Annette Funicello –the member of the Mickey Mouse Club most likely to get a boy through puberty went on to sing more than Disney tunes as she because a babe in bikini and followed it with a successful career in music covering the American songbook and movies. In 1995, Annette announced she suffered from multiple sclerosis and earlier this week she died from it at the age of 70.
Margaret Thatcher – The UK’s Iron Lady would seem to have nothing to do with music except she was the primary subject matter of post-punk UK agit-prop. Costello’s “Tramp The Dirt Down”, the Specials “Maggie’s farm”, the English Beat’s “Stand Down Margaret”, every “rock against” movement was rocking against Thatcher and Gang Of Four’s entire career was based on despising her. Her heart gave out, thereby dispelling one rumor. She was 87 years old.
Andy Johns– UK record engineer who worked on classic albums like “Sticky Fingers”, “Exile On Mainstreet”, the heart of the Led Zep catalog, and much more. Apparently he died from liver disease. He was 61 years old.
Lawrence McKiver – the lead singer of the McIntosh county singers, a black music group who performed the forgotten art of the ring shout. The ring shout is not a cream, but a dance that is performed while percussion based spiritual songs are performed specifically for it. It is a form of ecstatic release. This is how the Boston Globe describe the Shout: “A shout typically begins with the songster singing the opening lines; other singers, known as basers, reply in call-and-response fashion. The group’s ‘‘stick man’’ beats a syncopated rhythm on the floor with a tree branch or broomstick as other members clap.” He was 97.
Roger Ebert, the biggest star in the movie reviewing business with the Chicago Sun times and later on TV in “At The Movies” foil to Gene Siskel died at the age of 70. What’s he doing here? He wrote “Beyond The valley Of The Dolls” about an all girl rock band, and followed it with the never produced the Sex Pistols screenplay “Who Shot Bambi”.