In this season of life, I could not begin to carve out the space necessary to write an essay in tribute to what this man’s body of work means to me. And it is precisely in this season that I’ve leaned heavily on his words again. In lieu of that essay, I will share with you this playlist of my favourite songs by Silver Jews and Purple Mountains, his two bands. It was really hard to not put almost every single song on there, so I tried to limit it to one hour of songs I would not want to live without. I also highly recommend his book of poems, Actual Air.
The playlist I made ends with “The Wild Kindness” (from 1998’s American Water), which is the kind of song that does everything I want music to do. Here’s music critic Carl Wilson, excavating its qualities perfectly. Listen to this subtly off-kilter and moving version by Stephen Malkmus, who performs it in the wake of Berman’s passing. I love Malkmus’s guitar on the original album recording, but it is just as compelling here, where it is wayward like grief.
I hope you found rest, David, you were and are loved by so many people.
What happened to him?