Posted on Leave a comment

Mick Ralphs 6/2025

Mick Ralphs (81) was born March 31, 1944 in Stoke Lacy, a small village in Herefordshire, England. As a kid he was not really too impressed with the music of the time, as it did not possess the rawness he was looking for.
He began playing guitar after being inspired by a song he heard on Radio Luxembourg.

“It was Green Onions by Booker T and the M.G’s,” he later said in an interview. “Up to that point I wasn’t that into music. The music of the day when I was growing up was syrupy pop like Cliff and the Shadows. It was all very white sounding. I listened to Radio Luxembourg and I heard this song that turned out to be Green Onions.
“I loved the nasty guitar of it and the groove. I had never heard anything like it before and that inspired me to want to play guitar like that. It basically got me into blues and soul music and people like Howlin’ Wolf and Chuck Berry. That was the trigger, I heard it and thought, ‘Yes, I like that.’”

Continue reading Mick Ralphs 6/2025

Posted on Leave a comment

Lou Christie 6/2025

Lou Christie (82) was born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco on February 19, 1943, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He won a scholarship to the Moon Area High School, he studied music and voice, served as student conductor of the choir and sang solos at holiday concerts. His teacher, Frank Cummings, wanted him to pursue a career in classical music, but Sacco wanted to cut a record to get on American Bandstand. At age 15 he met and befriended Twyla Herbert, a classically trained musician 20 years his senior, who became his regular songwriting partner and wrote hundreds of songs with him over the next 40 years until her death in 2009.  In 1962 they penned “The Gypsy Cried,” which he recorded on a two-track recorder in his garage. The single became a local phenomenon, and was eventually licensed for national release by the Roulette label, peaking at number 24 on the pop charts in 1963.

“I never worked with anyone else who was that talented, that original, that exciting,” Christie told Goldmine magazine in 2005. “She was just bizarre, and I was twice as bizarre as her.”

Still as Sacco he performed with several vocal groups and between 1959 and 1962 released several records on small Pittsburgh labels, achieving a local hit with “The Jury” by Lugee & The Lions (a group consisting of Sacco, Twyla Herbert’s daughter Shirley, and two others) released on the Robbee label. After graduating from high school in 1961, Sacco relocated to New York City and worked as a session vocalist.

Continue reading Lou Christie 6/2025

Posted on Leave a comment

Brian Wilson 6/2025

Brian Wilson (82) – The Beach Boys – was born June 20, 1942 in Inglewood, California, the first child of pianist Audree Korthof and Murry Wilson, a machinist who later pursued songwriting part-time. Wilson, along with his siblings, suffered psychological and sporadic physical maltreatment from their father. His 2016 memoir characterizes his father as “violent” and “cruel”; however, it also suggests that certain narratives about the mistreatment had been overstated or unfounded.

From an early age, Wilson exhibited an aptitude for learning by ear. His father remembered how, after hearing only a few verses of “When the Caissons Go Rolling Along“, young Wilson was able to reproduce its melody. His father Murry was a driving force in cultivating his children’s musical talents. Wilson undertook six weeks of accordion lessons, and by ages seven and eight, he performed choir solos at church. His choir director declared him to have perfect pitch. One of Wilson’s first forays into songwriting, penned when he was nine, was a reinterpretation of the lyrics to Stephen Foster‘s “Oh! Susannah“.

At age 12, his family acquired an upright piano, and he began teaching himself to play piano by spending hours mastering his favorite songs. He learned how to write manuscript music through a friend of his father. Wilson sang with peers at school functions, as well as with family and friends at home, and guided his two brothers in learning harmony parts, which they would rehearse together. He also played piano obsessively after school, deconstructing the harmonies of the Four Freshmen by listening to short segments of their songs on a phonograph, then working to recreate the blended sounds note by note on the keyboard.

I got so into The Four Freshmen. I could identify with Bob Flanigan‘s high voice. He taught me how to sing high. I worked for a year on The Four Freshmen with my hi-fi set. I eventually learned every song they did.

Continue reading Brian Wilson 6/2025

Posted on Leave a comment

Sly Stone 6/2025

Sly Stone (82) – Sly and the Family Stone – was born Sylvester Stewart on March 15, 1943 in Denton, Texas, before the family’s move to Vallejo, California, in the North Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. He was the second of five children born to K.C. and Alpha Stewart, a deeply religious middle class couple, raising their children on music. Sylvester was identified as a musical prodigy. By the time he was seven, he had already become proficient on the keyboards, and by the age of eleven, he had mastered the guitar, bass, and drums as well.

As a teenager he had settled essentially on the guitar and joined a number of high school bands. One of these was the Viscaynes, a doo-wop group in which Sylvester and his friend Frank Arellano—who was Filipino—were the only non-white members. The fact that the group was integrated made the Viscaynes “hip” in the eyes of their audiences, and would later inspire Sylvester’s idea of the multicultural Family Stone. The Viscaynes released a few local singles, including “Yellow Moon” and “Stop What You’re Doing”; during the same period, Sylvester also recorded a few solo singles under the name Danny Stewart. With his brother, Fred, he formed several short-lived groups, like the Stewart Bros. After high school Stone studied music at the Vallejo campus of Solano Community College.

Continue reading Sly Stone 6/2025

Posted on Leave a comment

Rick Derringer – 5/2025

Rick Derringer (77) was born Richard Dean Zehringer in Fort Recovery, Ohio on August 5, 1947. Aside from his parents’ extensive record collection, his first major music influence was his uncle, Jim Thornburg, a popular guitarist and singer in Ohio.

Derringer recalled first hearing him play guitar in the kitchen of his parents’ home and knowing immediately that he wanted to learn the instrument. He was eight years old at the time, and his parents gave him his first electric guitar for his ninth birthday. Soon after, he and his brother Randy began playing local gigs with his uncle, a country musician, before he was in high school.

After eighth grade, the family moved to Union City, Indiana, where Derringer formed a band he initially called the McCoys. He later renamed it the Rick Z Combo and then Rick and the Raiders before reverting to the original name.

In the summer of 1965, before Derringer turned 18, the McCoys were hired to back up a New York-based band called the Strangeloves in concert. The Strangeloves, who were also record producers from New York City with a major hit song “I Want Candy”, were looking for a band to record the song “My Girl Sloopy”, originally released by the Vibrations the previous year, and chose the McCoys. Derringer later persuaded the producers to change the title to “Hang On Sloopy”. After the Strangeloves recorded the guitar and instrumental parts, Derringer and the McCoys were brought into the studio to sing on the recording, which was then released under their name. The song reached number one on the Hot 100 when Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” fell from number one to number two and The Beatles’ “Yesterday” shot from number forty-five to number three.

Continue reading Rick Derringer – 5/2025

Posted on Leave a comment

Roberta Flack 2/2025

Roberta Flack (88) was born on February 10, 1937 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, to parents Laron Flack, a jazz pianist and U.S. Veterans Administration draftsman, and Irene Flack a cook and church organist. According to DNA analysis, Flack was of Cameroonian descent. Her family moved to Richmond, Virginia, before settling in Arlington, Virginia, when she was five years old.

Her first musical experiences were in church. She grew up in a large musical family and often provided piano accompaniment for the choir of Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church singing hymns and spirituals. She occasionally sings at the Macedonia Baptist Church in Arlington.  From time to time, she caught gospel stars like Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke performing there. Her father acquired a battered old piano for her, which she learned to play sitting on her mother’s lap and Flack took formal lessons in playing the piano when she was nine. She gravitated towards classical music and during her early teens excelled at classical piano, finishing second in a statewide competition for Black students aged 13 playing a Scarlatti sonata.
Continue reading Roberta Flack 2/2025

Posted on Leave a comment

Marianne Faithfull 1/2025

Marianne Faithfull (78) 1/2025 was born 29 December 1946 in Hemstead, London. Just to sketch her aristocracy come down it should be noted that

Faithfull was born at the old Queen Mary’s Maternity House in Hampstead, London. Her father, Major Robert Glynn Faithfull, was a British intelligence officer and professor of Italian literature at Bedford College, London University. Her mother, Eva, was the daughter of Artur Wolfgang Ritter von Sacher-Masoch (1875–1953), an Austro-Hungarian nobleman of old Polonized Catholic Ruthenian nobility. Eva was born in Budapest and moved to Vienna in 1918; she chose to style herself as Eva von Sacher-Masoch, Baroness Erisso in adulthood. She had been a ballerina for the Max Reinhardt Company during her early years, and danced in productions of works by the German theatrical duo Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. Continue reading Marianne Faithfull 1/2025

Posted on Leave a comment

Mike Pinera 11/2024

Mike Pinera (Captain Beyond/Iron Butterfly) (76) was born September 29, 1948 in Tampa, Florida. In his mid-teens Pinera played his parts in local bands like the Impalas, the Motions and the El Dorados, essentially teen garage bands.”

He co-founded Blues Image in Tampa in 1966 together with Mike Betematti (drums), Malcolm Jones (bass) and Joe Lala (percussion) when they met as students at Tampa’s Jefferson High School. Blues Image, thanks to the Cuba-born Lala, added Latin rhythms to its rock ‘n’ roll/blues mix. The band opened Tampa’s first “psychedelic” nightclub, Dino’s.

Two years after forming, the band relocated to Miami, where it became the house band at Miami’s ultra-hip Thee Image club, supporting international acts like Led Zeppelin. Zeppelin’s guitarist Jimmy Page had a years-long friendship with Pinera. Page called Blues Image, which by then included keyboard player Skip Conte, “the most dynamic sound in the country.”

The band then moved to Los Angeles and signed with Atco Records, releasing its self-titled debut album in 1969. Blues Image’s sophomore album, Open, included “Ride, Captain, Ride,” a song co-written by Pinera and keyboardist Frank “Skip” Conte. Pinera sang the lead on the recording and played the second guitar solo toward the end of the song; the single rose to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Continue reading Mike Pinera 11/2024

Posted on Leave a comment

Greg Kihn 8/2024

Greg Kihn (75) – Greg Kihn Band – was born in Baltimore on July 10, 1949 to parents Stanley J. Kihn, a city Health Department inspector who fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II, and Jane (Gregorek) Kihn. Kihn’s early influence was the Beatles and their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

“Just about every rock and roll musician my age can point to one cultural event that inspired him to take up music in the first place: The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. If you were a shy 14-year-old kid who already had a guitar, it was a life-altering event… In a single weekend everything had changed. I’d come home from school the previous Friday looking like Dion Dimucci. I went back to class on Monday morning with my hair dry and brushed forward. That’s how quickly it happened.”

Continue reading Greg Kihn 8/2024

Posted on Leave a comment

John Mayall 7/2024

John Mayall (90) was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, on 29 November 1933 and grew up in Cheadle Hulme, a village not too far from Manchester, England. It was here as a teenager that he first became attracted to the jazz and blues 78s in his father’s record collection. Initially it was all about guitarists such as Big Bill Broonzy, Brownie McGhee, Josh White and Leadbelly. However once he heard the sounds of boogie woogie piano giants Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis, his desire to play in that style was all he could think of. 

He was the son of Murray Mayall, a guitarist who played in local pubs.

At the age of 14, when he went to Manchester’s Junior School of Art, he had access to a piano for the first time and he began to learn the basics of this exciting music. He also found time to continue learning the guitar and, a couple of years later, the harmonica, inspired by Sonny Terry, Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter. Continue reading John Mayall 7/2024

Posted on Leave a comment

David Sanborn 5/2024

David Sanborn (78) was born in 1945 in Tampa, Florida where his father was stationed in the US Air Force.  David grew up in Kirkwood, Missouri, a western suburb of St. Louis. He contracted polio at the age of three. He “accepted his fate stoically” and endured a “miserable childhood”. He was confined to an iron lung for a year, and polio left him with impaired respiration and a left arm shorter than the right.

While confined to bed, David Sanborn was inspired by the “raw rock ‘n’ roll energy” of music he heard on the radio, particularly saxophone breaks in songs such as Fats Domino‘s “Ain’t That a Shame” and Little Richard‘s “Tutti Frutti”. He loved the sound of the saxophone and at the age of eleven was happy to change to saxophone from piano lessons when doctors recommended that he take up a wind instrument to improve his breathing and strengthen his chest muscles. When he was 14, he was competent enough playing saxophone to play with blues musicians in local clubs. Alto saxophonist Hank Crawford, who was a member of Ray Charles‘s band at the time, was an early and lasting influence on Sanborn. Continue reading David Sanborn 5/2024

Posted on 1 Comment

Doug Ingle 5/2024

Doug Ingle (78) was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 9, 1945. His father Lloyd, a church organist and accountant, introduced him to music at an early age. The Ingles moved within three months of his birth to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and later, when he was 11,  the family moved to San Diego, CA.

With the timing right in the mid-sixties and California becoming the hotbed for love-ins and psychedelic rock, Ingle formed the original line up for Iron Butterfly with Ron Bushy on drums. As soon as Iron Butterfly formed, they moved to Hollywood Hills and started an excruciating practice and performing schedule.

Of the four musicians in the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida lineup, Ingle was the only one who was a founding member, having formed Iron Butterfly in San Diego in 1966. After a handful of lineup changes, a five-piece Iron Butterfly including Ingle and Bushy put out the band’s debut Heavy in 1968; soon after release, the other three members left and were replaced by Brann and Dornan, resulting in the lineup that would create the 17-minute psych-rock epic “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” Released less than six months after Heavy and the lineup shuffle, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida would sell a reported 30 million copies worldwide, and a three-minute version of the title track — whose title was based on Bushy’s mishearing of “In the Garden of Eden” — became a Top 5 hit on the Hot 100 and a classic rock staple. Continue reading Doug Ingle 5/2024

Posted on Leave a comment

Dickey Betts 4/2024

Dickey Betts 4/2024 (80) was born in West Palm Beach on December 12, 1943, and raised in Bradenton/Sarasota, Florida. He grew up in a musical family listening to traditional bluegrass, country music and Western swing. He started playing ukulele at the age of five and, as his hands got bigger, moved on to mandolin, banjo, and guitar.

At sixteen, feeling the need for something “a little faster”, he played in a series of rock bands on the Florida circuit, up the East Coast and into the Midwest, before forming Second Coming with Berry Oakley in 1967.

According to Rick Derringer, the “group called the Jokers” referenced in “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” was one of Betts’ early groups. In  February 1969, Betts and Oakley joined members of two other Sunshine State groups — guitarist Duane Allman and his keyboard-playing brother Gregg of the Hour Glass and drummer Butch Trucks – and Mississippi-born drummer Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson in a new unit that ultimately based itself in Macon, Ga. Continue reading Dickey Betts 4/2024

Posted on 1 Comment

Duane Eddy 4/2024

Duane Eddy was born in Corning, New York, on April 26, 1938. His father, Lloyd, drove a bread truck. He began playing the guitar at the age of five after hearing the cowboy singer Gene Autry. In 1951, his family moved to Tucson, and then to Coolidge, Arizona. He formed a duo, Jimmy and Duane, with his friend Jimmy Delbridge, who later recorded as Jimmy Dell. Eddy left school at sixteen and played in local bars. 

In 1957, Eddy had a weekly showcase on radio station KCKY and then a slot on a weekly hit parade television show in Phoenix, where he met met Arizona-based disc jockey, songwriter and music publisher Lee Hazlewood. Hazlewood produced the duo’s single, “Soda Fountain Girl”, recorded and released in 1955 in Phoenix, Arizona. They performed and appeared on radio stations in Phoenix and joined Buddy Long’s Western Melody Boys, playing country music in and around the city. Continue reading Duane Eddy 4/2024

Posted on 1 Comment

Mike Pinder 4/2024

Mike Pinder (82) – The Moody Blues –  was born in Erdington, Birmingham on 27 December 1941. His father, Bert, was a coach driver and his mother, Gladys (née Lay), was a barmaid. As a child, he had an affinity for rocket ships and outer space which earned him the nickname “Mickey the Moon Boy”. These interests would be recurring themes throughout his career as a song writer. (Mickey the Moonboy. In 1995 Mike got a personal tour at NASA and a treasured memento.)

He was a member of several bands in Birmingham in his teenage years, among them the Checkers, who won first prize of £50 in a talent competition. In his first band, rock’n’roll combo El Riot and the Rebels, Pinder played support to the Beatles in 1963 in a show at Tenbury. As a member of the short-lived Krew Kats, he played for two months in clubs in Hamburg where the Beatles had played.

Between 1962–63, Pinder worked for 18 months as a development engineer, responsible for testing and quality control, at Streetly Electronics in Streetly, Birmingham, a factory manufacturing the first models of Mellotron in the UK. In May 1964 he left Streetly Electronics to co-found The Moody Blues with Ray Thomas, Denny Laine, Clint Warwick and Graeme Edge. Continue reading Mike Pinder 4/2024

Posted on Leave a comment

Eric Carmen 3/2024

Eric Carmen (The Raspberries) was born August 11, 1949 in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up in Lyndhurst, Ohio. Carmen was born into a family of Russian Jewish immigrants, and was involved with music since early childhood. By the age of two, he was entertaining his parents with impressions of Jimmy Durante and Johnnie Ray. By age three, he was in the Dalcroze Eurhythmics program at the Cleveland Institute of Music. At six years old, he took violin lessons from his aunt Muriel Carmen, who was a violinist in the Cleveland Orchestra. By age 11, he was playing piano and dreaming about writing his own songs. The arrival of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones altered his dream slightly. By the time he was a sophomore at Charles F. Brush High School, Carmen was playing piano and singing in local rock bands including the Sounds of Silence.

Though classically trained in piano, at age fifteen, Carmen started to take guitar lessons, but when his teacher’s approach did not fit with what he wanted, he decided to teach himself. He bought a Beatles chord book and studied guitar for the next four months. Continue reading Eric Carmen 3/2024

Posted on 1 Comment

Steve Harley 3/2024

Steve Harley (Cockney Rebel) was born Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice on 27 February 1951 in Deptford, London, the second of five children. His father Ronnie was a milkman and semi-professional footballer; his mother Joyce was a semi-professional jazz singer.

During the summer of 1953, aged two, Harley contracted a severe case of polio and the doctors told his father he was going to die. He survived, but spent four years in hospitals between the ages of three and 16. He underwent major surgery in 1963 and 1966. After recovering from the first operation, aged 12, Harley was introduced to the poetry of T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence, the prose of John Steinbeck, Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway, and the music of Bob Dylan, which pointed him to future careers involving words and music.  While in hospital he wrote poetry, finding inspiration in Dylan’s ballads.

From the age of nine, Harley took classical violin lessons and he played in his grammar school orchestra. Aged 10, he began learning the guitar after his parents had given him a nylon-string Spanish guitar for Christmas, and he started to write his own songs.

Continue reading Steve Harley 3/2024

Posted on Leave a comment

Wayne Kramer 2/2024


Wayne Kramer 2/2024 (75) was born Wayne Stanley Kambes in Detroit on April 30, 1948. He had a typically nomadic post-World War II upbringing. His parents divorced when he was young, and Kramer’s father, Stanley, effectively disappeared from his life. Raised by his mother and stepfather, the young Wayne sought solace in the seismic sounds of 50s rock’n’roll, apparently as a reaction to being abused by his stepfather and as a result turned to music as an outlet. 

In the music of the era there was one pioneering figure in particular shaping the course of his future.

“Quite simply, Chuck Berry was the reason I played guitar,” Karmer enthused in the sleevenotes for Rhino’s The Big Bang! The Best Of The MC5. “When I heard that sound when I was nine years old, that was it. That was the sound of liberation, the sound of release and of power. And I mean the electric guitar. The sound of the amplifier was a huge part of it for me. That visceral spirit formed me and got me into bands.”

Continue reading Wayne Kramer 2/2024

Posted on Leave a comment

Melanie Safka 1/2024

Melanie, hippie singer-songwriterMelanie Safka (76) professionally known as Melanie was born on Feb. 3, 1947 and raised in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York City. Her father, Fred, was of Ukrainian ancestry and her mother, jazz singer Pauline “Polly” Altomare, was of Italian heritage. Melanie made her first public singing appearance at age four on the radio show Live Like A Millionaire, performing the song “Gimme a Little Kiss”. She moved with her family to Long Branch, New Jersey, and attended Long Branch High School, but disturbed that she was rejected by her schoolmates as a “beatnik”, she ran away to California. After her return to New Jersey, she transferred to Red Bank High School. She graduated in 1966, although she was prevented from attending her graduation ceremony because of an overdue library book. (different times!!!). Yet, she was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 2014.

Continue reading Melanie Safka 1/2024

Posted on 2 Comments

Jimmy Buffett – 9/2023

Jimmy BuffettJimmy Buffett (76) was born on December 25, 1946, in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and spent part of his childhood in Mobile and Fairhope, Alabama. He was the son of Mary Lorraine (née Peets) and James Delaney Buffett Jr, who worked for the Army Corps of Engineers. During his grade school years, he attended St. Ignatius School, where he played the trombone in the school band. As a child, he was exposed to sailing through his grandfather who was a steamship captain and these experiences influenced his later music. He graduated from McGill Institute for Boys, a Catholic high school in Mobile, in 1964. He began playing the guitar during his first year at Auburn University after seeing a fraternity brother playing while surrounded by a group of girls. Buffett left Auburn after a year due to his grades and continued his college years at Pearl River Community College and the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, where he received a bachelor’s degree in history in 1969. From 1969 to 1970, Buffett worked for Billboard as a Nashville correspondent, and in 1969, he was the first writer to report that the bluegrass duo Flatt and Scruggs had disbanded. Continue reading Jimmy Buffett – 9/2023

Posted on 1 Comment

Gary Wright – 9/2023

Mr. Dream WeaverGary Wright was born on April 26, 1943 in Cresskill, New Jersey, to Ann (nee Belvedere) and Louis Wright. His father was a construction engineer, and his mother was a singer, as were his two sisters. His older sister, Beverly, enjoyed some success as a pop and folk singer in the 60s, while his younger sister, Lorna, released the album Circle of Love (1978) and several singles.

His mother encouraged Gary to take an interest in music and acting. He appeared in the TV sci-fi series Captain Video and His Video Rangers, and when he was 12 he was hired as an understudy for a Broadway musical, Fanny. This resulted in him going on stage in the role of Cesario, son of the titular Fanny, played by Florence Henderson, and in 1955, appearing with Henderson on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Continue reading Gary Wright – 9/2023

Posted on 1 Comment

Robbie Robertson – 8/2023

Robbie Robertson (80)the Band was born in Toronto, Canada on 5 July, 1943. His mother, Rosemary Dolly Chrysler, was a Cayuga/Mohawk Indian who had been raised on the Six Nations Reserve near Toronto. The man whom he believed to be his father and who raised him until he was in his early teens, James Robertson, was a factory worker.

When he was a child, his mother often took him to the Six Nations Reserve, where it seemed that everyone played a musical instrument or sang or danced. He thought “I’ve got to get into this club. I think the guitar looks pretty cool.” His mother bought him one, his older cousin Herb Myke taught him how to play.

“Rock ’n’ roll suddenly hit me when I was 13 years old,” Robertson told Classic Rock magazine in 2019. “That was it for me. Within weeks I was in my first band, Little Caesar and the Consuls,” with whom he performed covers of the then current rock and roll and r&b hits. In 1957 he formed Robbie and the Rhythm Chords with his friend Pete “Thumper” Traynor (who later founded Traynor Amplifiers). They changed the name to Robbie and the Robots after they watched the film Forbidden Planet and took a liking to the film’s character Robby the Robot. Traynor customized Robertson’s guitar for the Robots, fitting it with antennae and wires to give it a space age look. Traynor and Robertson joined with pianist Scott Cushnie and became The Suedes. 

His parents separated around that time, and his mother told him that his biological father was a Jewish professional gambler named Alexander David Klegerman, who had been killed in a hit-and-run accident before she met James Robertson. Years later In his memoir, “Testimony”, he wryly commented on his Indian and Jewish heritage: “You could say I’m an expert when it comes to persecution.”

In 1959, the Suedes, got a crucial break when they were seen by the Arkansas-based rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins.

Hawkins saw enough in Mr. Robertson to write two songs with him, ‘Hey Baba Lou’ and ‘Someone Like You’, which he recorded, and he later invited that teenage guitarist to join his band, the Hawks, initially on bass. Roy Buchanan, a few years older than Robertson, was briefly a member of the Hawks and became an important influence on Robertson’s guitar style: “Standing next to Buchanan on stage for several months, Robertson was able to absorb Buchanan’s deft manipulations with his volume speed dial, his tendency to bend multiple strings for steel guitar-like effect, his rapid sweep picking, and his passion for bending past the root and fifth notes during solo flights.” Robertson soon developed into a veritable guitar virtuoso.

The Hawks also included Levon Helm on drums; by 1961, the other future members of the Band were also in the fold. They toured with Hawkins for two more years and recorded for Roulette Records. By 1964, they had gone off on their own as Levon and the Hawks.

The Hawks recorded a few singles for Atco, all written by Robertson, and in 1965 he was contacted by Bob Dylan’s management and invited to be part of his backing group. While he initially refused, he did perform with Dylan in New York and Los Angeles, bringing along Levon Helm for those gigs. At Robertson’s insistence, Dylan wound up hiring all the other future members of the Band (Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko) for the full tour. Three of his fellow members — the drummer Levon Helm, the pianist Richard Manuel and the bassist Rick Danko — expressed those characters in distinctly aching vocals. Robertson rarely sang lead, instead finding his voice in the guitar.

Dylan also invited Robertson to perform in 1966 on a session for his album “Blonde on Blonde.” The next year, he asked the Hawks to move to his new base in the Woodstock area, and they rented a house in nearby Saugerties that was later known as Big Pink. It was there that they recorded the music released as “The Basement Tapes” and worked on the songs that would be included on “Music From Big Pink.”

“It was like a clubhouse where we could shut out the outside world,” Robertson wrote in his memoir. “It was my belief something magical would happen. And some true magic did happen.”

When “Music From Big Pink” was released in the summer of 1968, it boasted seminal songs written by Robertson like “The Weight” and “Chest Fever,”along with strong pieces composed by other members of the Band as well as by Dylan. “This album was recorded in approximately two weeks,” according to another close Dylan associate, Al Kooper. “There are people who will work their lives away in vain and not touch it.”

For the Band’s follow-up album, “The Band,” released in 1969, Robertson either wrote or co-wrote every song, including some of his most enduring creations, among them “Up On Cripple Creek,” “Rag Mama Rag,” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” which became a Top Five Billboard hit in a version recorded by Joan Baez. The album reached No. 9 on the magazine’s chart.

The Band’s next effort, “Stage Fright,” released in 1970, shot even higher, peaking at No. 5, buoyed by Robertson compositions like the title track and “The Shape I’m In.” Those songs, like many on the album, expressed deep anxiety and doubt, a theme that carried over to “Cahoots,” released in 1971. And while that album broke Billboard’s Top 20, it wasn’t as rapturously received as its predecessors. Possibly because time were changing fast in those year. Three of his fellow members — drummer Levon Helm, pianist Richard Manuel and bassist Rick Danko — expressed his anxiety and doubt in distinctly aching vocals. Mr. Robertson rarely sang lead, instead finding his voice in the guitar.

In its day, the Band’s music stood out as well by inverting the increasing volume and mania of psychedelic rock and by sidestepping its accent on youthful rebellion. “We just went completely left when everyone else went right,” Robertson said. The ripple effect of that sound and image went wide on impact, landing the group on the cover of Time magazine in 1970 and inspiring a host of major artists to create their own homespun amalgams, from the Grateful Dead’s album “American Beauty” (1970) to Elton John’s “Tumbleweed Connection,” released the same year. The Band’s music so affected fellow guitarist Eric Clapton that he actually lobbied for entry into their ranks. (The offer was politely declined.)

Robertson produced an album for Jesse Winchester in 1970 and played on Ringo’s ‘Ringo’ (1973) and ‘Goodnight Vienna’ (1974). He is heard on Joni Mitchell’s ‘Court and Spark’ and played guitar on ‘Mockingbird’ for James Taylor and Carly Simon. He was now one of the most sought after session musicians, working with Eric Clapton on ‘No Reason To Cry’ and producing Neil Diamond’s ‘Beautiful Noise’.

A collection of blues and R&B covers, “Moondog Matinee,” was released in 1973, and Robertson’s muse fully returned in 1975 on the album “Northern Lights — Southern Cross,” which included “Acadian Driftwood,” his first composition with a Canadian theme. The original group’s final release, “Islands” (1977), consisted of leftover pieces and was issued mainly to fulfill the group’s contract with its label, Capitol Records.

In 1976, Robertson made the decision that The Band would stop touring. It caused the break-up of the group but they went out with one final concert, called ‘The Last Waltz’. The Band was booked to perform at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on 25 November, 1976. Robbie asked film director Martin Scorsese to film the event. The Band would perform with famous friends including included Ronnie Hawkins, Muddy Waters, Paul Butterfield, Dr. John, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Emmylou Harris.

After the Band’s demise in 1977, Robertson released five solo albums, but devoted most of his artistic effort to movies, as a music producer or score composer.

The same year as “The Last Waltz,” Robertson produced a Top Five platinum album for Neil Diamond, “Beautiful Noise,” and a double live album by Mr. Diamond, “Love at the Greek,” which made Billboard’s Top 10 and sold more than two million copies.

Robertson told Musician magazine that he broke up the Band because “we had done it for 16 years and there was really nothing else to learn from it.” Another strong factor was Mr. Robertson’s frustration over hard drug use by most of the other members.

Without Robbie Robertson, the other members of the Band released three albums in the 1990s; the last, “Jubilation,” in 1998, was without Richard Manuel, who had died by suicide 12 years earlier at 42. Rick Danko died of heart failure in 1999 at 56, Levon Helm of throat cancer in 2012 at 71. 

Over the years, other members of the Band accused Robertson of taking more songwriting credits than he deserved. To them, it was a cooperative effort, with the other members adding important arrangements and contributing elements that helped define the essential character of the recordings. Levon Helm was particularly vociferous in his condemnation, amplified by his furious 1993 memoir, “This Wheel’s on Fire.”

In his own memoir, Robbie Robertson wrote of Levon Helm, “it was like some demon had crawled into my friend’s soul and pushed a crazy, angry button.”

The collaborations with Scorsese continued. Robbie scored Martin’s 1980 movies ‘Carney’ and ‘Raging Bull’ then later ‘The King of Comedy’ and ‘The Color of Money’. For ‘The Color of Money’, Robbie co-wrote the hit song for Eric Clapton ‘Its In The Way That You Use It’. Robertson also collaborated on film and TV soundtracks such as Casino (1995), Gangs of New York (2002), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Silence (2016), The Irishman (2019), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).

With his history it was remarkable that Robbie Robertson didn’t release a solo album until 1986. ‘Robbie Robertson’ was produced by Daniel Lanois and featured appearances from all members of U2, Peter Gabriel and his former Band mates Rick Danko and Garth Hudson.

Robbie Robertson’s fifth and final solo album appeared in 2019 with a title, “Sinematic,” that underscored his devotion to film work in his last four decades. He recently completed the score for his 14th film project, Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2023.

At the age of 80 years old Robbie Robertson took his marvelous talents elsewhere when he departed this world on August 9, 2023 after a lengthy battle with prostrate cancer.

Marveling over where life had taken him, Mr. Robertson once told Classic Rock magazine: “People used to say to me, ‘You’re just a dreamer. You’re gonna end up working down the street, just like me.’ Part of that was crushing, and the other part is, ‘Oh yeah? I’m on a mission. I’m moving on. And if you look for me, there’s only going to be dust.’”

Robbie Robertson was inducted into the Canadian Juno Hall of Hall in 1989. In 1994, The Band were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Robbie was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2003. In 2005, he received a doctorate from York University and in 2006 the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. In 2008 Robbie was given a Lifetime Grammy Achievement Award. In 2011, he was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and in 2011 made Officer of the Order of Canada. Robbie is also on Canada’s Walk of Fame, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Native American Music Awards in 2017 and was given the keys to the city of Toronto in 2019.

Posted on Leave a comment

David LaFlamme – 8/2023

Violin for It's a Beautiful DayDavid LaFlamme (It’s a Beautiful Day) was born in New Britain, Connecticut, on May 4, 1941, the first of six children of Adelard and Norma (Winther) LaFlamme. His mother was from a Mormon family in Salt Lake City, and when he was eight years old, the family moved to Utah to be near her family. He spent his early years in Los Angeles, where his father was a Hollywood stunt double, before settling in Salt Lake City, where his father became a copper miner. David was about 5 when he got his first violin, a hand-me-down from an aunt back in Connecticut, whose daughter never took to the violin.

“I began fooling around with it on my own and taught myself to play ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,’” he said in a 1998 interview. Formal training followed and in Salt Lake City in later years, he won a competition to perform as soloist with the Utah Symphony Orchestra.

Continue reading David LaFlamme – 8/2023

Posted on Leave a comment

Rodriguez 8/2023

Sixto Rodriguez 8/2023 (81) was born on July 10, 1942, in Detroit, Michigan. He was the sixth child of Mexican immigrant working-class parents Ramon and Maria Rodriguez.  They had joined an influx of Mexicans who came to the Midwest to work in Detroit’s industries. Mexican immigrants at that time faced both intense alienation and marginalization.  In most of his songs, Rodriguez takes a socio-political stance on the difficulties that faced the inner-city poor. His mother died when he was three years old. Growing up in a single parent, working class environment, Rodriguez first got turned onto music after hearing his father play Mexican folk songs. They often moved him to tears. “My father’s night would usually end with a couple of drinks, and a few songs. I would always listen to his heart-breaking songs. He loved music, and I picked it up through him.” Continue reading Rodriguez 8/2023

Posted on Leave a comment

Sinéad O’Connor – 7/2023

Sinéad O’Connor (56) was born on 8 December 1966 in Dublin, Ireland at the Cascia House Nursing Home on Baggot Street in Dublin.  She was named Sinéad after Sinéad de Valera, the mother of the doctor who presided over her delivery (Éamon de Valera, Jnr.), and Bernadette in honor of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes. She was the third of five children; an older brother is the novelist Joseph O’Connor.

Her parents were John Oliver “Seán” O’Connor, a structural engineer later turned barrister and chairperson of the Divorce Action Group and Johanna Marie O’Grady (1939–1985). She attended Dominican College Sion Hill school in Blackrock, County Dublin. Abused by an obsessively religious mother during her childhood, growing up in a politically charged environment of the Irish clashes and terrorist actions, she created a willingness to take a stand that made her powerful — and threatening, at the same time. Her mother also taught her to steal from the collection plate at Mass and from charity tins. In 1979, at age 13, O’Connor went to live with her father, who had recently returned to Ireland after re-marrying in the United States, in 1976. Continue reading Sinéad O’Connor – 7/2023

Posted on 1 Comment

Randy Meisner – 7/2023

Randy Meisner (the Eagles) was born on March 8, 1946, in Scottsbluff, Nebraska to a farming family.  He got his first acoustic guitar when he was around 12 or 13 and, shortly after, formed a high school band. “We did pretty good, but we didn’t win anything,” according to Meisner.
“We couldn’t find any work because there were a million bands out here,” he said.
Meisner moved to California in 1964/65 and played with the likes of Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band and Poco, before co-founding the Eagles in 1971 alongside Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon. 

They went on to define the country-tinged, laid-back West Coast pop-rock sound that ruled the US radio waves in the early 1970s, before later moving in a hard rock direction, essentially because of James Gang guitarist Joe Walsh being added to the line-up when Bernie Leadon left.

Once dubbed “the sweetest man in the music business” by former bandmate Don Felder, bass player Meisner stepped out of the shadows on the mournful, lovelorn waltz-time ballad Take It to the Limit – a song later covered by the likes of Etta James, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. He was with the band when they recorded the albums “Eagles,” “Desperado,” “On the Border,” “One of These Nights” and “Hotel California.”
“Hotel California,” with its mysterious, allegorical lyrics, became the band’s best-known recordings. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977 and won a Grammy Award for record of the year in 1978. Continue reading Randy Meisner – 7/2023

Posted on 2 Comments

Tina Turner 5/2023

Tina Turner, proud queen of rockTina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on Nov. 26, 1939, in Brownsville, Tenn., northeast of Memphis, and spent her earliest years on the Poindexter farm in Nutbush, an unincorporated area nearby, where she sang in the choir of the Spring Hill Baptist Church, along with her parents and two sisters. Her father, Floyd, known by his middle name, Richard, worked as the farm’s overseer — “We were well-to-do farmers,”  — and had a difficult relationship with his wife, Zelma (Currie) Bullock.

Her parents left Anna and her older sister, Alline, with relatives when they went to work at a military installation in Knoxville, TN during World War II. The family reunited after the war, but Zelma left her husband in the early 1950s and Anna went to live with her maternal grandmother in Brownsville.
After her grandmother died, she moved to St. Louis, Missouri, rejoining her mother as she attended Sumner High School there. She and sister Alline began frequenting the Manhattan Club in East St. Louis to hear Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm.

At one time she requested to sing with a band led by a handsome, dapper guitarist who would soon become the profoundly dominant influence in her life. At first Ike Turner refused to entertain her pleas to be allowed to sing with his Kings Of Rhythm – until she grabbed a microphone during a band break, and belted out B B King’s ‘You Know I Love You’. Ike asked her if that was the extent of her repertoire. On finding out that it wasn’t, he let her sing a few more. By the end of the night she was the band’s newest ‘chick singer’. Continue reading Tina Turner 5/2023

Posted on Leave a comment

John Giblin – 5/2023

John Giblin was born on 26 February 1952, in Bellshill, a suburb of Glasgow in Scotland.

Little is known about John Giblin’s early years, but he must have picked up a guitar at an early age, considering how he became one of those musicians that gave rock and roll a foundation for others to shine on.

He worked as an acoustic and electric bass player spanning jazz, classical, rock, folk, and avant-garde music. Best known as a studio musician, recording film scores and contemporary music, Giblin also performed live and recorded with Peter Gabriel, John Martyn, Elkie Brooks, Annie Lennox, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Phil Collins, Empire with Peter Banks, Fish, rock/pop band Simple Minds,and has been closely associated with artists ranging from Kate Bush, Jon Anderson (Yes), to jazz fusion group Brand X, and with the avant-garde recordings by Scott Walker (including the album Tilt).
Later in life, Giblin moved further into the direction of acoustic bass, with projects involving drummer Peter Erskine (of Weather Report), and pianist Alan Pasqua (of Tony Williams Lifetime).

To get a feel for John Giblin’s work with the top of the crop, check out his oeuvre on AllMusic

Following his death, Kate Bush released a statement, saying: ” I loved John so very much. He was one of my very dearest and closest friends for over forty years. We were always there for each other. He was very special. I loved working with him, not just because he was such an extraordinary musician but because he was always huge amounts of fun. We would often laugh so much that we had to just give in to it and sit and roar with laughter for a while. He loved to be pushed in a musical context, and it was really exciting to feel him cross that line and find incredibly gorgeous musical phrases that were only there for him. He would really sing. It was such a joy and an inspiration to see where he could take it. We’ve all lost a great man, an unmatchable musician and I’ve lost my very special friend. My world will never be the same again without him.”

Giblin died from sepsis on 14 May 2023, at the age of 71.

 

 

Posted on Leave a comment

Gordon Lightfoot 5/2023

Gordon Lightfoot (83) was born on Nov. 17, 1938, in Orillia, Ontario, where his father managed a dry-cleaning plant. He was of Scottish descent. His mother recognized Lightfoot’s musical talent early on and schooled him to become a successful child performer. He first performed publicly in grade four, singing the Irish-American lullaby “Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral”, which was broadcast over his school’s public address system during a parents’ day event.

As a youth, he sang in the choir of Orillia’s St. Paul’s United Church under the direction of choirmaster Ray Williams. According to Lightfoot, Williams taught him how to sing with emotion and how to have confidence in his voice. Lightfoot was a boy soprano; he appeared periodically on local Orillia radio, performed in local operettas and oratorios, and gained exposure through various Kiwanis music festivals. At the age of twelve, after winning a competition for boys whose voices had not yet changed, he made his first appearance at Massey Hall in Toronto, a venue he would ultimately play over 170 more times throughout his career. Continue reading Gordon Lightfoot 5/2023

Posted on Leave a comment

Jim Gordon 3/2023

Jim Gordon (77) – Derek & the Dominos et al – was born July 14, 1945. He was raised in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and attended Grant High School. He passed up a music scholarship to UCLA in order to begin his professional career in 1963, at age 17, backing the Everly Brothers. He went on to become one of the most sought-after recording session drummers in Los Angeles. The protégé of studio drummer Hal Blaine, Gordon performed on many notable recordings in the 1960s, including Pet Sounds, by the Beach Boys (1966); Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers (1967); The Notorious Byrd Brothers(1968); and the hit “Classical Gas”, by Mason Williams (1968). At the height of his career Gordon was reportedly so busy as a studio musician that he flew back to Los Angeles from Las Vegas every day to do two or three recording sessions and then returned in time to play the evening show at Caesar’s Palace. Continue reading Jim Gordon 3/2023

Posted on Leave a comment

Gary Rossington 3/2023

Garry Rossington (72) – Lynyrd Skynyrd – was born in West Jacksonville Florida on December 4, 1951. Anybody familiar with the area knows, that West Jacksonville was considered the tough part of town where things were different. It’s the area where Lynyrd Skynyrd was born.  And now every original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd is dead. A Southern Rock band of musicians that passed before their time. The kind that used “to rape and pillage” across the country, who got drunk, did drugs, got laid… That was Lynyrd Skynyrd or at least that was the band’s reputation.

