Mark Freeland, 1957 - 2007

How very odd it is that the day after I post about my old Buffalo band I should find out that Mark Freeland died this morning! (He'd been battling throat cancer for the last few years.)

But there you go.

Mark was a relentless force in the Buffalo music scene for decades! His first big band was PEGASUS and they did things like play the entire "Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" album back in, like, 1975. They wrote and performed their own rock opera, "Alienation" and played it at our Alma mater, Kenmore West Senior High School.

HERE is the only link I could find, at this moment, about Mark's passing. It looks like he visited his myspace page for the last time on May 31st.

Here are two quickie remembrances...

1. I first met Mark in 1970 during a summer art class at Kenmore Junior High School. It was Mr. Embrolio's class, if I recall correctly. Mark would do acrylic paintings with titles like "The Awakening of the Rutabaga" and was kind of a celebrity, even then. He came by my house one day after class to see my "new" electric guitar (a used $30 Silvertone model) and to pick up a garbage-picked camera I had told him about.

2. About 15 years later, Mark jumped up on stage during a MYSTIC EYES gig to announce to the crowd that he felt that our version of the Velvet Underground's There She Goes Again "kicked the living c*nt" out of 99% of everything he'd heard so far that year.

High praise, indeed.

Thanks, Mark!

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EDIT:

HERE is a link to the Buffalo News obituary.