Yes, much too young. I saw him perform at Virginia Tech when I was there for summer school in either 1983 or 1984.
Wow You heard him at his prime; a man full of a love of life. He'd been in and out of remission most of his adult life. He died of leukemia in September of 1984.
There's nothing like hearing a songwriter perform his or her own songs - and I loved to hear Steve perform "City of New Orleans.' Things in his life got a lot easier with royalties from that song after Arlo Guthrie sang it at the Newport Folk Festival. Jimmy Buffett recorded "Door Number Three" and the song you quoted from yesterday, "Banana Republics." And of course, he and John Prine wrote "You Never Even Call Me By My Name."
In Chicago, he'll always be loved for "The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request." In 1984, the Cubs played the Padres in the National League Championship Series (as Steve says in the song, "the last time the Cubs won the National League Pennant was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan . . ."). The Cubs won the first two games of best three out of five series at Wrigley, then traveled to San Diego for the remaining three games.
One radio station in San Diego played "The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" 24/7 for the duration of the next three games (which the Padres won, denying the Cubs the pennant).
Steve Goodman was the ultimate Cubs Fan. It's a shame he never saw his Cubbies win the pennant.
Steve Goodman with The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request.
Here's Steve and his good (best?) friend John Prine singing one of my favorites, Souvenirs
Goodman's also the only guy I've seen who, in a live one-man show, broke a guitar string and kept playing and singing while he was replacing his string; he was an extraordinary acoustic guitar player. He brought Jethro Burns, the mandolin player of "Homer & Jethro" infamy, out of retirement to play with him, and the two of them tore up some classic Americana.