David Lindley (musician)

David Perry Lindley (March 21, 1944 – March 3, 2023) was an American musician who founded the rock band El Rayo-X and worked with many other performers including Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt, Warren Zevon, Curtis Mayfield and Dolly Parton. He mastered such a wide variety of instruments that Acoustic Guitar magazine referred to him not as a multi-instrumentalist but instead as a "maxi-instrumentalist." On stage, Lindley was known for wearing garishly colored polyester shirts with clashing pants, gaining the nickname the Prince of Polyester.

The majority of the instruments that Lindley played are string instruments, including violin, acoustic and electric guitar, upright and electric bass, banjo, mandolin, dobro, hardingfele, bouzouki, cittern, bağlama, gumbus, charango, cümbüş, oud and zither. He was the unparalleled master of the lap steel guitar in the rock music sphere, and an expert in Hawaiian-style slide guitar blues.

Lindley was a founding member of the 1960s psychedelic band Kaleidoscope and worked as musical director for several touring artists. He occasionally scored and composed music for film.

Early life and career
David Perry Lindley was born in San Marino, California, to Margaret (Wells) and John Royal Young Lindley (brother of actress Loretta Young) on March 21, 1944. When Lindley was growing up in Los Angeles, his father had an extensive collection of 78 rpm records that included Korean folk and Indian sitar music, as well as Spanish classical guitarists Andrés Segovia and Carlos Montoya. Lindley took up the violin at age three, and kept at it despite breaking the fragile bridge. He then moved on to the baritone ukulele in his early teens. Next he learned the banjo. By his late teens, he had won the Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest five times. He played banjo with the Dry City Scat Band which included multi-instrumentalist Chris Darrow, and Richard Greene on fiddle. Lindley and his bandmates aspired to emulate multi-talented folk singer Mike Seeger.

Lindley began to frequent the Los Angeles–area folk music scene of the 1960s, primarily going to the Ash Grove club, but also attending the Troubador in West Hollywood, encountering an eclectic assortment of music including flamenco, Russian folk music, and Indian sitar music. At Ash Grove, Lindley shared ideas with local musicians such as Ry Cooder and Chris Hillman. Lindley formed an especially close relationship with Cooder; the two shared a love of "exotic music", and they both turned away from corporate mainstream music to focus on less popular idioms such as folk and world music. At Ash Grove, Lindley learned from traveling blues and folk musicians the "right" way to play certain styles, and he learned violin methods from local star Don "Sugarcane" Harris.

From 1966 to 1970, Lindley was a founding member of the psychedelic band Kaleidoscope which released four albums on Epic Records during that period. After Kaleidoscope broke up, Lindley went to England and played in Terry Reid's band for a couple of years. In 1972, he teamed with Jackson Browne, playing in his band through 1980 and occasionally afterward. During the 1970s he also toured as a member of the bands of Crosby-Nash, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor.

In 1981, Lindley formed his own band, El Rayo-X. Jackson Browne produced their first album. The band's final show was December 31, 1989. After that, Lindley toured as a solo artist, first with Hani Naser accompanying on hand drums, then with reggae percussionist Wally Ingram. He also played on a multitude of studio sessions. Between his work in the studio as a session musician or on tour as a sideman or bandleader, Lindley learned new instruments. He was famous for having written the only song glorifying a brand of condoms, "Ram-a-Lamb-a-Man," from his album Win This Record! The media often commented on his colorful polyester clothing, with jarring contrasts between pants and shirt, earning him the nickname Prince of Polyester.

Work with other artists


Lindley was known for his work as a session musician. He contributed to years of recordings and live performances by Jackson Browne, and also supported Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, Curtis Mayfield, James Taylor, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Terry Reid, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Toto, Rod Stewart, Joe Walsh and Dan Fogelberg. He collaborated with fellow guitarists Ry Cooder, Henry Kaiser and G. E. Smith. Artist Ben Harper credited Lindley's distinctive slide guitar style as a major influence on his own playing, and, in 2006, Lindley sat in on Harper's album Both Sides of the Gun. He was known in the guitar community for his use of "cheap" instruments sold at Sears department stores and intended for amateurs. He used these for the unique sounds they produce, especially with a slide. In the early 1990s, he toured and recorded with Hani Naser adding percussive instruments to his solo performances, and his instrumental repertoire which he used in his session work. Lindley also toured extensively and recorded with reggae percussionist Wally Ingram.

Lindley's voice may be heard in the version of "Stay" performed by Jackson Browne. Browne's version is a continuation of "The Load Out", and its refrain is sung in progressively higher vocal ranges. The refrain of "Oh won't you stay, just a little bit longer" is sung first by Browne, then by Rosemary Butler, then by Lindley in falsetto.

