“They found Jimmy this morning. He’s gone back to the stars.”
I woke to this message on my phone from my musical brother and collaborator Mikey Buckley. Our good friend Jimmy Morgan had left the planet. It still seems utterly surreal.
I first met Jimmy at a Desert Ships gig at The Social about ten years ago. He was dancing wildly at the front of the stage like Gerard Malanga in those Exploding Plastic Inevitable clips you see of The Velvets. We bonded that night and became friends. Mikey agreed to join my band that night too and all our lives coiled together around our shared love of music and ideas on life.
Jimmy struck me as a soul from another planet, at least another dimension. He wasn’t your average guy. Jimmy had superpowers. An aura. He had a surrealist sense of humour and he made me laugh. Over the years i got to know him he revealed a deep inner sadness and a sense of not ‘fitting in’ which i could 100% relate to and am drawn to, like a moth to the flame. He was an intellectual without being pretentious and played down how smart he actually was. And i admired him for his utter lack of ego and his wholehearted kindness. Jimmy would do literally anything for you.
When Mikey asked me to make some videos for the Desert Ships album (Heavy Soup) he had just finished recording we discussed the idea of making a series of short films with Jimmy as the central character. I wanted to spin the story around Jimmy coming from another planet, being unleashed on Earth like a psychedelic virus, spreading good vibrations and eventually being tracked down by the authorities who he then manages to break free from. Over the course of 4 music videos this is what we set out to achieve.
Here they are
I thought Jimmy looked great on camera and i set about writing a film script that i wanted him to be the main character in. I’m sad that we never got to make it.
I did however manage to make the “Ballad Of Jimmy Morgan” that was in fact a sort of trailer for what i envisaged as a feature length film. We filmed the video in his flat where he lived in utter chaos, and in some of his favourite haunts around where he lived. We had a really fun day making the video and watching it now, the irony of it kills me. Jimmy symbolised everything i wanted to convey in the song.
I wanted Jimmy to win, to not be beaten down by the many traumas he had suffered and was forced to live with and in our final conversation we discussed many of these issues and i’m glad now that i reminded him of the many people who cared for and loved him. I pray that he found some solace in knowing that what i said was true.
Fare thee well Starchild
Love and Peace
Gil X
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