In Tribute: Friends Of Jim Ridley Read One Of His Most Poignant Passages

Like so many of his friends and fans, I’ve spent the last week thinking about Jim Ridley, who died on April 8, at the age of 50.

While watching everyone post and talk and share stories about Jim, there was one particular passage of his own writing that kept coming up — a piece of a Bruce Springsteen concert review from 2014. 

Time throws you off a rooftop the day you’re born, and the fall you have to the pavement is called a life. The Springsteens of the world are there to remind us the object is to never stop kicking and punching and straining for the sky, all the way to the inevitable finish. You can complain Bruce Springsteen mugs too much, indulges too many little kids and weepy middle-aged moms, does too many of the same things again and again. You know who else you can make that complaint about? The people who inspire the most love from you — the people who have demonstrated their resilience, and their willingness to be there for you even when it’s not convenient, and who have lifted their chin to face the hard times we know will eventually have to come.
(Credit: Jim Ridley, Nashville Scene)

It was so moving that I read it out loud to my wife. It struck me then 
that maybe that’s what we should do on WPLN: have people whose lives he touched read this piece. So I reached out to several of his friends and colleagues to see if they would do it. They all said yes. (Audio is at the top of the page)

Our sincere thanks, in order of appearance, to
Steve Cavendish, editor of the Washington City Paper; U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper; Worldcrunch (Paris) senior editor Liz Garrigan; Onion AV Club critic Noel Murray and Belcourt executive director Stephanie Silverman.