RIP Bruce Maclean – “the last old-time freak”

With his signature Buddy Holly glasses, chill attitude and creative drive that he used on his guitar playing and on his incredible self-made music videos, Bruce Maclean was a living embodiment of the concept of cool – Cape Cod cool.

On Cape Cod, cool meant, among other things, that that he was one of the nicest people you will ever meet and also that music and creativity were his oxygen. It was an honor to know him. And it was always a thrill to hear Bruce Maclean play his guitar. His rockabilly surf style of playing was distinct.

And if you happened to be Facebook friends with him during the pandemic, you realized he was something of a creative genius when you saw the amazing music videos he was creating.

I first met Bruce through Chandler Travis when we started Cape Cod Wave Magazine in 2013 and I wanted to do a story on the Cape Cod music scene. Living in Falmouth, I knew no one in the Outer Cape music scene except for the three members of The Incredible Casuals, who I had interviewed in a previous lifetime for a different publication.

After interviewing those three (Chandler Travis, Johnny Spampinato and Rikki Bates, who was known as Vince Valium when we met in that previous life), I ended up on Chandler Travis’s email list and received his hilarious marketing emails for years. I reached out to him when I started this magazine and he introduced me to, well, everyone. Bruce was on the list.

I interviewed 20 people for that story, “Cape Cod Music  & The Joy Of Being Originally Alive” — musicians, club owners and DJs, including Bruce.  He told me one of the truest things I have ever heard about Cape Cod: “The further out on the Cape you get, the hipper, cooler, and more unique it gets,” said Maclean. After getting to know him, he turned out to be one of the hippest, coolest, and most unique people I have ever met.

And through the decade plus since we started Cape Cod Wave and recorded our very first music video, of the Incredible Casuals at the Beachcomber, Bruce was a friend and supporter – helpful at every turn.

Of course, we admired him and put up several videos of Bruce playing guitar – and he also collaborated with his music on five different videos we shot of surfers. 

We also recorded him twice with his longtime band, The Cyclones, twice with The Spampinato Brothers (including an epic night at the Harvest Gallery Wine Bar in 2014), and several other times with various musicians.

I’d like to highlight two songs – each of Bruce honoring a friend who had passed. In the first, he plays the song, “The Dakotas,” which was written by his late friend PJ O’Connell.

The second is Bruce’s original song, “Joe Shea,” that he wrote for the late Joe Shea, the longtime owner of O’Shea’s Olde Inn, an iconic venue for many Cape Cod musicians. Maclean and Shea grew up in the same town of Waterbury, Connecticut, so there is a bit of Maclean’s own story in this song.

Two weeks ago or so, I interviewed Bruce from his wintertime stop in Naples, Florida, for a Longform story that I am still working on. He will be quoted again in that story.

During a tangent in our conversation, he talked about his neighborhood in Orleans and how the Cape is changing. “I’m the last old-time freak left,” he said. “All my other friends have gone away.”

Rest in peace, Bruce. In your time on Cape Cod, you were one of the greats and it’s clear to me that everyone who ever met you, or heard your sweet guitar playing, loved you. Thanks for the music. I hope there is a heaven and that you find your friend, PJ O’Connell and all the other old-time freaks.

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Cape Cod Wave Magazine covers the character & culture of Cape Cod. Please see our Longform stories.