I know I can’t say “rape and pillage” anymore. But that’s how we described the rock star lifestyle back in the seventies, and Lynyrd Skynyrd were part of the firmament of the seventies, even after the plane crash. Continue reading Gary Rossington 3/2023

Posted on Leave a comment

Michael Rhodes 3/2023

Michael Rhodes 3/2023 (69) was born on September 16, 1953 in Monroe, Louisiana and taught himself to play the guitar by age 13 and the bass soon after. In the early 1970s, Rhodes moved to Austin, Texas, where he performed with local bands. Four years later, Rhodes moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he performed with Charlie Rich’s son Alan. Honing his chops he became a sought after session and touring musician. In 1977, Rhodes moved to Nashville, and he joined local band The Nerve with Ricky Rector and Danny Rhodes. He worked as a demo musician for Tree Publishing Company, and then as a session player.
Rhodes joined Rodney Crowell, Steuart Smith, Eddie Bayers, and Vince Santoro in the Cicadas. They recorded one album in 1997, but had been playing together for more than a decade. Rhodes was also a member of The Notorious Cherry Bombs, with Crowell, Bayers, Vince Gill, Hank DeVito, and Richard Bennett.

Rhodes has contributed to the recordings of numerous Nashville Royalty artists, including Neal McCoy, Chely Wright, Pat McLaughlin, Doug Stone, Wynonna Judd, Steve Winwood, the Dixie Chicks, Reba McEntire, Tanya Tucker, Hank Williams, Jr., Rosanne Cash, Vince Gill, J.J. Cale, Dolly Parton, Randy Travis, Faith Hill, Toby Keith, and Kenny Chesney.

And, while many of his recording credits involve country music, his work with Elton John, Larry Carlton, Peter Cetera, Mark Knopfler, Shawn Colvin, and Joe Bonnamassa prove that his talents on the bass transcended any single genre.

In 2013 he became an active sideman in recordings and touring of guitar virtuoso blues rocker Joe Bonamassa.
 
Besides session work, Michael Rhodes was a member of several local bands who play frequently in Nashville-area venues.
•The Fortunate Sons, with Gary Nicholson, Kenny Greenberg, Chad Cromwell, and Reese Winans.
•The Players, with Eddie Bayers (drums), John Hobbs (keyboards), Paul Franklin (steel guitar), and Brent Mason (guitar).They often perform with other artists, such as Vince Gill. 
•The Vinyl Kings, playing original Beatles style music, with Jim Photoglo, Vince Melamed (keyboards), Larry Byrom (keyboards), Larry Lee (percussion), Josh Leo (guitar), and Harry Stinson (drums).
•TAR (Trapp, Abbott, and Rhodes), a power trio with Guthrie Trapp (guitar), and Pete Abbott (drums).
•The World Famous Headliners, led by Al Anderson, and featuring Shawn Camp, Pat McLaughlin, and Greg Morrow.
In 2016, Rhodes won the Bass Player of the Year Award by the Academy of Country Music and was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019. 

Michael Rhodes died on March 4, 2023, at the age of 69 of pancreatic cancer in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.

He skillfully integrates chord inversions, reaching for melodic lines that move from 3rd to 5th rather than root to root. His knack for sneaking in high fifth or dominant 7th chords is uncanny, as is the phrasing and placement of many of his fills. While his approach is often varied and surprising, it rarely catches the listener off guard, thereby enhancing instead of overplaying. He exudes the confidence of a master, the musical lexicon of a seasoned linguist, and the humility that comes from recognizing the power of a song.

Posted on Leave a comment

David Lindley 3/2023

David Lindley (78) was born in San Marino, California, on March 21, 1944. Growing up in Los Angeles, his father had an extensive collection of 78 rpm records that included Korean folk and Indian sitar music, as well as Spanish classical guitarists Andrés Segovia and Carlos Montoya. Lindley took up the violin at age three, and kept at it despite breaking the fragile bridge. He then moved on to the baritone ukulele in his early teens. Next he learned the banjo. By his late teens, he had won the Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest five times. He played banjo with the Dry City Scat Band which included multi-instrumentalist Chris Darrow, and Richard Greene on fiddle. Lindley and his bandmates aspired to emulate multi-talented folk singer Mike Seeger.

Lindley began to frequent the Los Angeles–area folk music scene of the 1960s, primarily going to the Ash Grove club, and the Troubador in West Hollywood, encountering an eclectic assortment of music including flamenco, Russian folk music, and Indian sitar music. At Ash Grove, Lindley shared ideas with local musicians such as Ry Cooder and Chris Hillman. Lindley formed an especially close relationship with Cooder as the two shared a love of “exotic music”, and they both turned away from corporate mainstream music to focus on less popular idioms such as folk and world music. Lindley also learned from traveling blues and folk musicians the “right” way to play certain styles, and he learned violin methods from local star Don “Sugarcane” Harris.

From 1966 to 1970, Lindley was a founding member of the psychedelic rock band Kaleidoscope which released four albums on Epic Records during that period. After Kaleidoscope broke up, Lindley went to England and played in Terry Reid’s (former Yardbirds and Renaissance vocalist) band for a couple of years. In 1972, he teamed with Jackson Browne, playing in his band through 1980 and occasionally afterward. During the 1970s he also toured as a member of the bands of Crosby-Nash, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor.

In 1981, Lindley formed his own band, El Rayo-X. Jackson Browne produced their first album. The band’s final show was December 31, 1989. 

Lindley was especially known for his work as a session musician. He contributed to years of recordings and live performances by Jackson Browne, and also supported Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, Curtis Mayfield, James Taylor, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Terry Reid, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Toto, Rod Stewart, Joe Walsh and Dan Fogelberg. He collaborated with fellow guitarists Ry Cooder, Henry Kaiser and G. E. Smith. Ben Harper credited Lindley’s distinctive slide guitar style as a major influence on his own playing, and, in 2006, Lindley sat in on Harper’s album Both Sides of the Gun. He was known in the guitar community for his use of “cheap” instruments sold at Sears department stores and intended for amateurs. He used these for the unique sounds they produce, especially with a slide.

After that in the early 1990s, Lindley toured as a solo artist, first with Hani Naser accompanying on hand drums, then with reggae percussionist Wally Ingram. He also played on a multitude of studio sessions. Between his work in the studio as a session musician or on tour as a sideman or bandleader, Lindley learned new instruments. He was famous for having written the only song glorifying a brand of condoms, “Ram-a-Lamb-a-Man,” from his album Win this Record!. The media often commented on his colorful polyester clothing, with jarring contrasts between pants and shirt, earning him the nickname Prince of Polyester.

Lindley also toured extensively and recorded with reggae percussionist Wally Ingram.

Lindley’s voice may be heard in the version of “Stay” performed by Jackson Browne. Browne’s version is a continuation of “The Load Out”, and its refrain is sung in progressively higher vocal ranges. The refrain of “Oh won’t you stay, just a little bit longer” is sung first by Browne, then by Rosemary Butler, then by Lindley in falsetto.

Lindley joined Jackson Browne for a tour of Spain in 2006. Love Is Strange: En Vivo Con Tino, a 2-CD set of recordings from that tour, was released May 2010, with Browne and Lindley touring together starting in June of that year. They played together at Glastonbury Festival in 2010, and they won an Independent Music Award for Best Live Performance Album in 2011.

He mastered such a wide variety of instruments that Acoustic Guitar magazine referred to him not as a multi-instrumentalist but instead as a “maxi-instrumentalist. The majority of the instruments that Lindley played are string instruments, including violin, electric guitar, upright and electric bass, banjo, mandolin, dobro, hardingfele, bouzouki, cittern, bağlama, gumbus, charango, cümbüş, oud and zither. He was the unparalleled master of the lap steel guitar in the rock music sphere, and an expert in Hawaiian-style slide guitar blues.

Lindley had obviously a large collection of rare and unusual guitars and other instruments from the Middle East and various parts of the world. He listed and categorized many of them on his website but admitted that he had “absolutely no idea” how many instruments he owned and played, having gathered them since the 1960s. A journalist described his home in 1994 as containing a “tidal flood of instruments strewn all over the house. In every room. On the floor, balanced against the wall, lying atop cabinets and just literally occupying virtually every inch of available floor space.”

David Lindley died after a long illness on March 3, 2023, at the age of 78. He had had COVID-19 in 2020, which his family said developed into Long COVID, with chronic kidney damage.

David Lindley was the epitome of a musician’s musician, not only for his comprehensive skills but also for his infectious personality. Lindley was best known as the ultimate sidekick,

Posted on Leave a comment

Renée Geyer 1/2023

Renée Geyer (69) was born September 11, 1953 in Melbourne, Australia to a Hungarian-Jewish father, Edward Geyer, and a Slovak-Jewish mother, a Holocaust survivor, as the youngest of three children. Geyer was named Renée after another Holocaust survivor who had helped her mother in Auschwitz after Josef Mengele had assigned the rest of her mother’s family to death. At a young age, the Geyers moved to Sydney where her parents were managers of a migrant hostel. Geyer described herself as a problem child, and her parents called her übermutig (German for “reckless”). She attended various schools and was expelled from a private school, Methodist Ladies College, for petty stealing. Her first job was as a receptionist for the Australian Law Society.

In 1970, at the age of 16, while she was still at Sydney Girls High School, Geyer began her singing career as a vocalist with jazz-blues band Dry Red. The group also contained Eric McCusker (later of Mondo Rock). For her audition she sang the Bee Gees’ hit “To Love Somebody”. She soon left Dry Red for other bands including the more accomplished jazz-rock group Sun. Geyer departed Sun in mid-1972 and joined Mother Earth whose R&B/soul music style was more in keeping with Geyer’s idiom.

In 1973, Geyer was signed to RCA Records, who had released Sun’s album the year before, Geyer, already showing signs of her self-proclaimed “Difficult Woman” tag, loyally insisted that Mother Earth back her on the album. Geyer’s self-titled debut studio album was released in September 1973 which mostly consisted of R&B/Soul cover versions of overseas hits. Geyer left Mother Earth by the end of the year.
In August 1974, Geyer released her second studio album, It’s a Man’s Man’s World, which became her first charting album when it peaked at #28 on the Kent Music Report. The title track, “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”, was a cover version of James Brown‘s hit from 1965 and became her first top 50 single.

Geyer then formed Sanctuary, to promote the album. Geyer quickly became disenchanted with RCA and their refusal to let her record more original material, made her prepared to wait out her contract if necessary. Former Chain members convinced Geyer to contact their label, Mushroom Records boss Michael Gudinski and band manager Ray Evans to strike a deal where they would record her and RCA would release the albums and singles with a Mushroom logo stamped on the label.
The arrangement led to Geyer’s third studio album, Ready to Deal, which was recorded in August–September 1975, and by this stage Sanctuary line-up was, Logan, Sullivan, Mark Punch (guitar; ex-Mother Earth) and Greg Tell (drums). They co-wrote most of the material for the album with Geyer and Sanctuary was renamed as Renée Geyer Band; the album was released in November to reach #21. It spawned one of Geyer’s signature songs “Heading in the Right Direction”, which reached the top 40 in 1976.

In 1975 Geyer contributed her voice to the Liberal Party’s theme song “Turn on the Lights”, and later stated she had only done their theme song to earn enough money to record an album in the United States, where she had signed a contract with Polydor Records.

Geyer relocated to the Los Angeles mid-1976 where in the course of the next decade she released several albums. In May 1977, Geyer released her fourth studio album Moving Along on RCA/Mushroom Records and peaked at #11 in Australia. It used Motown Records producer Frank Wilson, with the album’s Polydor Records release for the US market titled Renée Geyer. Her backing musicians, Mal Logan (keyboards) and Barry Sullivan (bass guitar) were supplemented by members of Stevie Wonder’s band, as well as Ray Parker Jr. and other US session musicians. It provided Geyer biggest Australian hit single, at the time, with “Stares and Whispers” peaking at #17. In the US, radio stations began playing several of the album’s tracks, in particular a re-recorded version of “Heading in the Right Direction” which was issued as her first US & UK single.
Polydor were aware her vocal style led listeners to incorrectly assume she was black and urged her to keep a low profile until her popularity had grown, thus they suggested her US album release should not include her photograph. Known for her uncompromising and direct personal manner, Geyer refused to allow this deception and insisted on marketing the album complete with a cover photograph of what she referred to as “my big pink huge face“. After the album’s release, interest in Geyer subsided in the US, which Geyer later blamed on her headstrong decision regarding her marketing. Geyer earned respect in the US recording industry and for several years worked in Los Angeles as a session vocalist although she returned to Australia periodically.

Geyer’s June 1979 release, Blues License, is unique in her catalogue as she combined with Australian guitarist Kevin Borich and his band Express to record an album of straight blues material. The added fire in her vocals was sparked by the harder edged backing. It reached the top 50 and became a favorite of fans.

In 1981, Geyer recorded her seventh studio album So Lucky in Shangri-La Studios, Malibu, California. Helmed by Rob Fraboni (The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, The Band) and Ricky Fataar (Beach Boys), the album moved Geyer from the soul style she had been identified with and added a tougher, rootsy rock/R&B style, while incorporating salsa and reggae. The lead single “Say I Love You” was released in May 1981 and became her biggest hit when it reached #5 on the Australian charts and #1 in New Zealand.

Geyer continued as an in-demand session vocalist, which she had also done in Australia. She was on Sting’s 1987 double-album, …Nothing Like the Sun, including the single “We’ll Be Together”. She performed a duet with Joe Cocker on his 1987 album Unchain My Heart and, following the album’s release, toured Europe with him as a backing vocalist. She was audible on Toni Childs’ hit “Don’t Walk Away” from the 1988 album Union. Other sessions included working with Neil Diamond, Julio Iglesias, Buddy Guy and Bonnie Raitt. She also recorded “Is it Hot in Here” for the soundtrack of the 1988 film Mystic Pizza. She described her backing vocals as supplying “The old Alabama black man wailing on the end of a record so they hire the white Jewish girl from Australia to do it.”

In 1994 Geyer released her first solo studio album in 9 years. The exposure encouraged Geyer to move back to Australia and following the release of Difficult Woman, Geyer spent time reestablishing herself on the live circuit across Australia. These performances showed her more relaxed on stage than at her peak when her innate shyness was often cleverly disguised. Now a confident, mature woman she showed off a hitherto hidden wicked sense of humor.

In 2000, Geyer released her autobiography, “Confessions of a Difficult Woman”, after her 1994 studio album. In this candid book, she detailed her drug addictions, sex life and career in music. She described herself as “a white Hungarian Jew from Australia sounding like a 65-year-old black man from Alabama”.

In August 2003 Geyer released her eleventh studio album Tenderland. The album peaked at #11 on the ARIA Charts, equalling her highest-charting album in her career. Live at the Athenaeum was released in April 2004 and Geyer’s twelfth studio album Tonight in April 2005.
Geyer’s iconic status in the Australian music industry was recognized when she was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame on 14 July 2005. Geyer was also an internationally respected and sought-after backing vocalist, whose session credits include work with Sting, Chaka Khan, Toni Childs, Joe Cocker, Neil Diamond, Men at Work, Sting, Trouble Funk and many others.

In January 2023, Geyer was admitted to hospital in Geelong where she had hip surgery. It was subsequently discovered that she had inoperable lung cancer. She died from surgical complications on 17 January 2023 at the age of 69.

Posted on 3 Comments

David Crosby 1/2023

David Crosby was born August 14, 1941 in Los Angeles, California, second son of Wall Street banker turned Academy Award-winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby and Aliph Van Cortlandt Whitehead, a salesperson at Macy’s department store. His father was related to the famous Van Rensselaer family, a fiercely prominent family of Dutch descent during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries in the greater New York area. Members of this family played a critical role in the formation of the United States and served as leaders in business, politics and society. His mother—granddaughter of Bishop of Pittsburgh Cortlandt Whitehead—descended from the equally prominent Dutch descent New York Van Cortlandt family. For those of you interested in his ancestry, David Crosby could never have been anything else than what he became in life: freak, outspoken asshole and forever musical icon.

In all of Rock and Roll, this man was probably my very personal hero.  

David Crosby lived one of the wildest lives in rock and roll, flying the freak flag high through decades of global fame and several fortunes won and lost, a white knuckle outlaw ride crammed with drugs, sex, death and a stint in prison. But that’s not why I celebrate him or mourn his passing. Because he also participated in some of the most beautiful music heard in our times, writing gorgeous, complex songs of cosmic folk jazz, gilding the air with blissful harmonies and playing impossibly complex chords he seemed to pluck out of the ether. With his walrus moustache and a perpetual twinkle in his eye, he was a fantastic musician and a richly complex human being whose spirit became infused in the rock culture of the 1960s, seventies and beyond. Crosby always yearned for greater musical adventures. He was one of the great hippies, one of the great band members in a couple of the greatest bands, and just really one of the few absolute greats of rock and roll.

Continue reading David Crosby 1/2023

Posted on 2 Comments

Jeff Beck – 1/2023

Jeff Beck (78) Geoffrey Arnold “Jeff” Beck was born on 24 June 1944 in Wallington, South London to Arnold and Ethel Beck. Before Beck discovered guitar, his mother had wanted him to play the piano. But once his parents saw how Beck took to the guitar, they allowed it.  They probably thought, ‘If he’s got the guitar, he’s not going out stealing.’ The only friends he had were pretty low-life; most of them were one step away from jail.

Beck said that he first heard an electric guitar when he was six-years-old and heard Les Paul playing “How High the Moon” on the radio. He asked his mother what it was. After she replied it was an electric guitar and was all tricks, he said, “That’s for me”. As a ten-year-old, Beck sang in a church choir and his original musical direction was essential formed by the music his older sister, Annetta, brought home.  As a pre-teenager he learned to play on a borrowed guitar and made several attempts to build his own instrument, first by gluing and bolting together cigar boxes for the body and an un-sanded fence post for the neck with model aircraft control lines as strings and frets simply painted on it. Continue reading Jeff Beck – 1/2023

Posted on Leave a comment

Anita Pointer 12/2022

Anita Pointer (74) -The Pointer Sisters- was born on January 23, 1948 in Oakland, California, the fourth of six children to Sarah Elizabeth and Reverend Elton Pointer. Though she was born in California, Pointer’s parents were natives of Arkansas. As a result, her family traveled by car almost yearly from California to Arkansas to visit Pointer’s grandparents who lived in Prescott.

At one point in time, her mother allowed her to stay with her grandparents to attend fifth grade at McRae Elementary, seventh grade at McRae Jr. High, and tenth grade at McRae High School. While in Prescott, she played alto sax as a member of the McRae High School band. In 1969, Pointer quit her job as a secretary to join her younger sisters Bonnie and June to form The Pointer Sisters. Continue reading Anita Pointer 12/2022

Posted on Leave a comment

Dino Danelli – 12/2022

Dino Danelli (78) – The Young Rascals was born July 23, 1944 into an Italian American family in Jersey City, New Jersey. Danelli trained as a jazz drummer in his early years. Barely a teenager he played with Lionel Hampton and (by 1961) was playing R&B in New Orleans. He returned to New York in 1962 with a band called Ronnie Speeks & the Elrods. Later he also worked at times with such legendary performers as Little Willie John.

Dino was a prodigy from the Jersey City-Hoboken area, making the scene in his early teens, learning from the jazz greats like Krupa and Buddy Rich who played regularly at the Metropole, a very adult Club in New York City where the management took a shine to the young star-in-the-making and set him up with a cot in a dressing room years before he made it big. “They had vision, knew something was going to happen for me.” Young Dino held a daytime gig at the Metropole with a rock and roll band, travelled to New Jersey sometimes at night with his drum kit, performed with Lionel Hampton when he was fifteen years of age. Continue reading Dino Danelli – 12/2022

Posted on Leave a comment

Kim Simmonds – 12/2022

Kim Simmonds (Savoy Brown) was born Kim Maiden Simmonds on Dec. 5, 1947 in Caerphilly, Wales, to Henry Simmonds, an electrician, and Phyllis (Davies) Simmonds, a homemaker. As a child, he was drawn to the early rock ’n’ roll albums owned by his older brother, Harry, who later worked for Bill Haley’s British fan club.
“My brother took me to see all the rock ’n’ roll movies,I grew up with all that: Little Richard, Bill Haley and, of course, Elvis.”
By age 10 he had moved with his family to London, where his brother took him to jazz record stores that also sold blues albums. The singer and pianist Memphis Slim — one of the sophisticated blues guys that could keep one foot in the jazz world and one foot in the blues world became a favorite.
Simmonds bought his first guitar at 13 and began imitating the blues licks on the records he loved. So intent was he on a music career that he never completed high school.

A chance meeting at a record shop in 1965 with the harmonica player John O’Leary led to the formation of what was initially called the Savoy Brown Blues Band. (The first word in the name echoed the name of an important American jazz and R&B label) The group’s initial lineup featured six players, two of them Black — the singer Brice Portius and the drummer Leo Manning — making them one of the few multiracial bands on the British rock scene of the 1960s. Continue reading Kim Simmonds – 12/2022

Posted on Leave a comment

Dan McCafferty 11/2022

William Daniel McCafferty (14 October 1946 – 8 November 2022) was born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland where he attended St Margaret’s school. He had no formal musical training, but in 1965 he joined the Shadettes, who dressed in matching yellow suits and played cover versions of Top 30 pop hits in local venues such as the Belleville Hotel and Kinema Ballroom. Every week the band had to add three new songs from the charts to their repertoire, learning them on Sunday afternoon to perform that night.

The Shadettes had been in existence since 1961, and when McCafferty joined, its members included bassist Pete Agnew and drummer Darrell Sweet. In 1968 Manny Charlton, who passed away earlier in May of this year (2022), joined as lead guitarist, and in December that year the foursome changed their name to Nazareth, inspired by the Band’s song The Weight and its line about pulling into Nazareth “feelin’ ’bout half past dead”. The reference was to the Pennsylvania town, rather than any Biblical connotation.

With financial backing and management from a local bingo-halls millionaire, Bill Fehilly, the band moved to London in 1970. Continue reading Dan McCafferty 11/2022

Posted on 5 Comments

Christine McVie – 11/2022

Christine McVieChristine McVie was born Christine Anne Perfect on July 12, 1943, in the Lake District of England to Cyril Perfect, a classical violinist and college music professor and Beatrice (Reece) Perfect, a psychic.
Her father encouraged her to start taking classical piano lessons when she was 11. Her focus changed radically four years later when she came across some sheet music for Fats Domino songs. At that moment “It was goodbye Chopin.”
“I started playing the boogie bass. I got hooked on the blues. And the songs I write use that left hand. It’s rooted in the blues.”

Christine Perfect studied sculpture at Birmingham Art College and for a while considered becoming an art teacher. At the same time, she briefly played in a duo and had a personal relationship with Welsh guitarist Spencer Davis, who, along with a teenage Steve Winwood, would later find fame in the Spencer Davis Group. She also helped form a band named Shades of Blue with several future members of Chicken Shack.

After graduating from college in 1966, she moved to London and became a window dresser for a department store.
As the sixties started swinging, she started performing with bands, eventually falling in with blues group Chicken Shack. Later, she was asked to join Chicken Shack as keyboardist and sometime singer. She wrote two songs for the band’s debut album, “40 Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve.” Even though her style never totally fitted with the group’s more raucous sound, the subtler songs she fronted ended up finding the greatest commercial success. She scored a No. 14 British hit with Chicken Shack on a cover of Etta James’s “I’d Rather Go Blind” for which she sang lead and Melody Maker readers voted her best female vocalist in both 1969 and 70. While Chicken Shack supported Fleetwood Mac on tour, Christine Perfect fell in love with Mac’s bassist John McVie and they married in 1968. Christine McVie served in Fleetwood Mac during several incarnations that dated to 1971, but she also had uncredited roles playing keyboards and singing backup as far back as the band’s second album, released in 1968. Continue reading Christine McVie – 11/2022

Posted on Leave a comment

Wilko Johnson – 11/2022

Wilko Johnson (Dr. Feelgood) was born John Andrew Wilkinson on 12 July 1947 in Canvey Island, Essex, UK. One of his earliest memories was of the 1953 floods, which hit low-lying Canvey badly and caused many deaths. His father, a gas-fitter, was “a stupid and uneducated and violent person”, according to his son, and died when Wilko was a teenager. Canvey became a romantic place in Johnson’s mind, with its lonely views of the Thames estuary overshadowed by the towers and blazing fires of the nearby Shell Haven oil refinery. Johnson and his contemporaries dubbed the area the Thames Delta, in homage to the Mississippi Delta, which spawned the blues musicians they admired.
He first began playing the guitar after watching the Shadows on television, then later was inspired by Mick Green, guitarist with Johnny Kidd & the Pirates. Green’s knack for mixing up lead and rhythm guitar parts had a clear influence on Johnson’s technique. Wilko instinctively began to play left-handed, but forced himself to switch to right-handed. When he found that playing right-handed meant he could not hold a plectrum, he perfected a way of flicking his fingernails across the strings, which helped him to play the speedy, slashing rhythms that became his stock-in-trade. Continue reading Wilko Johnson – 11/2022

Posted on Leave a comment

Jerry Lee Lewis – 10/2022

Jerry Lee Lewis (87) was born on Sept. 29, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana, to Elmo Lewis, a carpenter, and Mamie (Herron) Lewis. When he was a boy, he and two of his cousins, the future evangelist Jimmy Swaggart and the future country singer Mickey Gilley (who died this year), liked to sneak into a local dance hall, Haney’s Big House, to hear top blues acts perform.

He showed an aptitude for the piano, and his father borrowed money to buy him one. “The more he practiced, the surer the left hand and wilder the right hand became,” Mr. Tosches wrote in “Hellfire.”

At 14, he was invited to sit in with a band performing at a local Ford dealership, which was celebrating the arrival of the 1950 models. He played “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” — the tune, a hit for Sticks McGhee in 1949, would be a minor pop hit for Mr. Lewis in 1973 — and he took home nearly $15 when someone passed the hat. Continue reading Jerry Lee Lewis – 10/2022

Posted on Leave a comment

Bill Pitman 8/2022

Bill Pitman (102) – Wrecking Crew – was born in Belleville, New Jersey on Feb 12, 1920 and grew up in Manhattan. He developed an interest in music at a young age when his father worked as a bass player on staff at NBC in Rockefeller Center. During the Great Depression, Pitman’s father had steady income doing freelance work, radio shows, and movie soundtracks while he was still employed at the network.

When he was five years old, Pitman knew he wanted to be a musician. He tried several different instruments, including the piano and trumpet, before finally settling on the guitar. He received lessons from John Cali and Allan Reuss, teaching him fundamentals and techniques on the first guitar he ever owned, a D’Angelico. When Pitman applied for his Local 802 union card, he easily passed the test before they recognized his surname, saying “Oh, Keith Pitman’s son. Well okay.”

Continue reading Bill Pitman 8/2022

Posted on 1 Comment

Olivia Newton-John 8/2022

Olivia Newton-John 8/2022 (73), was born on 26 September 1948 in Cambridge, England. In early 1954 the family moved to Melbourne, Australia where she was schooled and grew up, the granddaughter of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born. As a matter of fact, her family tree, especially on her mother’s side, showed quite some prominence all the way back to Protestant theologian Martin Luther, the founder of Lutheranism. Newton-John’s father was an MI5 officer on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park who took German war architect Rudolf Hess into custody during World War II.

Newton-John went to primary school with Daryl Braithwaite, who also followed a singing career as lead singer for the Australian rock band Sherbet. At age 14, with three classmates, Newton-John formed a short-lived, all-girl group called Sol Four which often performed at a coffee shop owned by her brother-in-law.

Newton-John originally wanted to become a veterinarian but then chose to focus on performance after doubting her ability to pass science exams.

In 1964, Newton-John’s acting talent was first recognised portraying Lady Mary Lasenby in her University High School’s production of The Admirable Crichton as she became the Young Sun’s Drama Award best schoolgirl actress runner-up. She then became a regular on local Australian television shows, including Time for Terry and The Happy Show, where she performed as “Lovely Livvy”. She also appeared on The Go!! Show, where she met her future duet partner, singer Pat Carroll, and her future music producer, John Farrar. (Carroll and Farrar later married.) Continue reading Olivia Newton-John 8/2022

Posted on Leave a comment

Judith Durham – 8/2022

Judith Durham, born Judith Mavis Cock in Melbourne, Australia (3 July 1943 – 5 August 2022) would for most rock and roll aficionados not belong on a tribute website for rock heroes. But when I learned of her passing last week, I realized that many of her early songs with the Seekers played an important part in my early rock and roll involvement – from learning to play guitar to appreciation for soft melodic rock during the early years of my teenage awareness. Also, Judith had a voice that mastered and actually stood out in almost every category of 60’s modern music. She could sweet voice you into folksy romance, belt it out in jazz rock, make you inconspicuously suffer the blues or lead the pack in a pop song. She could even sing the classics.

Early in life Judith believed her future would be as a pianist. She went on to gain her Associate In Music, Australia (A.Mus.A.) in classical piano as a student of world-renowned concert pianist Professor Ronald Farren-Price at the Melbourne University Conservatorium, with her first professional engagement in the arts playing piano for a ballet school.

Still in her teens, although excelling on piano, little Judy Cock dreamed of fame singing opera or musical comedy and in 1961, aged 18, she was ready to begin classical vocal training.  One night, just for fun, she ‘sat in’ with a trad jazz band at a local dance called “Memphis”, and found instant success performing blues, gospels, and jazz standards of the 1920s and 1930s, also developing as a serious ragtime pianist. She began using her mother’s maiden name, and at 19 she made her first record, an EP for W&G “Judy Durham” with Frank Traynor’s Jazz Preachers.

Meanwhile, by day since leaving school, Judy’s first job was as Secretary to the Pathologist at the Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital, but on taking a new secretarial job at J Walter Thompson Advertising, on her first day she met account executive Athol Guy.  Athol played acoustic bass and also sang bass in a trio called The Seekers and invited her that very night to come and join him and the two guitarists Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley, to sing acoustic four-part harmony folk and gospel at a Melbourne coffee lounge “Treble Clef”.  Still singing regularly with various jazz bands nearly every other night, she then became a regular every Monday with The Seekers.  Adopting her birth name Judith, she recorded an album with The Seekers for W&G, appeared on local TV, then set sail for London in 1964 on “SS Fairsky” for a 10-week stay, singing for their supper on board.

On the advice of Australian entertainer Horrie Dargie, the group sent the album and TV footage ahead to a big theatrical agency, The Grade Organisation, and on their arrival in ‘swinging London’, agent Eddie Jarrett booked them extensively in clubs, TV, and variety theatre.  He asked Tom Springfield (Dusty’s brother) to write and produce a single, resulting in the surprise chart-topper “I’ll Never Find Another You” which made The Seekers the first Australian group ever to hit No.1 internationally, made Judith Australia’s very first international pop princess and pin-up girl, and unexpectedly cemented her in the group as a full-time Seeker.

The next few years brought The Seekers worldwide adulation, with tours, more albums, and a succession of huge and lasting hits including “A World Of Our Own”, “The Carnival Is Over” and “Morningtown Ride”, which rivalled all the top groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones for the No.1 spot.  The Seekers’ biggest international seller was “Georgy Girl”, originally written (music by Tom Springfield, words by Jim Dale) and recorded as the title song for the movie starring Lynn Redgrave, James Mason, Charlotte Rampling and Alan Bates.  The song was nominated for an Academy Award® and the single made history when the group became the first Australians ever to reach the No.1 spot in the USA.

In 1967, The Seekers set an official all-time record when more than 200,000 people (nearly one tenth of the city’s entire population at that time!) flocked to their performance at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne.  Their TV special ‘The Seekers Down Under’ scored the biggest TV audience ever (with a 67 rating), and early in 1968 they were all awarded the nation’s top honour as “Australians Of The Year 1967”.

But 24 year old Judith wanted to spread her wings, and without any notion of the lasting universal grief to be suffered by shocked Seekers fans worldwide, she plucked up courage to give ‘the boys’ six months’ notice.  She was to leave the group in July 1968 to return to Australia … possibly to pursue a career as a solo singer in opera or musical theater … and she hoped to find ‘Mr. Right’.

The surprise for Judith was to receive offers as a solo artist, so she asked a London-based freelance musician, Ron Edgeworth, to be her musical director, pianist and arranger and a couple of years later her Mr. Right.  In big demand as a London-based freelance musician, Ron had worked with all the big names, and had earlier toured and recorded with the legendary Alexis Korner’s All Stars.

From there on Judith started her solo career, with an occasional Seekers reunion over the years, and also focused on composing and writing music. Her one-woman shows stunned audiences and critics with her unique gift for singing in all styles – from folk to country, jazz to pop, blues to gospel, original songs, ragtime piano and even classical.

An indelible mark was made with Judith’s transition into her now classic mid-70s trad jazz recordings with bands she formed with Ron in San Francisco and London.  “The Hottest Band In Town Collection” is now available though Universal.  They also released a legendary album of their piano and voice performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1978 (“The Hot Jazz Duo”).

Through the 80s Judith Durham and Ron Edgeworth based themselves on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, and for the first time Judith concentrated totally on writing and performing her own compositions, even completing a full scale musical “Gotta Be Rainbows” with book written by eminent playwright Ian Austin.  Having experienced her very first songwriting success in 1967 with co-writer David Reilly on The Seekers classic “Colours Of My Life”, by the 80s Judith had developed through the decades as a remarkably talented and prolific composer of both lyrics and music, writing more than 300 works.

After the untimely passing of her husband in 1994,  51 year old Judith, went back into recording albums and touring. In 1996 Judith again toured the UK as a solo artist with the release of “Mona Lisas” (later repackaged as “Always There” in Australia), her Abbey Road album of legendary 60s and 70s covers produced by the late Gus Dudgeon.

To welcome in the new millennium with delighted Seekers fans around the world, she embarked on The Seekers ‘Carnival Of Hits Tour 2000’, and in 2001 Judith celebrated her own remarkable life-long musical journey in her “40th Anniversary” Australian concert tour.

In the same year, as an unexpected treat for loyal Seekers fans, Judith recorded with ‘the boys’ the album “Morningtown Ride To Christmas”, and late in 2002 a double album “Night Of Nights … Live!” was released after The Seekers’ Australian tour, in conjunction with The Seekers’ Australia Post Souvenir Stamp Sheet commemorating 40 years of musical magic from Australia’s first-ever international pop icons.

2003 was one of Judith’s busiest and most artistically satisfying years ever. In March she toured Australia with ‘the boys’ on The Seekers` `Never Say Never Again! Tour` which was received joyfully by fans all over the country – and with barely a month to get ready, she flew to the UK for her massive solo tour. Highlight after highlight followed, leading up to the Magic Date of December 3, 2013, the 50th Birthday of the Seekers.

Judith was thrilled to embark on a whole year of celebration – marking half a century of Seekers music. Judith found herself back in the studio with the group recording and filming two standout tracks for ‘The Golden Jubilee Album: 50 Tracks For 50 Years’.  “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” and the visual feast of “In My Life” were destined to be standout moments in ‘The Golden Jubilee Tour’, when The Seekers hit the road in May/June 2013.

Following the media frenzy of their 50th Birthday Party in Melbourne came yet another accolade for The Seekers – the presentation of a 24-carat gold ‘stamp’ by Australia Post as part of their ‘Legends of Australian Music’ series – and the official handover of the portrait of the group to the National Portrait Gallery, painted by Helen Edwards, “The Seekers Reunite 50 Years On”.

The group announced and then sold-out a ‘Golden Jubilee Tour’ of Australia, which was abruptly halted when Judith suffered a brain hemorrhage after the first of four sold-out nights in Melbourne.  Six months of hospitalisation and rehabilitation followed – during which time Judith’s commemorative ‘Platinum Album’ was released to mark her 70th birthday – before she was given the green light for the Australian tour to resume. Another sold-out tour of New Zealand followed, before The Seekers toured the United Kingdom, performing 18 sold-out show culminating in two packed houses at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Just prior to the return to Australia, The Seekers were advised that they had individually been awarded the Order of Australia (AO) – one of the highest honours that can be bestowed on Australian citizens.  Judith would add yet another honour to her tally by being named Victorian of the Year 2015 the following year.

Also, in 2015, Georgy Girl: The Seekers Musical opened to packed house in Melbourne, before moving on to successful seasons in Sydney and Perth.  Among the production’s many musical numbers were Judith’s “Mama’s Got the Blues” and “I Remember”, and “Colours of my Life”, which she co-wrote with David Reilly.

Judith undertook a solo ‘farewell’ tour of New Zealand, playing 18 sold-out concerts as her Colours of my Life compilation CD soared to No. 2 on the charts there.

And in 2018, Ambition Entertainment packaged The Seekers’ three record-breaking 60s TV spectacular into one magnificent collector’s edition set, The Seekers: The Legendary Television Specials.  Proving again that the music of The Seekers is timeless and much loved, the DVD set reached No. 1 on the ARIA chart!

Another highlight of 2018 is the release of Judith’s first solo studio album in six years.  Timed to mark Judith’s 75th birthday, So Much More is a collection of beautiful songs that Judith Durham has composed with some immensely talented writers and musicians from around the world – all lovingly crafted, and superbly sung.

These never-before-released tracks tell of hope and courage, pain and loss, all-consuming devotion, uplifting spirituality, friendship, and a profound love of Australia and its indigenous heritage.

Durham was born with asthma and at age four she caught measles, which left her with a life-long chronic lung disease, bronchiectasis. Durham died from bronchiectasis on 5 August 2022, at age 79. She definitely avoided the “Rock and Roll lifestyle” during her life, without smoking, little to no alcohol, a vegetarian since 1968 and a vegan in later life.

Posted on Leave a comment

Manny Charlton – 7/2022

Manny Charlton (80) – Nazareth –  was born on July 25, 1941 in La Linea, Cadiz, Spain, near the English territory of Gibraltar. The family moved back to Dunfermline, Scotland when he was 2 years old and Charlton grew up in drab, conservative 1950s Britain, finding his escape in playing the guitar and listening to the sound of American rock’n’roll.

Prior to forming Nazareth, he played in a few bands, most notably the Mark 5 and later the Red Hawks. He was 27 before he teamed up with singer Dan McCafferty, bass guitarist Pete Agnew and drummer Darrell Sweet in a band known as the Shadettes, playing covers of bubblegum pop hits in the local ballrooms while dressed in matching yellow suits.

“I knew Pete [Agnew] and Dan [McCafferty] because we were both playing in the Kinema Ballroom with the resident band.
“They played on one stage and we played on the other.”We used to walk up the road after the gigs with our fish suppers; we always spoke about trying to do something together one day. They had a pretty good guitarist who left to go to university.”
“They asked me to take his place, and I said sure, but only if we do originals.”

“I joined just as the so-called progressive music wave was starting to take over and at the time was listening avidly to John Peel’s radio show,” Charlton recalled. His arrival heralded a change of both musical direction and image, as the band “told the Brylcreamed Locarno ballroom brigade to stuff it”, grew their hair and replaced the suits with denim and loon pants.

 

Continue reading Manny Charlton – 7/2022

Posted on 1 Comment

Ronnie Hawkins 5/2022

Born in Huntsville, Arkansas  on January 10, 1935 Ronnie Hawkins made quite the career for himself in Canada (where he became a permanent resident in 1964). A road warrior, he made his rounds across North America and launched the careers of many musicians, including the Band (who backed him as the Hawks from 1961 to 1964), Roy Buchanan, Pat Travers and others.

Musicianship ran in Hawkins’s family; Hawkins’s father, uncles, and cousins had toured the honky-tonk circuit in Arkansas and Oklahoma in the 1930s and 1940s. His uncle Delmar “Skipper” Hawkins, a road musician, had moved to California about 1940 and joined cowboy singing star Roy Rogers’s band, the Sons of the Pioneers. Hawkins’s cousin Delmar Allen “Dale” Hawkins, the earliest white performer to sing at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and the Regal Theater in Chicago, recorded the rhythm and blues song “Suzie Q” in 1957. Beginning at age eleven, Ronnie Hawkins sang at local fairs and before he was a teenager shared a stage with Hank Williams. He recalled that Williams was too drunk to perform, and his band, the Drifting Cowboys invited members of the audience to get on the stage and sing. Hawkins accepted the invitation and sang some Burl Ives songs he knew.

Continue reading Ronnie Hawkins 5/2022

Posted on Leave a comment

Vangelis 5/2022

17 May 2022  – Vangelis (Greek film composer and keyboards-synthesizer for Aphrodite’s Child). Vangelis was born Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou on March 29, 1943 in the Greek town of Agria. He was a self-taught musician who became a young piano prodigy. Then he moved to Paris and co-founded with Demis Roussos, the popular prog-rock group Aphrodite’s Child. After several global mega hits the band eventually split and Vangelis got a solo record deal with RCA Records, while still collaborating often with Roussos.

