I feel like a grew up with Jimmy. Saw him the first time in probably 1974 and paid three or four bucks for the ticket. Saw seven or eight buffet shows after that and couldn't wait to buy every album. I took my teenage daughters to one of his outstanding Starwood amphitheater shows. They had zero interest in going really, but had the time of their lives and became huge fans.
all of my favorites, Jimmy, John Prine, Guy Clark, Warren Zevon, and Leonard Cohen had something in common. They certainly didn't have the best voices in the classical sense, and weren't the best musicians, but they were the best storytellers.
They could take something pretty simple, like this hotel room, and turn it into a song that would live in your head all day. They were poets. Jimmy composed the mythical narrative for the life we imagined we had and it was so easy to consider him a friend, even though you knew you would never meet him.
I suppose that's why it's so easy to feel truly sad that he is gone