, but it was never what that first great session was. Sure, that grand old recording does sound dated now. That's because it IS dated.   Those of us who were there for those nights that Shel wrote about in the original liner notes KNOW absolutely that what he described truly WAS the way it was back then! And getting to know Gibson was cool as hell even when he was dangerous---a master user of people as well as drugs. (That's how Gibson made ends meet!) And Camp was constantly doing acting work all over the TV dial. Every time I'd turn the tube on, there was Bob Ham Camp---on Hill Street Blues or Star Trek or whatever. And the two of 'em did wonderful sets on my old live concert radio show on NPR (The Flea Market in the 1980s.)

There are so many tales to tell. Most would be funny as hell, and sad as hell too, on some level, at least when told over a shot of Laphraoig.----"But now is the time for our tears", not sordid retro judgments. (It seems I do manage to exhibit tact and taste once in a long while.)

Recently I ordered the Live At The Gate Of Horn album on CD from Collectors Choice's catalogue. The sound was very "thin"!! The LP had much more presence I think. Gibson's big 12-string had none of the "BOOM" it had either in person or on the old record in glorious mono. (And sadly, the old jokes were not hip. They were just lame.) But the songs, the good ones at least, were still great. The cream does rise.--------
------- Shel Silverstein's liner notes that caught the not very P.C. era so well were reproduced in type so small that nobody who was alive in the old days has eyes capable of reading 'em now.

--------The duo of Gibson and Camp, to me, meant the post beat hip Chicago folk scene - with all the noir nightlife of The Gate, The Earl Of Old Town years, Orphans on Lincoln, Richard Harding's Quiet Knight on Belmont & Sheffield, Holsteins bar and showroom, Hobson's Choice, No Exit coffeehouse, Somebody Else's Troubles---and all of us singing all night until 4 and 5:00 AM last call. That folkie nightlife survived and lasted for two, maybe three, whole decades --- long after the mesmerizing glow of this binary duo star's supernova had faded some.

I sure am glad I heard 'em back in those days though---when they were simply the best there was. Their great example fueled and built a music scene for all of us in Chicago to pick up on and make our music within---and then, maybe, our marks upon.

I've been missing Bob Gibson around these parts ever since he held his own "farewell party" in Chicago on Sept. 20th, 1996 -- a week before he died. And now I have Bob Hamilton Camp's passing to think about too. Somehow, though, those two will always be linked for me. That just feels very right.

Art Thieme