In 1981 he composed the score for Chariots of Fire. Its opening theme, with its uplifting inspirational swell and ornate arrangement, was released as a single and reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. His efforts earned him a win for best original score at the Academy Awards.

The success led him to other film work. Notably, he composed the soundtrack for the original Blade Runner, as well as Carl Sagan’s PBS documentary series Cosmos. Outside of composing scores, Vangelis was prolific in his solo career, regularly releasing albums up until 2021’s Juno to Jupiter.

While he was most associated with the synthesizer, the instrument was also a source of frustration for him. “I’ve been using synthesizers for so many years, but they’ve never been designed properly. They create a lot of problems.” he told NPR in 2016. “The computers have completely different logic than the human logic.” So for his 2016 record Rosetta, dedicated to the space probe of the same name, he built his own synthesizer.

Vangelis had a lifelong interest in space which was reflected in his music — in its breadth and atmosphere. He believed that there was something inherent in humans to want to discover — whether that meant up in the sky or in a studio. For Vangelis, becoming a musician was never a conscious decision. “It’s very difficult not to make music,” Vangelis told NPR in 1977. “It’s as natural as I eat, as I make love. Music is the same.”

Vangelis, who gave the movie Chariots of Fire its signature synth-driven sound, died on the May 17, 2022 in a hospital in Paris, due to heart failure.. He was 79 years old.

Posted on Leave a comment

Ric Parnell – 5/2022

Ric Parnell (70) – Atomic Rooster/Spinal Tap –  was born in London, England on August 14, 1951 into a long family history of musical careers. His grandfather Russ Carr was a music hall artist and his father Jack Parnell was a jazz drummer and musical director for Associated Television. He had two brothers, Will and Marc Parnell, who are also drummers. His two sisters elected not to enter the music business.

In 1970, he was a member of the short-lived hard rock band Horse, who recorded one album before breaking up. Shortly after, he briefly joined the progressive rock band Atomic Rooster, leaving after just two months with the band. By the end of 1971 he had been invited to rejoin Atomic Rooster, this time staying long enough to play on the band’s last two albums.

Continue reading Ric Parnell – 5/2022

Posted on Leave a comment

Jerry Doucette 4/2022

Jerry Doucette (69) – Doucette – was born in Montreal, Canada on September 7, 1952 and grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, where his family moved when he was 4. Two years later his father bought him a guitar and he started learning quickly.  He joined his first band, The Reefers, at age 11 and would go on to play in Brutus, Seeds of Time, and The Rocket Norton Band.

The young Doucette turned out to be a guitar prodigy. By the time he was 11, he was playing with three other guys, four or five years older school in a Hamilton group called The Reefers (as in refrigerator truck). The band played paying gigs throughout the area, including a spot opening for Roy Orbison. By the time he was 20, he was living in Toronto, playing in a string of bar bands.

In 1973, he was invited to Vancouver for a recording session with Mushroom recording artist Alexis. The move became permanent. In Vancouver, he established a reputation as one of the city’s hottest guitarists, playing with groups like the Seeds of Time and the Rocket Norton Band. He wrote the B-side, “Donkey Chain”, for the band’s first single. He subsequently signed a solo recording deal with Mushroom Records, and commenced recording under his surname only. He began writing his own songs in 1976 and offered up a demo to Mushroom. The demo included “Mama Let Him Play.”

Continue reading Jerry Doucette 4/2022

Posted on Leave a comment

Bobby Rydell 4/2022

Bobby Rydell (80) – early teen idol – was born on April 26, 1942 in Philadelphia and was the son of Jennie Ridarelli (née Sapienza) and Adrio “Al” Ridarelli. Both of his parents were of Italian descent. He grew up in the Lower Moyamensing neighborhood of South Philadelphia.

As a child, he mimicked the singers he saw on television, and at the age of seven his father Adrio took him around the clubs of Philadelphia, asking if he could sing and do some impersonations. Adrio loved big-band jazz and often took his son to see his favorite bands, including Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. Bobby shared his dad’s enthusiasm for the music, and inspired by Goodman‘s flashy drummer Gene Krupa, he began learning to play the drums. Bobby soon showed he had the skills to be an all-around entertainer, and by the time he was eight, he was singing at local nightspots. At the age of nine, he made his television debut, appearing on a talent showcase, TV Teen Club, hosted by bandleader Paul Whiteman. The show marked his first appearance using the stage name Bobby Rydell; legend had it Whiteman suggested the more streamlined name since he had trouble pronouncing Ridarelli. Whiteman was impressed with Rydell’s voice and likable persona, and the young singer became a regular on the show.

Rydell played in several bands in the Philadelphia area. As a 14-year-old he was the drummer for the Emanons (NoName spelled backward) which included his childhood friend Pat Azzara on guitar. Azzara later assumed the stage name Pat Martino, and went on to achieve recognition as one of the preeminent jazz guitarists of all time. Another band was Rocco and the Saints, in which he sang and played drums. After releasing three unsuccessful singles for small companies, he signed a recording contract with Cameo Records. This was run by Bernie Lowe, who had been the pianist accompanying him on TV Teen Club. After a couple of flops, “Kissin’ Time” made the charts in 1959. In May 1960, Rydell toured Australia with The Everly Brothers, Billy “Crash” Craddock, Marv Johnson, The Champs, The Crickets, and Lonnie Lee.

Rydell was on his way to become a rock and roll teen sensation. Along with Frankie Avalon and Fabian, Rydell was one of the leading Philadelphia-based stars who dominated the pop charts (and the TV show American Bandstand) in the years after Elvis Presley went into the Army and before the British Invasion changed the landscape of rock & roll. Rydell had both talent and charm, and sustained a career as a singer longer than many of his peers; he was in demand as a live performer decades after his days as a hitmaker ended in 1964.

But Between 1959 and 1964, Rydell would place 19 songs into the Pop Top 40, including “Wild One,” “Swingin’ School,” “Sway,” and “Volare.” Rydell was also a popular live attraction, selling out shows across the country and headlining concert tours in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

His second success was “We Got Love“. The album of the same name, his first, sold a million copies and obtained gold disc status. “Wild One” was followed with “Little Bitty Girl” which was his second million-selling single. He continued releasing hit songs with “Swingin’ School” backed by “Ding-A-Ling” and “Volare” later in 1960, which also sold over a million copies. It is estimated he sold over 25 million records in total.

In 1961, he performed at the Copacabana in New York City, where he was the youngest performer to headline at the nightclub. In February 1961, he appeared at the Festival du Rock at the Palais des Sports de Paris in Paris, France.

Rydell’s success and prospects led his father, Adrio, a foreman at the Electro-Nite Carbon Company in Philadelphia, to resign in 1961 after 22 years to become his son’s road manager.

In 1963, Rydell released the song “Wildwood Days“, which reached Number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and remained there for nine weeks. A mural on the Wildwood, New Jersey, boardwalk, painted in 2014, honors Rydell, whose song placed the community in the national spotlight.

That same year, Rydell portrayed Hugo Peabody in the film version of Bye Bye Birdie, also starring Ann-Margret and Dick Van Dyke. The original stage production of Bye Bye Birdie had no real singing role for the character of Hugo, but the movie script was rewritten specifically to expand the part for Rydell. In 2011, Sony Pictures digitally restored the film. Rydell and Ann-Margret were in attendance at the restoration premiere in Beverly Hills, hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

During the 1960s, Rydell had numerous hit records on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His recording career earned him 34 Top 100 hits, placing him in the top five artists of his era (Billboard). They included his most popular successes: “Wild One” (his highest scoring single, at number 2), “Volare” (number 4), “Swingin’ School” (number 5), “Kissin’ Time” (number 11), “Sway” (number 14), “I’ve Got Bonnie” (number 18), and “The Cha-Cha-Cha” (number 10). His last major chart success was “Forget Him“, which reached number 4 on the Hot 100 in January 1964. The song, written by Tony Hatch, was his fifth and final gold disc winner.

Rydell left Cameo-Parkway Records later in 1964 and signed with Capitol Records. By that point, the British Invasion had arrived and acts such as Rydell suffered a dramatic decline in popularity. Bands such as The Beatles became more popular, and Rydell unknowingly inspired John Lennon and Paul McCartney to write “She Loves You“, a song which paved the way for their success in the US.

During that time, he performed on many television programs, including The Red Skelton Show, where a recurring role as Zeke Kadiddlehopper, Clem Kadiddlehopper’s younger cousin, was written for him by Skelton. He also appeared on The Danny Thomas Show, Jack Benny, Joey Bishop, and The George Burns Show. He was a regular on The Milton Berle Show and was a panelist on To Tell the Truth in 1964. On October 6, 1964, he made a guest appearance on the episode “Duel” of the television series Combat!. It was Rydell’s first dramatic acting role.

In January 1968, it was announced in the UK music magazine NME (New Musical Express) that Rydell had signed a long-term recording contract with Reprise Records. He then continued to perform in nightclubs, supper clubs and Las Vegas venues throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but his career was hampered by the refusal by ABKCO Records to reissue Rydell’s Cameo-Parkway catalog, so it was completely unavailable until 2005, although he did re-record his hits in 1995 for K-tel Records. He had one more hit after 1965, a disco re-recording of “Sway”, which reached the Billboard Easy Listening chart in 1976.

In 1985, promoter Dick Fox approached Rydell about appearing in a special for PBS in which he would perform alongside fellow Philadelphia teen idols Frankie Avalon and Fabian. Rydell agreed, and the show, called “The Golden Boys,” clicked with viewers. In response, Fox booked a concert tour for the Golden Boys, with Rydell and his co-stars discovering their old fans were still eager to see them perform. The Golden Boys tours would provide the backbone of Rydell’s career well into the 2010s, and when a long struggle with alcoholism led to him receiving kidney and liver transplants in July 2012, he was back at work the following October. March 2013 saw him sidelined again when he had cardiac bypass surgery, but ever the trooper, Rydell bounced back to play an 11-date Australian tour in February 2014. His autobiography was published in 2016.

Bobby Rydell maintained a steady touring schedule into the final years of his life; he died on April 5, 2022 due to complications of pneumonia. He was 79 years old.

• In additional to the Grease namecheck, Rydell’s legacy lives on in his hometown area, where at least two streets bear his name, and in the 2018 Oscar-winning film Green Book, in which he was portrayed by actor Von Lewis.

• His influence can also be heard in one of the most enduring and popular songs of the 1960s: The Beatles’ “She Loves You.” Paul McCartney has said that he and John Lennon were inspired to write the instantly famous “yeah yeah yeah” lyrics after hearing a similar call-and-response approach in a popular Rydell song, most likely the 1960 hit “Swingin’ School,” in which Rydell sings, “Yeah yeah yeah I go a swingin’ school.”

Posted on Leave a comment

Taylor Hawkins – 3/2022

Taylor Hawkins (50) – Foo Fighters – was born in Ft. Worth Texas on Feb. 17, 1972. Four years later his family moved to Laguna Beach, California, where Hawkins grew up. He was the youngest of three, with an older brother and sister, Jason and Heather and started playing drums at the age of 10.  He graduated from Laguna Beach High School in 1990, where he had been friends with future Yes-reincarnation lead vocalist Jon Davison.

Hawkins played in the Orange County–based psychedelic rock band Sylvia before he became the drummer for British/Canadian rock woman Sass Jordan. After drumming for Sass Jordan, Hawkins joined Alanis Morissette’s touring band Sexual Chocolate for nearly two years (June 1995-March 1997). During that time, he toured the world with the Canadian singer as she supported her breakthrough album, Jagged Little Pill. Hawkins also appearing in the Jagged Little Pill, Live home video and music videos for “You Oughta Know,” “You Learn” and “All I Really Want.”

Here is the true story on how he joined Foo Fighters:

In 1997, you replaced William Goldsmith as Foo Fighters’ drummer. Is it true you offered to join when Dave Grohl called to ask you to recommend someone?
“Well, it didn’t actually go like that. I was a huge fan of the first Foo Fighters record. I’d met Dave a couple of times on the road and we’d become sort of friends. I was driving with my girlfriend at the time, and we were listening to [Los Angeles radio station] KROQ. I heard William had departed and they were looking for a new drummer. I scrambled to get Dave’s number and called him. I said, ‘I heard you guys are looking for a drummer,’ and he said, ‘Well, do you know any?’. I thought Alanis wanted to go in a more laid-back direction, and it seemed like the right time to jump. Alanis didn’t need me! I basically said to Dave, ‘I’ll play drums for you,’ and we jammed a couple of times. I remember I was at home watching [1995 erotic drama] Showgirls with my girlfriend, and Dave called to ask if I wanted to join.”

On his Stage Fright Taylor said:

“It’s really with Foo Fighters shows. I do shows with my other bands, but I just feel a certain way when there’s 100,000 people waiting for you to go onstage. I put a big burden on myself to play perfectly – whatever that means – and keep in perfect time. We’re not one of those bands who are hooked up to a computer or play to backing tracks. We have no safety net, and what happens is what happens. If it’s a trainwreck, it’s a fucking trainwreck. We live and die by the great sword of rock’n’roll. You’re getting something real: you’re getting blood, you’re getting guts, you’re getting a human exchange, and we’re actually really feeding off the audience and the excitement.”

Hawkins first appeared with the Foo Fighters in the music video for the 1997 single “Monkey Wrench“, although the song was recorded before he joined the band. In addition to his drumming with the Foo Fighters, Hawkins provided vocals, guitar, and piano to various recordings. Hawkins played on 9 studio albums with Foo Fighters and toured incessantly.

Yet, he still found time for numerous side projects and collaborations.

In 2000, Hawkins was contacted by Guns N’ Roses to replace Josh Freese on drums. Hawkins seriously considered the offer before Queen drummer and friend Roger Taylor convinced him to remain in Foo Fighters. In 2006, Hawkins released a self-titled LP with his side project, Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders. Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders subsequently released two more studio albums: Red Light Fever in 2010, and Get the Money in 2019. He occasionally played with a Police cover band alternately called the Cops and Fallout. At Live Earth in 2007, Hawkins was part of SOS Allstars with Roger Taylor of Queen and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Hawkins recorded the drum tracks for the Coheed and Cambria album Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow as the band’s regular drummer, Chris Pennie, could not record because of contractual reasons. Hawkins also toured with Coheed and Cambria shortly during the months of the album release. Hawkins can also be heard drumming on Eric Avery‘s (formerly of Jane’s Addiction) first solo effort, Help Wanted and on Kerry Ellis‘s album, Wicked in Rock. Hawkins and Grohl split drumming duties on Harmony & Dissidence, the third album by Foo Fighters bandmate Chris Shiflett‘s own side project, Jackson United.

Hawkins played on the track “Cyborg”, from Queen guitarist Brian May‘s 1998 solo album, Another World; he also played drums at VH1‘s Rock Honors 2006 while Queen performed “We Will Rock You“. He sang backing vocals on the Queen + Paul Rodgers single, “C-lebrity“.[33]

Hawkins was commissioned to complete an unfinished recording of a song by Beach Boys‘ drummer Dennis Wilson titled “Holy Man” by writing and singing new lyrics. The recording, which also featured contributions from Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen, was issued as a single for Record Store Day in 2019.

While the Foo Fighters were on break in 2013, Hawkins formed a rock cover band called Chevy Metal.

Then Hawkins appeared on Slash‘s solo album Slash, released in 2010, providing backing vocals on the track “Crucify the Dead”, featuring Ozzy Osbourne.

Also in 2013, he made his acting debut in the role of Iggy Pop in the rock film CBGB. Hawkins recorded the drums on Vasco Rossi‘s last song, “L’uomo più semplice”. This song was released on January 21, 2013, in Italy.

In March 2014, Hawkins announced his new side project called the Birds of Satan. It features Hawkins’s drum technician and bandmate from Chevy Metal, Wiley Hodgden on bass guitar and vocals as well as guitarist Mick Murphy also of Chevy Metal. The band’s self-titled debut album was released in April 2014, with a release party at ‘Rock n Roll Pizza’ featuring the Foo Fighters guesting on some of the cover tracks.

In an interview with Radio X, Hawkins revealed that his initial idea with his solo projects was to duet with female singers. Hawkins invited other stars to sing in the Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders album Get the Money, such as LeAnn Rimes, who sang on one of his songs titled “C U In Hell”. Loudwire named the album one of the 50 best rock efforts of 2019. The album features a ridiculous list of guest appearances: his boss Dave and bandmate Pat Smear are on there, alongside Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell, The Eagles’ Joe Walsh, The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, Level 42 bassist Mark King, former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, and Roger Taylor, the man who gave Taylor the idea to hit stuff for a living in the first place. “It really is ridiculous, isn’t it?” he laughs. Other musicians who appeared on his projects included Brian May, Heart’s Nancy Wilson  and many more.

In October 2021, Elton John released The Lockdown Sessions, which featured Hawkins playing drums on the song “E-Ticket”. Also in 2021, Hawkins and Jane’s Addiction members Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney formed a supergroup called NHC. Described by Hawkins as being “somewhere between Rush and the Faces“. The band made its live debut in September 2021 at Eddie Vedder‘s Ohana festival, with Taylor’s Foo Fighters bandmate Pat Smear on additional guitar. The band recorded an album in 2021, which released in 2022.

Along with the other members of Foo Fighters, Hawkins starred as himself in the comedy horror film Studio 666, released on February 25, 2022. He posthumously appears on select tracks on Ozzy Osbourne‘s 2022 album Patient Number 9 and Iggy Pop‘s 2023 album Every Loser.

Hawkins told Rolling Stone that the toll of performing live was starting to wear on him.

“I’m still a spaz; but I’m trying really hard to figure out how to continue to keep the intensity of a young man in a 50-year-old’s body, which is very difficult,” Hawkins said in 2021. “I’m not whining, I’m really not … I’m just saying it’s f—ing hard work.”

Perhaps too much work, perhaps an enlarged heart or perhaps an overdose, sadly Taylor Hawkins passed away in Bogota, Columbia on March 25, 2022.

Tributes:

  • dozens of musicians and artists paid tribute to his life across the globe.
  • Hawkins was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 as a member of Foo Fighters. He was voted “Best Rock Drummer” in 2005 by the British drumming on magazine Rhythm. After his death, the Foo Fighters and his family announced two tribute shows, which took place in September 2022.
Posted on Leave a comment

Gary Brooker 2/2022

February 19, 2022Gary Brooker (76) founding lead singer of the late 1960’s musical sensation Procol Harum was born on May 29, 1945, in London’s Metropolitan Borough of Hackney. His father was a professional musician and Gary followed in his footsteps learning to play piano, cornet and trombone as a child. But his most awesome instrument over the years became his voice.

After high school, he went on to Southend Municipal College to study zoology and botany but dropped out to become a professional musician.In 1962 he founded the Paramounts with his guitarist friend Robin Trower. The band gained respect within the burgeoning 1960s British R&B scene, which yielded the Beatles, the Animals, the Spencer Davis Group, the Rolling Stones, and many others. The Rolling Stones, in particular, were Paramounts fans, giving them guest billing on several shows in the early 1960s.

Continue reading Gary Brooker 2/2022

Posted on Leave a comment

Ian McDonald 02/2022

Ian McDonald (75) – King Crimson/Foreigner – was born on 25 June 1946 in Osterley, Middlesex, England, the son of Ada (née May) and Keith McDonald, an architect. He grew up in a musical family and taught himself the guitar. His music interests ranged from classical orchestra to dance bands to rock. At 15, he left school and began a five-year stint in the British Army as a bandsman. In 1963 he enrolled at the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall, where he took clarinet and learned to read music. He later learned piano, flute and saxophone and taught himself music theory. His experience of playing with army bands gave him great musical adaptability as he had to learn many different musical styles such as show tunes, classical, jazz, and military marches. It was this that honed his style to what eventually became the beginnings of the Prog Rock movement.

After leaving the army, McDonald moved back to London, and began making music with his girlfriend, former Fairport Convention singer Judy Dyble. In May 1968 Ian McDonald placed an advert in Melody Maker which read: “Musicians wanted. Serious ones only.”

Among those who replied was guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles. It proved to be a seminal moment in prog rock that led to the birth of King Crimson. Blending elements of jazz, rock, proto-metal and symphonic music with avant-garde improvisation and complex time signatures, over the next few months the nascent group created a unique sound that was to change the face of popular music.

However, the relationship with Dyble ended and she left the band before they played their first gig in 1969, by which time McDonald, Fripp and Giles were joined by Greg Lake and lyricist Peter Sinfield.

King Crimson’s debut album The Court Of The Crimson King, was filled with McDonald’s multi-instrumental presence on flute, saxes, woodwind, vibraphone, various keyboards, and of course, arguably the album’s signature sound, the Mellotron. Alongside all of that technical virtuosity, built and honed during his stint as an army bandsman in the mid-1960s, Ian was blessed with an ability to write and compose, something he often did on guitar.

Three months after their first gig, they supported the Rolling Stones at their famous free concert in Hyde Park (with new guitarist . They stole the show, with The Guardian reporting that the Stones’ performance was “indifferent”, but that King Crimson were “sensational”. McDonald’s saxophone solo was a high point on their track “21st Century Schizoid Man“, and he went on to play this on their first album In the Court of the Crimson King.

The high point of the Hyde Park gig came when the entire audience of some 650,000 cheered McDonald’s blazing blitzkrieg of a saxophone solo during the band’s show-stopper 21st Century Schizoid Man. “I remember the hairs on the back of my neck rising as the roar from this huge crowd went up,” King Crimson roadie Richard Vickers remembered.

 The album jump-started the progressive rock era, and paved the way for similar bands such as Yes and Genesis, Emerson, Lake, Palmer, Barclay James Harvest and the Moody Blues. McDonald composed 2 of the 5 album tracks, including the title track and “I Talk to the Wind” on which his jazzy flute solo is one of the album’s defining musical moments, and co-wrote the other 3 tracks with the other group members.

Yet within months, growing emotional friction within the group had led him to quit. Along with drummer Mike Giles, he left in the middle of King Crimson’s first US tour. “To keep the band together, I offered to leave instead,” Fripp said. “But Ian said that the band was more me than them.”. (McDonald later ).

McDonald later regretted his hasty decision and apologized to Fripp for leaving the band in 1970. “I was not quite ready for the attention we were getting and I wasn’t emotionally equipped to deal with what was going on,” he said. “I was away from home and it was a spontaneous decision. Perhaps I should have gone home and thought about it a little bit, but there you are.”

McDonald and Giles formed a duo that released one album titled McDonald and Giles, which featured an orchestral backing instead of a Mellotron as used with King Crimson.

Following McDonald And Giles the pair went their separate ways and McDonald’s next contribution to rock’n’roll history could not have been more different. If prog rock meant “taking different influences and expanding the basic combination of drums, guitar and bass”, as he put it, he promptly went back to just such basics when he turned up as a session player on T Rex’s 1971 glam-rock chart-topper Get It On, where he borrowed Mel Collins‘ baritone saxophone and, at the other end of the commercial spectrum, the free-jazz and rock ensemble opus, Septober Energy by Keith Tippett’s Centipede, underlining his view that all music had a value regardless of stylistic considerations. Production work beckoned including Canis Lupus by Darryl Way’s Wolf in 1973, and after his guest spot on King Crimson’s Red in 1974, he went on to produce Fruup’s Modern Masquerades in 1975 and American proggers’ Fireballet’s debut Night On Bald Mountain the same year.

There was a brief attempt to reunite with Fripp and King Crimson in 1974 but it led to nothing and after moving to New York City in 1976 McDonald became a founder-member of Foreigner. With a six-strong line-up of British and American musicians playing a classic, radio-friendly form of stadium rock, the band had huge hits with Feels Like the First Time, Cold As Ice and Hot Blooded. With Foreigner, McDonald played guitar as well as his woodwinds and keyboards.

He recorded three multi-platinum albums that made Foreigner one of the biggest-selling acts of the era before he was bounced out of the band by lead guitarist and main songwriter Mick Jones.

As a session musician McDonald appeared on To Cry You A Song, a Jethro Tull tribute album released 1996 by Magna Carta Records, appearing on Nothing Is Easy and New Day Yesterday. He also appeared on Centipede‘s album Septober Energy. He produced the Darryl Way’s Wolf album Canis Lupus and Fruupp‘s Modern Masquerades (1975). The closing track on Canis Lupus, “McDonald’s Lament”, was dedicated to him. In 1996, McDonald toured with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, which was included on the album The Tokyo Tapes. The group included a performance of King Crimson’s “The Court of the Crimson King“, and “I Talk to the Wind“, the tour also included fellow King Crimson alumni John Wetton. In 1999, he released a solo album, Drivers Eyes, which featured John Wetton, Lou Gramm, John Waite and Gary Brooker.

In 2002 McDonald teamed up with other King Crimson alumni in the 21st Century Schizoid Band, toured for three years and released several live albums.

He said of his chameleon career: “I just contribute to whatever situation I’m in and really it’s all the same to me. It’s music and I’ve been lucky to make it my life’s work.”

“One of the things I’ve always done when I’m recording a song is I ask myself, ‘Could I listen to this 500 times?’ So you have to be honest with yourself when you are making a record. All the while in the studio when we were recording the album I was thinking, ‘Will I still want to listen to this in 50 years’ time.’ So part of me was thinking 50 years ahead if you like.” 

McDonald contributed saxophone and flute to several tracks on Judy Dyble‘s 2009 release Talking With Strangers. The album saw McDonald reunited with Fripp on the 20-minute “Harpsong”.

In 2017, McDonald, his son Maxwell and singer-guitarist Ted Zurkowski formed the band Honey West, which released an album Bad Old World in 2017, which he described as “an alt-country band with rock leanings”.

McDonald died from cancer at his home in New York City on Feb 9, 2022. He was 75 years old.

Posted on Leave a comment

Meat Loaf 1/2022

Meat Loaf (74) was born Marvin Lee Aday in Dallas, Texas, on September 27, 1947, the son of Wilma Artie, a schoolteacher and Orvis Wesley Aday, a former police officer who went into business selling a homemade cough remedy with his wife and a friend under the name of the Griffin Grocery Company. Marvin, who later changed his name to Michael, stated in an interview that when he was born, he was “bright red and stayed that way for days” and that his father said he looked like “nine pounds of ground chuck”, and convinced hospital staff to put the name “Meat” on his crib. He was later called “M.L.” in reference to his initials, but when his weight increased, his seventh-grade classmates referred to him as “Meat Loaf”, referring to his 5-foot-2-inch (157 cm), 240-pound stature. He also attributed the nickname to an incident where, after he stepped on a football coach’s foot, the coach yelled “Get off my foot, you hunk of meatloaf!”

Meat Loaf’s father would binge-drink alcohol for days at a time, a habit he started when he was medically discharged from the U.S. Army during World War II after being wounded by fragments from a mortar shell. Meat Loaf often accompanied his mother in driving to the bars in Dallas to look for his father, also quite often staying with his grandmother. He attended church and Bible study every Sunday.

He was 16 years old on November 22, 1963, the day of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. That morning, Meat Loaf had seen the President when he arrived at Dallas Love Field. Later, after hearing of Kennedy’s death, he and a friend drove to Parkland Hospital where he witnessed Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, covered in her husband’s blood, getting out of the car that brought her to the hospital.

In 1965, Meat Loaf graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, having appeared in school stage productions such as Where’s Charley? and The Music Man. He played high school football as a defensive tackle. After attending college at Lubbock Christian College, he transferred to North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas).

In 1967, when Meat Loaf was 19 years old, his mother died of cancer, and his father lunged at him with a knife after falsely accusing the teen of having girls in his bedroom. Meat Loaf used the money his mother left him to rent an apartment in Dallas, where he isolated for three and a half months, at which time a friend found him. Soon after, he went to the airport and caught the next flight to Los Angeles.

Meat Loaf intentionally gained 60 pounds to fail his physical examination for the Vietnam War draft. Despite this strategy, he still received his notice to appear before his local draft board, but chose to ignore it.

Meat Loaf rise to music stardom was not a straight shot, primarily because his musical talents were distracted by his performing arts abilities. In Los Angeles however, Meat Loaf formed his first band, Meat Loaf Soul. His voice and being at the right time in the right spot, resulted in the band receiving several recording contracts. Meat Loaf Soul’s first gig was in Huntington Beach, California in 1968 at the Cave, opening for Van Morrison’s band Them and Question Mark and the Mysterians. Meat Loaf later described his early days in the music industry as being treated like a “circus clown.” The band underwent several changes of lead guitarists, changing the name of the band each time, to names including Popcorn Blizzard and Floating Circus. As Floating Circus, they opened for the Who, the Fugs, the Stooges, MC5, the Grateful Dead, and the Grease Band. Their regional success led them to release a single, “Once Upon a Time”, backed with “Hello”. His voice attracted attention and he was invited to join the Los Angeles production of Hippie era classic the musical Hair.

With the publicity generated from Hair, Meat Loaf accepted an invitation by Motown, in Detroit. In addition to appearing as “Mother” and “Ulysses S. Grant” at Detroit’s Vest Pocket Theatre, he recorded the vocals with fellow Hair performer Shaun “Stoney” Murphy on an album of songs written and selected by the Motown production team. The album, titled Stoney & Meatloaf (with Meatloaf spelled as one word), was released in September 1971 and included the single “What You See Is What You Get”; it reached number 36 on the Best Selling Soul Singles chart and number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Meat Loaf and Stoney toured with Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers, opening for Richie Havens, the Who, the Stooges, Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, and Rare Earth. Meat Loaf left Motown soon after the label replaced his and Stoney’s vocals from the one song he liked, “Who Is the Leader of the People?” with new vocals by Edwin Starr. He moved to Freeland, Michigan for a year and was the opening act at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom 80 times.

In December 1972, Meat Loaf was in the original off-Broadway production of Rainbow at the Orpheum Theatre in New York. After the tour, Meat Loaf rejoined the cast of Hair, this time at a Broadway theater. After he hired an agent, he auditioned for the Public Theater’s production of More Than You Deserve. During the audition, Meat Loaf met Jim Steinman. He sang a Stoney and Meat Loaf favorite of his, “(I’d Love to Be) As Heavy as Jesus”, and subsequently got the part of Rabbit, a maniac that blows up his fellow soldiers so they can “go home.” Ron Silver and Fred Gwynne were also in the show. In the summer between the show’s workshop production (April 1973) and full production (November 1973 – January 1974), Meat Loaf appeared in a Shakespeare in the Park production of As You Like It with Raul Julia and Mary Beth Hurt.

In late 1973, Meat Loaf was cast in the original L.A. Roxy cast of The Rocky Horror Show, playing the parts of both Eddie and Dr. Scott. The success of the musical led to the filming of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in which Meat Loaf played only Eddie while Jonathan Adams was cast as Dr. Scott, a decision Meat Loaf said made the movie not as good as the musical.

About the same time, Meat Loaf and Steinman started work on Bat Out of Hell. Meat Loaf convinced Epic Records to shoot music videos for four songs, “Bat Out of Hell”, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”, “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth”, and “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” and convinced Lou Adler, the producer of Rocky Horror, to run the “Paradise” video as a trailer to the movie. During his recording of the soundtrack for Rocky Horror, Meat Loaf recorded two more songs: “Stand by Me” (a Ben E. King cover), and “Clap Your Hands.” They remained unreleased for a decade, until 1984, when they appeared as B-sides to the “Nowhere Fast” single.

In 1976, Meat Loaf recorded lead vocals for Ted Nugent’s album Free-for-All when regular Nugent lead vocalist Derek St. Holmes temporarily quit the band. Meat Loaf sang lead on five of the album’s nine tracks. That same year, Meat Loaf appeared in his final theatrical show in New York City, the short-lived Broadway production of Gower Champion’s rock musical Rockabye Hamlet. It closed two weeks into its initial run.

Even though Meat Loaf and Steinman started working on Bat Out of Hell earlier in the 70s, they did not get serious about it until the end of 1974. Meat Loaf then decided for the time being at least, to leave theater and concentrate exclusively on music. Meat Loaf was cast as an understudy for John Belushi in The National Lampoon Show. It was at the Lampoon show that Meat Loaf met Ellen Foley, the co-star who sang “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” and “Bat Out of Hell” with him on the album Bat Out of Hell.

Meat Loaf and Steinman spent time seeking a record deal; however, their approaches were rejected by each record company, because their songs did not fit any specific recognized music industry style. Todd Rundgren, under the impression that they already had a record deal, agreed to produce the album as well as play lead guitar along with other members of Rundgren’s band Utopia and Max Weinberg. They then shopped the record around, but they still had no takers until Steve Popovich’s Cleveland International Records took a chance, releasing Bat Out of Hell in October 1977.

Meat Loaf and Steinman formed the band Neverland Express to tour in support of Bat Out of Hell. Their first gig was opening for Cheap Trick in Chicago. Meat Loaf gained national exposure as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on March 25, 1978. Host Christopher Lee introduced him with a groan worthy joke. Later that year in his enthusiasm, Meat Loaf jumped off a stage in Ottawa, Ontario, breaking his leg. He finished the tour performing in a wheelchair.

Bat Out of Hell sold an estimated 43 million copies globally, including 15 million in the United States, making it one of the 5 best-selling albums of all time, notwithstanding that Rolling Stone Mag placed it only 301 on their list of 500 Best Rock Albums.

In 1979, Steinman started to work on Bad for Good, the intended follow-up to 1977’s Bat Out of Hell. During that time, a combination of touring, drugs and exhaustion had caused Meat Loaf to lose his voice. Without a singer, and pressured by the record company, Steinman decided that he should sing on Bad for Good himself. While Steinman worked on Bad for Good, Meat played the role of Travis Redfish in the movie Roadie until his singing voice returned. Steinman then wrote a new album for Meat Loaf, Dead Ringer, which was released in September 1981. Steinman had written five new songs which, in addition to the track “More Than You Deserve” (sung by Meat Loaf in the stage musical of the same name) and a reworked monolog, formed the album Dead Ringer, which was produced by Meat Loaf and Stephan Galfas, with backing tracks produced by Todd Rundgren, Jimmy Iovine, and Steinman. In 1976, Meat Loaf appeared on the track “Keeper Keep Us”, from the Intergalactic Touring Band’s self-titled album. The song “Dead Ringer for Love” was the pinnacle of the album, and launched him to even greater success. While it failed to chart in the US, it reached No. 5 in the United Kingdom and stayed in the UK Singles Chart for 19 weeks. Cher provided the lead female vocals in the song.

On December 5, 1981, Meat Loaf and the Neverland Express were the musical guests for Saturday Night Live where he and former fellow Rocky Horror Picture Show actor Tim Curry performed a skit depicting a One-Stop Rocky Horror Shop. Also on the show, Curry performed “The Zucchini Song” and Meat Loaf & the Neverland Express performed “Bat Out of Hell” and “Promised Land.”

Following a dispute with his former songwriter Jim Steinman, Meat Loaf was contractually obliged to release a new album, resulting in Midnight at the Lost and Found, released in May 1983.

Steinman had wanted equal billing on the album’s title; he wanted it to be called “Jim Steinman presents…” or “Jim and Meat”, or vice versa. For marketing reasons, the record company wished to make ‘Meat Loaf’ the recognizable name. As a compromise, the words “Songs by Jim Steinman” appear relatively prominently on the cover. The singer believes that this was probably the beginning of their “ambivalent relationship”.

According to Meat Loaf, Steinman had given the songs “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” to Meat Loaf for this album. However, Meat Loaf’s record company did not want him to sing Steinman’s songs, saying that nobody wanted to hear them. (hiss record company just refused to pay for Steinman). The joke was on them as Bonnie Tyler’s version of “Eclipse” and Air Supply’s version of “Making Love” topped the charts together, holding No. 1 and No. 2 for a period during 1983. Meat Loaf is credited with having been involved in the writing of some of the tracks on the album, including the title track, “Midnight at the Lost and Found” but Meat would later admit, he was not much of a songwriter and did not like the songs he had written for the album.

Poor money management as well as some 45 lawsuits totaling US$80 million in disputed claims, including some from Steinman, resulted in Meat Loaf filing for personal bankruptcy in 1983. The bankruptcy resulted in Meat Loaf losing the rights to his songs, although he received royalties for Bat Out of Hell in 1997. For the next several years Meat Loaf continued to churn out music, including albums like Bad Attitude (1985) and Blind Before I Stop (1986) to mixed results. But the hardworking singer continued to tour, (annual World Tours throughout the 80s), which kept him afloat..

In 1984, Meat Loaf went to England, where he felt increasingly at home, to record the album Bad Attitude; it was released that year. It features two songs by Steinman, both previously recorded, “Nowhere Fast” and “Surf’s Up.” The American release on RCA Records was in April 1985 and features a slightly different track list, as well as alternate mixes for some songs. The title track features a duet with the Who’s lead singer Roger Daltrey. It was a minor success with a few commercially successful singles, the most successful being “Modern Girl”. In 1985, Meat Loaf took part in some comedy sketches in the UK with Hugh Laurie. He also tried stand-up comedy, appearing several times in Connecticut.

Blind Before I Stop was released in 1986 by Arista Records. It features production, mixing, and general influence by German pop producer Frank Farian. Meat Loaf was involved in the composition of three of the songs on the album and performed “Thrashin” for the soundtrack of the 1986 skateboarding film Thrashin’ , starring Josh Brolin.

Meat Loaf (L) and Jim Steinman (R)

Following the success of Meat Loaf’s touring in the 1980s, he and Steinman began work during December 1990 on Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell; the album was released in September 1993. The immediate success of Bat Out of Hell II resulted in the sale of over 15 million copies, and the single “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” reached number one in 28 countries. In March 1994, at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards, Meat Loaf won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo for “I’d Do Anything for Love.” This song stayed at No. 1 in the UK chart for seven consecutive weeks. The single featured a female vocalist who was credited only as “Mrs. Loud.” Mrs. Loud was later identified as Lorraine Crosby, a performer from England. Meat Loaf promoted the song with American vocalist Patti Russo, who performed lead female vocals on tour with him. 

In 1995, Meat Loaf released his seventh studio album, Welcome to the Neighborhood. The album went platinum in the United States and the United Kingdom. It included three singles that hit the top 40, including “I’d Lie for You (And That’s the Truth)” (which reached No. 13 in the United States and No. 2 in the UK) and “Not a Dry Eye in the House” (which reached No. 7 in the UK chart). I’d Lie for You (And That’s the Truth) was a duet with Patti Russo, who by then had been touring with Meat Loaf and singing on his albums since 1993. Of the twelve songs on the album, two are written by Steinman. Both are cover versions, the “Original Sin” from Pandora’s Box’s Original Sin album and “Left in the Dark” first appeared on Steinman’s own Bad for Good as well as the 1984 album Emotion by Barbra Streisand. His other singles, “I’d Lie for You (And That’s the Truth)” and “Not a Dry Eye in the House”, were written by Diane Warren.

In 1998, Meat Loaf released The Very Best of Meat Loaf. The album featured three new songs co-written by Steinman – two with Andrew Lloyd Webber and one with Don Black, “Is Nothing Sacred”, released as a single. The single version of this song is a duet with Patti Russo, whereas the album version is a solo song by Meat Loaf.

In 2003, Meat Loaf released his album Couldn’t Have Said It Better. For only the third time in his career, he released an album without any songs written by Steinman. The album was in comparison a minor commercial success worldwide and reached No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart, but the accompanied sellout world tour to promote the album and some of Meat Loaf’s best selling singles, was a financial juggernaut.

Steinman had registered the phrase “Bat Out of Hell” as a trademark in 1995. In May 2006, he sued Steinman and his manager in federal District Court in Los Angeles, seeking $50 million and an injunction against Steinman’s use of the phrase. Steinman and his representatives attempted to block the album’s release. An agreement was reached in July 2006. Denying reports in the press over the years of a rift between Meat Loaf and Steinman, in an interview with Dan Rather, he stated that he and Steinman never stopped talking, and that the lawsuits reported in the press were between lawyers and managers, and not between Meat Loaf and Steinman.

“I consider him to be one of my best friends, ” Meat Loaf said, of Steinman. “But the real thing is about managers. So, really, I didn’t sue Jim Steinman. I sued his manager.”

His recording career included the following albums: Bat Out of Hell/ 1977 (43 million copies sold) – Dead Ringer/ 1981 – Midnight at the Lost and Found/ 1983 – Bad Attitude/ 1984 – Blind Before I Stop/ 1986 – Bat Out Of Hell II/ 1993 – Welcome to the Neighbourhood/ 1995 – Couldn’t Have Said It Better/2003 – Bat Out of Hell III/ 2006 (Certified Gold) – Hang Cool Teddy Bear/2010 – Hell In A Handbasket/ 2011 – Braver Than We Are/ 2016. He sold more than 100 million records during his 54-year career, and his first Bat Out Of Hell album, released in 1977, spent more than 10 years in the Official Albums Charts. But he wasn’t restricted to music. He has no less than 108 acting credits to his name, including the Oscar-nominated Fight Club, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, ‘Focus’,  Wayne’s World and the 1997 Spice Girls film, Spice World. Actually more than Meryl Streep or Will Smith.

