Grateful to Patrick Cowley
I’m impressed to see the music community of San Francisco honor Patrick Cowley after so many years. He was a wonderful human being and someone I’ll never forget. If there ever was a gentleman in this world, it was Patrick.
I met Patrick through Michael Finden. Michael and Patrick had toured with Sylvester in the ‘70s and Michael joined “Acapella Gold”, a vocal jazz sextette around 1978 or ‘79, of which I was a member. One night Patrick came to see the group perform at the Savoy Tivoli in the city. He was intrigued with the women in the group and asked us if we’d come over to his studio to work on some songs with him. I remember at the time I was impressed with his studio because it was clear he had invested in a lot of equipment, rented the space, and from what I could tell, did it all by himself. I also remember how genuninely sweet, charming and gracious he was. He definitely had the “boy next door” quality about him. Jo-Carol, Lauren & I were excited about recording with him and were intrigued by his volume of work. He had a number of tunes in process, and I remember being fascinated by his signature sound and thinking it took a lot of patience and dedication to create what he did. He was the quintessential modest whiz kid….! I’m not sure, but I think Patrick appreciated having us to bounce off of and offer feedback, because he was used to working solo much of the time. He also liked our energy, as we were always game to keep on singing until the sound was just right. We would tease him because he was very disciplined with his eating habits. While he would eat yogurt and health foods in the studio, we were ready to go out to Hamburger Mary’s! I cherish those times because they were full of life and laughter…..
We were all so amazed when the first song we recorded “Menergy”, on an 8 track tape mind you, started hitting the clubs and taking off. Then “I Wanna Take You Home”, “Thank God for Music” & “Get a Little”. After that life sped ahead of us at a clip that was phenomenal. We ended up dissolving “Acapella Gold”, because we were invited to sing at clubs all over the U.S. It was an amazing and magical time of our lives and I, for one, am so grateful to Patrick.
In October of 1982, we just had come off a tour and I found out that Patrick was sick and in the hospital. I went to visit him and was stunned because of his grave condition, and baffled as to how he could be in intensive care. This was before anyone knew about AIDS. I spoke to the doctor on the floor about his condition and he guided me toward an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that had just been printed that month. I wandered into the hospital library and read a very long article about a mysterious fatal disease that was affecting immune systems in homosexual men living in New York and L.A. I started crying and couldn’t fathom how poor Patrick was susceptible at such a young age, and especially since he took such good care of himself. A few weeks later he was gone, just at the peak of his career.
After his memorial, I’ll never forget meeting Patrick’s father, Kenneth Crowley. He stayed in San Francisco for a couple of days after the service and Jo-Carol and I went out to dinner with him. It’s funny how I remember that night so vividly, because of course, no surprise, Patrick had a loving father, and Jo and I wanted him to know what a lovely son he had and how much we appreciated him.
Patrick remains in my heart to this day.
~Carol McMackin, one of the Menergy singers (left)