Coincidentally The Back Office was just working on this and we can’t think of a better individual to launch this new tradition for than Mr. Ron Asheton. Hat tip to Oats for clueing us in.
Jan 062009
Jan 062009
Dec 012008
One of my favorite elements of the classic Motown sound has always been the baritone saxophone. The man responsible for those distinct, swinging lines, Mike Terry, has died.
It was in 1963, with Heatwave and You Lost the Sweetest Boy, that the sound of Terry’s baritone started bursting out of young America’s transistor radios. Restricted by the production team of Lamont Dozier and Eddie and Brian Holland to short interludes before the final chorus, usually no more than eight bars long, he made the most of his opportunity with a heated approach that was short on melodic invention but long on rhythmic drive.
Incidentally, the Guardian obit says he died Oct. 30, which I assume is a typo and should read “November 30.”
Nov 122008
He was…a great man.
Seriously, Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell was one of rock’s coolest drummers. He was found dead in a Portland, OR hotel after wrapping up an all-star Jimi Hendrix Experience-themed supergroup tour. Like Keith Moon, he played in a free and nimble style that most drummers shouldn’t attempt to duplicate. Don’t try this at home, kids.
How he wasn’t snatched up and used to maximum effect by other musicians after Hendrix dumped him is beyond me. At least you can’t say the Experience left anything on the table.
(Thanks to Townsman Telewacker for directing us to this story.)
Oct 172008
What’d I tell you about our friend, Links Linkerson? At the end of a busy day I just got notice from the basement that Four Tops lead vocalist Levi Stubbs has died.
I’m sure some of you are sick to death of the band’s oldies but goodies (greaties, in most cases), so here’s a hit from the ’70s that you may not be as sick of hearing and that was key to the formative musical years of myself and a young Townsman Andyr!!
Sep 222008
Little Richard, “Keep a Knockin'”
From The Times-Picayune:
Earl Palmer, the New Orleans drummer who largely defined the beat of rock ‘n’ roll on thousands of recordings from the late 1940s on, died Friday in Los Angeles after a long illness. He was 83.
Dapper and outspoken, Mr. Palmer may well have been the most recorded drummer in the history of popular music. He stamped his sound on everything from early Fats Domino and Little Richard hits to classic movie soundtracks to music for “The Flintstones” cartoon.
“He was my right hand,” said Dave Bartholomew, the producer and co-writer of Domino’s catalog. “He was a professor of music. (With Mr. Palmer’s passing,) it’s like I died myself.”
Here’s a cool multi-part piece on the drumming of Earl Palmer: Part 1, Part 2.
Sep 182008
Norman Whitfield, the producer-songwriter most responsible for dragging Motown into the second half of the 1960s and making the label’s music at least tolerable for the whitest of rock fans, has died. Despite my poke at those of you who fail to dig the beauty of the earlier model of Motown’s output, I love Whitfield’s work. Come on, you Rockist lunkheads, for Norman’s sake go back and learn to dig the earlier stuff too!
From The Guardian:
Whitfield’s big chance came when Holland-Dozier-Holland stormed out of Motown in early 1968 in a row over profit-sharing. Inspired by Sly and the Family Stone’s wild arrangements, he wrote the hard-driving, socially aware Cloud Nine with lyricist Barrett Strong (who is himself currently recovering from a stroke) for the Temptations. Despite Gordy’s reservations over its perceived pro-drug message, it changed Motown overnight. Suddenly, topical comment and audacious psychedelic arrangements were on the agenda, and Whitfield-Strong were on a roll: Ball of Confusion, Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone, War and Smilin’ Faces Sometimes all smouldered with tension and paranoia befitting the era of Vietnam, Nixon and the Black Panthers. War actually sounds like war; Ball of Confusion is indeed a ball of confusion.