A thoroughly complicated man, Meat Loaf was an extroverted introvert, suffering from social anxiety, religious, opinionated, politically divergent. He was a vegetarian for 11 years, despite carrying the name “Meat Loaf”. The combination of all these traits turned him into the perfect mouthpiece for Jim Steinman’s musical creationism.

At times they couldn’t stand each other’s guts and turned against their nature, but when they ran their output through the same musical cylinders, they mesmerized the world. When Jim Steinman died from liver failure  on April 19, 2021, Meat Loaf was not far behind.

He died on January 20, 2022, most likely as a result from Covid-19 in Brentwood, Tennessee, ironically enough the heart of country music. He was 74.

Posted on Leave a comment

Ronnie Spector 1/2022

Ronnie Spector (78) – The Ronettes – was born Veronica Bennett on August 10, 1943 in East Harlem, New York City, and grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. She was the daughter of Beatrice and Louis Bennett, a subway worker. Her mother was African American and Cherokee, and her father was Irish. Veronica and her sister Estelle Bennett (1941–2009) were encouraged to sing by their large family, as was their cousin Nedra Talley (born 1946). The trio formed the Darling Sisters in 1957 and later became the Ronettes.They performed locally while attending George Washington High School in Washington Heights. Their look was fashioned by Estelle, who had a job at Macy’s on the cosmetics counter. They sang at school events, and had a residency at the Peppermint Lounge, a nightspot in Manhattan, the birthplace of the Twist and go-go dancing.

The Ronettes became a popular live attraction around the greater New York area in the early 1960s. Looking for a recording contract, they initially were signed to Colpix Records. After releasing a few singles on Colpix without success, they tracked down record producer Phil Spector, who signed them to his label Philles Records in 1963. Their relationship with Spector brought chart success with their biggest hit “Be My Baby” in 1963, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. A string of top 40 pop hits followed with “Baby, I Love You” (1963), “The Best Part of) Breakin’ Up” (1964), “Do I Love You?” (1964), and “Walking in the Rain” (1964). The group had two entries on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965 with “Born to Be Together” and “Is This What I Get for Loving You?“.

In 1965, the Ronettes were voted the third-top singing group in England behind the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. They opened for the Beatles on their 1966 US tour without their lead singer. Phil had forbidden Bennett to tour with the Beatles, so her cousin Elaine stood in as a third member. The original group’s last charting single, “I Can Hear Music“, was produced by Jeff Barry and reached No. 100 on the BillboardHot 100 in 1966.

The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were huge fans of Ronnie’s group the Ronettes and many a rock and roller vied for her affections, including Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie. But none were as besotted as John Lennon. During those early days she was sometimes referred to as the original “bad girl of rock and roll

The Ronettes broke up in early 1967, following a European concert tour. After Bennett married Phil in 1968, she began to use the name Ronnie Spector, but she forcibly withdrew from the spotlight because husband Phil Spector prohibited her from performing and limited her recordings. In 1969, Phil signed a production deal with A&M Records and he released her record “You Came, You Saw, You Conquered”, credited as “The Ronettes Featuring the Voice of Veronica”, with “Oh I Love You”, an old Ronettes B-side, as the flip. Her vocals were used for the lead and backing vocals. Phil Spector – a sick mind – kept many of the group’s unreleased songs in a vault for years.

Following the couple’s divorce in 1972, Ronnie re-formed the Ronettes and began performing again as Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes with two new members (Chip Fields Hurd, the mother of actress Kim Fields, and Diane Linton) in 1973. They released a few singles on Buddah Records, but the records failed to chart. By 1975, Spector was recording as a solo act. She released the single “You’d Be Good For Me” on Tom Cat Records in 1975. In 1976, she sang a duet with Southside Johnny on the recording “You Mean So Much To Me”, penned by Southside’s longtime friend Bruce Springsteen. She also made appearances with the E Street Band the following year, including a cover version of Billy Joel‘s 1976 track “Say Goodbye to Hollywood“.

In 1980, she released her debut solo album Siren, produced by Genya Raven of Ten Wheel Drive fame. Her career revived when she was featured on Eddie Money‘s song and video “Take Me Home Tonight” in 1986, a Billboard top five single, in which she answers Money’s chorus lyric, “just like Ronnie sang”, with, “be my little baby”. The song’s music video was one of the top videos of the year and in heavy rotation on MTV. During this period, she also recorded the song “Tonight You’re Mine, Baby” (from the film Just One of the Guys). In 1988, she began performing at the Ronnie Spector’s Christmas Party, a seasonal staple at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York City.

She also went on to release the albums Unfinished Business (1987), Something’s Gonna Happen(2003), Last of the Rock Stars (2006) which featured contributions from members of The Raconteurs, Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Raveonettes, Patti Smith, and Keith Richards and English Heart(2016), her first album of new material in a decade. The album features her versions of songs of the British Invasion by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the Bee Gees, and others. She also recorded one extended play, She Talks to Rainbows (1999) which featured a few covers of older songs. Joey Ramone acted as producer.

In 1990, Ronnie Spector published a memoir, Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, Or, My Life as a Fabulous Ronette. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Ronettes in 2007.

In 2018, Spector appeared in the music documentary Amy Winehouse: Back to Black (2018), based on Winehouse and her final studio album Back to Black. The album was inspired by 1960s girl groups Winehouse gathered inspiration from listening to, such as The Ronettes. It contained new interviews as well as archival footage. Spector was a great inspiration for Winehouse, who emulated her hair, as well as vocal style. In return, Ronnie Spector covered “Back to Black”, the Winehouse’s signature song. She recalls that Winehouse turned up at a concert looking just like her while she sang her song. Spector recalled seeing “a tear out of her (Winehouse) eye and it made me cry”.

In September 2020, Deadline reported that actress Zendaya would portray Spector in a biopic adapted from her memoir Be My Baby. In December 2021, the Ronettes returned to the Top 10 for the first time in 58 years with their 1963 recording of “Sleigh Ride“.

A couple of weeks later Ronnie Spector died on 12 January 2022. She was 78.

Posted on Leave a comment

Michael Nesmith 12/2021

December 30, 1942 – Robert Michael Nesmith was the only child of Warren and Bette Nesmith, who divorced when he was four. Bette remarried and relocated to Dallas where, as executive secretary at Texas Bank and Trust, she developed her own typewriter correction fluid. In 1979, a few months before her death, she sold her Liquid Paper Corporation to Gillette for $48m. Her son and heir finally acquired financial freedom.
Rewind 20 years to find a teenage Nesmith dabbling in music and drama at school before enlisting in the US Air Force in 1960. Two years later he was honorably discharged at his own request, swapping mechanics for music. Cutting his teeth in touring folk, country and rock’n’roll bands, he moved to Los Angeles.

A publishing and recording deal followed, yielding a handful of underperforming solo singles. Nesmith joined the queue of 437 hopefuls to audition for a part in a new TV show, inspired by The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night, about a co-habiting pop band. The producers wanted Nesmith and his hat for their Prefab Four, The Monkees.

Admiring Jimi Hendrix chops in a shared bedroom

Monkeemania ensued but Nesmith was quick to push back against the bubblegum material selected by the show’s musical director Don Kirshner. Nesmith negotiated alongside his bandmates for greater control of their output and image. Their subsequent psychedelic film and soundtrack, Head, was a flop (though later lauded as a cult favourite). Still the piece of the puzzle that didn’t fit, he bought his way out of his contract several years early, forfeiting future royalties.

Robert Michael Nesmith was raised by his mother, Bette, who supported him by working as a secretary. Frustrated creating mistakes on her electric typewriter, she developed a typewriter correction fluid. The invention later became Liquid Paper. Bette Nesmith sold the Liquid Paper Corporation to Gillette in 1979 for $48 million. She died a few months later, at age 56, with Michael inheriting the fortune.

Mike Nesmith, the beanie-hatted quiet man of The Monkees, was an accidental trailblazer from a family of accidental trailblazers. He came late to music-making, only picking up a guitar in his early twenties. Yet in a matter of years he was a (somewhat ambivalent) pop star and TV celebrity, then an unsung country rock pioneer and then the man who invented MTV for the guys who invented MTV. Not bad, and maybe not surprising, for the son of an imprecise typist who created Tipp-Ex to cover her errors.
Nesmith never quite made a commercial killing from his almost clairvoyant creativity. While his own songs were hits for the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Run DMC, Frankie Laine and Lynn Anderson, he struggled with fame in a fictional band whose best-loved tunes flowed from the pens of other writers.
The Monkees’ TV show ran for two series from 1966-68 but acquired pop immortality through school holiday repeats. The band members – Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Nesmith – played fictionalised versions of themselves. The Monkees struck popular music with hit songs like “Last Train to Clarksville”, “Daydream Believer” and “I’m A Believer.” The group was created for television, starring in their popular TV sitcom and later spin off motion picture “Head.”
The Monkees broke up in 1969, after which Nesmith formed his First National Band. He also wrote the song Different Drum, which became a major hit for singer Linda Ronstadt.

Nesmith founded Pacific Arts, a multimedia production and distribution company, in 1974. Pacific Arts pioneered the home video market, but collapsed in a dispute with PBS over licensing rights. A federal jury eventually awarded Nesmith $47m in 1999. After filming a music video for his 1977 single Rio, Nesmith came up with the idea of a TV program consisting entirely of music videos. Nesmith called his idea PopClips, which aired on Nickelodeon in 1980. He later sold the PopClips intellectual property to Time Warner, who used it to develop and launch MTV. Intrigued by the promotional possibilities of the embryonic format, Time Warner bought the rights and used it as a template for MTV. 

In 1981, Nesmith won the first Grammy Award for Video of the Year for his hour-long television show, Elephant Parts. He was also an executive producer of the film Repo Man (1984).

Nesmith’s involvement in various Monkees reunions was sporadic, however, he did rejoin his three amigos in 1996, marking the band’s 30th anniversary with the Justus album and accompanying TV special ‘Hey, Hey, It’s the Monkees’, before contributing to the 50th anniversary album Good Times!
The Monkees continued with occasional reunion tours despite the loss of original members Peter Tork and Davy Jones. Remaining members Nesmith and Micky Dolenz ended a tour just weeks before Nesmith’s death. The final date of the tour was held on November 14, 2021, at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

Michael Nesmith crossed the rainbow on December 10, 2021

Posted on Leave a comment

John Hartman – 12/2021

John Hartman (71), a co-founder of the Doobie Brothers, was born March 18, 1950, in Falls Church, Va.

From the band’s official website: It all began in 1969, when drummer John Hartman arrived in Northern California. He was there to meet Skip Spence from the band Moby Grape and become part of a supposed band reunion that never quite got off the ground. But it wasn’t all for naught. Spence (who had also played in the Jefferson Airplane) introduced Hartman to his friend Tom Johnston, a local singer/songwriter/guitarist -and they connected. Hartman and Johnston began playing local Bay Area bars under the name Pud. After Pud collapsed, the pair began jamming with bassist Dave Shogren and guitarist Patrick Simmons, whose finger-style playing richly complimented Johnston’s R&B strumming-style, and the foundation for the Doobie Brothers (a slang term for marijuana) was set.

Continue reading John Hartman – 12/2021

Posted on 1 Comment

Graeme Edge 11-2021

Life long drummer for the Moody Blues

Graeme Edge (80) – The Moody Blues – was born on March 30, 1941 in Rochester, Staffordshire. Edge co-founded The Moody Blues in 1964 in Birmingham, England, along with original band members Denny Laine, Clint Warwick, Mike Pinder and Ray Thomas.

His mother worked in silent movies as a pianist whilst his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all worked as musical hall singers.

He first moved into the music industry himself as the manager of the Blue Rhythm Band and whilst he did try his hand at the drums from time to time, he only started playing the instrument professionally when he was forced to step in for the drummer, who had quit the group.

In 1964 he formed the original blues-rock band the Moody Blues with Mike Pinder, Ray Thomas, Denny Laine, and Clint Warwick who in January 1965 produced the smash cover hit “Go Now”. (Bessie Banks original)

In the years following, Edge’s influence as a poet who happened to be a drummer as well, moved the band towards the prog rock genre, which they defined as no other group, giving direction to later outfits such as Yes, Barclay James Harvest, Electric Light Orchestra and others. Justin Hayward, who joined with John Lodge in 1966, credits Edge as the one who kept it all together for so may years.

“Graeme and his parents were very kind to me when I first joined the group, and for the first two years he and I either lived together or next door to each other,” Mr Hayward said. “We had fun and laughs all the way, as well as making what was probably the best music of our lives.”

“In the late 1960’s we became the group that Graeme always wanted it to be, and he was called upon to be a poet as well as a drummer,” said Hayward; “He delivered that beautifully and brilliantly, while creating an atmosphere and setting that the music would never have achieved without his words. I asked Jeremy Irons to recreate them for our last tours together and it was absolutely magical.”

Edge’s drumming and spoken word poetry was instrumental to the band’s biggest hits in their “classic” era of the ’60s and into the ’70s, including “Nights in White Satin,” “Tuesday Afternoon,” and “I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band).”

When The Moody Blues went on hiatus from 1974 to 1977, Edge traveled around the world on his yacht and also recorded two solo albums, “Kick Off Your Muddy Boots” (1975) and “Paradise Ballroom” (1978), inspired by his visit to the Caribbean.

In 1978, the band reunited for the album “Octave,” after which they pivoted from prog-rock to a more synth-pop sound in the earlier ’80s. Around this time, Edge linked with a jazz-combo group formed of various musicians from London’s club scene, called Loud, Confident and Rong.  In my opinion, he was one of the most consistently solid British ‘60’s music drummers who continued to perform and record original music right up until late 2017 when The Moody Blues performed a special “Days of Future Passed” concert in Toronto, Ontario, Canada , which was recorded at The Sony Centre Theatre for the Performing Arts.

Graeme composed many of the songs and wrote poetry for The Moody Blues albums along with his fellow band mates Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Mike Pinder, Ray Thomas and Denny Laine and along with Adrian Gurvitz (Baker-Gurvitz Army), Graeme wrote the songs, recorded the music and performed with his own band..”The Graeme Edge Band”.

After suffering a stroke in 2016, Edge retired from touring in 2019. Yet he remained an official member of The Moody Blues until his death, nearly 60 years after its founding.

“When Graeme told me he was retiring I knew that without him it couldn’t be the Moody Blues anymore,” said Hayward in his statement. “And that’s what happened. It’s true to say that he kept the group together throughout all the years, because he loved it.”

In 2018, The Moody Blues was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their last album was released in 2003. They have sold more than 70 million albums to date. Overall, Edge recorded 16 studio albums with The Mood Blues, ending with 2003’s Christmas-themed “December.”

Graeme passed away from metastatic cancer on November 11th, 2021 at the age of 80 at his home in Bradenton Florida. He had been living there for more than 20 years as he called the area, the last hold out of hippiedom.

Edge, who has married and divorced twice, is survived by his wife, as well as his daughter, Samantha Edge; his son, Matthew; and five grandchildren.

Several fans, musicians and musical institutions paid tribute in the wake of Edge’s passing.

“Graeme was one of the great characters of the music business and there will never be his like again,” Hayward concluded. “My sincerest condolences to his family.”

“Edge’s mystical poetry on the Moodies records created flights of fantasy and otherworldly journeys for generations of fans,” the The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame posted on their official Facebook page with a video of Edge’s speech at The Moody Blues’ induction ceremony.

Rod Argent of The Zombies, The Moody Blues’ rock contemporaries, also shared a statement on the “very sad” news. “Way back in the mid sixties we were invited to a couple of the legendary Moody Blues parties in Roehampton – where the original band had a house – and we particularly remembered how much Graeme, along with the rest of the band, was just so welcoming and hospitable,” he reminisced. “That quality was something Graeme never lost.”

Kiss frontman Paul Stanley tweeted “RIP Graeme Edge” and shared a memory of an “EPIC” performance he attended in 1970. “Sounded just like their recordings. NOBODY could touch them at what they created and to this day you know them as soon as you hear them.”

Bassist John Lodge posted a statement of his own on the band’s official website. “To me he was the White Eagle of the North with his beautiful poetry,” he wrote. “His friendship, his love of life and his ‘unique’ style of drumming that was the engine room of the Moody Blues. … I will miss you Graeme.”

I was fortunate enough as a young kid, to see the original Moody Blues perform Go Now live in the studio in 1965 and was totally blown away. Seven years later I witnessed their genre metamorphosis with an unbelievable concert at Hammersmith-Odeon in London where they performed their perennial hits Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band, Tuesday Afternoon, Nights in White Satin, The Story in your Eyes and all the rest. And even though in my deepest heart I am a blues-rocker, I have always kept a soft spot for the Moody Blues, Supertramp and several of the progressive rock and underground formations.

Posted on Leave a comment

Barry Ryan 9/2021

Barry Ryan (72) was born Barry Sapherson on 24 October 1948 in Leeds, England. He was the son of Marion (née Ryan) and Fred Sapherson. Fred left when the boys were two, and Barry and his identical twin brother Paul were brought up by “Nana”, their adored grandmother. While Marion, who had had her boys as a teenager, pursued her singing career. She became a successful performer, rising to prominence in the 1950s with the band leader Ray Ellington, and was a regular on the television musical quiz show Spot the Tune.

By the time the twins were 11, Marion was earning enough as a 50s pop singer to buy Nana a big house and to pay for boarding school. At 16 Marion sent them to a kibbutz in Israel, where they lasted two weeks and were later discovered singing in a Tel Aviv nightclub.

Now they knew what they wanted.

When we came down from Leeds to London we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. We had no skills, we weren’t academic, we came from quite a working class background, so the idea of going to university then was just not an option really so they didn’t really know what to do with us, so mum said “why don’t you guys become singers?” We thought, “Sounds a bit mad that, but why not? Better than working for a living.” 

Through Marion’s husband-to-be, the impresario Harold Davison, Paul and Barry Ryan signed with Decca. The pair belted out catchy, dramatic love ballads, songs that drifted around the UK Top 20, bobbing tantalizingly close to the big time until, in 1968, they had a hit single with Eloise, and with it came the perils, pressures and pleasures of stardom. Soon Paul ceased performing to concentrate solely on songwriting and Barry became a solo artist. His most successful hit, “Eloise“, reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart in 1968.

Paul had written the track for his brother’s deep, soulful voice; in later life, Barry would tour with Eloise as a tribute to Paul, who died from lung cancer in 1992.

Eloise is mysterious. Its collision of styles – Puccini meets gospel meets Broadway musical – was part of what was being manufactured as “new” in pop. Not everybody warmed to it, with one critic describing the song as “sounding like a man being strangled by a cat”. The orchestral textures and structural intricacies were clearly influenced by Jimmy Webb’s MacArthur Park; and its “popera” owes much to Phil Spector’s Wagnerian overlays on tracks such as Walking in the Rain. Hyper-melodramatic content with soaring male vocals were in vogue. Yet none of this accounts for the enduring allure of Eloise. Freddie Mercury even mentioned that the song had an influence on him writing Bohemian Rhapsody

No one can agree whether it is a sugary madeleine of a song about a man’s idealization of an unobtainable woman, or a melodrama of dark obsession and savage yearning. But everyone does agree that the vocal style and the power of Barry’s voice carries the song. “Singing from the heart,” one critic noted. Barry performed the recording in two takes, with a high degree of professionalism in the production. Jimmy Page,  and John Paul Jones, in the run up to founding Led Zeppelin, were two of the session musicians on the recording. Barry’s life hereafter got its share of Dionysian excess – parties at his flat in Eaton Place were renowned; Jimi Hendrix spent his first night in London there.

In 1969, Barry was injured in a studio fire in Munich. Although he was not physically scarred it had a psychological impact, which may have increased his dependency on alcohol. In 1986 both brothers entered rehab and Barry never drank again.

Years later, in 1986, when the punk rock band the Damned made their cover of Eloise, Peter Barnes, their music publisher, remembered: “Dave Vanian adored the song and mirrored the vocal performance as a tribute.” Barry, in the audience, was heard to say, “I like their version more than my own.”

By the mid-70s the twins had disappeared from the music scene and Barry turned to his lifelong passion, photography. His friendship with the German photojournalist Christa Peters exerted a strong influence and his photographic sensibility developed into an unusual fusion of self-expression and documentation. It surprised no one but him that when he submitted six pictures to the National Portrait Gallery, all were bought.

In 1976 Barry married Miriam, daughter of Sultan Ibrahim of Johor, Southern Malaysia close to Singapore. They divorced amicably in 1980. Barry had a talent for not falling out with people – and that stood him in good stead when, after Paul’s death, he published a memorial book of 80 portraits, donating profits to Cancer Research. Everyone he contacted agreed to pose, including Sting, Paul McCartney, Björk and Stephen Hawking.

He also photographed Margaret Thatcher, who had left office by this time. Mid shoot, noticing the hem of her curtains was adrift, she fetched a needle and thread. Without turning around when he moved his camera, she scolded him: “Don’t even think about it, Mr Ryan.” Thatcher subsequently helped Barry secure a portrait with Ronald Reagan.

Ryan maintained a successful career as a fashion photographer, from the late 1970s, and his photographs appeared in such magazines as Ritz and Zoom. But most of his fame derived from his brief, if meteoric, success as a pop star and teen idol in the mid to late 1960s.

Barry Ryan died on Sept. 28, 2021, aged 72 after complications from a lung disorder.

Posted on Leave a comment

Charlie Watts 8/2021

charlie watts, lifelong drummer for the Rolling StonesDrummer Charlie Watts, who has died at 80, provided the foundation which underpinned the music of the Rolling Stones for 58 years.

A jazz aficionado, Watts vied with Bill Wyman for the title of least charismatic member of the band; he eschewed the limelight and rarely gave interviews. And he famously described life with the Stones as five years of playing, 20 years of hanging around. 

Charles Robert Watts was born on 2 June 1941 at the University College Hospital in London and raised in Kingsbury, now part of the London Borough of Brent.

He came from a working-class background. His father was a lorry driver and Watts was brought up in a pre-fabricated house to which the family had moved after German bombs destroyed hundreds of houses in the area.

Continue reading Charlie Watts 8/2021

Posted on 1 Comment

Ron Bushy 8/2021

Ron Bushy (79) – Iron Butterfly – was born on December 23, 1941 in Washington DC. Little is recorded on how he ended up on the west coast but, following the band’s relocation from San Diego to Los Angeles, replacing previous drummer Bruce Morse, who left due to a family emergency. Bushy became part of the group’s classic lineup, along with vocalist and keyboardist Doug Ingle, guitarist Erik Brann, and bassist Lee Dorman.

Continue reading Ron Bushy 8/2021

Posted on Leave a comment

Don Everly 8/2021

Don Everly (The Everly Brothers) was born in Brownie, Kentucky on February 1, 1937. He was of German, English and Cherokee descent. His formidable father, “Ike” Everly was a coal miner in Brownie, Ky., and Don was born in Brownie’s coal camp. Ike also was a guitar player, taught by Arnold Schultz, the Black musician who taught Bill Monroe. And when the coal was gone, Ike moved the family to Chicago in the late 1930s in search of a career in music. A second son, Phil, was born there, and the family moved to Shenandoah, Iowa, where Ike had a radio show in the mid-1940s. “Little Donnie” sang the theme, “Free as a Little Bird as I Can Be,” and then Phil was brought in, and with that the Everly Family was on the air. Don and Phil attended Longfellow elementary school in Waterloo. They sang on their father’s radio show and the family entertained and sang around the area.

In 1953, the Everlys moved to Knoxville and both boys attended West High School where Don graduated. While in Knoxville the two high school brothers performed on the Cas Walker Show on TV until they added some early rock and roll to their country music set list. At that point, Cas Walker fired them adding that “Rock and Roll don’t sell groceries.”

The teenage brothers were viewed as long-haired, leather-jacket-wearing toughs. Ike got a meeting for the boys with country music mogul Chet Atkins in Nashville, and Atkins was so impressed with Don’s songwriting that he placed one of his songs with Kitty Wells.

“Don said he was considering college but when Kitty Wells bought his song “Thou Shalt Not Steal” (which Don wrote at WHS) and recorded it, the check came in the mail and he was now a songwriter.” He confirmed the old Knoxville urban legend: seeing the check and knowing that Nashville would be the next step. “That check bought us four tires and we were heading to Nashville,” Everly  recalled.

In 1955, the family moved to Nashville and the boys auditioned for labels as a brother act. A single they made went nowhere. After one difficult session for Columbia, yielding the rare 1956 single Keep A’Lovin’ Me/The Sun Keeps Shining, they signed with the New York label Cadence, later switching to the newly formed Warner Bros Records. From 1957 to 1965 they had 28 hits in the British Top 30, and comparable success in the US.

When they signed with Cadence and were given a tune (Bye Bye Love) to kick around, written by two of the hottest songwriters in town, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. “Bye Bye Love” topped the country chart and hit No. 2 on the pop chart right behind Elvis Presley’s “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear” and No. 5 on the rhythm and blues chart in 1957. It became the Everly Brothers’ first million-seller. They opened for Buddy Holly on the road for almost 2 years before another Bryant number, “Wake Up Little Susie,” topped the pop charts in 1957. When Chuck Berry was asked what song he most wished he’d written, he declared it was “Susie.” “All I Have to Do Is Dream” followed in 1958.

Rock ‘n’ roll was in ascendance, but if the music was mostly about revolt and rule-breaking, here was a style that felt both pre-rock and yet of the moment, built on family harmony and gentle sadness that seemed innocent even then. The music floated on the brothers’ harmonies, in effortless chromosomal alignment and held in place by the crisp playing of Nashville studio veterans.

The boys were seasoned professionals by the time they poured out their magic vocals on to a run of hits that married hillbilly harmonies and Nashville nous, their full-chorded acoustic guitars embracing Bo Diddley’s exotic rhythms to create the rock’n’roll end of country music’s rich, commercial sounds.

In a five-year span from 1957 to 1962, they had 15 top 10 hits, among them: “Bye Bye Love,” which launched them; “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” written by Boudleaux Bryant; and “Cathy’s Clown,” which was a No. 1 hit in 1960 and a No. 1 country hit for Reba McEntire in 1989. The hits continued: “Devoted to You” and “Bird Dog” in 1958; “(Til’) I Kissed You,” written by Don, in 1959; and “Let It Be Me,” and “When Will I Be Loved” in 1960. “Crying in the Rain” and then “That’s Old Fashioned (That’s the Way Love Should Be)” from 1962 were their final forays into the top 10.

The Everly Brothers were certainly pioneers in rock and folk music and inspired artists like the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, They influenced everyone from The Beach Boys to The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, Bee Gees, Buddy Holly and many others. In fact, the Everlys toured with Buddy Holly for two years before his untimely death. Fifteen years later their Appalachian roots inspired country rockers such as Gram Parsons and Linda Ronstadt, who had a hit covering their “When Will I Be Loved” in 1975.

Personal problems (including Don’s addiction to amphetamines) began wearing away on the pair, and in 1973 the Everlys broke up during a concert at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. Mutual dislike and differing temperaments caused Don and Phil Everly to retire and they both went solo. During that time Phil sang backing vocals in Warren Zevon’s debut album. He also recorded for Clint Eastwood’s ‘Every Which Way But Loose’ and ‘Any Which Way You Can’. Don recorded ‘Blue Kentucky Girl’ with Emmylou Harris.

Don found some success on the US country charts in the mid- to late-1970s, in Nashville with his band, Dead Cowboys, and playing with Albert Lee.

Don also performed solo at an annual country music festival in London in mid-1976. His appearance was well received, and he was given “thunderous applause”, even though critics noted that the performance was uneven. Don recorded “Everytime You Leave” with Emmylou Harris on her 1979 album Blue Kentucky Girl.

The Everly Brothers reunited in 1983 for a show at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The following year they released the album ‘EB84’, produced by Dave Edmunds. Paul McCartney wrote the first single ‘On The Wings of a Nightingale’.

Simon & Garfunkel took the Everly Brothers on tour in the 1980s but instead of the brothers opening for them, they appeared in the middle of the Simon & Garfunkel set.  The Everly Brothers also sang backing vocals for Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’.

Don and his younger brother, Phil, were in the first group to be inaugurated in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, alongside Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis. Their family harmonies set them apart from the rest, as did an out-of-time gentleness: the Everly Brothers’ well-crafted songs floated between country and city and moved with the rhythms of a dream.

In the time line of rock & roll they were the heroes of our heroes.

But that became also the reason why their hey days were cut short, way too short actually.

They had the gravitas to cover other artists’ crucial songs, from Little Richard’s Lucille, given a keening, slow-motion vocal fall, to the blues classics Trouble in Mind and Step It Up and Go, and Mickey & Sylvia’s Love Is Strange. Don, taken through the Maxwell Street market in Chicago as a young boy by his father, was ever after aware of gospel and blues. In an era of pretty pop, the Everlys sought a tougher sound on records such as The Price of Love (1965) and their extraordinary revival of the standard Temptation (1961), which pre-figured Phil Spector’s “wall of sound”. But, like Spector’s River Deep, Mountain High, the Everlys’ Temptation was (by their standards) a flop in the US, and The Price of Love a bigger one.

Then there were the Beatles, whose “new” harmonies made the Everlys old-fashioned overnight. Made redundant before they were 30, Don and Phil felt, wrongly, that the Beatles had stolen from them without acknowledgment – John and Paul ‘admitted’ that they had taken inspiration for the harmonies on Please Please Me from Cathy’s Clown.

Sidelined further by prog rock, Don and Phil tried first to sound like Simon and Garfunkel, and then their influential 1968 album Roots which, with the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, marked a step towards the emergence of “country rock”.

Don continued to write songs: Human Race (1970), the cri de coeur I’m Tired of Singing My Song in Las Vegas on the album Stories We Could Tell (1972), and most of the magnificent ignored solo album Don Everly (1971), a compelling collection that sings of human frailty with profound compassion (yet which, Phil told a biographer, he had felt as a betrayal, “like cheating on a marriage”).

These were perilous decades, especially for Don, the more temperamental and creative of the pair, whose drug adventures probably loosened an already shaky grip on reality. After a childhood paraded as a cute novelty item, dressed as if he were a twin, in cowboy clothes, his only sample of “normal life” was a spell in the Marines (of which he was proud) in the middle of being half of a pair of teen idols: one of the world’s most influential, well-loved and successful acts – and then, suddenly, one of the most passé.

The Everly Brothers split up in public acrimony, their last performance together on 14 July 1973, in Buena Park, California, at which Phil hurled down his guitar and stormed off stage, leaving Don to finish the concert alone.

On two other occasions Phil managed without Don. In 1962, on tour in Britain, a drug-fueled Don tried to throw himself from a hotel window and Phil had to perform solo on the remaining dates. And then, recording a solo album in 1983, right at the end of the brothers’ bleak 10 years of separation, Phil brought in Cliff Richard, and on one track they duetted as if Don could somehow be replaced. Phil and Cliff’s She Means Nothing to Me was a Top 10 UK hit, just to compound the enormity of the “betrayal”. Don saw it as nothing less, though it was he who had actually dissolved the brothers’ lifelong professional partnership.

It was a further trauma for both to discover that separately, no one cared that much about either of them. But in 1983 they staged a moving reunion concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

They still sang exquisitely, and a small segment of their shows offered songs learned from their father, whom they worshipped, and the Kentucky guitarist Mose Rager: authentic old-time country material. Don played loving, intense guitar, though sparingly in latterday performances. Singing lead, he lived in the spontaneity of the moment, his phrasing inspired, warm and free. He was an artist. But they hardly dared stray from their teenage hits. Besides, to have done so would have meant having to rehearse together, and that was not in the stars in those days.

Off-stage, Don was a glutton for life and a connoisseur. He had always seen the latest film; he read widely; he was interested in modern art and, on a modest scale, collected it. An avid explorer of restaurants, he loved to talk of food and to cook it. On tour, the Anglophile rock star would rise early and roam the towns he found himself in. These explorations made his professional duties tolerable, as he would deftly concede. At showtime in 90s Croydon, he realised he had forgotten to change into his stage clothes. Told he looked fine, he answered: “No, I better change. That suit knows the words.”

In later years the story of the Everly Brothers stranded in time. And when we, the audience, were paying attention again to their revival, they couldn’t get along. And if you were born in the forties and experienced their hits firsthand, this was probably gut-wrenching, much as the Beatles break up in 1969. But to the younger later generation, the Everlys were more cartoons than legends.

But then they had a late victory lap. They opened for Simon & Garfunkel on their 2003 reunion tour. It was a last hurrah for both Simon & Garfunkel and the Everlys. Garfunkel lost his voice and by time it came back Simon no longer wanted to go on the road. As for the Everlys? They still couldn’t get their relationship right.

Don Everly attended the Annual Music Masters as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame paid homage to the Everly Brothers on October 25, 2014, several months after Phil’s demise. Don took the State Theater stage and performed the Everlys’ classic hit “Bye Bye Love”.

Don stopped performing in 2018. His final performance was a guest appearance with Paul Simon on Simon’s 2018 farewell tour in Nashville. Don and Simon performed “Bye Bye Love”, with Simon on Phil Everly’s original tenor harmony.

In many ways the Everly Brothers were there first. They established the paradigm. I was maybe too young to be there, to be infected, but the people I was listening to ate up all those records. Even in Europe Phil & Don were gods, no matter what they did thereafter, those tracks were just that big and special. The Everlys are truly one of the building blocks of rock and roll. Which meant so much, that the Rock and Roll homage created a Rock and Roll hall of fame and built a museum to contain it, and the Everlys were installed in the first induction ceremony in 1986.

And now Don Everly has also been released from his earthly contract on August 21, 2021, aged 84. His brother Phil had died in 2014. The Everly family matriarch, mother Margaret Embry Everly, died four months later in December, aged 102. 

About their influence on superstars that followed, Paul McCarthy of the Beatles said it best: “They were one of the major influences on the Beatles. When John and I first started to write songs, I was Phil and he was Don.”

Posted on Leave a comment

Jeff LaBar 7/2021

jeff labar, lead guitar for cinderellaJeff LaBar (lead guitarist for Cinderella), born March 18, 1963 in Darby, Pennsylvania, he was of American and Japanese ancestry through his mother, June. He grew up in Upper Darby, , where he received primary education. Jeff had a particularly close relationship with his mother, June, who was his biggest inspiration in life. Young Jeff picked up guitar playing as a teenager, inspired by his older brother Jack, and he joined the local rock band Cinderella, replacing Cinderella’s original guitarist, Michael Schermick in 1985. The band was formed 3 years earlier and developed a following in the region, but with the arrival of LaBar, the band sparked into international stardom, with a string of platinum selling albums.

Jeff’s biggest musical influences though his early career were 1970s British rock bands, such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, while he also enjoyed the psychedelic music of Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and Genesis. In later years, he grew a liking to a heavier style of rock, particularly played by Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath.

Cinderella received first major recognition from the Kiss bass guitarist Gene Simmons, who tried to get them a deal with Kiss’ record label PolyGram, which the members of Cinderella ended up declining. However, after watching them perform in 1984, Jon Bon Jovi convinced the Mercury/Polygram Records executive Derek Shulman to sign Cinderella to his label, after extensive negotiations.
Cinderella released their debut album, “Night Songs” in August 1986, which became a huge success, launching the band into international stardom. Continue reading Jeff LaBar 7/2021

Posted on Leave a comment

Rusty Young – 4/2021

Rusty Young (75) – Poco – was born  Feb 23, 1946 in Long Beach, California, but grew up in Denver, Colorado. He began playing lap steel guitar at age 6, and taught guitar and steel guitar lessons during his high school years at Jefferson High School, Lakewood, Colorado with George Grantham. By 16 or 17, he was keeping a schedule that would have left adult professionals panting. He taught lessons in a guitar studio in the afternoons and then played country music in bars until the wee hours of the morning. Then he would pack up and head to jam sessions, catching a few hours of sleep before it was time to go to high school. In 1966, he was surprised to get a call from a local rock band, the Boenzee Cryque. “Are you sure you want him?” Young’s mother apparently asked, “He’s in a country band you know.” Boenzee Cryque was about the most popular Denver rock band at the time and had done fairly well with several locally produced singles that were picked up by the psychedelic-obsessed Uni label. He worked with this band for two years, incorporating the pedal steel and utilizing some of his strange effects for the first time.

In the late 1960s, an acquaintance of Young’s, Miles Thomas, became the road manager for Buffalo Springfield. Richie Furay and Jim Messina needed a steel guitarist for the Furay ballad “Kind Woman” on their final album Last Time Around and after Thomas told Young about the opportunity, Young was hired. After Buffalo Springfield broke up Young and Randy Meisner (later of Eagles), Jim Messina (Loggins and Messina) and Richie Furay formed Poco with drummer George Grantham. Meisner quit a year later and was replaced with Timothy B. Schmit, who would also replace Randy later once again in Eagles. Along with Furay and Messina, Young became a founding member of Poco in 1968 upon the former band’s demise. Drummer George Grantham and bass player Randy Meisner rounded out the original Poco lineup.

“Richie had done country-rock with ‘A Child’s Claim to Fame’ and ‘Kind Woman’,” Young said in a 2014 interview. “That was the country part of the Springfield where Neil (Young) and Stephen (Stills) were way more rock ’n’ roll. You have to remember that in 1969, there weren’t synthesizers, so if you actually wanted a certain sound, you had to have a real musician playing. So that’s why I got involved — because I could play steel guitar and Dobro and banjo and mandolin, and pretty much all the country instruments except for fiddle. So I added color to Richie’s country-rock songs, and that was the whole idea, to use country-sounding instruments. Also, I pushed the envelope on steel guitar, playing it with a fuzz tone, because nobody was doing that, and playing it through a Leslie speaker like an organ, and a lot of people thought I was playing an organ, because they didn’t realize I was playing a steel guitar. So we were pushing the envelope in lots of different ways, instrumentally and musically overall.”

The band’s membership fluctuated over the years. After Furay left the group, Young took on more song writing responsibility, along with Paul Cotton and Timothy B. Schmit.

Young credited David Geffen for forcing him to become a singer-songwriter, after he’d initially only contributed a few songs to the band and never done any lead vocals on the early albums.

When it became clear that Furay was leaving to start up the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, Young said, there was a meeting where Geffen “starts with Tim and says, ‘Now, Tim, you write songs and sing, don’t you?’ And Tim says, ‘Yes.’ So he says, ‘Well, don’t you worry about Richie leaving; you’ll be fine.’ And he looks at Paul, and he says, ‘You play guitar and sing and write songs, don’t you?’ And Paul says, ‘Yes.’ … Then he looked at me and George, and he looked me in the eye, and he said, ‘Now, you don’t sing, and you don’t write songs, do you?’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ So he said, ‘Well, you’re in trouble.’ And that was the day I became a singer-songwriter, and if it weren’t for David Geffen saying that to me, it never would have happened, and I owe him greatly for that.”

Young is best known for writing the Poco songs “Rose of Cimarron” and “Crazy Love“. Actually Young wrote more than a dozen of the group’s most well-known songs. 

“Crazy Love,” was named the No. 1 adult contemporary song of 1979. In a 2008 interview, Young said, “The only reason we’re talking now is ‘Crazy Love’. That was our first hit single. It’s a classic, and it still pays the mortgage.”

A reunion album in 1989, “Legacy,” brought Furay, Messina, Meisner and Grantham back into the Poco fold for a single project. The band was active until the end of the ’80s, but seemed to make less and less use of Young’s instrumental talents as the years went on.

Although based out of Nashville, Young avoided the recording session work that is the bread and butter of most pedal steel players in that area, due to the lack of space for experimentation. He could sometimes be heard playing solo at that city’s Bluebird Cafe in the ’90s and 2000s, but his main venture in the late ’90s was a trio with John Cowan and Bill Lloyd called Sky Kings. The group recorded an album for RCA Nashville in 1992 but the label shelved the record. Sky Kings then moved to Warner, releasing three singles in 1996, but their completed From Out of the Blue never saw release. Rhino Handmade would release the unheard Warner album in 2000, while Sony put out the RCA Nashville album as 1992 in 2014. Starting in the year 2000, a reunited Poco was Young’s main concern. The group released Running Horse in 2002 and toured steadily over the next decade — several live albums were released during this period and 2013’s All Fired Up.

In 2009, a handful of reunion shows saw Furay and Schmit returning, including an appearance at the Stagecoach Festival in California. Otherwise, the group carried on with Young as the sole remnant of the group’s original legacy.

In 2013, Young was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. At the end of 2013, Young announced his, what turned out to be a short-lived, retirement and a desire to write his memoirs. However a few shows were booked into 2014 including three farewell shows in Florida. One of those shows was a performance in a recording studio in front of a live audience for a DVD document of the band’s live show. Young said there could be some one-offs in the future after that, but the band would not be actively touring as before. The final version of the band, which had Young backed by Jack Sundrud, Rick Lonow and Tom Hampton, was still performing more than 100 gigs a year.

