Edward Sharpe family loses Joe McCord

Joseph Lennon McCord, affectionately known as Merlin, Papa Joe, JoeDaddy, Dolphin and Rubber Duck, died Friday, April 28, surrounded by family and loved ones.

McCord was the father of seven children – “a life in rock & roll, what can I say,” McCord says – and several grandchildren. His son, Orpheo McCord, a percussionist, is one of the original members of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

In the 1960s and 1970s, McCord mastered an art form called pantozique — which he described as “a marriage and synchronization of mime, music and satire.”

“It was a visual-audio experience,” he says. “There’s nothing worse than a bad pantomime show… But when it’s done well, really well, and you’re working in the fourth dimension … it’s an international language.”

He performed with such musicians as The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd and Van Morrison, and appeared in numerous TV shows over the years, including a commercial that launched the “Got Milk” campaign.

Janglin Souls first met McCord during the first day of Edward Sharpe’s four-day Big Top festival in October 2013, in Los Angeles, where he read fortunes as “Joe The Gypsy Fortune Teller.” He was a gentle soul with a boisterous laugh and even bigger heart.

Shortly after Big Top, McCord invited us the spend four days with him on his house boat in Redondo Beach, Calif., where he captivated us with his many stories about his friendships with Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, and meeting his hero Charlie Chaplin.

In 2015, McCord wrote, co-produced and starred in a short called “The Butterfly, The Harp, and The Timepiece.” The film stars Academy-Award winner Melissa Leo, and features three members of Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros. Alex Ebert plays the pawn broker; Stewart Cole plays the wino; and Orpheo McCord plays the bankrupt Beverly Hills millionaire.

“It is a movie dedicated to all of the great artists in the world that everyone almost knew,” McCord said. “It’s about a man who was once very famous but gave up all that fame … He one day hears an old friend playing music in the distance, and like the muse, he follows that sounds to a pawn shop, where his old friend is playing just to him.”