The Boston rock community is lamenting the loss of longtime bassist Linda Bean Pardee. She was a constant collaborator with area musicians and the co-founding force behind the retro mod pop trio The Chelsea Curve.
Her bandmates Tim Gillis and Bruce Caporal, along with her husband/manager Calvin Pardee, wrote on Facebook, “Our beloved Linda passed away on August 16. We miss her more than words can say.”
“Linda left us more music that we’ll be sharing when the time is right, so her story with The Chelsea Curve isn’t over yet. Thank you to our friends, fans, and supporters for all the love you’ve shown Linda and this band over the years,” they added.
Pardee died at 60 after a long battle with cancer. Through it all she continued to share her infectious passion for the punk ethos and garage-infused music. The Chelsea Curve trio released a new album earlier this year titled “The Rideout” to critical acclaim.
Pardee brought The Chelsea Curve together in 2019. I spoke to her before the band’s 2022 Boston Calling debut and she told me she first picked up the bass as a high schooler in 1980s Malden. Pardee found inspiration in music by garage, punk and English mod bands including The Jam, Stiff Little Fingers, Blondie and Chrissie Hyde.
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She became a rock scene fixture around Boston and added her bass lines to a slew of other bands through the years including Orbit, Helicopter Helicopter and her first group Miles Dethmuffin (they changed their name to Permafrost in the ’90s). “I’ve been really lucky to play with lots of great people over the years,” Pardee said.
And they felt lucky, too. The emotional tributes to Pardee have been pouring in on social media. Orbit’s members posted, “We’ve lost our Soul Sister. We are heart broken with the sudden loss of Linda Bean Pardee. Linda was the heart and soul of Orbit.”
Pardee also performed with the English post-punk band Gang of Four. “A huge loss to Boston’s music scene and all who knew her,” the members wrote on Facebook.
Boston music publicist Michael Marotta said he got to know Linda Pardee well after The Chelsea Curve joined his roster. In an email he described her as “an incredible and incomparable person — a whirling dervish of style and grace, a devoted friend to all she met, and an integral part of what makes the Boston music scene so spectacular.”
Marotta also reflected on their shared love for mod culture and its enduring soundtrack. He said Pardee delivered it “with gentle force everywhere from the pubs n’ clubs to the glow of Boston Calling, Mods Mayday, and all the scooter rallies from here to England — was a connection we shared that will carry on.”
During performances Pardee’s retro-mod fashion popped and her demeanor was unbridled. But in person she was more subdued. “I’m kind of like Bat Girl,” she told me in 2022. “I’m like a shy librarian during the day, and then who knows what happens to me when I get on stage and just rock out.”
She described how duality permeated her lyrics that vacillate between love and hate, bravery and fear, seriousness and humor. The song “Drag,” from The Chelsea Curve’s first album “All the Things (And More),” channels Pardee’s spirit: “I am an eternal optimist/ Something like a freakin’ love octopus/ Eight arms to hold you/ Eight arms to knock you out.”
Playing at Boston Calling was a highlight for the lifelong musician. She felt like The Chelsea Curve bridged Boston’s past to its present. At the time Pardee said, “We sort of have our own piece of Boston sound. So we’re happy to represent in that way and to keep it going.”
The Chelsea Curve members are planning a memorial service for December “to honor Pardee’s life, art, and fierce, joyful spirit.”