The group celebrated its 50th anniversary reunion in 2017. Young released  his first solo album, “Waitin’ For The Sun ” that same year. Young and Jack Sundrud wrote and recorded music for children’s story videos as the “Session Cats”. Young continued to do guest performances with former members of Poco and other country rock artists. Young then released new music “Listen to Your Heart”, in 2019 was released digitally and benefited a local Steelville, Missouri animal charity, Santana’s Hope for Paws (Friends of Steelville, MO Pound) Animal Shelter.

In 2020 Young reflected on his career saying, “I’ve been fortunate to have had a magical career. From the moment I was called to play on the Buffalo Springfield album, all through Poco, and now through my solo projects, things have just fallen into place. I’ve worked really hard to be the best I can be, and I think my music is the proof.”

Poco’s Rusty Young died on April 14, 2021 from a heart attack at age 75.

In a statement Blue Elan Records released, “It is with great sadness that we confirm the passing of Poco co-founder, Rusty Young, at the age of 75. Young suffered a heart attack last night. A beloved member of the Blue Élan Records family, Young was best known as the heart and soul of Poco – the band widely considered to be one of the founders of the classic Southern California country rock sound. Young was an integral member of the band throughout their influential six decade career.”

Posted on Leave a comment

Bunny Wailer – 3/2021

Bunny Wailer

Bunny Wailer (Bob Marley and the Wailers) was born 10 April 1947 in Kingston Jamaica. He was born Neville Livingston, and it was not until much later that he would take the sobriquet of Bunny Wailer, largely as a marketing device for his clear, ringing tenor voice and percussive arranging. 

Bunny was brought up by his father, Thaddeus “Toddy” Livingston, who took him to Nine Mile, where he was preaching. Bunny took with him some experience of music – in Kingston he had been a champion child dancer. At the Revivalist church in Nine Mile where Toddy preached, he banged the drum during hymns.

Although Toddy opened a store, he was more attracted to the area’s fertile land, perfect for marijuana growing. He financed his assorted businesses through being a “herbsman”, as ganja sellers are termed in Jamaica. After a time Toddy returned to Kingston, taking his son with him, and opened a rum bar.

Bob Marley’s mother, Cedella, had begun working in Kingston, returning to Nine Mile each weekend. One Sunday, she found herself traveling with Toddy Livingston, and they began dating. 

Cedella’s son Bob practiced singing with Bunny and another boy, Desmond Dacre (later Desmond Dekker); Curtis Mayfield and gospel music were particular influences. The pair soon encountered another youth wanting to try his musical chances – the gangly Peter McIntosh, or Peter Tosh, as he became known. 

Toddy Livingston employed Cedella Marley at his bar; she became pregnant and their daughter, Pearl, was born early in 1962, meaning that Marley and Bunny Wailer shared a half-sister. But Cedella Marley decided that her relationship with the womanizing Toddy was hopeless and she moved to the United States.

Bunny first met Marley in the village of Nine Mile, Marley’s birthplace; Bunny was aged eight, Marley two years older.

In 1962, Bob Marley recorded Judge Not, his first tune for producer Leslie Kong. Bunny Livingston had been booked in at the studio the same afternoon, intending to sing his first composition, Pass It On, but had been kept in school after class. A few months later, however, he formed the Wailing Wailers with Marley and Tosh.

They auditioned for the leading producer Coxsone Dodd, and Bunny suggested they play Simmer Down, a song written by Bob Marley a couple of years previously. By November 1964 the song was No 1 in Jamaica.

Though the Wailers were a runaway success, there was a hitch in June 1967 when Livingston was jailed for 18 months for possessing marijuana.

When he was released, he was noted as being more difficult than previously. In 1970 the Wailers recorded an album for Kong; when Livingston discovered that Kong wanted to call it The Best of the Wailers he was furious. Only at the end of one’s existence could an individual’s work be judged, he insisted; such a decision, he declared, must mean that it was Kong who was near the end of his life.

Laughing at what he considered typical Rasta doublethink, Kong put out the record with his intended title but soon after died of a heart attack – cementing Wailer’s reputation as an “obeahman”, someone who employs Jamaican voodoo-like practices.

Soon after, in a Kingston nightclub, Livingston attacked Lee “Scratch” Perry, who had produced the Wailers’ Soul Rebels and Soul Revolution albums. Perry had sold the records for UK distribution for £18,000 but the Wailers had seen none of the money.

The trio signed to Island Records, whose boss, Chris Blackwell, marketed their albums Catch a Fire and Burnin’ as though they were a rock act. For the second LP a set of US shows had been booked, but Livingston announced that he would not be taking part.

He was the most combative of all the Wailers in terms of black militancy. With his girlfriend Jean Watt he moved to live in a bamboo hut among the Rasta beach community at Bull Bay, outside Kingston. Squatting on a piece of land, he built his home himself, adding a touch of luxury with a polished wood floor.

When it came to his finances Livingston was on wobbly ground. He had established his own Solomonic label, but it was hardly a money-spinner. Towards the end of the Wailers’ career, he was so broke he was going to sea to catch fish.

As a settlement from Island Records, Livingston and Tosh were each offered $45,000; Livingston insisted on cash. With the banknotes stashed, he drove around Jamaica searching for land to buy. Finally, he discovered a plot in the hilly St Thomas countryside, 60 miles from Kingston, where he built a house.

″I think I love the country actually a little bit more than the city,″ Wailer finally told The Associated Press in 1989. ″It has more to do with life, health and strength. The city takes that away sometimes. The country is good for meditation. It has fresh food and fresh atmosphere – that keeps you going.

At first Livingston seemed to have vanished into this hilltop eyrie, but in the summer of 1976 he released his first solo LP, Blackheart Man, which brimmed with vitality, on Island: he had been saving up songs for some time. He was sensibly remarketed as “Bunny Wailer”, but refused to play dates to push his record. Despite that, his Protest album, released the next year, proved equally strong.

For the 1980 disc Bunny Wailer Sings the Wailers he reworked many of the band’s songs with the backing of the leading Jamaican rhythm section, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. He experimented with disco on his 1982 album Hook Line & Sinker, and during the 1990s he won three Grammy Best Reggae Album awards, for Time Will Tell: A Tribute to Bob Marley, Crucial! Roots Classics and Hall of Fame: A Tribute to Bob Marley’s 50th Anniversary.

In 1987 he had resumed playing live shows, to large audiences in Europe and the United States, and continued to perform for much of the rest of his career.

In 1988, he had chartered a jet and flew to Jamaica with food to help those affected by Hurricane Gilbert. ″Sometimes people pay less attention to those things (food), but they turn out to be the most important things. I am a farmer,″ he told the AP.

But the Wailers dominated. When Kevin Macdonald released his acclaimed Marley! documentary in 2012, Bunny’s voice was conspicuous (he had demanded $1 million to be interviewed, and though he did not get quite that, he was reported to have been paid a substantial sum). His appearance in the film cemented his position as the elder statesman of reggae – though still linked irrevocably to Bob Marley, his schoolboy friend.

In 2017 Bunny Wailer, who suffered two strokes in later life, was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit. He was married to Jean Watt, known as Sister Jean, who was suffering from dementia; she went missing in 2020 and remained so by the time of his death. He is believed to have had 12 daughters and a son.

He died on March 2, 2021 in Jamaica

He was the third and last original Wailer. Marley died in 1981 of a brain tumor at 36 years old and Tosh was fatally shot in Jamaica in 1987 at 42 years old, leaving Wailer as the music’s elder statesman.

Tributes: 

“The passing of Bunny Wailer, the last of the original Wailers, brings to a close the most vibrant period of Jamaica’s musical experience,” wrote Jamaica politician Peter Phillips in a Facebook post. “Bunny was a good, conscious Jamaican brethren.”

His solo records include 1976’s Black heart Man, and 1981’s Rock ‘n’ Groove, with “Cool Runnings”, “Crucial” and “Bald Head Jesus” among his best-known songs.

In 2017, Wailer was awarded Jamaica’s fourth highest honor, the Order of Merit, and was recognized with a Reggae Gold Award in February 2019.

Wailer won three Grammy awards during his career, for Time Will Tell: A Tribute to Bob Marley in 1991, Crucial! Roots Classics in 1995 and Hall of Fame: A Tribute to Bob Marley’s 50th Anniversary in 1997. All were in the category of Best Reggae Album.

It was his friendship and work with Bob Marley, and later with Peter Tosh, that led to them forming the Wailers, an intensely creative and varied trio who gave reggae an immense international reach. Though it is hard to pull Livingston from out of Bob Marley’s shadow he remained a commanding musical figure.

Posted on Leave a comment

Mary Wilson – 2/2021

Mary Wilson (76) was born March 6, 1944, to Sam, a butcher, and Johnnie Mae Wilson in Greenville, Mississippi. She was the eldest of three children including a brother, Roosevelt, and a sister, Cathy. The Wilsons moved to Chicago, part of the Great Migration in which her father joined many African Americans seeking work in the North, but at age three, Mary Wilson was taken in by her aunt Ivory “I.V.” and uncle John L. Pippin in Detroit. Her parents eventually separated and Wilson’s mother and siblings later joined them in Detroit, though by then Wilson had come to believe I.V. was her real mother.

Wilson and her family had settled in the Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects, a housing project in Detroit  where Wilson first met Florence Ballard. The duo became friends while singing in their school’s talent show. In 1959, Ballard asked Wilson to audition for Milton Jenkins, who was forming a sister group to his male vocal trio, the Primes (two members of which were later in The Temptations). Wilson was soon accepted into the group known as The Primettes, with Diana Ross and Betty McGlown, who lived in the same housing project with Wilson and Ballard. In this period, Wilson also met Aretha, Erma and Carolyn Franklin, daughters of the pastor at her local Baptist church. Wilson graduated from Detroit’s Northeastern High School in January 1962.

In 1960, the Primettes signed a contract with Lu Pine Records, issuing two singles from which Wilson sang lead vocals on “Pretty Baby”. Shortly after, McGlown left to get married and was replaced by Barbara Martin. During that year, they kept pursuing a Motown contract and agreed to do anything that was required, including adding handclaps and vocal backgrounds. By the end of the year, Berry Gordy agreed to have the group record songs in the studio. In January 1961, Gordy relented and agreed to sign the girls to his label on the condition they change their name. Motown lyricist Janie Bradford approached Ballard with a list of names to choose from before Ballard chose “Supremes”. Eventually, Gordy agreed to sign them under that name on January 15, 1961.

The group struggled in their early years in comparison to other Motown acts, garnering the nickname “no-hit Supremes” as a result. One track, “Buttered Popcorn”, led by Ballard, was a regional hit, but still failed to chart. Before the release of their 1962 debut album, Meet The Supremes, Martin had become pregnant and subsequently left the group, leaving the Supremes as a trio.
In December 1963, the single “When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes” peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. Following the single’s success, Gordy assigned Ross as the group’s lead singer. In the spring of 1964, the Supremes released “Where Did Our Love Go”, which became their first number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, paving the way for ten number-one hits recorded by Ross, Ballard, and Wilson between 1964 and 1967.

By 1965, the group had become international stars, appearing regularly on television programs such as Hullabaloo, The Hollywood Palace, The Dean Martin Show, and, most notably The Ed Sullivan Show, on which they made 17 appearances. As early as 1966, Florence Ballard‘s chronic alcoholism led to her missing press conferences and recording sessions. To serve as a stand-in for Ballard, Gordy selected Cindy Birdsong, a member of Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles. In July 1967, following a contentious performance at the Flamingo, Ballard was removed from the Supremes and replaced with Birdsong. Simultaneously, Gordy re-named the group “Diana Ross & the Supremes”, beginning with the single “Reflections”.
The new lineup continued to record hit singles, although several stalled outside the top 20 chart range. Ross left the group in January 1970, and at her farewell performance Jean Terrell was introduced as the replacement for Ross. According to Wilson, Gordy told Wilson that he thought of having Syreeta Wright join the group in a last-minute change, after Terrell had already been introduced as lead singer, to which Wilson refused. From there, Gordy relinquished creative control of the group over to Wilson. With Terrell, the Supremes recorded seven top-40 hit singles in a three-year period, including “River Deep/Mountain High” (with the Four Tops), “Up the Ladder to the Roof”, “Stoned Love”, “Nathan Jones”, and “Floy Joy”. Unlike the latter years with Ross, the single “Automatically Sunshine” succeeded in reaching the top 20 charts, in which it had become the Supremes’ final top 40 U.S. hit.

Mary Wilson gained worldwide recognition as a founding member of The Supremes, the most successful Motown act of the 1960s and the best-charting female group in U.S. chart history, as well as one of the best-selling girl groups of all-time. The trio reached number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 with 12 of their singles, ten of which feature Wilson on backing vocals.

Beginning with the 1974 lineup, Wilson began doing almost half of the group’s lead vocal duties, as she was considered the group’s main attraction and reason for continuing.
In 1975, Wilson sang lead on the Top 10 disco hit “Early Morning Love”. In 1976, the group scored its final hit single with “I’m Gonna Let My Heart Do the Walking”, written and produced by Brian and Eddie Holland and included on the album High Energy. High Energy was well-received, but the follow-up album after another line-up change, Mary, Scherrie & Susaye, released in 1977, would be their last. During a meeting with Motown, Wilson’s husband Pedro Ferrer had notified Motown that Wilson would leave the Supremes to embark on a solo career. On June 12, 1977, Wilson gave her farewell performance with the Supremes at London’s Drury Lane Theatre.

In July 1977, just one month following her farewell performance with the Supremes, Wilson began a touring “Supremes” show with two background singers as the “Mary Wilson of The Supremes” show. The show was the result of Motown’s allowance of the group to go into hiatus despite the fact that there were still several un-cancelled international tour dates to complete. Mary therefore hired former Supreme, Cindy Birdsong and Debbie Sharpe to complete a summer tour of South America to fulfill contracts so venues would not sue. The three-week tour began in Caracas, Venezuela, and was composed of mostly small clubs. Despite the company’s displeasure and the fact that it owned the rights/distribution rights to the name “Supremes,” Motown never cancelled the tour. Later that year, Wilson hired Karen Jackson and Kaaren Ragland to tour with as background singers. She and Cindy rehearsed them for a year end’s tour of Europe, that was composed of dates at officers’ clubs and swank discos. Throughout the mid-1980s, Wilson focused on performances in musical theater productions, including Beehive, Dancing in the Streets, and Supreme Soul.

Wilson was inducted along with Ross and Ballard (as members of the Supremes) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

Wilson later became a New York Times best-selling author in 1986 with the release of her first autobiography, Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme, which set records for sales in its genre, and later in 1990 for the autobiography Supreme Faith: Someday We’ll Be Together.

Wilson became a frequent guest on several television programs and talk shows and began regularly performing in Las Vegas casinos and resorts. Wilson then recorded a cover version of “Ooh Child” for the Motorcity label in 1990. A year later, she signed with CEO Records and released the album, Walk the Line, in 1992. The label filed for bankruptcy the day after its national release. Wilson maintained that she was deceived about the financial status of the label. The available copies of the album quickly sold out, however, and Wilson continued her success as a concert performer.

In 2001, Wilson starred in the national tour of Leader of the Pack – The Ellie Greenwich Story. A year later, Wilson was appointed by Secretary of State Colin Powell as a “culture-connect ambassador” for the U.S. State Department, appearing at international events arranged by that agency. In 2006, a live concert DVD, Live at the Sands, was released. Four years later, another DVD, Mary Wilson: Live from San Francisco… Up Close, was released. During this period, Wilson became a musical activist, having been part of the Truth in Music Bill, a law proposed to stop impostor groups performing under the names of the 1950s and 1960s rock and roll groups, including Motown groups 

In April 2008, Wilson made a special appearance on 20/20 to participate in a social experiment involving pedestrians reacting to a young woman singing “Stop! In the Name of Love” with intentional amateurishness. Wilson approached the woman and gave her constructive criticism toward her style, in contrast to the pedestrians whose reactions were positive, yet dishonest. On March 5, 2009, she made a special appearance on The Paul O’Grady Show, which ended in a special performance with her, O’Grady, and Graham Norton. 
Wilson released two singles on iTunes, “Life’s Been Good To Me” and “Darling Mother (Johnnie Mae)”, in 2011 and 2013, respectively. In 2015, Wilson released a new single, “Time To Move On”, produced by Sweet Feet Music; the song reached the Top 20 on the Billboard Dance charts history, peaking at No. 17 as of December 26.
On August 15, 2019, Wilson published her fourth book, Supreme Glamour with co-author Mark Bego, dedicated to the history of the Supremes and their fashion. 

On February 8, 2021, Mary Wilson died in her sleep from hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease at her home in Henderson, Nevada, at the age of 76. 

Motown founder Berry Gordy said he was “extremely shocked and saddened” by the news of her death and said Wilson was “quite a star in her own right and over the years continued to work hard to boost the legacy of the Supremes.” Diana Ross reflected on Wilson’s death, posting on Twitter: “I am reminded that each day is a gift. I have so many wonderful memories of our time together. ‘The Supremes’ will live on in our hearts.

Mary Wilson’s last single “Why Can’t We All Get Along” was released posthumously on March 5, 2021. The song was featured on a 2021 reissue of Wilson’s 1979 solo debut entitled, Mary Wilson: Expanded Edition.
Another posthumous project, Mary Wilson: Red Hot Eric Kupper Remix EP was released September 3, 2021. The EP featured three new different dance versions of Wilson’s 1979 single “Red Hot” produced by Kupper.

Posted on Leave a comment

Hilton Valentine 1/2021

Hilton Valentine – The Animals, was born on 21 May 1943 in North Shields, Northumberland, England, and was influenced by the 1950s skiffle craze – a kind of fusion of American folk, country, jazz and blues-. His mother bought him his first guitar in 1956 when he was 13, he taught himself some chords from a book called “Teach Yourself a Thousand Chords“. He continued to develop his musical talent at Tynemouth High School and formed his own skiffle group called the Heppers. They played local gigs and a newspaper described them at the time as, “A young but promising skiffle group”. The Heppers eventually evolved into a rock and roll band, the Wildcats in c. 1959. The Wildcats became a popular band in the Tyneside area, getting a lot of bookings for dance halls, working men’s clubs, church halls etc., and it was during this period that they decided to record a 10″ acetate LP titled Sounds of the Wild Cats. 

But then came the Animals! The group was formed in 1963 when Eric Burdon joined the Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo, which already included the other original members of The Animals. There are different versions of the origin of the name of the band. Some say they were nicknamed that way because of their “animal” attitude on stage and because they were sticky. Others say it was in honor of a friend of Eric Burdon’s who was nicknamed “animal”. They soon began to get noticed and in 1964, they moved to London to play at various well-known clubs in the capital.

Their style drew elements from blues, creating a style of psychedelic rock and hard rock that was unique for its time and influenced many later bands and artists. The Animals’ best-known song is “The House of The Rising Sun”, which reached number one on the popularity charts in both the UK and the United States.

Now the Animals were hobbled by being on MGM Records, which was never cool. We knew that back then, we saw the labels on the 45s, we knew the orange and yellow of Capitol, the red of Columbia…MGM was a lame label, without the infrastructure of its big time competitors. But the Animals were giants.

It was the summer of ’64. The summer of “A Hard Day’s Night.” The British Invasion was in full swing, our minds had expanded to encompass the work of seemingly everything from the U.K., assuming it was good. And the Animals were.

At that point most people had no idea “House of the Rising Sun” was a Dave Van Ronk staple, never mind being on Bob Dylan’s first LP, it was the rock sound that put the Animals’ version over the top. Of course you had Eric Burdon’s vocal, but there is not a boomer alive, that’s how ubiquitous hit songs were back then, who doesn’t know the opening guitar lick to “House of the Rising Sun.” That arpeggio lick was played by Hilton Valentine.

Now the original incarnation of the Animals only lasted until 1966. Sure, their hit-making era was only three years, from ’64-’66, but they’d paid dues before that, beginning in ’62, in Newcastle upon Tyne, an industrial area without the hipness of Liverpool, never mind London. The Animals had a dark name and they were perceived as dark. But they had a slew of hits.

“House of the Rising Sun”, of course was their breakthrough, and went to #1, but “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” which only went to #13 in the U.S., was a bigger song, probably better remembered. Barry Mann and Cynthia Well wrote it, but the Animals made it their own, and it did not have the legacy of a standard, it was fresh, brand new.

As for “It’s My Life”…Eric Burdon was gonna ride that serpent, he was gonna break loose, because..

“It’s my life and I’ll do what I want
It’s my mind and I’ll think what I want”

This was the ethos of the sixties, it’s not the ethos of today. Our parents were not fighting us for attention, there was no question of them being our best friends, we were throwing off the chains of society, of expectations, we were gonna forge our own path.

It’s a great song, Burdon delivers it, but never underestimate the importance of Hilton Valentine’s twelve string guitar. And the Animals had other hits, but “Don’t Bring Me Down” is probably my favorite.

“When you complain and criticize
I feel I’m nothing in your eyes
It makes me feel like giving up
Because my best just ain’t good enough”

The hormones had awoken. Puberty was in full swing. What you wanted was too often unattainable. You had crushes. But to them you barely existed, if at all. But to you, they were everything. The only thing you had to soothe yourself was this music.

“Oh, oh no
Don’t bring me down”

Now in the case of “Don’t Bring Me Down” one cannot underestimate the importance of Dave Rowberry’s organ, and Eric Burdon sings with nuance, something absent from too much of today’s music, and it’s a great Gerry Goffin/Carole King song, but what truly makes “Don’t Bring Me Down” a hit is Hilton Valentine’s fuzz guitar. It’s a bedrock element of rock history. And you probably had no idea who Hilton Valentine was. He’s that guy!

Valentine left The Animals for a solo career after the original line-up split in 1966. He was very close with Eric Burdon and while there was no touring, Hilton lived in the downstairs basement apartment of Eric’s Laurel Canyon home and when Burdon became frontman for War, he took Hilton Valentine with him on tour as their guitar tech. Valentine went on to take part in several reunions and toured with Burdon in 2007. He never left the music.
Based in Connecticut with his wife Germaine in recent years, he also released music with his band Skiffledog.

Hilton Valentine died 29 January 2021 at the age of 77.

Our heroes no longer die before their time, they don’t O.D., their bodies give out and they’re gone, and there are so many of them these days that their deaths are less shocking and get less attention, after all, nobody lives forever.

Eric Burdon paid tribute to Valentine on Instagram, writing: “The opening opus of Rising Sun will never sound the same!… You didn’t just play it, you lived it! Heartbroken by the sudden news of Hilton’s passing.
“We had great times together, Geordie lad. From the North Shields to the entire world…Rock In Peace.”

Posted on 1 Comment

Tim Bogert – 1/2021

Tim Bogert, bassist for Vanilla Fudge

Tim Bogert – (Vanilla Fudge)  Born John Voorhis Bogert III on Aug. 27, 1944 in New York City, he grew up playing multiple instruments. When Tim was eight years old, he was already riding his bicycle to piano lessons. The piano lessons, however, were soon replaced by Little League. Music was in him, though and at thirteen, Little League was then replaced by a clarinet. Soon thereafter, Tim picked up the saxophone and played in his high school marching band. Time was living in New Jersey by now and he met a friend named Dale. They formed a band called The Belltones with Tim playing sax and made good money playing gigs around New Jersey at high school dances and VFW halls. This band evolved into The Chessmen. 

The Chessmen were introduced by WADO disk jockey Allen Fredericks, who helped them get gigs backing up doowop groups such as The Shirelles, The Crest, The Earl, and The Doves. The Chessmen were now playing New York City. With the advent of surf music which didn’t have much sax, Tim Bogert then picked up the electric bass.
After Tim left high school, he was in and out of a number of bands in the NYC area. In 1965, he went on a lounge tour of the Eastern Seaboard with Rick Martin and the Showmen, where he met Mark Stein, the keyboardist and vocalist. The two of them hit it off, and they soon left to join with drummer Joey Brennan and guitarist Vince Martell to form their own band, The Pigeons. After recording an album called “While the World was Eating”, they replaced drummer Joe Brennan with Carmine Appice and changed the name of the band to Vanilla Fudge.

“We had just gotten a recording contract from Atlantic Records, and the name Pigeons was taken, so in a couple of hours we had to think of a new name,” Bogert told For Bass Players Only in 2010. “Mark’s cousin’s nickname was ‘Vanilla Fudge’ — no, I don’t know why — and this name was picked and agreed to by everyone. It had nothing to do with blue-eyed soul!”

The band, known for fusing strains of psychedelia and proto-metal, mingled originals with cover songs on their early albums, including heavy takes on the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” and Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready.” Their 1967 take on the Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” served as the soundtrack to the climatic scene of Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

The song that took them to the top was a cover of the Supremes, titled “You keep me hanging on. According to Mark Stein, he and Tim were “hanging out” one day in early 1967 when You Keep Me Hanging On by The Supremes came on the radio. They both agreed that the words were very soulful and that the song was too fast. Tim replies that they took the idea to slow it down back to Vince and Carmine. They performed it that night and refined the arrangement over the next few weeks and the rest is history. It was recorded in one take and that’s the version we’ve been listening to for fifty years! The album soared to number 3 on the national charts behind The Beatles and The Supremes. It stayed on the charts for over 200 weeks! The first notes Tim plays in the intro to this symphonic rock piece indicate his incredible speed and his unique ability take you on a “bass trip” while continuously doing what a bass player is supposed to do; holding down the bottom and completing the rhythm section. This was the emerging Tim Bogert style.

Tim recorded five albums with Vanilla Fudge between 1967 and 1969. As Vanilla Fudge matured, so did his style, on both the melodic and rhythmic sides. His “bass trips” became even more imaginative, utilizing more effects and greater speed, yet his rhythmic grooves were just as awesome. These techniques are prevalent on the Some Velvet Morning and Break Song cuts on the Near the Beginning album. Tim and drummer Carmine Appice became undoubtedly the tightest rhythm section in rock.

The quartet released five studio albums during their ’60s run, all of which cracked the top 40 of the Billboard 200: 1967’s gold-selling Vanilla Fudge, 1968’s The Beat Goes On and Renaissance; and 1969’s Near the Beginning and Rock & Roll.

Following the breakup of Vanilla Fudge in March of 1970, Tim went on with Carmine to form Cactus with guitarist Jim McCarty (Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels), and vocalist Rusty Day(Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes). About the name says Tim, “Carmine and I were lying in the back of a limo on the way home from a gig in Arizona. We were talking about leaving the Fudge. We passed under a sign that read ‘ The Cactus Drive-In’ . It was the easiest band name we ever thought of. “

This high energy rockin’ blues band gave Tim the opportunity to further prove his ability to fill the gaps in what was essentially an instrumental trio, while maintaining his meaty, melodic style. After three studio albums, Jim McCarty left the band and was replaced by an unknown guitarist, Werner Friching, from Germany that they met in New York. Carmine once said that he and Tim had trouble with many guitarists because the two of them were “crazy musicians from New York” and were too high energy. Well, so much the loss for the guitar players! With the addition of keyboardist Duane Hitchings, from the original Buddy Miles Express and a new vocalist, Pete French, from Atomic Rooster, they recorded a fourth album ‘Ot ‘n Sweaty in 1972. This Cactus version, lasted only another seven months before breaking up completely.

The Bogert/Appice rhythm section then teamed up once again. This time with the legendary Jeff Beck. Beck, Bogert, and Appice was the new supergroup. Tim and Carmine had wanted to team up with Beck for a long time. Jeff had called them up to do a session with Stevie Wonder and were asked to join the Jeff Beck Group. They left Cactus and did a national tour with Beck.

Their rendition of Stevie Wonder’s Superstition was an instant hit. Vanilla Fudge harmonies, provided by Tim and Carmine, were evident in Lady. BBA’s live album from Japan, which was coincidentally only released in Japan and is now a collectors item, displayed the intense energy they became known for. Ray Manzerek of The Doors described BBA as “one of the great power trios of all time.”

Ultimately, Tim dissolved his partnership with Beck and moved from New York to Los Angeles.

“I did nothing for six months. Just rode my motorcycle. Then I teamed up with Steve Perry for two years.” Tim met Steve at a rehearsal studio and they put a band together called Pieces.”

After that, Tim went to England to do one session and wound up staying for three and a half years. While there, he joined a band with Chris Stainton called Boxer. They recorded one album and toured England. 1979 found Tim back in California mainly living the life of a freelance musician working local clubs on a casual basis and doing his share of studio dates with the likes of Rod Stewart on his “Foolish Behaviour” album and Bo Diddley on his “20th Anniversary of Rock ‘N’ Roll album.

“After that I went back to Europe to live in Italy for seven months to do session work and tour.” Upon his return to Los Angeles, Tim joined Bobby and the Midnights with Billy Cobham and Bob Weir. That took him on another tour of the U.S. for a year and a half. The following year, Tim toured nationally with Rick Derringer.

Bogert then joined Bobby and the Midnites, a side project formed by Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. Though he toured with the group, Bogert left before their debut album was released, joining the U.K. group Boxer in 1977. In 1981, Bogert became a faculty member at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, but continued to record, releasing his second album, “Master’s Brew,” in 1983 and releasing “Mystery” with Vanilla Fudge in 1984.

Over the years, Bogert contributed to multiple projects and tours, including stints with Rick Derringer, Steve Perry, Rod Stewart and others. He also participated in reunions with Vanilla Fudge and Cactus, including the former band’s 2007 record, Out Through the In Door, and the latter group’s 2006 LP, Cactus V.

In 1999, Bogert was recognized by the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame for his contributions to the genre. Bogert continued to tour with various groups until he retired.  In August of 2005, Tim was involved in a serious motorcycle accident which left him unable to perform for a couple of years.

In August 2007, the all original Vanilla Fudge reunited again for a concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York City with Deep Purple, and continued to tour into 2008.

In 2009, resulting problems from the motorcycle accident forced Tim to reluctantly retire from touring. He was still doing session work locally in Simi Valley, California and over the Internet.

According to Bogert’s official biography, he “reluctantly” retired from touring in 2010 due to “resulting problems” from a motorcycle accident. He did, however, continue to do local session work. In 2020, Vanilla Fudge recorded “Stop In The Name Of Love”. At their invitation, Tim rejoined his buddies for this track, which would be his last recording as he was fighting cancer.

After a long battle with cancer Tim Bogert died on January 13, 2021.

“I loved Tim like a brother. He will be missed very much in my life. I will miss calling him, cracking jokes together, talking music, and remembering the great times we had together, and how we created kick-ass music together,” Carmine Appice wrote . “Perhaps the only good thing about knowing someone close to you is suffering a serious illness, is you have an opportunity to tell them that you love them, and why you love them. I did that, a lot. I was touched to hear it said back to me. Nothing was left unsaid between us and I’m grateful for that. I highly recommend it. Rest in peace, my partner. I love you. See you on the other side.”

Posted on Leave a comment

Sylvain Sylvain – 1/2021

Sylvain Sylvain Mizrahi (69) – The New York Dolls – was born in Cairo, Egypt on February 14, 1951. His Syrian Sephardic Jewish family fled Egypt because of the Suez Canal crisis in 1957, initially moved to France and then the USA in the late 1950s. They first settled in Buffalo, New York and later in New York City.

Sylvain, who grew up with dyslexia, attended Newtown High School in Queens and Quintano’s School for Young Professionals in Manhattan, where he met future New York Doll bandmate Billy Murcia and together they ran a clothing company called “Truth and Soul”, which helped define his fashion sense and would play a role in the band’s groundbreaking look. His early musical influences were the Who, MC5 and Iggy Pop.

Continue reading Sylvain Sylvain – 1/2021

Posted on Leave a comment

Alexi Laiho – 12/2020

Alexi Laiho (born Markku Uula Aleksi Laiho) on 8 April 1979 in Espoo, Finland. He showed virtuosic signs at an early age, learning to play violin at five and listening primarily to classical music as a youth. His parents even told him that he was singing before he could talk. 

“It’s a little weird, I know,  I was 10 years old and watching MTV when the video for Steve Vai’s For the Love of God from the Passion and Warfare album came on. That was the moment I knew I had to start playing. Not only did it blow me away, it also opened up a whole new world for me.” 

As Laiho’s interest in music shifted from classical to glam metal and shred, his parents were fully onboard with his transformation; his father even bought Alexi his first guitar when he was 11, a white Tokai Stratocaster.  “A good guitar,” Laiho stated later. “Every day I’d run home from school and play it until my parents would almost have to physically knock me out to get me to sleep.” Laiho took his obsession with the guitar to new heights while in high school, ultimately cutting classes to stay home and woodshed and teach himself heavy metal and shred techniques from instructional videos.

Continue reading Alexi Laiho – 12/2020

Posted on 1 Comment

Leslie West – 12/2020

Leslie West 12/2020 – (75) West was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City on October 22, 1945, to Jewish parents. He grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey, and in East Meadow, Forest Hills, and Lawrence, New York. His mother was a hair model, his father the vice president of a rug shampoo company. He grew up in the suburbs. When Leslie was 8, his mother bought him his first instrument, a ukulele, but he became entranced with the guitar after seeing Elvis Presley play one on television. He bought his first guitar with the money given to him for his bar mitzvah. After his parents divorced, he changed his surname to West. 

His professional career began in a band he formed in the mid-1960s with his brother Larry, who played bass. The band, the Vagrants, was a blue-eyed soul group inspired by a hit act from Long Island, the Rascals, one of the few teenage garage rock acts to come out of the New York metropolitan area itself (as opposed to the Bohemian Greenwich Village scene of artists, poets, and affiliates of the Beat Generation, which produced bands like the Fugs and the Velvet Underground) The two bands played the same local clubs, as did Billy Joel’s early group, the Hassles.

Continue reading Leslie West – 12/2020

Posted on Leave a comment

Bones Hillman 11/2020

Bones Hillman (62) – Midnight Oil – was born May 7, 1958 in Auckland, New Zealand as Wayne Stevens. His first band was punk outfit the Masochists and then he went from actually learning his instrument in his Avondale teenage bedroom to joining New Zealand punk rock originals the Suburban Reptiles.“It was the most documented band that did fuck all,” Hillman says with a laugh of the notorious group that gave him the nom de punk the bloke born Wayne Stevens has used since.

“Although it probably reads really well on paper, in reality we never really played that much. With the Suburban Reptiles, I think we did a gig once every six months if we could actually convince someone to let us use their space.”

From the ashes of that short-lived headline-grabbing band came the nervy pop of the Swingers. And sparked by Hillman’s bassline, which came to him during a sound-check at a Christchurch pub, the title Counting the Beat became a transtasman number one in 1981 and perennial advertising jingle.

The Swingers foundered. So did his next band, Coconut Rough. Eventually, while Hillman was painting houses in Melbourne, his landlord, a chap by the name of Neil Finn, recommended him to Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst when the band needed a new bassist, replacing Peter Gifford in 1987. Helped by his vocal harmony abilities, Hillman got the gig. Initially, he was offered just an Australian and Canadian tour. But five albums later, he was still there – until frontman Peter Garrett decided he needed to swap political rock for actual politics and the band split in 2002.

‘Hillman later recalled that he was living with Kiwi expatriate musicians Neil and Sharon Finn in a Melbourne share house when Midnight Oil called to say they were looking for a new bassist.
His first thought was that Neil Finn, who passed on the message, was pulling his leg. But a few nights later, drummer Rob Hirst rang back wondering why Hillman had not returned his call and invited him up to Sydney to rehearse.

He played with Midnight Oil for 15 years, performing thousands of gigs and singing on every recording since 1990’s Blue Sky Mining, until the band took a break in 2002 when frontman Peter Garrett moved into federal politics. Hillman returned to New Zealand where he stayed active but bored, before moving with his family in 2007 to Nashville, Tennessee where he worked a lot as a session musician. He re-joined Midnight Oil for its Reunion Tour in 2018.

Midnight Oil were occasionally getting  back together for charity shows, but Hillman had given up on a more ambitious reunion. But then, Garrett having quit politics and delivered a solo album and the band decided to reconvene. After dates in Europe and North and South America, they went to New Zealand in September before shows in Australia.

Hillman said the reunion decision came against the background of a year in which many of rock’s old guard left the stage; the band, whose ages hover around 60, began thinking, “Well, now’s good … Last year was fairly brutal for artists shuffling off this mortal coil from David Bowie and Prince right down to Glenn Frey. I think we saw a lot of people were checking out. We are still in good health and we can still play, we can still walk … so why not embrace this heritage, this great career and music that we have done?”

Hillman knows a thing or two about embracing heritage. After the Oils split, he returned to New Zealand for three years, which included the recording of Dave Dobbyn’s 2005 Available Light and the subsequent album tour.

Then he had another urge: Nashville. But once there, it was time to unplug.

“I had to learn some new tricks. Just being the electric rock bassist had no pull in this town. For some reason, everyone wanted an upright bass. That resurgence of young people playing string band music just came into the culture.” Hillman bought a vintage double bass, listened to a lot of playing by Elvis Presley’s original bassist, Bill Black, and spent six months in the basement getting a new set of calluses on his hands as he learnt the instrument.

In the decade in Nashville, he played on nearly 20 albums by various acts, touring with artists such as prominent country singer-songwriter Elizabeth Cook and appearing on Late Show with David Letterman. “It really was an education. Just a different appreciation about playing,” he says. “I had no idea on that 747 flight out of Auckland I would end up playing upright bass with hillbilly musicians at the Grand Ole Opry.” His double-bass era came to a close after five or so years. He sold the instrument – “that was the end of the love affair” – and went back to electric bass guitar as a sideman to Canadian singer-songwriter Matthew Good.

Then came the call from the old firm in Australia.

The band’s most recent release  The Makarrata Project: a collaborative mini-album with the stated intention of keeping the Uluru Statement from the Heart at the forefront of the national conversation. In 2019 Hillman reconvened with band members Garrett, Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey in a Sydney studio for the project, which came out on October 30 and features Indigenous artists. The album climbed to number one on the Aria charts on Saturday; Midnight Oil’s first chart-topping studio album since 1990.
The band was awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation’s gold medal for human rights, for its “commitment to the pursuit of human rights over an extended period … with a powerful, far-reaching impact”.
“This medal is in recognition of that relentless focus, and in particular for their environmental activism, their humanity and their drive to promote justice through both their music and their actions,” chair Archie Law said.

Bones Hillman, “the bassist with the beautiful voice” never told his band mates that he had cancer. He died November 8, 2020 at age 62 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“We’re grieving the loss of our brother,” the band’s statement said. “He was the bassist with the beautiful voice, the band member with the wicked sense of humor, and our brilliant musical comrade.

Tributes remembered Hillman as “a lovely lovely man”, “a great and kind guy”, with amazing vocals. Actor Russell Crowe praised “what a grand chap he was”.

“We will deeply miss our dear friend and companion and we send our sincerest sympathies to (his wife) Denise, who has been a tower of strength for him.”

Posted on 1 Comment

Ken Hensley – 11-2020

Ken Hensley, Uriah Heep, was born on August 24, 1945 in South-east London. He learned how to play guitar at the age of 12 from a Bert Weedon manual. His first gig was at The Mentmore Pen Factory, in Stevenage (September 1960). After that, he played with The Blue Notes, Ken and the Cousins and Kit and the Saracens (1962). In 1963, this band evolved into The Jimmy Brown Sound, and they recorded some now lost songs. At this time, Hensley’s first “professional” opportunity almost came about: they were to back Ben E. King on a British visit, but it never happened.

In early 1965, Hensley formed a band called The Gods, with the young guitarist Mick Taylor, well known later for his work with John Mayall and The Rolling Stones. Hensley wrote most of the material, sang and played the Hammond B3 organ as the band already had Taylor on guitar. The Gods’ line-up included, at one time or another, vocalist and guitar/bass player Greg Lake (later of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer), bass player Paul Newton (later the first Uriah Heep bassist), drummer Lee Kerslake (later also of Heep), bassist John Glascock (later of Jethro Tull), and guitarist Joe Konas. In early 1968, they signed with Columbia Records and recorded two LPs and several singles.

Hensley also then played on a one-album side project of The Gods initially planned to become their third album, but was recorded and eventually released in 1969/1970 under the moniker Head Machine’s Orgasm. The album was produced by David Paramor (producer of “The Gods”) and both Hensley and Kerslake featured, along with John Glascock on bass, Brian Glascock on drums, and David Paramor on vocals, all under pseudonyms. Hensley played mostly guitar again, as in the beginning of his career. Although Paramor was credited as composer, the songs bear many of Hensley’s influences. The album was released before Hensley joined Toe Fat, and might almost be considered a prototype for the harder side of his future work in Uriah Heep.

The band eventually split but Cliff Bennett, from the Rebel Rousers, decided to move in a more “progressive” direction and asked The Gods to join him. Under the name Toe Fat they released two LPs, but only the first featured Hensley.

Paul Newton asked Hensley (Christmas 1969) to join forces in Spice, as they were looking for a keyboard player to make their sound less bluesy and more progressive, in keeping with the current trend. In January 1970, Spice changed its name into Uriah Heep.  Also in the line-up were guitarist Mick Box and vocalist David Byron. With Uriah Heep, Hensley found a place to develop and showcase his songwriting and lyrical abilities as well as his keyboard and guitar playing. 

