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The day the music died: Seattle mourns 'The Tuba Man'
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Yesterday I received an e-mail from my friend Steve. It simply said, “Ed the Tuba Man dies” along with this link.
I was awestruck, and after reading it was due to complications from a beating while being robbed, I wondered who would do such a thing to a beloved, friendly, pseudo-icon? Police have arrested two of the five teenagers who allegedly attacked The Tuba Man and are still searching for the other three.
For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember Ed “The Tuba Man” McMichael, he usually sat outside of Sonics, Seahawks and Mariners games playing his signature brass instrument with tunes ranging from ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game” to “Jingle Bells.” If his hat didn’t represent one of the three sports teams, it looked like something straight out of a Dr. Seuss book.
There are plenty of street musicians in the Seattle area. Spend an afternoon at the Pike Place Market and you’ll see the rotation of magicians, guitarists and a cappella groups. But there was nobody as recognizable as The Tuba Man.
There were many times where I dropped some spare change into his coffee can before Sonics games, and I even once saw him standing outside a gas station in a black-and-white Dr. Seuss hat yelling at somebody across the street. It’s a shocking loss for the city but I’m sure he’s right outside of the pearly gates tooting away with his rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
Feel free to post your memories of The Tuba Man below, and Art Thiel may have said it best in his article, “As America changed Tuesday, one corner lost a little eccentricity and originality. We're used to losing, sure. But not this guy, this way.”
Addendum: I found this website with a photo/video/audio memorial to The Tuba Man
