Jack and I came from similar backgrounds. We both grew up in Ashkenazi (Eastern European), semi-secular Jewish homes in middle-class Kew.
So what the fuck happened? He became Feeedback Jack (with three e’s), fabulous, outlandish, rock’n’roll showman, complete with the requisite sex, drugs and rock'n'roll additions.
Yet underneath all that, he was still a nice Jewish boy who spoke Yiddish and went home for Shabbes dinner with his parents on Friday night.
He was Jewish in his eclecticism, his refined tastes in books, films, comedy and music. Some say he was even Jewish in the way he walked and talked.
More than that, Jack was totally a Jew in the way he didn't associate with Jewish culture in any organised way!
I met him in the 80s and we became friends in the 90s, when we were both living in St Kilda. We went to see films with Jewish themes like The Hebrew Hammer and the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man. Films with stuff no one but another Jew can laugh about. Ours was an unspoken, ingrained, annoying affinity.
Not only Jewish kinship, we also shared experiences of mental illness. Just as we sometimes discussed various illicit drugs, Jack and I often talked at length about the relative merits of legal ones: Prozac, Aropax and Zoloft.
Now I think about him and I hate the fact that Jack lost hope, that the last thing he did in this world is the first thing I think of right now.
I hate the fact that what happened dwarfs all the fun, the verve and the chutzpah. But I know his music will be remembered and will outlast our grief.
I loved Jack. He was unique and irreplaceable and I’m so sorry for his suffering.
In Jack’s memory, I’ve donated to Lifeline. God knows I’ve rung it myself more times than I can remember. And that’s completely ok!
Jack gave me a poem once called “Tonight, I’ll Dream” which reflects on all these perfect experiences. Of “Immaculate stones” and also “life and strife easily avoided”.
Well, life and strife come to us all. And Jack’s tragic strife was not avoided.
But today, I’d like to think that Feeedback Jack, Jacob Bloom, is somewhere out there in rock’n’roll heaven along with Lou Reed, Joey Ramone, Joe Strummer and all the other Jewish punks.
Zichrono l’bracha. May his memory be a blessing.
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