The band’s “classic” line-up featured Hensley, Byron, Box, Kerslake and bassist Gary Thain. During his time with Heep (1970–1980), they recorded 13 studio albums, and the live album Uriah Heep Live – January 1973 along with many compilations and singles. Hensley also recorded his first two solo albums, Proud Words on a Dusty Shelf (1973) and Eager To Please (1975) during this time. He was supported mainly by Mark Clarke and Bugs Pemberton.

After the departure of bassist Gary Thain (who died in 1975) and vocalist David Byron, (who died in 1985) other musicians were brought into the Heep family: John Wetton (FamilyKing CrimsonRoxy Music, later of U.K. and Asia), Trevor Bolder (from Spiders From Mars, later of Wishbone Ash) and John Lawton (Lucifer’s Friend), among others.

In 1980 Hensley left the band, unhappy with the musical direction they had chosen. After trying to put a new band together in the UK (Shotgun), he later moved to the US and played a few gigs in North America as The Ken Hensley Band. Around this time he released his third solo LP, Free Spirit (1980).

In 1982, Hensley joined Blackfoot, a hard rock Jacksonville, Florida-based band. With them, he recorded two albums (1983’s Siogo and 1984’s Vertical Smiles). Although the group had achieved some success, Hensley left after he was informed him of Heep vocalist David Byron’s death in 1985.

After 1985, Hensley lived in semi-retirement in St Louis, Missouri, making a few appearances with W.A.S.P.Cinderella and others. W.A.S.P.’s frontman Blackie Lawless stated that “Ken Hensley wrote the rule book for heavy metal keyboards as far as I’m concerned.” Hensley also owned “The Attic” Recording studio in St. Louis.

In 1994, From Time To Time, a collection of lost recordings, was released featuring rare songs recorded by Hensley between 1971 and 1982, as well as some early versions of Heep’s classic songs, played by Hensley and his roommates at that time, namely guitarist Paul Kossoff and drummer Simon Kirke(both of Free). Other musicians on the songs were bassist Boz Burrell (King Crimson and Bad Company), guitarist Mick Ralphs (Mott the HoopleBad Company), drummers Ian Paice (Deep PurpleWhitesnake) and Kenney Jones(The Small FacesThe FacesThe Who), amongst others.

IIn 1997 Ken established The Upper Room Studios in St. Louis, Missouri where Ken was involved with several projects including A Glimpse of Glory, together with his band Visible Faith produced by Ken and engineered by chief engineer Bud Martin. In 1999, Hensley’s musical activities began to increase, besides his work with St Louis Music.

During the fourth Uriah Heep Annual Convention in London, May 2000, plans were made for a one-off concert by the so-called “Hensley/Lawton Band”. Hensley was joined by former Uriah Heep singer John Lawton, their first public collaboration since the latter’s departure from Uriah Heep in 1979. With them were Paul Newton (the band’s original bassist) and two members of Lawton’s band, Reuben Kane on lead guitar and Justin Shefford on drums. They played a set of old Uriah Heep classics and some of Hensley’s solo songs, and the concert was recorded for a CD release, followed by an extensive tour of Europe during Spring and Summer of 2001 culminating with a concert on 12 May in HamburgGermany, featuring a full orchestra and a new rendition of Heep’s old classic song “Salisbury”. After the tour, both Ken and John returned to their respective solo careers. 

On 7 December 2001, both John Lawton and Ken Hensley appeared on stage with Uriah Heep during the annual Magician’s Birthday Party at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London. This concert was recorded and released as a CD/DVD.

Running Blind, his first studio effort in 21 years, was released worldwide in 2002 and followed by a world tour with his band called “Free Spirit”, that included Dave Kilminster (guitar), Andy Pyle (bass) and Pete Riley (drums).

After moving to Spain, Hensley released The Last Dance (with new songs), The Wizard’s Diary (Uriah Heep classics re-recorded in 2004) and Cold Autumn Sunday (Hensley’s solo songs re-recorded in 2005).

Featuring a number of special guests, the rock opera Blood on the Highway was released in May 2007. The story portrays the rise and fall of a rock’n’roll star. Lead vocals role were split between Hensley and Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep PurpleTrapezeBlack Sabbath), Jørn Lande (ex-The SnakesMasterplan), John Lawton and Eve Gallagher.

In September 2008, Hensley went on stage again with former Heep bandmates Lawton, Kerslake and Newton along with ex-Focus guitarist Jan Dumée, for the “Heepvention 2008” fans meeting.

Hensley continued to write and record a series of new albums, beginning with a collection of songs under the title of Love & Other Mysteries, recorded near his home in Spain and followed in 2011 by Faster, his first studio recording of new songs with his live band, Live Fire. A CD of one of his solo concerts was released by Cherry Red Records in 2013, shortly followed by a live CD recorded with Live Fire during a September/October tour. Trouble, an album of 10 new songs recorded with a revised Live Fire line-up, was released, again by Cherry Red, in September the same year.

In later years, Hensley and his wife Monica lived in the village of Agost near Alicante in Spain.

Hensley died on 4 November 2020, at the age of 75 following a short illness. He had finished an album titled My Book of Answers before his death, that was released on 5 March 2021.Ken  Hensley wrote many of the Uriah Heep songs during his tenure from 1970 to 1980, performing guitar and lead vocals on a number of occasions.

Posted on Leave a comment

Dave Munden 11/2020

Dave Munden (76) – The Tremeloes – was born Dec. 2, 1943 in Dagenham, Essex, England.

The group started in 1958 as Brian Poole and the Tremoloes, inspired by Buddy Holly and the Crickets. (They soon changed the spelling of their name.) Joining lead singer Poole were lead guitarist Rick West, rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Alan Blakley, bassist Alan Howard and Dave Munden on drums. As legend has it, they auditioned for Decca in 1962 and were signed in favor of another band, the Beatles.
In 1963, their recording of “Do You Love Me” (originally recorded by the Motown group the Contours) topped the British singles chart, replacing the Beatles’ “She Loves You” at #1. More Top 5 U.K. success followed, including their cover of “Twist and Shout.”

Continue reading Dave Munden 11/2020

Posted on Leave a comment

Eddie van Halen 10/2020

Tapping virtuoso Eddie van HalenEddie van Halen 10/2020 (65) Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on January 26, 1955 Eddie van Halen was the son of Jan van Halen and Eugenia (née van Beers). Jan was a Dutch jazz pianist, clarinetist and saxophonist and Eugenia was born Indonesian from Indonesian and Italian parents in the town of Rangkasbitung on the island of Java in what was then called the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Jan and Eugenie married in August 1950 and re-emigrated on March 4th 1953 on board of the ship “Sibajak” to Holland, where they settled in Amsterdam. Shortly after the birth of Eddie, the family moved to Nijmegen, where they lived at 59 Rozemarijnstraat. On February 22nd 1962 the Van Halen’s moved again, this time by boat across the Atlantic to New York. After which they proceeded on a continent-crossing journey by train to finally settle in California, where they lived in Pasadena at 1881 Las Lunas Street for two decades. It was here that the two Dutch born Indo-Americans started to write music history and the swirling Van Halen story began.

After experiencing mistreatment for their mixed-race relationship in the 1950s, the parents moved the family to the U.S. in 1962. They settled near other family members in Pasadena, California, where Eddie and his brother Alex attended a segregated elementary school. Since the boys did not speak English as a first language, they were considered “minority” students and experienced bullying by white students. 

Eddie and his older brother, Alex Van Halen, later became naturalized U.S. citizens. The brothers learned to play the piano as children starting at the age of six. They commuted weekly between Pasadena and San Pedro to study with an elderly piano teacher, Stasys Kalvaitis. Continue reading Eddie van Halen 10/2020

Posted on Leave a comment

Spencer Davis 10/2020

Spencer Davis (81) – Spencer Davis Group – was born in Swansea, South-West Wales, on 17 July 1939.
His father was a paratrooper during World War II. While his father was away, his uncle Herman was a musical influence on Davis, teaching him how to play the harmonica and accordion at age six. Davis lived through The Blitz: “The bombed city center was my playground. I watched the town being absolutely destroyed.” Davis’s mother continued to live in the West Cross area of Swansea until her death. He attended Dynevor Schoolin Swansea and became proficient speaking a few languages.

His early musical influences were skiffle, jazz, and blues. Musical artists who influenced Davis include Big Bill Broonzy, Huddy Ledbetter, Buddy Holly, Davey Graham, John Martyn, Alexis Korner, and Long John Baldry. By the time he was 16, Davis was hooked on the guitar and the American rhythm and blues music making its way across the Atlantic. With few opportunities to hear R&B in South Wales, Davis attended as many local gigs as practical. Continue reading Spencer Davis 10/2020

Posted on Leave a comment

Jerry Jeff Walker 10/2020

Jerry Jeff Walker was born  Ronald Clyde Crosby on March 16, 1942, in Oneonta, N.Y.

A native of New York, Walker spent his early career as a folkie in Greenwich Village in NYC. It was there that he wrote and recorded “Mr. Bojangles,” in the mid-1960s after having spent a night in a New Orleans jail where he met a man who “danced a lick across the cell.” Walker released the song as the title track of a 1968 solo album, shortly after he left the New York band Circus Maximus. In 1971, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band took “Mr. Bojangles” to No. 9 on the pop charts. 

This is the tribute to a man who wrote only one true hit, that turned into a folk rock standard like Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”.

Walker was heading to California when he stopped in Austin and ended up staying. Along with Willie Nelson’s move here a couple of years later, Walker’s arrival helped to herald a prosperous time for Austin music, with terms such as “outlaw country” and “cosmic cowboy” used to describe the music Walker and others were making.

In Walker’s words:

“The mid-’70s in Austin were the busiest, the craziest, the most vivid and intense and productive period of my life. Greased by drugs and alcohol, I was also raising the pursuit of wildness and weirdness to a fine art. I didn’t just burn the candle at both ends, I was also finding new ends to light.”

Walker found a new adopted home in Austin, Texas, just as the city’s alternative country scene was being formed. He became one of the regular performers at Austin’s iconic Armadillo World Headquarters, playing with his Lost Gonzo Band on backup, and a member of the city’s legendary group of outlaw country stars. Walker sang backing vocals on bandmate Gary P. Nunn’s “London Homesick Blues,” which became the longtime theme song to the music performance TV show “Austin City Limits.

Walker’s 1973 live album “Viva Terlingua!” — recorded not in the West Texas town of Terlingua but in the hill country hamlet of Luckenbach — became a touchstone for that era. His influence looms large even today, as dozens of Texas country roadhouse bands and troubadours are essentially still following the same path that Walker blazed in the ’70s.

“Other than Willie, Jerry Jeff is the most important musician to happen to Austin, Texas, I would have to say,” Asleep at the Wheel leader Ray Benson. “He really brought that folksinger/songwriter form to its height in Texas. And for that, he’ll be eternal, because there’s all these kids today who write songs in that mode.

“But also, a la Willie, he wrote really giant hit songs. ‘Mr. Bojangles’ is a standard. His other songs are wonderful, but to write a standard, that’s something that’s very difficult in today’s day and age to do.” 100 other artists also recorded the song, including Bob Dylan, Sammy Davis Jr., Nina Simone and Neil Diamond.

Among Walker’s other better-known songs are “Little Bird,” “Sangria Wine,” “Charlie Dunn,” “Hill Country Rain” and “Pissin’ in the Wind,” which he wrote after doing just that on a roadside stop en route to Dallas for a Willie Nelson concert in the 1970s.

But Walker was equally known as an interpreter and champion of other writers’ songs. It was Walker who first brought Guy Clark to national attention when he recorded Clark’s “L.A. Freeway” for his 1972 self-titled album on major label Decca Records. “I remember telling him that I was going to record ‘L.A. Freeway’ and that he was on the verge of being a great songwriter,” Walker recalled after Clark’s death in 2016.

Walker cast a spotlight on a young Gary P. Nunn by not only including Nunn’s song “London Homesick Blues” on the “Viva Terlingua!” album, but having Nunn sing it.

“To him, it came down to the song, whether he wrote it or somebody else wrote it,” said Ray Wylie Hubbard, whose iconic song “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother” also appears on “Viva Terlingua!”

Walker’s recording of the song “gave me a career,” Hubbard says, but also a middle name. He was performing as Ray Hubbard until Walker’s Lost Gonzo Band member Bob Livingston identified him as Ray Wylie Hubbard in a spoken introduction to “Redneck Mother” that appears on the album.

Hubbard says Walker’s record label wanted to edit out that intro to avoid any confusion. “But Jerry Jeff said, ‘Nah, leave it on there.’ So because of him, I got a middle name. He was willing to acknowledge other songwriters; that was just such a gracious trait about him.”

In 2018, shortly after Walker donated a lifetime of artifacts to the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University in San Marcos, the collections’ exhibit space in the university’s Alkek Library featured an exhibit titled “Viva Jerry Jeff: The Origins and Wild Times of a Texas Icon.” It provided much detail about Walker’s pre-Texas years, including audio of early songs, rare photos and letters to family.

“I wanted to tell the story of the young man who had those dreams and that determination,” said Hector Saldana, Texas Music Curator for the Wittliff. “When you’re looking at the letters he was writing to his grandmother, thanking her for the few dollars she had sent him and mentioning just casually that he’d written this song called ‘Mr. Bojangles’ that he thought was good, you just can’t believe it.”

The exhibit also shed light on how Ronald Clyde Crosby became Jerry Jeff Walker. He’d been using an ID card from a friend he made in the New York Army National Guard named Jerry Ferris, and he had become a fan of Harlem jazz pianist Kirby Walker. He combined them to rename himself. (He added the middle name later; on the first Circus Maximus album in 1967, he was credited as Jerry Walker.)

Singer-songwriter Todd Snider, a longtime friend of Walker’s, has often told the story of walking through Santa Fe, N.M., with Walker one night when they happened upon an apparently homeless musician performing “Mr. Bojangles” on the street. 

In Snider’s 2014 book “I Never Met a Story I Didn’t Like,” he revisited the encounter:

“I was asking myself, ’Should I tell this guy that he’s playing Jerry Jeff’s song, and that Jerry Jeff is standing right here? But, no, I figured that if Jerry Jeff wanted to let this guy know who he was, he’d tell him. When the song was over, (Walker) said, ‘That sounded great,’ and then he put a (expletive)-load of cash — every bit of cash he had on him — into that guy’s hat.”

Austin keyboardist Chris Gage, who has been playing in Walker’s band since 2008, was among many who posted thoughts about Walker to social media Saturday. “I have my memories of countless plane, bus, train and van rides, green rooms with pizza and Arnold Palmers, packed theaters and showrooms, sunrise meals in Belize, scary car rides (if he was driving), passionate studio sessions and so much more,” Gage wrote.

Walker’s last appearance onstage in Austin was Feb. 22, 2020, to accept a Hall of Fame award from the Texas Heritage Songwriters Association. A star-studded cast — including Rodney Crowell, Michael Martin Murphey, Emmylou Harris, Joe Ely and the Dirt Band’s Jeff Hanna — performed Walker’s songs in his honor. Walker appeared at the end, with help from his wife and others to get on and offstage.

Jerry Jeff Walker ended his story on this planet on October 25, 2020. He was 79 years old.

Every couple of years Jerry Jeff Walker took a breather in the US Virgin Island of St. Thomas in the 1980s and played several venues. My time down in the islands co-existed with his for a couple of years and I had the pleasure of backing him up on several occasions. He was a man without air. A pure pleasure of a human being.

Posted on Leave a comment

Tommy DeVito 9-2020

Gaetano “Tommy” DeVito (The Four Seasons) was born on June 19, 1928, in Belleville,  New Jersey, the youngest of nine children. When he was still too small to hold a guitar, he borrowed an older brother’s and tried playing it while it was lying on the floor. His brother discovered him, he told The Star-Ledger of Newark in 2005, and gave him first a beating and then a counterintuitive warning. “Now that I’ve seen you doing it,” he recalled his brother saying, “every time I come home and I don’t see you practicing, that’s a beating.”  At eight years old, he taught himself to play his brother’s guitar by listening to country music on the radio. By the time he was 12, he was playing for tips in neighborhood taverns. He quit school after the eighth grade. (Belleville High made him an honorary graduate in 2007.) By 16, he had his own R&B band and was making $20 or $25 a night, getting into scrapes with the law from time to time.

The large DeVito family shared a flat with an uncle during the Depression, a difficult time. “You did anything to survive. You’d steal milk off of porches.”

Growing up in difficult circumstances in his native New Jersey, DeVito was, in his own words, “a hell-raiser” as a youth, but he found a purpose with music. He formed a band called the Variety Trio with one of his brothers and Nick Massi, who would become the fourth member of the Four Seasons when that group coalesced in about 1960. Massi died in 2000 at 73.

DeVito became a founding member, lead guitarist and vocalist with the Four Seasons, growing the close-harmony quartet that rocketed to fame  with “Sherry”, Rag Doll” and many other hits that earned new generations of rock and roll fans. The key component with the Four Seasons though, was Frankie Valli, with his falsetto vocals. In a 2008 interview with the music publication Goldmine, DeVito recalled that in the late 1940s his trio performed regularly at a bar in Belleville, N.J., when Frankie, a teenager six years younger than him, would sneak in to watch them play. He and the other band members knew Valli from the neighborhood and knew that he had magnificent pipes.

“I’d call him up to the stage and let him sing,” DeVito recalled. “He’d get off right away, because he wasn’t really supposed to be in there; he was underage.” Before long Frankie Valli was part of the group, which went through name and lineup changes before becoming the Four Seasons. “Sherry,” the group’s breakout hit, topped the charts in 1962, and a stream of hits followed, (27 top 40 hits and number-one hits “Sherry” (1962), “Big Girls Don’t Cry” (1962), “Walk Like a Man” (1963), “Rag Doll” (1964).

DeVito didn’t entirely shed his hell-raiser past; he ran up debts, for one thing, and caused tensions within the group. In 1970 he was either forced out, as some accounts say, or left because the pressures of touring had disagreed with him, as he explained it.

He quickly burned through whatever money he had from the group’s heyday and took jobs working in casinos and cleaning houses to get by.

The actor Joe Pesci, a friend since childhood (whose character in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” is named for Mr. DeVito), had lived with Mr. DeVito for a time before he was famous, and once Mr. Pesci broke through, he repaid the favor, helping Mr. DeVito out and getting him bit parts in movies, including “Casino” (1995), also directed by Mr. Scorsese. DeVito also had some success as a record producer and recorded an album of Italian folk songs.

Seeing a version of himself portrayed in “Jersey Boys” was startling, he said. But he was comfortable with the show, which he described as “about 85 percent true to life.”

“When you first see yourself being played, you look at the actor, who is Christian Hoff, and say: ‘Do I look like that? Did I talk like that? Was I really a bad guy?’” he told Goldmine. “And I was. I was pretty bad when I was a kid. There’s a lot of things I’d never do today that I did back then as a kid.”

“Jersey Boys” implies that he was somehow connected to organized crime, but that was an exaggeration, he said, done for the sake of the story.

“I was never part of the mob,” he said. “They might have asked me to play a private party or something, but they paid me for it. Mostly they asked me to do benefits.”

“Jersey Boys” opened on Broadway in November 2005 and ran until January 2017, one of the longest runs in Broadway history. (Clint Eastwood directed a film version in 2014.) The show won four Tony Awards, including best musical and best featured actor (Mr. Hoff).

If the musical massaged the truth a bit, Mr. DeVito generally complained about only one thing in the script: a crack about the cleanliness of his underwear. “I was the most cleanest guy in the whole group,” he said. “I’m clean. I’m very clean.”

Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio, the two surviving original members of the group, announced Tommy DeVito’s death on Sept. 21, 2020. A spokeswoman for Valli said the cause was the Covid 19 coronavirus. 

Posted on Leave a comment

Steve Holland 8-2020

Steve Holland (Molly Hatchett) was born Feb. 22, 1954, in Dothan, Alabama. He began playing guitar at the age of 8, and moved to Jacksonville, Florida in the early 70’s.

He met Dave Hlubek, who had started the band in 1971 at a local record store in Jacksonville, FL. Holland joined in 1974 as the band was forming its classic six-piece lineup. The rest of the principal members of the original band were in place by 1976, eventually signing to Epic Records. But the band didn’t rise to national prominence until 1978, when the place crash involving fellow Jacksonville-based Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd left a void in the Southern rock space. Molly Hatchet stepped up with the release of their self-titled record and then in 1979 with the album Flirtin’ With Disaster is what put them on the national map. Steve played on the band’s first five albums, leaving after the release of 1983’s “No Guts … No Glory.” He is credited as a co-writer on some of the band’s biggest hits, including “Bounty Hunter,” “Whiskey Man” and “Gator Country.

The band released six studio albums on Epic Records between 1978 and 1984, including the platinum-selling hit records Molly Hatchet (1978), Flirtin’ with Disaster (1979) and Beatin’ the Odds (1980). They also had charting singles on the US Billboard charts, including “Flirtin’ with Disaster“.

Steve Holland recorded on 6 Molly Hatchet records and performed with the band through their heyday, leaving in 1983 after the band released the album No Guts…No Glory as the band was adopting a more hard rock sound. Holland chose to leave Molly Hatchet when it became more of a business than a band. “He decided he had enough of the cutthroat atmosphere and it wasn’t fun any more, so he retired,” long time friend John Pappas said. He was replaced by keyboardist John Gavin, reportedly telling John Galvin, the keyboardist in Danny Joe Brown’s solo band, “Wanna be in the band? You can take my place, I’ve had enough” during a show with Sammy Hagar in Detroit. Galvin accepted,
Holland never returned to Molly Hatchet, but there was a reunion of five of the original members — Roland was the exception — at a 1999 benefit after Brown had a stroke.

He later led the Steve Holland Band and played on and off with the Southern Rock Allstars. Holland later formed the band Gator Country in 2005 with former members of Molly Hatchet.

Molly Hatchet, named after a passionate female axe murderer, featured a triple-guitar lineup, with Holland sharing duties with Hlubek and Duane Roland. The classic lineup of the band also included singer Danny Joe Brown, bass player Banner Thomas and drummer Bruce Crump. All of them have now crossed the rainbow into Rock and Roll Paradise. Singer Danny Joe Brown passed away in 2005, guitarist Duane Roland died in 2006, drummer Bruce Crump passed in 2015, and guitarist Dave Hlubeck and bassist Banner Thomas died in 2017.

 He made his home on St. Simons Island, where he found sobriety in 2009 and became an every-Sunday church goer. He passed away on August 2, 2020 after a long illness at age 66.

Holland posted a video to fans several months earlier in which he said: “Hey, y’all. Thanks for all your wishes and prayers and stuff. Love you. Thanks for putting up with me all these years. Turn it up!”

Posted on 3 Comments

Peter Green – 7/2020

Peter Green – July 25, 2020.  Born Peter Allen Greenbaum, Peter was born into a Jewish family, the youngest of Joe and Ann Greenbaum’s four children, on Oct. 29, 1946, in Bethnal Green, London’s East End. His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Ukraine. Fascism and anti-Semitism were on the rise in England as well as Germany in the years before WWII — thugs threw bricks and bottles through the windows of Jewish homes in London’s East End. After the war, Peter’s father officially changed the family name to Green.
The gift of a cheap guitar by his older brother Len, who had lost interest in learning how to play, put the 10-year-old Green on a musical path.
His other brother, Michael, taught him his first guitar chords and by the age of 11 Green was teaching himself. He began playing professionally by the age of 15, while working for a number of east London shipping companies. He first played bass guitar in a band called Bobby Dennis and the Dominoes, which performed pop chart covers and rock ‘n’ roll standards, including instrumentals from the Shadows (Cliff Richards’ backing band at the time). He later stated that Hank Marvin, lead guitarist for the Shadows was one of his guitar heroes and he played the Shadows’ song “Midnight” on the 1996 tribute album Twang.

He went on to join a rhythm and blues outfit, the Muskrats, then a band called the Tridents in which he also played bass. His reputation as a genuine blues guitarist grew rapidly and it was right around his 20th birthday when he got his first big exposure break, replacing Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers — initially for just 4 gigs in October 1965, after Clapton abruptly took off for a Greek holiday. Continue reading Peter Green – 7/2020

Posted on 1 Comment

Bonnie Pointer 6/2020

June 8, 2020Bonnie Pointer, a Founding member of The Pointer Sisters, was born July 11, 1950 as Patricia Eva Pointer in Oakland California.  All six siblings including the four sisters grew up in Oakland, Calif., where their parents, Elton and Sarah (Salis) Pointer, were pastor and minister and where the sisters honed their vocal skills at the West Oakland Church of God.

Bonnie and June, the two youngest sisters, began performing in 1969 under the name The Pointers — A Pair. Anita Pointer later said she quit her job as a legal secretary after seeing Bonnie and June onstage in San Francisco. “I saw them at the Fillmore West, and I lost my mind,” she said, adding that Bonnie was “the catalyst” in starting their musical career.

Renamed the Pointer Sisters, the three began working as backup singers. Mingling with the San Francisco-area rock scene, they sang with acts like Boz Scaggs, Grace Slick and the gender-bending pioneer Sylvester, and they were briefly signed to Atlantic Records. Their singles for that label failed to chart, although one 1972 B-side, “Send Him Back,” has over time come to be considered a minor funk classic. Continue reading Bonnie Pointer 6/2020

Posted on Leave a comment

Rupert Hine 6/2020

Rupert Hine (72) was born on Sep 21, 1947 in Wimbledon, London, England. He was the son of Maurice, a timber merchant, and Joan (née Harris), a Red Cross nurse. He grew up in a house full of music; his mother was an amateur ballet dancer and his father an amateur musician who also played drums in a jazz band when he was young. Hine’s mother was convinced he would be an architect, but Hine’s early ambition was to become a cartographer. Hine started playing in the school band at age 14 and played the mouth organ, mostly because it was the cheapest instrument to buy.

In the early 1960s, Hine formed half of the folk duo Rupert & David with David MacIver. The duo performed in pubs and clubs and occasionally shared the stage with a then-unknown Paul Simon. The duo’s one released single was a cover of Simon’s “The Sound of Silence“. The single was not a success, but was notable for featuring a young Jimmy Page on guitar and Herbie Flowers on bass. For several years Hine wrote songs with MacIver while working at temporary jobs, until he was helped by Deep Purple‘s bassist Roger Glover, whom Hine knew from Glover’s previous band Episode 6. Hine and MacIver were signed to Deep Purple’s Purple label. Glover produced Hine’s first solo album, Pick Up a Bone (1971). Unfinished Picture(1973) followed, but neither album was successful. However, Hine now became increasingly in demand as an independent producer.

As a record producer Rupert Hine worked on ‘The Getaway’ for Chris DeBurgh, Tina Turner’s ‘Private Dancer’ and ‘Break Every Rule’, Howard Jones’ ‘Human Lib’, Bob Geldof’s ‘Deep In The Heart of Nowhere’, Thompson Twins ‘Close To The Bone’, Stevie Nicks ‘The Other Side of the River’ as well as albums by The Fixx, Robert Palmer, Rush, Katey Sagel, Dusty Springfield and Norman Cook.

In 1973, Hine, along with guitarist Mark Warner, formed the band Quantum Jump, releasing two albums, Quantum Jump (1976) and Barracuda (1977). After the re-release of the single “The Lone Ranger” (from Quantum Jump) became an unexpected UK Top five hit in 1979, a third album – Mixing, a reworking of tracks selected from the first two Quantum Jump albums – was released.

After Quantum Jump disbanded, Hine released a trilogy of albums under his own name, including Immunity (1981); Waving Not Drowning (1982); and The Wildest Wish to Fly (1983). The American release of Wildest Wish dropped two tracks, radically reworked two others and incorporated two tracks from 1981’s Immunity – including “Misplaced Love”, which featured a guest vocal by Marianne Faithfull and had been a minor hit in Australia, reaching number 14 on the chart.

But it was as a producer that Hine made the biggest impact in popular culture. While the 1970s were a busy time for Hine, with titles by Camel, Anthony Phillips (ex-Genesis) and Kevin Ayers (ex-Soft Machine) to his credit, it wasn’t until New Wave engulfed the 1980s that he reached international success by becoming the go-to producer for The Fixx and Howard Jones, two of the genre’s biggest acts. Hine helmed the first four studio albums by The Fixx, including 1983’s Reach the Beach and its top-5 hit “One Thing Leads to Another,” and the first two albums by Jones.

Hine also had a hand in crafting Tina Turner’s 1984 juggernaut Private Dancer, having produced the single “Better Be Good to Me,” a top-5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 that earned a Grammy Award — for best rock vocal performance, female — in 1985. He also co-wrote and produced “Break Every Rule,” the title track to Turner’s 1986 album, and again collaborated with the rock legend on 1989’s Foreign Affair.

In 1985, Hine wrote and produced much of the soundtrack for the black comedy film Better Off Dead. Later he and composer Eric Serra wrote “The Experience of Love”, the end title song for the Bond film GoldenEye. His film soundtrack credits also include The Fifth Element (composed by Serra), and The Addams Family.

Other production credits from the decade include Stevie Nicks’ The Other Side of the Mirror, as well as albums by the Thompson Twins, Underworld, Saga and Chris De Burgh, among others. He also linked up with Canadian progressive rock heroes Rush for a two-album run that included 1989’s Presto and 1991’s Roll the Bones.

In the 1990s, Hine worked on albums with Bob Geldof and French artist Éric Serra, as well as releases by actresses Katey Sagal and Milla Jovovich. One of his biggest hits of the decade arrived in 1996, when he produced the self-titled debut album by Duncan Sheik, which included modern rock radio staples “Barely Breathing” and “She Runs Away.” The pair teamed up again with 1998’s Humming.

Hine continued his work in the 21st Century, producing albums for Suzanne Vega, Ra, Stuart Davis and others. In 2008 he oversaw the benefit album Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace, which had contributions from Rush, Vega, Sheik, Sting, Alanis Morissette, Ben Harper and Hine himself, among others. A follow-up compilation, meant to mark the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday, featured Peter Gabriel, Lorde, Kate Bush, Elbow, Sheik and Howard Jones.

Over his 50 years of being active in music, Hine worked on over 130 albums.

“Rupert pioneered electronic musical instrument interfaces with the fledgling MIDI. Invited by Apple in the 90s to help demonstrate the powers of their ground-breaking software engines to the music-world’s creative thinkers, Rupert has consistently championed the incorporation of the digital environment into art and creativity”.

Rupert Hine died June 4, 2020 at the age on 72. He had been battling with cancer since 2011.

Posted on Leave a comment

Moon Martin 5/2020

May 11, 2020 – John David “Moon” Martin was born on October 31, 1945 (some report 1950 but not true) in Altus, Oklahoma.

If you go to Moon’s Wikipedia page, it says he was born in 1950. But if you read some of the obits, he was born in 1945. Which makes complete sense. If for no other reason than his hair was prematurely gray nearly instantly. And there’s no way he could have played with Hendrix and Joplin if he was only 20, they died in 1970. But Martin did.

His first band, The Disciples, later renamed Southwind, formed in Norman while he was a student at the University of Oklahoma and then relocated to Los Angeles where they attained some success and even toured with Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix before calling it quits in 1972. After a brief stint playing with Linda Rondstadt, John focused on session work and songwriting, penning the hit track “Cadillac Walk” which was recorded by Mink DeVille on his debut album.

And then came “Bad Case of Loving You.”

By this time we’d already moved on to the second album, “Escape From Domination,” “Rolene” was heard on KROQ, back when that was a free form station, before the ROQ of the 80s, before the death of rock and the decimation of the station this year. But at this point, Moon Martin was not famous for the Robert Palmer cover, but the Willy DeVille covers.

By 1978 he was recording under the moniker “Moon” Martin due to his multiple song lyrics referring to the moon. He began his solo career with his Victim of Romance EP that included his most successful song “Bad Case of Loving You.” Robert Palmer – Singer would later cover the song, making it a Top 20 hit a year later. Moon’s first solo album, Shots From a Cold Nightmare, remains a Power Pop classic.

Moon Martin sold his soul to rock and roll. He followed the music to the very last note. He died with his guitar strap on, coming out of the studio after a full day’s work on a new album. It wasn’t a fling, something Moon did before law school. He had no desire to work at the bank. (Although let’s not forget Harry Nilsson was a teller!) It was all music, all the time.

It is said they he had lived comfortably off his song royalties, until the day he died. A true exception i rock-n-roll.

He was 74 years old, and he had become a little frail over the last few years…He went to sleep in a big easy chair in his living room with a book in his hand, a blanket in his lap, and a little glass of Coke on the nightstand next to him. He left this world as peacefully as anybody could ever hope to

Posted on Leave a comment

Phil May 5/2020

Phil May (75) – Lead singer for the Pretty Things – was born Philip Dennis Arthur Wadey, later Kattner on 9 November 1944 in Dartford, Kent, England. He was raised by his aunt and uncle, whose surname was May. In childhood, he was sent back to live with his mother and stepfather, whose surname was Kattner, but later decided to change his name to May.

He formed the Pretty Things at Sidcup Art College in 1963 with guitarist Dick Taylor, a former bass player with an early incarnation of The Rolling Stones, when both bands were an integral part of the London blues-rock explosion. Keith Richards had also gone to Sidcup College and May, Taylor and the Stones’ then leader Brian Jones all shared a house.

With May as lead singer, the band became part of the British blues rock scene and quickly gained a recording contract. Initially an energetic R&B outfit, they had a string of hits in the mid-1960s,  “Don’t Bring Me Down” (nr.10) and “I’m a Road Runner Honey”. Playing raw and visceral rhythm and blues, they threatened to upstage the Rolling Stones as the bad boys of rock in those early days, although they never reached a commercial successful level.

In the late 1960s, The Pretty Things started to branch out into psychedelia and May became a prominent counterculture figure, known for his claim of having “the longest hair in Britain”, drug-taking and bisexuality. The 1968 album S.F. Sorrow, which was released on the Motown imprint Rare Earth, was regarded as the first rock opera album. The songs and lyrics were based on stories written by May, which were often composed while the album was being recorded. May later admitted that his usage of LSD had a major impact on the album, saying “”It was like a sharpening of the imagination for me. I don’t think S.F. Sorrow would have been impossible without it, but there’s a lot of acid in the imagery.” The album was not commercially successful at the time, but later became a cult favorite. 

“We thought we were making something special. It was to give you an experience, so you move from cradle to grave with somebody’s life – which they give you in opera all the time,” says Phil May, the singer in The Pretty Things. “In some ways, that added bitterness to the pill when it was ignored.”

They influenced David Bowie, who references them in his song, Oh You Pretty Things, and covered Rosalyn and Don’t Bring Me Down on his 1973 album, Pin Ups. The likes of Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith and Van Morrison were acolytes of the wild boys of pop, who enjoyed not only chart success but a phenomenal 55-year-long career.

May remained with the Pretty Things until they retired in 2018, following a final concert with guests including David Gilmour and Van Morrison. He was one of the band’s main lyricists. He was the primary lyricist for the album S.F. Sorrow.

This longevity was very much down to the controversial, enigmatic May. In many ways he proved to be the stereotypical pop star, but also a performer who came to define counterculture itself.

In 1976 a new group called the Fallen Angels, led by guitarist Mickey Finn, with Greg Ridley from Spooky Tooth and Humble Pie, Twink from the Pretty Things, and Bob Weston from Fleetwood Mac set out to record an album and for vocals recruited May. However, after they had recorded only eight partially complete songs, all except May abandoned the project. May recruited some more players to complete the album Phil May and the Fallen Angels, which was then only released in the Netherlands.

“Before Led Zeppelin, The Who, or even the Rolling Stones arrived on the scene … the Pretty Things were the acknowledged perpetrators of mayhem, outrage and general carnage. Musically and visually they were well ahead of their time.”

May loved the rock n’roll lifestyle and revelled in friendships with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, with whom he shared a bill on the Parisian student circuit, as well as girlfriends.

When chart success waned in the mid-Seventies, the band continued to tour, having joined Led Zeppelin’s Swansong label. “During our Led Zeppelin years, the Pretty Things played at an infamous LA venue called the Roxy and Iggy Pop came along,” May recalled. “The Stooges were massive fans of The Pretties and we used to hang out together. We thought he was going to sing. But he didn’t, he just ran from one side of the stage to the other and head-butted the wall.”

The Pretties sold fewer records but still packed venues. May continued to have immense fun. “Viv Prince, in his madness, once said to me, ‘We’re going out on a double date, you and me.’ I said, ‘Oh right. Who is it?’ He said, ‘Judy Garland, and she’s bringing somebody for you.’

“So we go down to a club called the Ad Lib, and we’re sitting around and the lift doors open and there’s Judy – a bit gone on the sauce already – and she’s got Rudy Nureyev on her arm. So I say, ‘Thanks, Viv. Is that what you call a double date?’ Everybody wanted to know who slept with whom, but I honestly can’t remember. Wish I could.”

Phil May died on 15 May 2020 at the age of 75 after suffering from complications following hip surgery after a cycling accident. 

Posted on 1 Comment

Little Richard 5/2020

Little Richard in performance at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York in 2007. “He was crucial,” one historian said, “in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock ’n’ roll.”

Little Richard, was born Richard Wayne Penniman on December 5, 1932. At an early age he already delved deeply into the wellsprings of gospel music and the blues, and screaming as if for his very life, he created something new, thrilling and dangerous, called rock and roll. Richard Penniman, better known as Little Richard, who combined the sacred shouts of the black church and the profane sounds of the blues to create some of the world’s first and most influential rock ’n’ roll records.

Little Richard did not invent rock ’n’ roll. Other musicians had already been mining a similar vein by the time he recorded his first hit, “Tutti Frutti” — a raucous song about sex, its lyrics cleaned up but its meaning hard to miss — in a New Orleans recording studio in September 1955. Chuck Berry and Fats Domino had reached the pop Top 10, Bo Diddley had topped the rhythm-and-blues charts, and Elvis Presley had been making records for a year.

But Little Richard, delving deeply into the wellsprings of gospel music and the blues, pounding the piano furiously and screaming as if for his very life, raised the energy level several notches and created something not quite like any music that had been heard before — something new, thrilling and more than a little dangerous. As the rock historian Richie Unterberger put it, “He was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock ’n’ roll.”

Art Rupe of Specialty Records, the label for which he recorded his biggest hits, called Little Richard “dynamic, completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild.”

“Tutti Frutti” rocketed up the charts and was quickly followed by “Long Tall Sally” and other records now acknowledged as classics. His live performances were electrifying.

“He’d just burst onto the stage from anywhere, and you wouldn’t be able to hear anything but the roar of the audience,” the record producer and arranger H.B. Barnum, who played saxophone with Little Richard early in his career, recalled in “The Life and Times of Little Richard” (1984), an authorized biography by Charles White. “He’d be on the stage, he’d be off the stage, he’d be jumping and yelling, screaming, whipping the audience on.”

An Immeasurable Influence

Rock ’n’ roll was an unabashedly macho music in its early days, but Little Richard, who had performed in drag as a teenager, presented a very different picture onstage: gaudily dressed, his hair piled six inches high, his face aglow with cinematic makeup. He was fond of saying in later years that if Elvis was the king of rock ’n’ roll, he was the queen. Offstage, he characterized himself variously as gay, bisexual and “omnisexual.”

His influence as a performer was immeasurable. It could be seen and heard in the flamboyant showmanship of James Brown, who idolized him (and used some of his musicians when Little Richard began a long hiatus from performing in 1957), and of Prince, whose ambisexual image owed a major debt to his.

Presley recorded his songs. The Beatles adopted his trademark sound, an octave-leaping exultation: “Woooo!” (Paul McCartney said that the first song he ever sang in public was “Long Tall Sally,” which he later recorded with the Beatles.) Bob Dylan wrote in his high school yearbook that his ambition was “to join Little Richard.”

Little Richard’s impact was social as well.

Little Richard in the mid-1950s, around the time his first hit record, “Tutti Frutti,” was released.
Little Richard in the mid-1950s, around the time his first hit record, “Tutti Frutti,” was released.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

“I’ve always thought that rock ’n’ roll brought the races together,” Mr. White quoted him as saying. “Especially being from the South, where you see the barriers, having all these people who we thought hated us showing all this love.”

Mr. Barnum told Mr. White that “they still had the audiences segregated” at concerts in the South in those days, but that when Little Richard performed, “most times, before the end of the night, they would all be mixed together.”

If uniting black and white audiences was a point of pride for Little Richard, it was a cause of concern for others, especially in the South. The White Citizens Council of North Alabama issued a denunciation of rock ’n’ roll largely because it brought “people of both races together.” And with many radio stations under pressure to keep black music off the air, Pat Boone’s cleaned-up, toned-down version of “Tutti Frutti” was a bigger hit than Little Richard’s original. (He also had a hit with “Long Tall Sally.”)

Still, it seemed that nothing could stop Little Richard’s drive to the top — until he stopped it himself.

