My inner horny 13-year-old has lost a special friend today.
The Seeds’ Sky Saxon has also died. It’s hard to beat “You’re Pushing Too Hard” for original Nuggets tracks.
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Jun 252009
May 262009
This was a sad bit of news you may have heard about already: former Wilco multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett was found dead in his sleep in Champaign, IL. Summerteeth is still the one Wilco album I like playing, and I know he had a large hand in that one. I know he was kicked out of the band during the making of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, a story that was (I believe) central to that documentary that came out on the band around the time of YHF‘s release, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. I was not a big fan of that album, and I have still not seen the movie. I do own a Bennett/Edward Burch album, The Palace at 4 am, which I like best among all Wilco-related albums I own next to Summerteeth, so I’m guessing I was a Jay Bennett fan more than anything. I’ll have to check out the rest of his solo catalog. Too bad I didn’t appreciate more of his stuff in his lifetime.
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Apr 292009
The previous year, Polydor had rejected the fifth full-length Style Council studio album, the house-influenced Modernism: A New Decade, and John fought Paul’s corner, lifting head of Polydor David Munns out of his chair during a particularly fractious meeting and telling him: “You don’t talk about my son like that.”
One of rock’s coolest dads, John Weller, who supported and managed son Paul‘s career from his earliest rock aspirations as a teenager through The Jam, The Style Council, and his rebirth as a solo artist, has died. I don’t know a whole lot about the guy, but I’ve seen interviews with him and read some stuff and I’ve always thought that if either of my sons wants to be a rock musician, I’d like to be as willing as John Weller was to be in his son’s corner and help him achieve his rock dreams. Pere Weller had excellent hair to boot!
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Apr 132009
I can’t believe I’m going to have to watch Phillies games without the voice of Harry Kalas, who died in the press box at the Washington Nationals’ stadium at 1:20 today. For those of you who did not grow up with “Harry the K” calling games since your childhood, the Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster may be one more legendary voice you’ve heard in the background of ESPN highlights – and even imitated by ESPN broadcasters – but he’s THE VOICE of the team I first started following the same year Kalas came to Philly, 1971. From boyhood forward, every Philadelphia sports fan works on his Harry Kalas impersonation. It’s a good thing that we’ll be able to remember the sound of Harry’s voice a lot better than any of us try to replicate it.
Admittedly, we’ve got weird priorities in Philadelphia, and our beloved sports broadcasters often resonate more deeply in our hearts than our usually suspect teams. When Kalas’ old color man and Hall of Fame Phillies centerfielder in his own right, Richie Ashburn, died midseason in 1997, our city mourned like Rome might following the passing of the Pope. I’m sure the coming week here will be no different.
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Mar 272009
I had no idea Dan Seals of England Dan & John Ford Coley fame – and a successful country music singer-songwriter in his own right – died this week, at 61. Thanks for pointing that out Townsman Al.
For that matter, I had no idea Seals had a successful country music career following his duo’s big soft-rock hit.
For that matter, I don’t recall ever knowing that he was brother to Jim Seals, of Seals & Crofts. If ever there is a Battle Royale to determine the First Family of Soft Rock, the Seals boys are going to earn consideration alongside the Taylor clan.
There’s so much I never knew about England Dan despite the fact that his duo’s big hit has been stuck in my brain for 30-some years. Did you know he was poised to have a #2 hit song as an artist in a band signed to Stax?
It’s only fitting that we pay the man his proper respects…after the jump!
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Feb 062009
I never became a fan of The Cramps and the whole shockabilly aesthetic, but I’m sure recently deceased frontman Lux Interior was loved by some of you. For that reason alone, Lux was a great…man.
The first time I heard The Cramps doing “Surfin’ Bird” I was intrigued, as might be expected of any teenage rock fan. Then I heard more; saw the whole Lux Interior schtick documented in a punk movie or two; and lived through my town’s local punk scene, which featured a singer for two related bands whose entire schtick was based on Interior’s Poor Man’s Iggy schtick. Kids, when your Mom tells you, “You don’t know where that microphone’s been!” it may not be out of the question to wonder if she was a Cramps fan in college.
NEXT: Rock Town Hall’s Official Eulogy…
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Jan 292009
A fine, fine pianner player in the boogie-woogie/rock tradition has gone with the wind. Dead yesterday at 56 from a heart attack. RIP, Billy Powell.
Skip ahead to mile marker 2:28 for what I think was Billy’s finest moment.
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