Lindley joined Jackson Browne for a tour of Spain in 2006. Love Is Strange: En Vivo Con Tino, a 2-CD set of recordings from that tour, was released 2010, with Browne and Lindley touring together starting in June of that year. They played together at Glastonbury Festival in 2010, and they won an Independent Music Award for Best Live Performance Album in 2011.

Instruments
Lindley had a large collection of rare and unusual guitars and other instruments from the Middle East and various parts of the world. He listed and categorized many of them on his website but admitted that he had "absolutely no idea" how many instruments he owned and played, having gathered them since the 1960s. A journalist described his home in 1994 as containing a "tidal flood of instruments strewn all over the house. In every room. On the floor, balanced against the wall, lying atop cabinets and just literally occupying virtually every inch of available floor space."

Personal life
Lindley married Joan Darrow, the sister of his musical colleague Chris Darrow from the band Kaleidoscope. In 1970, Joan and David Lindley had a daughter named Rosanne who became a folk singer with the Bright Mountain Choir in the 1990s, collaborating with the Mountain Goats. In 1995, Rosanne joined Lindley in a series of concerts with Ry and his son Joachim Cooder, billed as the Cooder–Lindley Family. The Lindleys lived in a quiet neighborhood of Claremont, California.

Lindley died after a long illness on March 3, 2023, at the age of 78. He had COVID-19 in 2020, which his family said developed into Long COVID, with chronic kidney damage.

Selected discography

 * Solo

With other musicians

 * with Kaleidoscope


 * with Terry Reid


 * with Jackson Browne
 * 1973 : For Everyman (Asylum)
 * 1974 : Late for the Sky (Asylum)
 * 1976 : The Pretender (Asylum)
 * 1977 : Running on Empty (Asylum)
 * 1980 : Hold Out (Asylum)
 * 1986 : Lives in the Balance (Asylum)
 * 1989 : World in Motion (Elektra)
 * 1993 : I'm Alive (Elektra)
 * 1996 : Looking East (Elektra)
 * 2010 : Love Is Strange: En Vivo Con Tino (Inside Recordings)


 * with Crosby & Nash
 * 1975 : Wind on the Water (ABC)
 * 1976 : Whistling Down the Wire (ABC)


 * with Rod Stewart
 * 1975 : Atlantic Crossing (Warner Bros.)
 * 1976 : A Night on the Town (Warner Bros.)


 * with Warren Zevon
 * 1976 : Warren Zevon
 * 1987 : Sentimental Hygiene (Virgin)
 * 1989 : Transverse City (Virgin)
 * 1994 : Mutineer (Giant)
 * 2003 : The Wind (Artemis)


 * with Ry Cooder
 * 1978 : Jazz (Warner Bros.)
 * 1979 : Bop Till You Drop (Warner Bros.)
 * 1995 : Cooder-Lindley Family Live at the Vienna Opera House


 * with Other Artists
 * 1967 : Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia) with Leonard Cohen
 * 1969 : Elephant Mountain (RCA) with the Youngbloods
 * 1971 : America (Warner Bros.) America
 * 1973: Maria Muldaur (Reprise Records) Maria Muldaur
 * 1974: Some Days You Eat the Bear (Elektra) Iain Matthews
 * 1976: In the Pocket (Warner Bros) James Taylor
 * 1977: Lonnie Mack and Pismo (Capitol) Lonnie Mack
 * 1977 : Here You Come Again (RCA) with Dolly Parton
 * 1978: Leo Sayer (Warner Bros.) with Leo Sayer
 * 1979 : Restless Nights (Karla Bonoff album) (Columbia) with Karla Bonoff
 * 1981 : There Goes the Neighborhood (Asylum) with Joe Walsh
 * 1987 :  Freight Train Heart with Jimmy Barnes
 * 1987 : Trio (Warner Bros.) with Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton
 * 1988 : Ancient Heart (Reprise Records) with Tanita Tikaram
 * 1989 : Good Evening (Warner Bros.) with Marshall Crenshaw
 * 1990 : Under the Red Sky (Columbia) with Bob Dylan
 * 1992 : Fat City (Columbia) with Shawn Colvin
 * 1997: Cool & Unusual (Martin Simpson album) (Red House Records) with Martin Simpson
 * 2003 : Oil (Cosmo Sex School Records) with Jerry Joseph and Dzuiks Küche
 * 2006 : Both Sides of the Gun (Virgin) with Ben Harper
 * 2008 : Insides Out (New West Records) with Jordan Zevon
 * 2012 : The Devil You Know (Fantasy Records) with Rickie Lee Jones
 * 2015 : Slide Guitar Summit with Arlen Roth (Aquinnah Records)
 * 2017 : The Bucket List (Rocker Chick Media) with the Sound Field