He was at the height of his fame when he left the United States in late September 1957 to begin a tour in Australia. As he told the story, he was exhausted, under intense pressure from the Internal Revenue Service and furious at the low royalty rate he was receiving from Specialty. Without anyone to advise him, he had signed a contract that gave him half a cent for every record he sold. “Tutti Frutti” had sold half a million copies but had netted him only $25,000.

One night in early October, before 40,000 fans at an outdoor arena in Sydney, he had an epiphany.

“That night Russia sent off that very first Sputnik,” he told Mr. White, referring to the first satellite sent into space. “It looked as though the big ball of fire came directly over the stadium about two or three hundred feet above our heads. It shook my mind. It really shook my mind. I got up from the piano and said, ‘This is it. I am through. I am leaving show business to go back to God.’”

He had one last Top 10 hit: “Good Golly Miss Molly,” recorded in 1956 but not released until early 1958. By then, he had left rock ’n’ roll behind.

He became a traveling evangelist. He entered Oakwood College (now Oakwood University) in Huntsville, Ala., a Seventh-day Adventist school, to study for the ministry. He cut his hair, got married and began recording gospel music.

For the rest of his life, he would be torn between the gravity of the pulpit and the pull of the stage.

“Although I sing rock ’n’ roll, God still loves me,” he said in 2009. “I’m a rock ’n’ roll singer, but I’m still a Christian.”

He was lured back to the stage in 1962, and over the next two years he played to wild acclaim in England, Germany and France. Among his opening acts were the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, then at the start of their careers.

He went on to tour relentlessly in the United States, with a band that at one time included Jimi Hendrix on guitar. By the end of the 1960s, sold-out performances in Las Vegas and triumphant appearances at rock festivals in Atlantic City and Toronto were sending a clear message: Little Richard was back to stay. But he wasn’t.

‘I Lost My Reasoning’

By his own account, alcohol and cocaine began to sap his soul (“I lost my reasoning,” he would later say), and in 1977, he once again turned from rock ’n’ roll to God. He became a Bible salesman, began recording religious songs again and, for the second time, disappeared from the spotlight.

He did not stay away forever. The publication of his biography in 1984 signaled his return to the public eye, and he began performing again.

By now, he was as much a personality as a musician. In 1986 he played a prominent role as a record producer in Paul Mazursky’s hit movie “Down and Out in Beverly Hills.” On television, he appeared on talk, variety, comedy and awards shows. He officiated at celebrity weddings and preached at celebrity funerals.

He could still raise the roof in concert. In December 1992, he stole the show at a rock ’n’ roll revival concert at Wembley Arena in London. “I’m 60 years old today,” he told the audience, “and I still look remarkable.”

He continued to look remarkable — with the help of wigs and thick pancake makeup — as he toured intermittently into the 21st century. But age eventually took its toll.

By 2007, he was walking onstage with the aid of two canes. In 2012, he abruptly ended a performance at the Howard Theater in Washington, telling the crowd, “I can’t hardly breathe.” A year later, he told Rolling Stone magazine that he was retiring.

“I am done, in a sense,” he said. “I don’t feel like doing anything right now.”

Little Richard onstage at Wembley Stadium in London in 1972, on a bill that also included his fellow rock ’n’ roll pioneers Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry

Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Ga., on Dec. 5, 1932, the third of 12 children born to Charles and Leva Mae (Stewart) Penniman. His father was a brick mason who sold moonshine on the side. An uncle, a cousin and a grandfather were preachers, and as a boy he attended Seventh-day Adventist, Baptist and Holiness churches and aspired to be a singing evangelist. An early influence was the gospel singer and guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe, one of the first performers to combine a religious message with the urgency of R&B.

By the time he was in his teens, Richard’s ambition had taken a detour. He left home and began performing with traveling medicine and minstrel shows, part of a 19th-century tradition that was dying out. By 1948, billed as Little Richard — the name was a reference to his youth and not his physical stature — he was a cross-dressing performer with a minstrel troupe called Sugarfoot Sam From Alabam, which had been touring for decades.

In 1951, while singing alongside strippers, comics and drag queens on the Decataur Street strip in Atlanta, he recorded his first songs. The records were generic R&B, with no distinct style, and attracted almost no attention.

Around this time, he met two performers whose look and sound would have a profound impact on his own: Billy Wright and S.Q. Reeder, who performed and recorded as Esquerita. They were both accomplished pianists, flashy dressers, flamboyant entertainers and as openly gay as it was possible to be in the South in the 1950s.

Little Richard acknowledged his debt to Esquerita, who he said gave him some piano-playing tips, and Mr. Wright, whom he once called “the most fantastic entertainer I had ever seen.” But however much he borrowed from either man, the music and persona that emerged were his own.

His break came in 1955, when Mr. Rupe signed him to Specialty and arranged for him to record with local musicians in New Orleans. During a break at that session, he began singing a raucous but obscene song that Mr. Rupe thought had the potential to capture the nascent teenage record-buying audience. Mr. Rupe enlisted a New Orleans songwriter, Dorothy LaBostrie, to clean up the lyrics; the song became “Tutti Frutti”; and a rock ’n’ roll star was born.

By the time he stopped performing, Little Richard was in both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (he was inducted in the Hall’s first year) and the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the recipient of lifetime achievement awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. “Tutti Frutti” was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2010.

If Little Richard ever doubted that he deserved all the honors he received, he never admitted it. “A lot of people call me the architect of rock ’n’ roll,” he once said. “I don’t call myself that, but I believe it’s true.”

Little Richard died on Saturday morning May 9, 2020 in Tullahoma, Tennessee. He was 87. The cause was bone cancer. 

Posted on Leave a comment

John Prine 4/2020

John Prine (73) was born on October 10, 1946 and raised in Maywood, Illinois. Prine was the son of William Mason Prine, a tool-and-die maker, and Verna Valentine (Hamm), a homemaker, both originally from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. In summers, they would go back to visit family near Paradise, Kentucky. Prine started playing guitar at age 14, taught by his brother, David. He attended classes at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, and graduated from Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois.

He was drafted into the United States Army during the Vietnam War, serving as a vehicle mechanic in West Germany, before becoming a U.S. Postal Service mailman for five years leading up to  beginning his musical career in Chicago.

“I likened the mail route to being in a library without any books. You just had time to be quiet and think, and that’s where I would come up with a lot of songs,” Prine said later.

While Prine was delivering mail, he began to sing his songs (often first written in his head on the mail route) at open mic nights at the Fifth Peg on Armitage Avenue in Chicago. The bar was a gathering spot for nearby Old Town School of Folk Music teachers and students. Prine was initially a spectator, reluctant to perform, but eventually did so in response to a “You think you can do better?” comment made to him by another performer. After his first open mic, he was offered paying gigs. In 1970, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert heard Prine by chance at the Fifth Peg and wrote his first printed review, “Singing Mailman Who Delivers A Powerful Message In A Few Words”

Roger Ebert Review:

Through no wisdom of my own but out of sheer blind luck, I walked into the Fifth Peg, a folk club on West Armitage, one night in 1970 and heard a mailman from Westchester singing. This was John Prine.  He sang his own songs. That night I heard “Sam Stone,” one of the great songs of the century. And “Angel from Montgomery.” And others. I wasn’t the music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, but I went to the office and wrote an article. And that, as fate decreed, was the first review Prine ever received.

While “digesting Reader’s Digest” in a dirty book store, John Prine tells us in one of his songs, a patriotic citizen came across one of those little American flag decals. He stuck it on his windshield and liked it so much he added flags from the gas station, the bank and the supermarket, until one day he blindly drove off the road and killed himself. St. Peter broke the news: “Your flag decal won’t get you into heaven anymore; It’s already overcrowded from your dirty little war.”

Lyrics like this are earning John Prine one of the hottest underground reputations in Chicago these days. He’s only been performing professionally since July, he sings at the out-of-the-way Fifth Peg, 858 W. Armitage, and country-folk singers aren’t exactly putting rock out of business. But Prine is good.

He appears on stage with such modesty he almost seems to be backing into the spotlight. He sings rather quietly, and his guitar work is good, but he doesn’t show off. He starts slow. But after a song or two, even the drunks in the room begin to listen to his lyrics. And then he has you.

He does a song called “The Great Society Conflict Veteran’s Blues,” for example, that says more about the last 20 years in America than any dozen adolescent acid-rock peace dirges. It’s about a guy named Sam Stone who fought in Korea and got some shrapnel in his knee. But the morphine eased the pain, and Sam Stone came home “with a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.” That’s Sam Stone’s story, but the tragedy doesn’t end there. In the chorus, Prine reverses the point of view with an image of stunning power:

“There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm Where all the money goes…”

You hear lyrics like these, perfectly fitted to Priine’s quietly confident style and his ghost of a Kentucky accent, and you wonder how anyone could have so much empathy and still be looking forward to his 24th birthday on Saturday.

So you talk to him, and you find out that Prine has been carrying mail in Westchester since he got out of the Army three years ago. That he was born in Maywood, and that his parents come from Paradise, Ky. That his grandfather was a miner, a part-time preacher, and used to play guitar with Merle Travis and Ike Everly (the Everly brothers’ father). And that his brother Dave plays banjo, guitar and fiddle, and got John started on the guitar about 10 years ago.

Prine’s songs are all original, and he only sings his own. They’re nothing like the work of most young composers these days, who seem to specialize in narcissistic tributes to themselves. He’s closer to Hank Williams than to Roger Williams, closer to Dylan than to Ochs. “In my songs,” he says, “I try to look through someone else’s eyes, and I want to give the audience a feeling more than a message.”

That’s what happens in Prine’s “Old folks,” one of the most moving songs I’ve heard. It’s about an elderly retired couple sitting at home alone all day, looking out the screen door on the back porch, marking time until death. They lost a son in Korea: “Don’t know what for; guess it doesn’t matter anymore.” The chorus asks you, the next time you see a pair of “ancient empty eyes,” to say “hello in there…hello.”

Prine’s lyrics work with poetic economy to sketch a character in just a few words. In “Angel from Montgomery,” for example, he tells of a few minutes in the thoughts of a woman who is doing the housework and thinking of her husband: “How the hell can a person go to work in the morning, come back in the evening, and have nothing to say?”

Prine can be funny, too, and about half his songs are. He does one about getting up in the morning. A bowl of oatmeal tried to stare him down, and won. But “if you see me tonight with an illegal smile – It don’t cost very much, and it lasts a long while. – Won’t you please tell the Man I didn’t kill anyone – Just trying to have me some fun.

”There’s another insightful one, for example, called “The Great Compromise,” about a girl he once dated who was named America. One night at the drive-in movie, while he was going for popcorn, she jumped into a foreign sports car and he began to suspect his girl was no lady. “I could have beat up that fellow,” he reflects in his song, “but it was her that hopped into his car.”

Roger Ebert’s laudatory review set the stage for this remarkable singer/songwriter. Quirky fact aside: “Ebert was being paid to watch and write a review of a film; but as he tells it the film was so bad that he walked out on it half way through, and went looking for a beer to cut the taste of the popcorn. If the film had been any better, Prine’s career might have been entirely different or started a little later”.

Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson heard Prine at Steve Goodman’s (City of New Orleans) insistence, and Kristofferson invited Prine to be his opening act. Prine released his eponymous debut album in 1971, featuring such songs as “Paradise”, “Sam Stone” and Angel from Montgomery, giving bittersweet tragic-comic snapshots of American society and also fed into the anti-war movement. The album has been hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time.

The acclaim Prine earned from his debut led to three more albums for Atlantic Records. Common Sense (1975) was his first to chart on the Billboard U.S. Top 100. He then recorded three albums with Asylum Records. In 1981, he co-founded Oh Boy Records, an independent label which released all of his music up until his death. His final album, 2018’s The Tree of Forgiveness, debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200, his highest ranking on the charts.

Indeed, Prine was a rare songwriter with a gift for both melodic and lyrical incisiveness. He didn’t need to pull any verbal sorcery to make you gasp and think “Did he just do that?” The magic was all in how profoundly and bluntly he observed the most mundane details of life and death, even for characters living on the fringe. His melancholic tales were economical and precise in their gut-punches.

Prine’s lyrics work with poetic economy to sketch a character in just a few words. In “Angel from Montgomery,” for example, he tells of a few minutes in the thoughts of a woman who is doing the housework and thinking of her husband: “How the hell can a person go to work in the morning, come back in the evening, and have nothing to say?”

Prine can be funny, too, and about half his songs are. He does one about getting up in the morning. A bowl of oatmeal tried to stare him down, and won. But “if you see me tonight with an illegal smile – It don’t cost very much, and it lasts a long while. – Won’t you please tell the Man I didn’t kill anyone – Just trying to have me some fun.”

At the time John Prine was all over the magazines, but he was nowhere on the radio. But without a radio hit, Prine remained a cult item. Actually, he remained a cult item for his entire career. But it’s funny, cult can supersede major success if you hang in there and do it right.

But after the debut, Prine’s notoriety, his “fame,” the attention he got, seemed to go in the wrong direction, you knew who he was, but most people did not. He had fans who purchased his records, but only fans purchased his records and went to see him live.

Eventually Prine switched labels from Atlantic to Asylum, he worked with his old cohort Steve Goodman, but “Bruised Orange” did not live up to its commercial expectations. It was everywhere in print, I purchased it, but after its initial launch, that’s the last you heard of it. Eventually, after three LPs with the definitive singer-songwriter label, Prine took off on his own, with his Oh Boy Records, partnering with his manager Al Bunetta and their buddy Dan Einstein. It worked. His fans, supporting the project, sent him enough money to cover the costs, in advance, of his next album. Prine continued writing and recording albums throughout the 1980s. His songs continued to be covered by other artists; the country supergroup The Highwaymen recorded “The 20th Century Is Almost Over”, written by Prine and Goodman. Steve Goodman died of leukemia in 1984 and Prine contributed four tracks to A Tribute to Steve Goodman, including a cover version of Goodman’s “My Old Man”.

“How the hell can a person go to work in the morning, And come home in the evening and have nothing to say”

Everybody knew “Angel From Montgomery.” It was never a single, never a radio hit. They knew John Prine had written “Angel From Montgomery.” And the great thing about famous songs is they carry their writers along. So when Bonnie Raitt entered the music scene full force with a number of Grammy Awards in the 1990s, the original recorded version from “Streetlights” was superseded by her live performances, if the song got any airplay, it ended up being the live take from her 1995 double album “Road Tested.”

And as a result of this, suddenly the winds were at John Prine’s back, he was a known quantity, his impact increased, his career rose, and it was all because of this one song.

Of course Prine had songs covered by other famous artists, some of them you could even call hits, but I’m not sure fans of David Allan Coe really cared who’d written his numbers. And it wasn’t only Bonnie Raitt. Over the years other people had covered “Angel From Montgomery,” and Raitt’s success lifted all boats, suddenly “Angel From Montgomery” was part of the American fabric. And this is strange. This is akin to Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” a song everybody knows that was not featured on the hit parade, but contains the essence of America more than the tracks that are.

Now “Angel From Montgomery” reaches you on the very first listen.

“If dreams were thunder, and lightning were desire

This old house would have burnt down a long time ago”

That kernel, that inner mounting flame, if it goes out, you die.

“Just give me one thing that I can hold on to

To believe in this living is just a hard way to go”

But you wake up one day and you discover this is your life, that you’re trapped, that your dreams didn’t come true, and you’re not only frustrated, you’re angry.

So then there’s someone like John Prine, telling your story. That’s what you resonate with, you’re looking for understanding, someone who gets you. And America discovered this singer/songwriter en masse.

In 1991, Prine released the Grammy-winning The Missing Years, his first collaboration with producer and Heartbreakers bassist Howie Epstein. The title song records Prine’s humorous take on what Jesus did in the unrecorded years between his childhood and ministry. In 1995, Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings was released, another collaboration with Epstein. On this album is the long track “Lake Marie”, a partly spoken word song interweaving tales over decades centered on themes of “goodbye”. Bob Dylan later cited it as perhaps his favorite Prine song. Prine followed it up in 1999 with In Spite of Ourselves, which was unusual for him in that it contained only one original song (the title track); the rest were covers of classic country songs. All of the tracks are duets with well-known female country vocalists, including Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Dolores Keane, Trisha Yearwood, and Iris DeMent.

In 2001 Prine appeared in a supporting role in the Billy Bob Thornton movie Daddy & Them. “In Spite of Ourselves” is played during the end credits.

Prine recorded a version of Stephen Foster‘s “My Old Kentucky Home” in 2004 for the compilation album Beautiful Dreamer, which won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album.

In 2005, Prine released his first all-new offering since Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings, the album Fair & Square, which tended toward a more laid-back, acoustic approach. The album contains songs such as “Safety Joe”, about a man who has never taken any risks in his life, and also “Some Humans Ain’t Human”, Prine’s protest piece on the album, which talks about the ugly side of human nature and includes a quick shot at President George W. Bush. Fair & Squarewon the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

On June 22, 2010, Oh Boy Records released a tribute album titled Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine.

In 2016, Prine was named winner of the PEN/Song Lyrics Award, given to two songwriters every other year by the PENNew England chapter. Prine also released For Better, or Worse, a follow-up to In Spite of Ourselves. The album features country music covers spotlighting some of the most prominent female voices in the genre, including; Alison Krauss, Kacey Musgraves, and Lee Ann Womack, as well as Iris DeMent, the only guest artist to appear on both compilation albums

On February 8, 2018, Prine announced his first new album of original material in 13 years, titled The Tree of Forgiveness. The album features guest artists Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, Dan Auerbach, and Brandi Carlile. Alongside the announcement, Prine released the track “Summer’s End”. The album became Prine’s highest-charting album on the Billboard 200.

In 2019, he recorded several tracks including “Please Let Me Go ‘Round Again”—a song which warmly confronts the end of life—with longtime friend and compatriot Swamp Dogg in his final recording session.

Most of today’s music doesn’t even have any melody, they’re based on beats. And pop numbers are cotton candy, they could be written by school kids, they’ve got no depth, despite the industry hyping them. And then there’s someone like John Prine. Who was always about the songs, who never wavered, who grew by being small, by nailing the experience of the average person, struggling to get by, at least emotionally, if not monetarily. And isn’t it funny how Prine’s music survives. Will it be heard forty or fifty years from now? I don’t know, but the odds are greater than those of the songs on the hit parade.

Prine never sold out, he was the genuine article. And he might not have been in the mainstream, but he was always in the landscape. He even survived cancer. He seemed unkillable. And now he’s gone.

Prine underwent cancer surgery on his throat in 2008 – and on his lungs in 2013 – but joked that it had actually improved his singing voice. Grammy-winning singer/songwriter John Prine died on March, 2020, aged 73, due to Covid-19 complications.

Tributes:

Throughout his five-decade career, Prine was often labeled the “songwriter’s songwriter,” not just because his only chart-toppers were scored by other great writers recording his music, but because few songwriters were as universally beloved, admired, and envied by their peers as Prine was.

• Speaking to the Huffington Post in 2009, Dylan – who performed with Prine – described his music as “pure Proustian existentialism”.

• “Midwestern mind trips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs.”

• Robbie Robertson, from The Band – who used to back Dylan – described Prine as “a genius”.

• “His work… a beacon of clear white light cutting through the dark days,” added former Led Zeppelin frontman and solo star Robert Plant. “His charm, humour and irony we shall miss greatly.”

• He won his first of four Grammy Awards in 1991, for The Missing Years, which bagged best contemporary folk album. It was a category he would top again in 2005 for Fair and Square.

“We join the world in mourning the passing of revered country and folk singer/songwriter John Prine,” the Recording Academy wrote in a statement.

• “Widely lauded as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, John’s impact will continue to inspire musicians for years to come. We send our deepest condolences to his loved ones.”

• “If I can make myself laugh about something I should be crying about, that’s pretty good,” he said.

• “If God’s got a favorite songwriter, I think it’s John Prine,” Kristofferson said at Prine’s 2003 Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame induction.

• “He’s just one of the greats, and an old, old soul,” his friend Rosanne Cash once said of him. Roger Waters declared in 2008 that he prefers the “extra-ordinarily eloquent music” of Prine to the modern bands influenced by Pink Floyd’s work, like Radiohead. Prine’s music, the Floyd bassist/vocalist said, lives on the same plane as icons like John Lennon and Neil Young.

• And the reigning American bard-in-chief Bob Dylan was effusive in one 2009 interview, naming Prine as among his favorite writers, adding: “Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs… Nobody but Prine could write like that.”

Posted on Leave a comment

Jerry Slick – 3/2020

Jerry Slick (80) – The Great Society/Jefferson Airplane – was born Aug. 8, 1939 to patent attorney Bob Slick and Betty Slick in Berkeley. He grew up in Palo Alto and attended the private Menlo School before graduating from Palo Alto High School. He was the oldest of three brothers, one of which was the younger Darby Slick who co-founded The Great Society with him in the mid-’60s in San Francisco. Upon his release from the Army, he married Grace Wing, his former next door neighbor, in San Francisco on Aug. 26, 1961. After their honeymoon, Jerry Slick enrolled in film courses and began making student films while Grace worked in a department store. Before long the couple fell into San Francisco’s intellectual beatnik scene, listening to folk music and, later, jazz, and growing marijuana in their backyard.

By 1964, Jerry had become more involved with filmmaking. For a short film titled Everybody Hits Their Brother Once, he called upon Grace to provide the music and she entered a recording studio for the first time, playing Spanish guitar to accompany scenes in the film. The film won first prize at the 1964 Ann Arbor Film Festival in Michigan, but although Jerry Slick graduated from San Francisco State College with a degree in cinematography, their future lay not in the medium of film but rather in that of rock and roll. 

Neither Jerry nor Grace had much interest in rock—Elvis Presley and the early Beatles had not impressed her. But when Grace heard the Rolling Stones it hit home with her—she admired their scruffy looks and rough-edged, R&B-laced music. While leafing through the San Francisco Chronicle in the summer of 1965, she saw an advertisement for a concert by a new rock band called Jefferson Airplane at a club called the Matrix, and convinced Jerry to go see them. Instantly Grace and Jerry knew what direction to go. They recruited Jerry’s younger brother, Darby Slick, then 21, to play guitar. Jerry played the drums and Grace sang and played guitar. A few others came and went until they settled on a name—the Great Society!! (taken from a domestic program championed by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson)—and, before long, a lineup that also included David Miner on vocals and guitar, Bard DuPont on bass, and (later, replacing DuPont) Peter van Gelder on flute, bass, and saxophone.

Jerry did not have much musical experience, but got in on the action by playing drums. Inexperienced drummers, and inexperienced musicians in general, weren’t that rare in the days when the bohemian music of choice was switching from folk to rock, and people found themselves playing instruments they had never or rarely touched. Skip Spence of the early Jefferson Airplane, for instance, was a guitarist, switching to drums immediately when he was recruited for the drum kit by Marty Balin. Still, Slick’s drumming on the Great Society tracks available on several albums’ worth of live and studio material that was unreleased in the ’60s (as well as on their sole single) is raw, though adequate for the fledgling psychedelic band’s needs.

With original songs written by Grace and Darby Slick, the Great Society (the exclamation points were generally ignored) became a favored attraction at the city’s budding rock ballrooms, including the Fillmore Auditorium, booked by proprietor Bill Graham. Along with other new bands like Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Great Society was ubiquitous at local events. For a publicity gimmick, the Great Society manufactured buttons mocking the Airplane’s slogan Jefferson Airplane Loves You—theirs read The Great Society Really Doesn’t Like You Much at All.

The Great Society didn’t record much during their brief lifetime. In October 1965 they entered San Francisco’s Golden State Recorders for the first of several sessions that would take place over the next couple of months. Their producer was a young, ambitious rhythm and blues disc jockey named Sylvester Stewart who would, a couple of years later, do just fine for himself under the name Sly Stone.

Signed to the local Autumn Records, owned by disc jockey Tom Donahue, the Great Society recorded, on Nov. 30, 1965, the only single that would be released while they were in existence, “Someone to Love,” written by Darby. While (with a B-side titled “Free Advice”) it failed to make any impact outside of the Bay Area, the A-side would have a much greater impact when Grace Slick left the Great Society and took the song with her, renaming it “Somebody to Love.” She would also take with her a song she wrote and performed with the Great Society, a bolero called “White Rabbit.” Both would make the top 10 when re-recorded by the Airplane, and they remain classic rock staples to this day.

By the summer of 1966, Grace was starting to think more of her own future. When the Airplane’s female singer, Signe Anderson, then pregnant, decided to quit the band, it was a no-brainer for Grace Slick to move into her place. The Great Society had little chance of survival once Grace made the jump to the more popular band. In recordings released after their demise, their music, ranging from sloppy/amateur to inspired, is emblematic of the city’s psychedelic rock scene, but it was not enough to give them staying power without their focal point.

The Great Society briefly attempted to continue after Grace jumped ship in October of ’66 but when Darby left to travel and study in India, they called it quits. Grace’s marriage to Jerry also disintegrated quickly, and while they stayed legally married until 1971, she had relationships with the Airplane’s drummer Spencer Dryden and then guitarist/singer Paul Kantner before the divorce papers with Jerry were signed.

The surviving music of the Great Society was later collected on various posthumous album releases, first on the Columbia label and then on other collector labels. Surprisingly, considering that he considered himself a filmmaker first, Jerry Slick then joined another San Francisco band the Final Solution. The Final Solution played modal early psychedelia with some similarities to the Great Society, except their material was much darker and not nearly as strong. Slick gave their arrangements a lot of input, however, and the Final Solution even lifted excerpts of Great Society songs to plug into Final Solution ones. While Slick was in the lineup, they made some rehearsal tapes, and one of the songs, “Bleeding Roses,” was issued on a flexidisc that came with the first issue of the San Francisco ’60s rock fanzine Cream Puff War.

The Final Solution broke up in 1967, and Slick again concentrated on his first love of filmmaking. A commercial he made, aimed at recruiting San Francisco police, won a Clio award in 1971. He later narrowly missed a big Hollywood break, when Director George Lucas interviewed him to be director of photography on a film he was working on, but Jerry Slick had to turn the job down as he had ruined his shoulder pursuing his other passion, driving his MGB in races put on by the Sports Car Club of America, and couldn’t use a handheld camera as Lucas requested.

Gary Coates, a motion picture color editor who freelances for Pixar, met Jerry Slick in the 1990s when Coates was a lab technician at Palmer Films on Howard Street. Part of that job was fixing mistakes in cinematography, but Jerry Slick’s film never needed correcting, he said.

“Jerry and I go back to the photochemical era when the cinematographer really had to know the craft, how the lights work and how to pick the right lens, camera and film negative,” said Coates. “Jerry was a pro with all that knowledge.”

Jerry Slick met his second wife, Wendy Blair, in 1979. She was a filmmaker who started the video department at College of Marin. Jerry Slick was overqualified for the entry-level class, but he was looking to make the transition from film to video, to stay up with the times. Right away he was asking the instructor, 10 years younger, out on dates. She turned him down for a variety of professional and personal reasons. But Jerry Slick found a workaround by casting his instructor for his final class project.  This got him both an A in the course and a date with Wendy.

They eventually moved in together into a house in Mill Valley. They then formed a husband-and-wife production company called Slick Film. She did the directing, and he was the cinematographer. They shot promotional videos for Carlos Santana and the San Francisco Opera, and promotional films in the early days of Silicon Valley.

“Jerry was the preferred cinematographer for Steve Jobs,” said Wendy Slick. “All those corporate types liked him because he made them look good.”

Slick Film also produced both short and long-form documentary films. A half-hour documentary they shot for ODC/Dance, called “The Long Run,” got picked up by PBS and was shown nationwide. His camera work was also in “Lou Harrison: A World in Music,” a documentary on the composer by Eva Soltis that got a screening at the Castro Theatre.

Always quick with a one-liner or wry commentary, Jerry Slick was a regular feeder of quips and observations to Leah Garchik‘s column in The Chronicle. “He just had an unusual mind,” said Wendy Slick. “He saw things from a different point of view and always delivered more than what was expected.”

The rest of his career life was in film as a cinematographer and director, known for Steel Arena (1973), Congo the Movie: Descent Into Zinj (1995) and Great Performances (1971) etc.

Jerry Slick died March 17, 2020, at his Mill Valley, California home. His death is believed to be caused by cancer.

Posted on Leave a comment

Bill Rieflin 3/2020

 Bill Rieflin (59) – (King CrimsonMinistryR.E.M.) was born September 30, 1960 in Seattle, Washington.

His music education started around the age of 7 with guitar, followed by other string instruments and by age 11, the drums. Bill Rieflin, a remarkably versatile drummer, instrumentalist whose work over the past 30 years spanned Ministry, R.E.M., Swans, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and King Crimson, among many others.

“I was born in Seattle, or as I always say I was bread-and-buttered here. My first instrument was the ‘pie-annie,’ and I think I started playing when I was seven. Then, somewhere in 1970, I found the G chord on a guitar; I put my finger on the third fret of the high string and strummed it and I said, ‘Hey look, wow! I can play guitar!’ Later that year, I got some drums for Christmas. I think the drums happened because it was the only instrument left in the neighborhood band, so I had to play drums. I was 10 or 11, maybe. I eventually got rid of those damn things and sold them to another neighbor kid [because] I decided I was going to be a guitar player. I was playing guitar until I was asked to come and fill in for a drummer who wasn’t going to make it in some other local band. I hadn’t played for a couple years and warned them of that. But, apparently, I was better than their other guy, and they asked me to stay, so I did. That group was called the Telepaths. The Telepaths paved the way for the Blackouts and the Blackouts eventually – minus one member – went to go work with Al Jourgenson in Ministry. Paul Barker was the last of many bass players; Paul joined in 1981. He was living in Germany at the time, and his brother, Roland, who was an original Blackout, wrote to him and said ‘Come to Seattle! Be in our band!’ And he did. The rest is, uh, the rest.”

A Seattle native and lifelong resident, Bill was a world class musician who exhibited a talent and dedication to his craft that put him into a rare category. Known for much of his career as an extraordinary drummer, he performed with a wide range of artists from Swans and Ministry to REM and King Crimson, amongst others. Bill was also a composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist; at home on the guitar, bass and keyboards. He cultivated a highly sophisticated ear and was much sought after as a studio musician and producer.

King Crimson Biographer Sid Smith said it best “Bill’s softly-spoken voice draped itself languorously around the words he used and any observations he offered were rooted in an exacting precision that he also applied to the act of making music which was something that bordered on the sacred for him.” 

Bill’s refined manner, brilliant mind, eye for the ironic and his legendary sense of humor defined him as a man of discerning taste, palate and company. He fed his seemingly unending depths of cultural knowledge with accuracies about such things as the perfect pronunciations when ordering Korean food, the study of amaro, must-sees in the Cotswolds, how to make Rieflin relish, and the crime of the adverb. An avid watcher of Jeopardy, it was the rarest of occasions when Bill didn’t already know the Question before the Answer had been fully read.

His process was surgical in its dissection of what made music great or tawdry. His opinions were always firm, but his mind always open to listen (and readily dismiss). His sharp wit and forthright comments were well-known, but he was also unfailingly generous, and his encouragements and kindnesses were all the sweeter for their sincerity.

Bill Rieflin passed away on 24 Mar, 2020 after a battle with cancer. He was 59.

Posted on Leave a comment

Liesbeth List 3/2020

Liesbeth List (78) – Dutch Chansonniere – was born in Bandoeng, Indonesia on December 12, 1941 from Dutch parents who were separated by the Japanese invasion and put in work camps. The circumstances in which she and her mother lived in the camp were very hard on her mother, who developed depression. When the Japanese capitulated at the end of WWII, she and her mother were set free. They were reunited with their father and husband, but a few weeks afterwards, Liesbeth’s mother committed suicide: a victim of depression.

Liesbeth and her father returned to the Netherlands, where her father remarried. His new wife, however, frequently clashed with Liesbeth. At the age of seven, children’s services took Liesbeth away. It was thought her father was deceased, and she was placed in an orphanage. After it was discovered that her father was still alive, she was placed back with her father and stepmother.

In that same year of 1948, during a trip to the Dutch island of Vlieland, Liesbeth’s stepmother was told that the owner of a hotel/lighthouse on the island and his wife were seeking to adopt a child. Liesbeth was subsequently given up by her father and adopted by this couple, whose surname was List.

As a teenager fresh out of high school, List was very interested in culture and music. At age 18, in 1959 she moved to Amsterdam, where she studied fashion and had a job as a secretary. She appeared in the AVRO TV talent show “Nieuwe Oogst” (New Harvest), after which she was signed to collaborate with legendary Dutch singer Ramses Shaffy  in the theatre show Shaffy Chantant. They first started this show, in which they performed well-known chansons, in 1964. In 1965, the duo was awarded the Europe Cup for Best Singing Performance in Knokke, Belgium. A secretary in an architectural firm, this early success caused List to focus on a musical career and she released her debut album in 1966. In 1967, Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis asked her to collaborate on an LP of his Mauthausen Ballad, describing the persecution of Jews during the Second World War in dramatic chansons. The LP was a critical and commercial success. Then List was successful with an album containing cover versions of songs by Jacques Brel: the album became certified gold.

In 1969, List was awarded a press prize at a television festival in Montreux. The prize was awarded to her for her contribution in a television series. Because of this foreign acclaim, List focused more on international success. She started recording more cover versions of well-known artists, such as Gilbert Bécaud. List’s success continued with the release of more LPs and a continued acting career in television, film, and stage. It was no secret that her success lay largely in the way “she understood every word she sang”.

In 1972 she recorded and album with American singer, songwriter Rod McKuen: ‘Two against the morning’. In 1973 she recorded the album ‘Meet lovely Liesbeth List’ in England. Her album: ‘Liesbeth List sings Jacques Brel’ was released in 1972 in the USA. In 1976 she recorded an album with songs of Charles AznavourCharles Aznavour presents: Liesbeth List’. She sang with him the duet: ‘Don’t say a word.’

List took a short break when she became pregnant with her first child; she and husband Robert Braaksma had a daughter, Elisah, in 1983, when List was 41. List ceased her activities for six years to care for her child. In 1988, List made her return to the public eye, starring in a theatre programme titled “List NU”. In 1990, she started on a similar show, but it gained neither critical nor commercial success, therefore List accepted that her career had ended.

But in the 90s popular Dutch singer, songwriter and producer Frank Boeijen revived List’s career. She recorded two albums with him: in 1994 List and in 1996 Noach. In 1995 she received an Edison for the first, which is one of the highest musical honors awarded in The Netherlands. In 1999 she released Vergezicht which contains the song Heb Het Leven Lief (Love life) which she sang in 2007 at the memorial celebration for Jos Brink, with whom she had performed in a musical Het Hemelbed to great acclaim. She was also approached by TV host Albert Verlinde to star in his musical about Edith Piaf‘s life. She started performing this musical in 1999 and did 170 shows of Piaf, de Musical. Because of its success, and the many requests to bring the musical back, she reprised the role during 2008 and 2009. In 2000 and in 2009, she won the coveted John Kraaijkamp Musical Award for this role. In 2009 she released a new CD called Verloren & Gewonnen. In 2015, she released what would be her last album, a tribute album to Ramses Shaffy titled Echo, which contained covers of songs by Shaffy.

In 2017, List decided to retire from music because she was developing dementia due to brain damage she had sustained in a 1963 car accident. She died in her sleep on March 25, 2020, after spending the last years of her life in an assisted-living facility.

Posted on Leave a comment

Bill Withers 3/2020

Bill Withers was born in 1938 in a West Virginia coal miner’s town, the youngest of six children. His father died when he was a child and he was raised by his mother and grandmother.
His entry to the music world came late – at the age of 29 – after a nine-year stint in the Navy.
He taught himself to play guitar between shifts at his job making toilet seats for the Boeing aircraft company, and used his wages to pay for studio sessions in LA.
“I figured out that you didn’t need to be a virtuoso to accompany yourself,” he told Rolling Stone magazine in 2015.
He recorded his first album, Just As I Am, with Booker T Jones in 1970. It included the mournful ballad Ain’t No Sunshine, which earned him his first Grammy award the subsequent year. Continue reading Bill Withers 3/2020

Posted on Leave a comment

Bo Winberg 1/2020

Bo Winberg – The Spotnicks – was born 27 March 1939 in, Göthenborg, Sweden.
The Spotnicks originated from a duo, “The Rebels” (1956), formed by Bo Starander (later known as Bob Lander) and bassist Björn Thelin. Winberg was soon invited to join the group, and became “Rock-Teddy and the Blue Caps” in 1957. In 1958 they added Ove Johansson on drums, and changed their name to “The Frazers”. They signed a recording contract in 1961, and changed their name to “The Spotnicks”, a play on the Russian satellite Sputnik as suggested by their manager, Roland Ferneborg.

They became the first Swedish group to have international success with their czar sharp Bo Winberg inspired instrumentals. Like the Shadows in the UK and the Ventures in the US, the Spotnicks were instrument driven rockers.
One of their early records, “Orange Blossom Special”, became their first big international hit, making the Top 30 in the UK Singles Chart in 1962 and reaching No. 1 in Australia. Around this time they began wearing their trademark space suits on stage. They recorded their first album, The Spotnicks in London, Out-a Space, in 1962.

Further hits included “Rocket Man” (based on the Soviet/Russian folk march “Polyushko-polye”), and “Hava Nagila”.

This group of outstanding musicians faced the upcoming changes in musical flavors with the Beatles and Stones, The British Invasion, the later sixties Psychedelic rock and classic rock with many personnel changes, but split up in 1970 after releasing their fifteenth album: The Spotnicks Back in the Race; an album with a live feeling, lacking the perfection of their previous works, but still very good!

In spite of their breakup, the band was still popular in Japan, and they soon reformed under Winberg’s control in 1971 at the request of a Japanese record label. Bo Winberg takes part in the band for the Swedish production of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
Winberg continued to lead versions of The Spotnicks, occasionally including Lander and/or Björn Thelin, on tour and in recordings. They kept producing albums year after year and found an audience for their work and toured Germany and Japan numerous times.

In 2013, Winberg and Lander announced that they would be undertaking a final tour, finishing in May 2014.

Bo Winberg died in Sweden on 3 January 2020 aged 80.

Posted on Leave a comment

Neil Peart 1/2020

Neil Peart (67) – Rush – was born on September 12, 1952, to Glen and Betty Peart and lived his early years on his family’s farm in Hagersville, Ontario, on the outskirts of Hamilton. The first child of four, his brother Danny and sisters Judy and Nancy were born after the family moved to St. Catharines when Peart was two years old. In 1956 the family moved to the Port Dalhousie area of the town. Peart attended Gracefield School and later Lakeport Secondary School, and described his childhood as happy; he stated he experienced a warm family life.

By early adolescence he became interested in music and acquired a transistor radio, which he would use to tune into popular music stations broadcasting from Toronto, Hamilton, Welland, and Buffalo.
Peart’s first exposure to musical training came in the form of piano lessons; he later said in his instructional video ‘A Work in Progress’ that these lessons did not have much influence on him. He had a penchant for drumming on various objects around the house with a pair of chopsticks, so for his 13th birthday his parents bought him a pair of drum sticks, a practice drum, and some lessons, with the promise that if he stuck with it for a year they would buy him a kit. From then on drumming became an all consuming obsession for Neil.

Peart fulfilled his promise and his parents bought him a drum kit for his 14th birthday; furthermore, he began taking lessons from Don George at the Peninsula Conservatory of Music. His stage debut took place that year at the school’s Christmas pageant in St. John’s Anglican Church Hall in Port Dalhousie. His next appearance was at Lakeport High School with his first group, The Eternal Triangle. This performance contained an original number titled “LSD Forever”. At this show he performed his first solo.
Peart got a job in Lakeside Park on the shores of Lake Ontario, which later inspired a song of the same name on the Rush album Caress of Steel. He worked on the Bubble Game and Ball Toss, but his tendency to take it easy when business was slack, resulted in his termination. By his late teens, Peart had played in local bands such as Mumblin’ Sumpthin’, and the Majority. These bands practiced in basement recreation rooms and garages and played church halls, high schools, and skating rinks in towns across Southern Ontario. They also played in the Northern Ontario city of Timmins. Tuesday nights were filled with jam sessions at the Niagara Theatre Centre.

At 18 years old (and after struggling to achieve success as a drummer in Canada), Peart travelled to London, England, hoping to further his career as a professional musician. A time about which he has said: “I was seeking fame and fortune, and found anonymity and poverty. But I learned a lot about life.” Despite playing in several bands and picking up occasional session work, he was forced to support himself by selling jewelry at a shop called The Great Frog on Carnaby Street.
While in London, he came across the writings of libertarian novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. Rand’s writings became a significant early philosophical influence on Peart, as he found many of her writings on individualism and objectivism inspiring. References to Rand’s philosophy can be found in his early lyrics, most notably “Anthem” from 1975’s Fly by Night and “2112” from 1976’s 2112.

After 18 months in London, Peart became disillusioned by his lack of progress in the music business and returned to Canada. He placed his aspiration of becoming a professional musician on hold and only played part time in local bands, while working for his father selling tractor parts at Dalziel Equipment.

