What is, is always II

My Personal Tribute to Tony Mafia

Tony was a great friend of mine.
We first met up in a Flemish music shop around 1981.
I took an instant dislike to the guy. What a poser ! He was too much ‘long white haired cowboy and funky Indian’ to be true. We spent a couple of months glaring at each other across crowded bars and then we finally met up and became great friends. One of the things I really liked about Tony was that he always used to tell me to get my teeth fixed – I was a streetsinger at the time.

Then one day he did something amazing for me. He asked if I would I like him to illustrate the lyrics of my own songs ? Hey, this guy is a class artist, so of course I was really honoured. We met up the next day at a cafe near the art Academy, in the old part of Antwerp. Tony had brought a big piece of black leather, with some hide strips cut to make it a kind of carrying folder. Inside the folder was a big pile of rough torn, thick sheets of parchment. It was the most beautiful paper I had ever seen.

Tony passed a sheet over to me and gave me a nib pen plus a pot of black chinese ink to dip it into. He told me to start to write out the words, but to leave some space for his drawings. I just sat there for ages frozen, just staring at this beautiful paper while Tony got busy. After a while he noticed me and asked what’s up ? I said I was scared to start in case I messed up this gorgeous sheet of paper. Tony just reached over and grabbed the paper. He then tore it up into tiny pieces and threw them all into the air. Then, looking impishly accross the table at me, he characteristically just shrugged and got busy again.

Anyway, I got over my holy joe reverance for white parchment after that and I got started on writing out the words to the songs and so we finished the job. We did eleven songs. Then he carefully tied and ceremoniously presented me with the completed portfolio of fine black leather and parchment. It could have easily come from the 15th Century.

I left it with my family in England, but it got lost when they died. It’s probably somewhere still, as likely in pieces and maybe that’s how it should be.
I am so proud to be his friend. Tony Mafia is a brother of mine.

Bob Rowley – Antwerpen - 10th November 2007.
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PS. You can hear part of these eleven songs at :
http://cdbaby.com/cd/rowley or just google my name.

Thanks Robin!