Graham Funeral Home

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In Memory of
Jay Christopher
Clarke
1968 - 2016
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Fav Punk Rock Singer

By Eric Thornton Everyone has their own favorite punk rock singer but I got to play in a band with mine.

About 30+ years ago my friend Don Jaco Ogden and I were trying to start a band. He was a pretty good 14 year old bass player and I was a pretty lousy 15 year old guitar player. We plugged away and made some pretty loud sloppy music. A while later Dons friend Jay Clarke came over and sang some songs with us. As soon as I heard his voice through that cheap Radio Shack microphone and saw the way he just owned the room I thought "On my God!! Now THAT'S what a hardcore singer is supposed to be like!!"

For the next several years Jay and I were acquaintences. We knew a lot of the same people and saw each other now and then and even played some music together. No matter what though, every song I wrote I sang it in his voice in my head.

In 1995 I convinced him to join my band Black Jesus. Hearing him sing songs that I had been singing (quite poorly)but were originally written with him in mind was amazing . It was like eating plain cake everyday for two years and then one day someone puts icing on it.

I'm more than proud of everything we did together. We always said that if we just maybe influenced a couple of the younger bands and turned the next generation on to the music we grew up on then that was good enough.

Judging by the phone calls, emails, messages that I've received in the past couple days it looks like Jbyrd did just that.

The band was just a small part of our friendship. He was there for every big moment of my life. He was family. I couldn't ask for a more honest and loyal friend. If Jay Clarke was in your corner you didn't need much else. Thank you for everything Jay, I love you forever brother.

Posted by Eric Thorton
Thursday February 11, 2016 at 8:47 am
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