Soon after, a mutual acquaintance convinced Peart to audition for the Toronto-based band Rush, which needed a replacement for its original drummer John Rutsey. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson oversaw the audition. His future bandmates describe his arrival that day as somewhat humorous, as he arrived in shorts, driving a battered old Ford Pinto with his drums stored in trashbags. Peart felt the entire audition was a complete disaster. Lee later remarked that he was instantly mesmerized by the way Peart played triplets, also hitting it off on a personal level (with similar tastes in books and music); meanwhile, Lifeson had a less favorable impression of Peart and still wanted to tryout one last drummer.

After some discussion between Lee and Lifeson, Peart officially joined the band on July 29, 1974, two weeks before the group’s first US tour. Peart procured a silver Slingerland kit which he played at his first gig with the band, opening for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in front of over 11,000 people at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh on August 14, 1974.

Peart soon settled into his new position, also becoming the band’s primary lyricist. Before joining Rush he had written a few songs, but, with the other members largely uninterested in writing lyrics, Peart’s previously underutilized writing became as noticed as his musicianship. The band were working hard to establish themselves as a recording act, and Peart, along with the rest of the band, began to undertake extensive touring.
His first recording with the band, 1975’s Fly by Night, was fairly successful, winning the Juno Award for most promising new act, but the follow-up, Caress of Steel, for which the band had high hopes, was greeted with hostility by both fans and critics. In response to this negative reception, most of which was aimed at the B-side-spanning epic “The Fountain of Lamneth”, Peart responded by penning “2112” on their next album of the same name in 1976. The album, despite record company indifference, became their breakthrough and gained a substantial following in the United States. The supporting tour culminated in a three-night stand at Massey Hall in Toronto, a venue Peart had dreamed of playing in his days on the Southern Ontario bar circuit and where he was introduced as “The Professor on the drum kit” by Lee.

Peart returned to England for Rush’s Northern European Tour and the band stayed in the United Kingdom to record the next album, 1977’s A Farewell to Kings, in Rockfield Studios in Wales. They returned to Rockfield to record the follow-up, Hemispheres, in 1978, which they wrote entirely in the studio. The recording of five studio albums in four years, coupled with as many as 300 gigs a year, convinced the band to take a different approach thereafter. Peart has described his time in the band up to this point as “a dark tunnel”.

In the following years they cemented their classic rock status with the enduring favorite, Moving Pictures, in 1981. Along the way, Rush earned a reputation for their elaborate live shows and became a perennially popular touring band. Over the years their shows elevated steadily in both production and musical values. In the 1980s Neil Peart received all the well deserved accolades bestowed upon him, including an induction into the Modern Drummer Readers Poll Hall of Fame in 1983 at the age of thirty, making him the youngest person ever so honored.

An avid traveler Neil used times in between tours to bicycle the world. In the 1980s he embarked on adventure travel and bicycled through China. In later years he also bicycled West Africa.

In 1991, Peart was invited by Buddy Rich’s daughter, Cathy Rich, to play at the Buddy Rich Memorial Scholarship Concert in New York City. Peart accepted and performed for the first time with the Buddy Rich Big Band. Peart remarked that he had little time to rehearse, and noted that he was embarrassed to find the band played a different arrangement of the song than the one he had learned. Feeling that his performance left much to be desired, Peart produced and played on two Buddy Rich tribute albums titled Burning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich in 1994 and 1997 in order to regain his aplomb.

While producing the first Buddy Rich tribute album, Peart was struck by the tremendous improvement in ex-Journey drummer Steve Smith’s playing, and asked him his “secret”. Smith responded he had been studying with drum teacher Freddie Gruber.

Rush released their sixteenth studio album entitled ‘Test for Echo’ on September 10, 1996. It was the band’s last album before their longtime hiatus. The album got very positive reviews from fans and music critics and some of its tracks hit the charts all around the world. After the album, Rush started their Test for Echo Tour on October 19, 1996, at the Knickerbocker Arena and ended on July 4, 1997, at the Corel Centre.

The tour had been great and Rush members were very happy and excited about meeting with their fans. Also, Rush fans appreciated both the album and the band’s tour but shortly after Rush drummer Neil Peart’s life fell apart.

Just over a month after the tour’s closing, and in a timespan of 10 months, he lost his only child Selena to a car accident and his common law wife of 23 years Jacqueline, to cancer. Neil described her death as a result of a ‘broken heart’ and ‘a slow suicide by apathy.’ “She just didn’t care.” He felt that he died with them too and it was so hard to move on for him.
At his wife’s funeral, Neil stated that ‘consider me retired‘ and his bandmates showed respect to his decision, but they decided not to continue without him. Rush went into an almost five-year hiatus and Peart chose a very different way to mourn his daughter and wife’s deaths. He traveled 55,000 miles sabbatical from the North Pole through North America to Belize on his BMW motorcycle and his journey was considered a spiritual one.
The drummer wanted to immortalize his journey and released his philosophical travel memoir entitled ‘Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road,’ which was based on his grief and what he had been through after losing his beloved ones. “Landscapes and wild life rebuilt me during my travels.” After his journey, Peart returned to the band. Peart wrote the book as a chronicle of his geographical and emotional journey.

In addition to being Rush’s primary lyricist, Peart published several memoirs about his travels. His lyrics for Rush addressed universal themes and diverse subjects including science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy, as well as secular, humanitarian, and libertarian themes. Peart wrote a total of seven non-fiction books focused on his travels and personal stories. He also co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson three steampunk fantasy novels based on Rush’s final album, Clockwork Angels. The two also wrote a dark fantasy novella, Drumbeats, inspired by Peart’s travels in West Africa.

When Peart was introduced to photographer Carrie Nuttall in Los Angeles by longtime Rush photographer Andrew MacNaughtan, his life went back on track for the next decade and a half. They married on September 9, 2000. In early 2001, Peart announced to his bandmates that he was ready to return to recording and performing. The product of the band’s return was the 2002 album Vapor Trails. At the start of the ensuing tour in support of the album, the band members decided that Peart would not take part in the daily grind of press interviews and “meet and greet” sessions upon their arrival in a new city that typically monopolize a touring band’s daily schedule. Peart always shied away from these types of in-person encounters, and it was decided that exposing him to a lengthy stream of questions about the tragic events of his life was not necessary.

In early 2007, Peart and Cathy Rich discussed another Buddy tribute concert. At the recommendation of bassist Jeff Berlin, Peart once again augmented his swing style with formal drum lessons, this time under the tutelage of another pupil of Freddie Gruber, Peter Erskine, himself an instructor of Steve Smith. On October 18, 2008, Peart once again performed at the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom.

Peart and Rush experienced immeasurable success throughout his forty-plus-year tenure with Rush. The group released twenty-four gold albums (for 500,000 units sold), fourteen of which went platinum (1,000,000), and three of which went multi-platinum. A brief summary of the band’s honors includes induction into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame; numerous Grammy nominations; nine Juno music awards; and an admission into the Officers of the Order of Canada, Canada’s second-highest sovereign honor.  And in 2014, MD’s readers ranked Peart third best among the top fifty greatest drummers of all time—behind only Buddy Rich and Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham.  It’s easy to see why Peart ranks so highly among the legends. His playing on Rush songs like “Free Will,” “Limelight,” and “Subdivisions” inspired generations of drummers to pick up the sticks. He was a master at making odd time signatures feel right at home on an FM dial. And while Peart didn’t invent the rock drum solo, he certainly refined and expanded the art over the years touring with Rush. Devotees pore over the evolution of “the Professor”’s elaborate live drum setups. And even those who’ve never sat down at a kit found themselves air-drumming to Peart’s parts.

In the June 2009 edition of Peart’s website’s News, Weather, and Sports, titled “Under the Marine Layer”, he announced that he and Nuttall were expecting their first child.

Peart described himself as a “retired drummer” in an interview in December 2015:

“Lately Olivia has been introducing me to new friends at school as ‘My dad—He’s a retired drummer.’ True to say—funny to hear. And it does not pain me to realize that, like all athletes, there comes a time to … take yourself out of the game. I would rather set it aside than face the predicament described in our song “Losing It”.

Peart had also been suffering from chronic tendinitis and shoulder problems.
At first Geddy Lee clarified his bandmate was quoted out of context, and suggested Peart was simply taking a break, “explaining his reasons for not wanting to tour, with the toll that it’s taking on his body.” However, in January 2018, possibly after having received the news of Peart’s cancer diagnosis, Alex Lifeson confirmed that Rush is “basically done”. Peart remained friends with his former bandmates.

Neil Peart died from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, on January 7, 2020, in Santa Monica, California. He had been diagnosed three and a half years earlier, and the illness was a closely guarded secret in Peart’s inner circle until his death.

What is your purpose in life? Neil Peart’s answer:

“You can ask those questions, but what’s the point? The point is I’m here and making the best use of it. Why am I spending my life in this particular manner? Most times that tends to be a combination of circumstances and drive. The fact that I wanted to be a successful drummer was by no means a guarantee that I was going to be. But circumstances happened to rule that I turned out to be one.”

Neil Peart didn’t want to be like everyone else. He just wanted to be Neil. He loved being a rock drummer, but he also loved literature. He loved poetry. He loved the outdoors. He didn’t care what society thought a rock star was ‘supposed to be’ — he wasn’t afraid to be himself, and he didn’t really care about fame. He just wanted to be good at what he did — and he was! — and he just wanted to share his music with the fans.

(Find Neil Peart and Rush Music, Books and Merchandise at AMAZON)

Posted on Leave a comment

Paul Barrere 10/2019

October 26, 2019 Paul Barrere was born on July 3, 1948, the son of Hollywood actors Paul Bryar and Claudia Bryar. He joined celebrated cult band Little Feat in 1973, before the band recorded their third full-length LP, the gold-certified ‘Dixie Chicken’. For the recording of its fourth album, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now (1974), he wrote the title track. As Barrere stayed with the group, he took, along with keyboard player Bill Payne, an increasing role in singing, playing, and writing, as bandleader/founder Lowell George slowly retreated. When the group fragmented following George’s death in 1979, Paul led the group Chicken Legs.

Barrere then did sessions and recorded solo in the 1980s until the re-formation of Little Feat in 1988.

Barrere contracted Hepatitis C in 1994, but had managed to keep it under control, after he took a brief leave of absence. In 2015, he was diagnosed with liver cancer. Earlier this month, Barrere announced he was taking a medical leave of absence, but planned to be back on stage this upcoming January 2020, for the band’s headlining performance at Jamaica’s Ramble on the Island.

In a statement the members of Little feat announced:

It is with great sorrow that Little Feat must announce the passing of our brother guitarist, Paul Barrere, this morning at UCLA Hospital. We ask for your kindest thoughts and best wishes to go out especially to his widow Pam and children Gabriel, Genevieve, and Gillian, and to all the fans who were his extended family.

Paul auditioned for Little Feat as a bassist when it was first being put together—in his words, “as a bassist I make an excellent guitarist”—and three years later joined the band in his proper role on guitar. Forty-seven years later, he was forced to miss the current tour, which will end tomorrow, due to side effects from his ongoing treatment for liver disease.

He promised to follow his doctor’s orders, get back in shape, and rock on the beach at the band’s annual gathering in Jamaica in January 2020. “Until then,” he wrote, “keep your sailin’ shoes close by…if I have my way, you’re going to need them!”

As the song he sang so many times put it, he was always “Willin’,” but it was not meant to be. Paul, sail on to the next place in your journey with our abiding love for a life always dedicated to the muse and the music. We are grateful for the time we have shared.

Yours in music,

Little Feat: Bill Payne, Sam Clayton, Fred Tackett, Kenny Gradney, and Gabe Ford.

Little Feat released 16 studio albums over a span of 41 years, the last being ‘Rooster Rag’, in 2012. Barrere released three solo albums: ‘On My Own Two Feet’ (1983), ‘Real Lies’ (1984) and ‘If the Phone Don’t Ring’ (1986).

He also worked with Robert Palmer, Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, Jack Bruce, Carly Simon and Nicolette Larson. That is his guitar work on Nicolette’s cover of Neil Young’s ‘Lotta Love’.

Barrere was a swing man as a guitarist who played a wide variety of styles of music including blues, rock, jazz, and cajun music and was proficient as a slide guitarist.
Barrere also recorded and toured as an acoustic duo with fellow Little Feat member Fred Tackett.
Barrere played several concerts with Phil Lesh and Friends in October 1999 and from March to June 2000. He also toured with Bob Dylan, and had most recently been writing and recording with Roger Cole.

Paul wrote Little Feat’s ‘Feats Don’t Fail Me Now’, ‘All That You Dream’, ‘Time Loves A Hero’ and ‘Down On The Farm’. He joined the band for their third album ‘Dixie Chicken’ was had been a member ever since.

Little Feat guitarist Paul Barrere passed away at the age of 71 on October 26, 2019

Posted on Leave a comment

Ginger Baker 10/2019

Peter ‘Ginger’ Baker – Cream/Blind Faith – was born on 19 August 1939 in Lewisham, South London. His mother, Ruby May worked in a tobacco shop. His father, Frederick Louvain Formidable Baker, was a bricklayer employed by his own father, who owned a construction  business and was a lance corporal in the Royal Corps of Signals in World War II; he died in the 1943 Dodecanese campaign. Baker went to Pope Street School, where he was considered “one of the better players” in the football team, and then to Shooter’s Hill Grammar School. Here he was nicknamed “Ginger” for his shock of flaming red hair.
While at school he joined Squadron 56 of the Air Training Corps, based at Woolwich and stayed with them for two or three years.

Ginger Baker began playing drums at around 15 years of age. In the early 1960s he took lessons from Phil Seamen, one of the leading British jazz drummers of the post-war era.
In the early 1960s he joined Blues Incorporated, where he met bassist Jack Bruce. The two clashed often, but would be rhythm section partners again in the Graham Bond Organization, a rhythm and blues group with strong jazz leanings. Their relationship was so volatile that Baker once attacked Bruce with a knife during a concert. Despite this volatile relationship, Baker and Bruce reunited in 1966 when they formed Cream with guitarist Eric Clapton, which became one of the first Supergroups of the 60s. He was the first guy we saw with two bass drums and the first guy to do an extended drum solo on record.

Cream played a fusion of blues, psychedelic rock and hard rock. The band released four albums in a little over two years before breaking up in late 1968.
“Disraeli Gears” was released in November ’67, the year underground FM radio began to burgeon, with KMPX in San Francisco joining the aforementioned WOR.
And then, during the summer of ’68, “Sunshine Of Your Love” crossed over to AM and the band and the scene exploded.

Now “Fresh Cream”‘s production was credited to Robert Stigwood, it’s unclear who really twisted the dials, who was really responsible for the sound, but it didn’t have the edge of what came after, it was almost like a blanket was thrown over the speakers.
But Felix Pappalardi produced “Disraeli Gears,” and it was a much better representation of the band’s sound. This was back when stereo was stereo, when instruments were in different channels, when we sat in front of the speakers, put on headphones to get the full effect. This was also when there was so much less on the records, you could hear all the instruments. You could hear Jack Bruce’s voice on “Sunshine Of You Love,” but the key to the track’s success, it’s infectiousness, was that guitar. It was the year we saw Jimi Hendrix‘s “Axis: Bold As Love” came out in January of ’68, so Cream was no longer alone, “Purple Haze” sat along “Sunshine Of Your Love” at the apex of riff-rock that started with the Stones’ “I can get no satisfaction. And then came “Piece Of My Heart,” by Big Brother and the Holding Company. Janis Joplin got a lot of ink, she was a dynamic performer, she could not be denied and when people purchased “Cheap Thrills,” with its R. Crumb cover, we were not in Kansas anymore, the screw had turned, it was a whole new world in music.

And “Wheels Of Fire” was released in August of that same year, double albums were not unknown, but this one came in silver foil and the second record was a live one.
The visual energy in Cream all came from the man behind the kit, Ginger Baker. Clapton just stood there being “Slowhand”. As did Jack Bruce, albeit a massive voice. You couldn’t help but focus on the drummer, who seemed on the verge of losing control as he stoked this freight train down the track. The sheer power impacted your gut.

And then “White Room” became a hit and the word got out. Suddenly everybody was talking about Cream. People you thought were decidedly unhip, out of the loop, got the message. And “Wheels Of Fire” started to explode. And on side four, there was a sixteen minute drum solo entitled “Toad.”
Yup, blame “Toad” for that execrable five to twenty minutes in every live show where everybody takes a pee break and the drummer flails on. They were all inspired by Ginger Baker, he was the progenitor, they all wanted to BE Ginger Baker, suddenly the drummer was no longer an afterthought, but a virtuoso who could express himself.
And then the band said it was breaking up and went on a final tour.

And the victory lap, “Goodbye Cream,” had a bigger impact in the public’s consciousness than anything that came before, it was the zeitgeist, people bought it after the band broke up, lamenting they’d never gotten to see the act. “Goodbye” resurrected “I’m So Glad” from the first LP. “Sitting On Top Of The World” was definitive. And “Badge” was a gift for those who’d been there all along.
It was like not only the band, but its members had died, there were posthumous live records, everybody wanted more of what they could never get again.
But they did get the short-lived “supergroup” Blind Faith, comprising of Eric Clapton, bassist Ric Grech from Family, and Steve Winwood from Traffic on keyboards and vocals and Ginger Baker on drums. They released only one album, Blind Faith, before breaking up.

Blind Faith was the first supergroup. That was the definition back then, they had to coin it for this concoction, an act made up of the stars of other acts, come together to make something new and triumphant.
But of course Blind Faith imploded, but the album gets short shrift, the first side is phenomenal, everyone knows the cuts, from the explosive opener “Had To Cry Today” to Clapton’s first shining solo moment, “Presence Of The Lord” and the cover of Buddy Holly’s “Well All Right” to Winwood’s piece-de-resistance, “Can’t Find My Way Home.”
The second side had Ginger Baker’s fifteen minute opus “Do What You Like.” Filler or a nod to Baker’s genius, who knows?
And when Blind Faith broke up, Winwood tried to go solo but got back together with Traffic. Clapton decided to play small, with Delaney & Bonnie, Ric Grech disappeared, and Ginger Baker formed his Air Force in 1970, yup, he was gonna continue to play for all the marbles.
Baker’s Air Force album sold, but then the act faded away, there was great playing but no songs.

After the demise of both groups Baker built a recording studio in Lagos, Nigeria. Paul McCartney & Wings recorded ‘Band On the Run’ at Baker’s Batakota Studios. The studio went bust not long after and its failure sent Baker to drugs.

Ginger Baker withdrew from the music industry throughout most of the 80s. He had developed a heroin addiction and withdrew to Italy where he lived on an olive farm until he overcame the addiction.

Eventually Baker played with the Masters Of Reality, in the nineties, which seemed a step down, but the truth was there was no band big enough to contain him. He had an edgy personality and still an original. He was the original Keith Richards, nothing could kill him. Everybody knew who Ginger Baker was, it’s just that we didn’t hear his playing that much. He was drunk, he was stoned, he played polo, he was involved in shenanigans, but the legend always exceeded the present.

And yes, there were the Cream reunion shows in 2005. A triumph in London’s Royal Albert Hall, an almost queasy afterthought in New York’s Madison Garden. He was still Ginger Baker, he could still do it, but this was nostalgia.

A decade later, living in South Africa, Baker revealed he had ‘serious heart issues.

Ginger Baker died 6 October, 2019 at the age 80.

But if you talk about legacy…
Ginger Baker is right up there. He was the first. He showed what could be done with the drumkit. He was a trailblazer, a true rocker, one who couldn’t be contained, there was nothing corporate about him. He was a beacon, may he continue to shine.

Posted on 1 Comment

Eddy Money 9/2019

Eddie Money was born Edward Joseph Mahoney in Manhattan, New York City on March 21, 1949, to a large family of Irish Catholic descent. His parents were Dorothy Elizabeth (née Keller), a homemaker, and Daniel Patrick Mahoney, a police officer. He grew up in Levittown, New York, but spent some teenage years in Woodhaven, Queens, New York City. Money was a street singer from the age of eleven. As a teenager, he played in rock bands, in part to get dates from cheerleaders. He was thrown out of one high school for forging a report card. In 1967, he graduated from Island Trees High School.

At the age of 18, he tried to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, father, and brother as a New York City Police Department trainee. However, after working as a clerk and typist, he left in 1968 to pursue a career in music, as the police did not allow him to grow his hair long. “I couldn’t see myself in a police uniform for 20 years of my life, with short hair,” he later said. His bandmates also fired him because they did not want a police officer in the group. His father was not happy with his decision to play music and tore Jimi Hendrix posters from his wall. He never lost sight of his blue-collar upbringing however and even at the height of his career with all the celebrity, millions of albums sold, and large sums of money he made, was one of the few artists who never changed. His ego was always in check, he remained a regular guy–someone you’d really have fun hanging out with. And he treated anyone he met, in any walk of life, exactly the same, with big respect.

‘Once he was traveling with a local music rep in New York–they were late for a radio interview and speeding on the Long Island Expressway. They were pulled over by the cops and it turns out one of the policemen was a guy who was a classmate of Eddie’s when they went through the Police Academy together. “Hey Eddie, you knucklehead, what are you doin’?!! Come on, I’ll give you guys a police escort!” That kind of fun luck used to happen a lot for Eddie.’

He began studying saxophone during a brief stint at junior college, inspired by rock musicians like David Bowie and Van Morrison who occasionally used the instrument.

In 1968, Money moved to Berkeley, California. There, he studied with vocal coach Judy Davis, and took on the stage name Eddie Money, dropping two letters from his last name and sarcastically referring to the fact that he was always broke.

Over the course of the next 8 years, Money became a regular performer at clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area. After gaining the attention of Bill Graham, he secured a recording contract with Columbia Records, releasing his debut album in 1977. He charted with singles such as “Baby Hold On” and “Two Tickets to Paradise”, about visiting his girlfriend despite not having money.

In 1978, Money opened for Santana at Boston’s Music Hall. The following year, he sang backing vocals on the bridge section on “I’m Alright”, a song written and performed by Kenny Loggins. In 2014, Money claimed that Loggins never gave him credit for his contribution.

His ascend started with “Baby Hold On.” The lyrics were not intellectual enough for the cognoscenti. But the music was undeniable, you heard it once and got it whereas so much vaunted stuff, then and now, you listen to over and over again and still don’t get.

Then came “Two Tickets To Paradise.”

Now that was a smash right out of the box. Great title, great track, great, emphatic chorus:

“I’ve got two tickets to paradise, Won’t you pack your bags, we’ll leave tonight”

This was 1978. When airline travel was still expensive. When you didn’t hop on a plane to go to a show or a game, you were stuck at home, dreaming, of what could possibly be, and Eddie Money was opening the top of your brain and filling you with hope

In 1982, Money took advantage of the MTV music video scene with his humorous narrative videos for “Think I’m in Love”, performed at The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, and “Shakin'”. In the early 1980s, he appeared on The Midnight Special, Fridays, and Solid Gold. In 1978 and 1984, he appeared on American Bandstand.

Money’s career slumped temporarily following the commercially unsuccessful 1983 album Where’s the Party?. However, he made a comeback in 1986 with the album Can’t Hold Back, which received a music recording certification of platinum. “Take Me Home Tonight”, a single from the album, peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. Money only agreed to perform the song—which included a line from “Be My Baby”, a song Ronnie Spector performed as part of The Ronettes—after Spector agreed to sing the line herself. In 1987, Money was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for “Take Me Home Tonight”. “I Wanna Go Back” and “Endless Nights”—two other singles from the Can’t Hold Back album—peaked at No. 14 and No. 21, respectively.

In 1988, Money released Nothing to Lose, which featured the Top 10 hit “Walk on Water” and the Top 40 hit “The Love in Your Eyes”.

It was 1992, “Unplugged” was flourishing on the now totally dominant MTV. Not that Eddie Money was cool enough to be featured, but he released his own acoustic live album, that positively ROCKED! “Unplug it in”.

“Gimme Some Water,” the opening cut. This was an album track from Money’s mostly hitless second LP “Life For The Taking.” Oh, “Maybe I’m A Fool” made it to number 22 on the singles chart, but at this point no one was listening to Top Forty, AOR ruled, and you didn’t need a pop hit to go platinum, as “Life For The Taking” did.

Also beginning in 1992, Money opened the summer concert season for the Pine Knob Music Theater in Clarkston, Michigan where he would return to open the venue for 27 consecutive years. In 1996, he wrote the theme music to Quack Pack, a Disney cartoon.

Money was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2008. In January 2010, he performed a medley of his hit singles during the halftime performance at the Liberty Bowl.

Eddie was a natural frontman and his original guitar player Jimmy Lyon played a role like Ronnie Wood did for Rod Stewart in the Faces – together they killed it onstage. Eddie was a very funny guy with quick wit and often the dumbest jokes.

In the beginning, he was a wild man like many rockers. On his first radio promotional tour he was going to be traveling with Warren Williams, a legendary Columbia rep for the western region. Eddie asked Warren to stop at a local liquor store, “Hey Warren, I just want to run in and get a pack of cigarettes.” About twenty minutes later Eddie emerged with a giant case full of Whiskey, Vodka, Tequila, and Gin – “OK, I’m ready now.”

In later years he toured as a classic rock act with his daughter and other family members in his band. He used to joke–“It’s like the Partridge Family, only with marijuana!”

Money wrote and performed original songs for the films Americathon (1979), Over the Top, Back to the Beach (both 1987), and Kuffs (1992), along with the television series Hardball (1989–1990).

Eddie Money died on Sep. 13, 2019. He was 70 years old.

In the three days following Money’s death, fans streamed “Take Me Home Tonight” more than 3.1 million times, which was an increase of 349 percent compared to the previous three-day period. Fans also streamed his other songs by 931 percent more than the three previous days.

Posted on Leave a comment

Robert Hunter 9/2019

Robert Hunter (78) – the Grateful Dead – was born on June 23, 1941 in Arroyo Grande CA. Hunter’s father was an alcoholic, who deserted the family when Hunter was seven, according to Grateful Dead chronicler Dennis McNally. Hunter spent the next few years in foster homes before returning to live with his mother. These experiences drove him to seek refuge in books, and he wrote a 50-page fairy tale before he was 11. His mother married again, to Norman Hunter, whose last name Robert took. The elder Hunter was a publisher, who gave Robert lessons in writing. Hunter attended high school in Palo Alto, learning to play several instruments as a teenager. His family moved to Connecticut, where he attended the University of Connecticut. He played trumpet in a band called the Crescents. Hunter left the university after a year, and returned to Palo Alto. He enlisted in the National Guard, and spent six months training, before doing a six-month tour of duty.

Upon his return to Palo Alto, in 1961 he was introduced to Jerry Garcia by Garcia’s then-girlfriend, who had previously been in a relationship with Hunter. Garcia was 18 and Hunter 19. The duo began to perform together, spending their time in “what passed for Palo Alto’s 1961 bohemian community”, including a bookstore run by Roy Kepler. They formed a short-lived duo called “Bob and Jerry” that debuted at the graduation ceremony of the Quaker Peninsula School on May 5, 1961.

According to McNally, the group did not last because of “Hunter’s limits as a guitarist and Garcia’s ravenous drive to get better,” but the two remained friendly. Garcia became involved with bluegrass groups in the area such as the Thunder Mountain Tub Thumpers and the Wildwood Boys; Hunter sometimes played the mandolin with these groups, but was more interested in writing. By 1962, he had written a book, The Silver Snarling Trumpet, described by McNally as a roman à clef. McNally writes that it shows Hunter’s “skill at storytelling and his fantastic ear for dialogue”. Recordings of folk and bluegrass bands that included Hunter and Garcia were later released on two albums – Folk Time (2016) and Before the Dead (2018).

Though he’d never play onstage with the Grateful Dead, he became not only a genuine band member but its secret Ace in the hole. Most of the band’s early verbal efforts would not count or stand the test of time; it was Hunter’s work that would elevate their songs from ditties to rich, complete stories set to song.

Try explicating some of Hunter’s early lyrics for the songs he wrote with Jerry Garcia, and pretty soon into your exegesis you’re going to fall back on a sort of “you had to be there” argument. Explaining “China Cat Sunflower” or “Dark Star” was like explaining an acid trip to someone who’s never taken acid. No surprise to learn that Hunter wrote a lot of those early lyrics while he was tripping. 

Of course, if you can write a song, any song, while you’re tripping, that puts you way out in front of most everyone else. In this respect, it helps to know that Hunter was not just some hippy-dippy poet (although he was reportedly the great-great-grandson of Robert Burns). He was also an actual musician—he partnered with Garcia long before the formation of the Dead, when both were part of California’s bluegrass/coffee house scene, and what he didn’t know about how songs worked, Garcia was there to teach him. He was a fast learner. 

Even before the Dead entered their folky/country phase with Workingman’s Dead, Hunter was writing songs that drew on traditional music in the best way. “Dupree’s Diamond Blues” does not flat out copy songs like “Frankie and Johnny,” but Hunter had plainly put in his time absorbing old blues and folk songs that told stories about thieves, jellyroll, wayward lovers, and betrayal. In the same way, “Mountains of the Moon,” which is simply one of the most haunting, mysterious songs written in the last century, tipped its hat to old English balladry and then went its own way. Hunter plainly loved traditions, but he wasn’t bound by them.

Probably the best example of this is “Cumberland Blues,” off Workingman’s Dead. The story has circulated for years about the kid who played the song for his grandfather, who didn’t give a hoot for rock and roll but said that old traditional bluegrass song the Dead played was the real deal, having no idea that the tune was a Hunter/Garcia original. (Extra bonus [no lyrical content]: listen to how the song begins played on electric instruments and morphs into an acoustic version by song’s end.)
Hunter, so far as I know, never appeared on stage with the Dead, but his lyrics are as much a part of their identity as anything actually played by the other musicians. His words, which managed to be both concrete and elliptical, force a listener to become part collaborator: you finish what he started in your head. Your version is your own, and yet you are part of something larger. Robert Hunter was the master when it came to creating songs that are intensely personal and communal. 

When the Grateful Dead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, Hunter was included as a band member, the only non-performer to ever be so honored.
After Garcia died in 1995, Hunter went on to collaborate with any number of other songwriters, but none as famous as Bob Dylan, who respected Hunter so much that he was the one writing partner who Dylan allowed to change things. “He’s got a way with words and I do too,” Dylan told Rolling Stone. “We both write a different type of song than what passes today for songwriting.” Indeed.

The Dead never entirely escaped their Haight Ashbury, hippie origins, but anyone who’s ever listened closely knows that’s merely where they started. There was always more to the music, some solid core that bespeaks joy, intelligence, and a full-throated love of rock and roll, and no one had more to do with that than Hunter. There was nothing sentimental or mushwitted about anything he wrote “New Speedway Boogie’s” conjuring of Altamont and its fallout is as dark as songs get. At his best, and he was at his best more often than not, he and Garcia wrote songs that sound as old as time and shone as bright as a new dime. They stick in your head in the best way possible: you can’t forget them and you wouldn’t want to—they’ll see you through life.

Robert Hunter, the principal lyricist for the Grateful Dead died on Sept. 23, 2019 at the age of 78, in his own bed, surrounded by family, who have not released a cause of death. So, peaceful, but with a little unresolved mystery, exactly like a Hunter lyric in other words.

Posted on Leave a comment

Ric Ocasek 9/2019

Ric Ocasek (75) – The Cars – was born in Baltimore on March 23, 1944. His paternal side was of Czech descent. When he was 16 years old, his father moved the family back to the Otcasek hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, where his father worked as a systems analyst with NASA at the Lewis Research Center. Ocasek graduated from Maple Heights High School in 1963. He briefly attended Antioch College and Bowling Green State University, but dropped out to pursue a career in music.

Ocasek met future Cars bassist Benjamin Orr in Cleveland in 1965 after Ocasek saw Orr performing with his band the Grasshoppers on the Big 5 Show, a local musical variety program.

After performing in various bands in Columbus and Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ocasek and Orr relocated to Boston in the early 1970s. There they formed a Crosby, Stills and Nash-style folk rock band called Milkwood. They released one album, How’s the Weather,  in early 1973 but it failed to chart. Future Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes played on Milkwood’s album. After Milkwood, Ocasek formed the group Richard and the Rabbits, which included Orr and Hawkes. Ocasek and Orr also performed as an acoustic duo during this period. Some of the songs they played became early Cars songs. Later, Ocasek and Orr teamed up with guitarist Elliot Easton in the band Cap’n Swing. Cap’n Swing soon came to the attention of WBCN disc jockey Maxanne Sartori, who began playing songs from their demo tape on her show. After Cap’n Swing was rejected by several record labels, Ocasek got rid of the bass player and drummer and decided to form a band that better fit his style of writing. Orr took over on bass and David Robinson, best known for his career with the Modern Lovers, became the drummer. Hawkes returned to play keyboards and the band became “the Cars” in late 1976 with their first official live gig on New Year’s Eve of that year.

The concept behind the band’s name was born out of a modern search for keywords.

“Shortly after I joined,” drummer David Robinson told the Wall Street Journal, “Ric wanted to change the band’s name,” because “Cap’n Swing sounded like the name of a bar band.” So, the musicians sat around and devised a list of possible band names. It was Robinson who mentioned the Cars, the entry that everybody seemed to like. “It was easy to remember and it wasn’t pegged to a specific decade or sound,” Robinson said. “The name was meaningless and conjured up nothing, which was perfect.” Furthermore, Ocasek liked the Cars because it fell at the beginning of the alphabet, which would earn the band good placement in record stores, and also that it was easy to spell.

1977  was the year of earning their stripes as they gigged all over the Northeast. The repeated return of their demo songs on local radio finally convinced record company Elektra to offer the band a contract that worked for both and resulted in a partnership that produced 6 platinum and/or golden albums, selling more than 23 million copies in the US alone.

In 1978, the Cars self-titled debut album reached nr. 18 on the Billboard 200 chart and three singles reached the top 40 – including “Just What I needed”, sung by Ben Orr, which became #4 in Billboard’s records of the year. Their next album Candy-O went to #3 in the Billboard 200 and successive singles hit high on the Hot 100. The band cut 4 more albums with Elektra in the next 8  years, 3 platinum and 1 gold, while over time the band members started going solo. One of the reasons for the band to ultimately break up in 1988 was Ric’s distaste for touring and being on the road. In his own words he said:

I guess you could blame it on me. I toured a lot in the early years when we were the Cars, the five of us. I saw the world. I’ve always been more of a songwriter than a performer. I produce and I love the studio. I’ve always not so much liked touring. That’s kind of the reason. Also, I didn’t want to do things like, “Hey, let’s do some casinos and some boats.” I didn’t want to get into that. That’s just a different reason to do it. That’s really just being mechanical and playing your songs for whatever it is.

Ric’s first solo project was the album Beatitude in January 1983, which features a more minimal and sparse interpretation of the Cars’ new wave rock sound. On some tracks Ocasek played all of the instruments. A more synthesizer-heavy follow-up, This Side of Paradise, was released in 1986; and featured Greg Hawkes, Elliot Easton and Benjamin Orr. Hit single, “Emotion in Motion” accompanied the album.

Now the strange thing is if you play the Cars’ records today in the 2020s…you’re shocked, too much old stuff you have to apologize for, you wonder why you once liked it, but not this music, it sounds as fresh as ’78, ’84, as a matter of fact it sounds even better. Radio always muffled the lyrics, now lyrics stand out and their wisdom and insight and humor stick out. But even better is that sound, an amalgamation of the old and new filtered through a hit record sensibility, the Cars didn’t want to stretch out and noodle, they wanted to get it right, in a compact fashion, anything unnecessary was excised.

The Cars disbanded in 1988, and Ocasek disappeared from the public eye for a couple of years. His 25 year close friendship with Benjamin Orr estranged until shortly before Orr’s death in 2000. His 17 year old marriage to second wife Suzanne ended, no doubt as the result of his growing relation with supermodel Paulina Porizkova, whom he married in August 1989. He resurfaced in 1990 with his own album, Fireball Zone. One track, “Rockaway”, enjoyed a brief stay on the charts, but his solo albums realized disappointing sales, especially compared to his success with the Cars. He subsequently released other solo works during the decade.  In the 1990s and 2000s he was very active as producer, writer and occasional movie performer. For many years Ocasek also had a hobby of making drawings, photo collages, and mixed-media art works which, in 2009, were shown at a gallery in Columbus, Ohio, as an exhibition called “Teahead Scraps”.

In 2010, Ocasek reunited with the surviving original members of the Cars to record their first album in 24 years. The album, entitled Move Like This, was released on May 10, 2011. Not long after the album’s release and its 2 week supporting tour in May, with a final show at Lollapaloosa in August, the Cars resumed their hiatus, and reunited once again in April 2018 for a performance at the ceremony of their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Ric Ocasek wasn’t friends with everybody, he wasn’t the life of the party, he suffered no fools, he spoke through his music, that was enough, it was less emotion than intellect, the tracks were all you got, the band members were not individual stars, all you got was this vision, unique in the landscape, direct and oftentimes ironic, it kept you guessing, but the music did not. His relationship carried this reservation, whether it’d be towards wives, partners or children. It must have been a lonely life, as possibly witnessed by the fact that he died alone during the night of September 15, 2019, to be found by his ex-wife, who later learned that she and her children with him had been written out of his last will.

Sometimes life seems just a cruel confirmation of misplacing arrogance for talent.

Posted on Leave a comment

Ian Gibbons – 8/2019

Ian Gibbons (67) – the Kinks – was born on18 July 1952 

Gibbons began playing the accordion at the age of nine, playing in the school band, and solo at music festivals, competitions and charity events. At the age of 14, he started a school rock band, playing guitar and singing. He changed to organ after leaving school and played in local and resident bands until 1972, when he joined Moonstone, which released three singles. He was a founder member of what was known in London as the  ‘Southend Musical Mafia’ which contained a great many talented musicians who were born in sight of Southend Pier. In time he played for Moonshine, the Feelgoods, Maggie Bell, the Love Affair, the Kursaal Flyers, the Nashville Teens, Samson, Ian Hunter, Suzie Quattro, Andy Scot, Chris Farlow, Roger Chapman and, rumor has it, Martha and the Vandellas to name but a few.

When Punk and new wave came along Gibbons worked with rock based and new wave bands until an audition for the Kinks in 1979.

Of that audition Kinks Co-founder Ray Davies said:

“When he auditioned for the band, he only played a few chords before I knew he was the right guy to have on keyboard, he seemed to know the right voicing to musically slot in between the other members of the band. And with the Kinks, that took some doing!” 

He was asked to join, and stayed with them during the band’s late-career resurgence, playing on such popular tunes as “Come Dancing,” “Better Things,” “Destroyer,” “Don’t Forget to Dance,” “State of Confusion” and “Do It Again.” until 1989. It’s possibly a measure of the esteem Ian Gibbons was held in by fellow musicians that he rejoiced (?) in the nicknames Stubz, Stubzie, Gibbo and even Little legs! In the Kinks though he was one of two diminutive people known collectively, and with great affection as the two little sods!

Gibbons worked with Love Affair and the Nashville Teens, whilst also working with Dr. Feelgood, the Kursaal Flyers, Ken Hensley, Mike Vernon, Samson, Randy California and others, mainly recording. Other artists he worked with were Roger Chapman, the Sweet, Suzi Quatro and Ian Hunter. He rejoined the Kinks again in 1993, staying with them until their break-up in 1997.

He continued to record and perform with Chapman and Hunter, along with Chris Farlowe, Maggie Bell, Andy Scott, the Chicago Blues Brothers and on Ray Davies choir and and contributed to some solo projects by guitarist Dave Davies. He was also an actor and writer, known for Halloween: The Night He Came Back (2010), Return to Waterloo (1984) and The Kinks: Don’t Forget to Dance (1983).

In 2008, Gibbons joined The Kast Off Kinks, a band that has featured various former Kinks members, including original drummer Mick Avory, keyboardist John Gosling and bassists John Dalton and Jim Rodford. Rodford died in January 2018 at age 76.

Ian Gibbons died from bladder cancer at home, on 1 August 2019, at the age of 67

Kinks guitarist Dave Davies issued a statement regarding Gibbons’ death that reads, “It was a great shock to hear about Ian Gibbons passing. He worked with the Kinks throughout the ’80s. He was always such a positive and optimistic guy. He was the perfect professional. I never had any problems with him and we got on really well. My heart goes out to his family and friends at this difficult time. He added a lot of color to the Kinks music. I’m devastated and he’ll be badly missed.”

Co-founder Ray Davies said: ‘On the road, he could always be guaranteed to give a smile of encouragement from his side of the stage and buy a round in the bar after the show so we could have a party in Ian’s noisy room,’ the frontman added. ‘Being in a band is like being in a family and today it is as though we have lost family member.’ ‘He was also was a brilliant accordion player and, apparently, a bit of a childhood prodigy on that instrument. In the studio, he would willingly try out the most random musical idea I would throw at him.’

The Kinks music with songs like Waterloo Sunset, You Really Got Me, Sunny Afternoon, See My Friend, a.o. has gone down as one of the defining sounds of the flower power generation, and has since been made into a musical, Sunny Afternoon, by the Davies brothers.