More and more Rock and Roll Legends are fading into the rearview Mirror. My generation lived through a special creative time; an era that may never come around again. Much like the Renaissance gave birth to cultural art icons like Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael- all in a relatively short timeframe, probably never to be recreated. The Era of Rock and Roll created a musical highlight in time so intense that it truly moved global cultural directions. Rock was all about blowing up the institutions. Searching for truth in a new way. Being the other and going down the road less taken. The sixties were all about growth, testing limits. The youth were quaking, and the establishment didn’t like it. And what drove the youth was the music, it was the tribal drum, radio was far more important than television, music was not compromised, it embodied truth, and everybody listened.
For more than 40 years rockmusic guided our sense of values, what was original and creative and what was waste, what was cool and what was not. The electric guitar was cool. Rock and Roll was driven by the advance of the electric guitar. It demanded attention, even if only because of the volume and reach. It guided the best educated, revolutionary generation in history into adult hood.
But when our generation and our rock and roll heroes became corporate brands, too overly self important and self indulgent, Rock lost its driving cultural influence and handed it over to new genres like Rap, Hip Hop and Electronic Dance Music (EDM).
By the 1990s, as one generation handed the musical torch to a new generation, rock had been bent and bullied into new music genres, promoted by different music distribution platforms and rapidly advancing entertainment technology outlets, and we kind of turned away from rock as if it were a youthful indiscretion.
And then, as history usually goes, we turned old enough to remember the power of rock in our younger years and we created niche markets for rock to live in, at least for the remainder of our years. As we are entering the third decade of the 21st century, I am noticing that a lot of young females guitarists across the globe are picking up the rock and roll torch, aided by online marketing resources such as youTube, Patreon and Vimeo video channels. It gives me hope for the future of rock and roll. But for now it’s still a derivative of what we did fifty years ago. Give it time and they will make it their own and select new directions for rock and roll.
This website serves mostly as a tribute to our rock and roll heroes, and also a bit as a reminder to all of us baby boomers and rock music lovers, who picked up a guitar or kicked a drum in our formative years, and gained an understanding of how music transformed us and became the global language of love, peace and understanding. It was a special time. Thank You.
Johan Ramakers
I started this website sometime in 2013 as a legacy site to pay tribute to the many wonderful musicians, singer frontmen and songwriters that paved the soundtrack of my life with their music. As an amateur rocker, who did not only listen to the music, but also played in many coverbands, duos and trios over the decades since rock and roll exploded into our lives, I realized later on in life, as I’m reluctantly entering the supposedly quiet years, that rock music between the mid 1950s and the 1990s, drove our entire culture. More than ever before in history was a global generation defined by music, as Rock and Roll and Rock/Pop became the soundtrack of our lives. It changed and over time defined politics, commerce, industry, transportation, communication, social interaction and education. And for short while, the world seemed a better place. We called it the Garden. Now I realize that Rock and roll is a hard mistress. What seems like forever is really just a few years long. When you’re young you think these bands will last a lifetime. But few do. Except for the superstars, the rest go on to straight jobs, or die prematurely. It’s weird, without education or experience so many end up doing manual labor. They were our heroes, and now…
2023 Rock Legends
IN 2024 WE SAID GOODBYE TO:
• Del Palmer (71) long term great bass player for Kate Bush (3 November 1952 – 5 January 2024) – unknown • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Palmer
• James Kottak (63) drummer for the Scorpions (December 26, 1962 – January 9, 2024)- cardiac arrest • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kottak
• Mary Weiss (75) Singer with the Shangri-Las Dec. 28, 1948 – Jan 19, 2024 – cops • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Weiss
• Melanie Safka (76) Folk-pop singer-songwriter Woodstock Festival (Feb 3, 1947- Jan 23, 2024) – unknown • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie_(singer)
• Wayne Kramer (75) guitarist for MC5 (April 30, 1948 – February 2, 2024) – Cancer • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Kramer_(guitarist)
• Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett (77) Bassist band leader for Bob Marley (22 November 1946 – 3 February 2024) – heart failure • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_%22Family_Man%22_Barrett
• Ian ‘Titch’ Amey (79) Guitarist for Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich (15 May 1944 – 14 February 2024) – unknown • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Amey
• Eric Carmen (74) singer-songwriter for the Raspberries and later solo star (August 11, 1949 – March 2024) – heart failure • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Carmen
• Steve Harley (73) singer-songwriter for Cockney Rebel (27 February 1951 – 17 March 2024) – cancer • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Harley
• Gerry Conway (76) percussion for Jethro Tull, Cat Stevens, Fairport Convention etc. (11 September 1947 – 29 March 2024)- motor neurone disease • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Conway_(musician)
• Dickey Betts (80) Guitar virtuoso for Allman Brothers Band (December 12, 1943 – April 18, 2024) – cancer and copd • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickey_Betts
• Mike Pinder (82) Keyboard, founding member of the Moody Blues (27 December 1941 – 24 April 2024) – dementia • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pinder
• Duane Eddy (86) rockabilly guitar pioneer (April 26, 1938 – April 30, 2024) – cancer • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Eddy
• Richard Tandy (76) Keyboardist for ELO (26 March 1948 – 1 May 2024) – undisclosed • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Tandy
• John Barbata (79) drummer for the Turtles, CSN&Y, Jefferson Starship (April 1, 1945 – May 8, 2024) – undisclosed • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barbata
• Dennis Thompson (75) Drummer for MC5 (September 7, 1948 – May 9, 2024) – heart attack • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Thompson_(drummer)
• David Sanborn (78) Saxophone virtuoso (July 30, 1945 – May 12, 2024) – Cancer • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sanborn
• Doug Ingle (78) founder, Keyboardist, vocalist with Iron Butterfly (September 9, 1945 – May 24, 2024) – natural causes • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Ingle
• Ed Mann (69) – Long term keyboard-percussion with the Frank Zappa Band (January 14, 1955 – May 31, 2024) – undisclosed • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Mann
• Françoise Hardy (80) – Top French singer-songwriter (17 January 1944 – 11 June 2024) – cancer • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7oise_Hardy
• Tom Fowler (73) – bass player who worked with Frank Zappa, Jean-Luc Ponty, It’s a Beautiful Day (June 10, 1951 – July 2, 2024) – aneurysm • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Fowler_(bassist)
• Joe Egan (77) – singer-songwriter with folk rock-band Stealers Wheel (Oct. 18, 1946 – July 6, 2024) – undisclosed • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Egan_(musician)
• Sandy Posey (80) – country pop-rock singer (I was born a woman) (June 18, 1944 – July 20, 2024) – dementia • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Posey
• Jerry Miller (81) – iconic guitarist-singer, songwriter with Moby Grape (July 10, 1943 – July 20, 2024) – undisclosed • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Miller
• Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir (88) – vocalist and founding member of the extremely popular Four Tops (December 26, 1935 – July 22, 2024) – natural life • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Fakir
• John Mayall (90) – father of the British Blues, John Mayall and the Blues Breakers (29 November 1933 – 22 July 2024) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mayall
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