The Biography of Chicago’s Marina City

Bob Gibson’s demons
August 14, 1969

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Bob Gibson.

Bob Gibson was a folk singer who lived at Marina City in the late 1960s. Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon & Garfunkel, The Byrds, The Kingston Trio, and The Smothers Brothers have recorded his songs. He was considered one of the most popular and influential folk music singers and songwriters of the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1959, Elektra Records released Ski Songs Sung by Bob Gibson. It was Gibson’s best-selling album, according to the liner notes by Richie Unterberger.

Gibson lived in Aspen, Colorado, from 1957 to 1961 and was an enthusiastic skier. “I loved to ski,” he recalled in his autobiography. “I would spend all day long skiing on the slopes and then sing every night to support myself and my family in ski lodges.”

His career was interrupted by drug addiction, including heroin. On August 14, 1969, he was arrested in his 45th floor apartment at Marina City, charged with drug possession. His girlfriend, 26-year-old Patricia Stron, was charged with possession of marijuana.

Album cover, Ski Songs Sung by Bob Gibson. Elektra Records (1959).

At the time, Gibson was performing at the Quiet Knight, a club on North Wells Street that was at the center of Chicago folk music in the 1960s and 1970s.

Sober in 1978, he attempted a comeback but the musical scene had changed. He died in 1996 in Portland, Oregon, of a rare brain disorder.

Updated
15-Feb-15

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