Lomax was indeed a fabulous guitarist and just a listen to The Ballad Of Liverpool Slim from 2000 will get your blues jones on. He was also gorgeous. Lomax died of a heart attack at the age of 69.
Music promoter who introduced the US to the Beatles and the Stones and was the first to put on concerts at Madison Square Garden. H introduced the US to the Rascal (the US thought they were a black band… for obvious reasons) and everybody I know who knew him, says Sid was a real gentleman. He was 95 years old.
This is one of ours, Queens guitarist who graduated from Soft White Underbelly to Blue Oyster Cult, dating Patti Smith somewhere along the way before scoring big time metal hit “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”, dead at 67 years old from lung disease. Bummer.
He produced Cash’s “Rings of Fire” as well as writing hits for as hits for hits for everybody from Elvis Presley to Cliff Richards
Tim Wright – Former DNA ( and current Pere Ubu bassist, the man even played on Eno and Byrne’s hugely influential My Life In Bush Of Ghosts.
the moral to his short tragic life is drug addiction is a disease more than a choice
the tech whiz kid who invented all those hi-tech great sounding sound systems that sounded good enough for an Arena but were for your own home
Known by his fellow band members as the human metronone, Devo drummer put that robotic thud on to their biggest hits like three kinds of drum machines rolled into one
“When I’m calling you-o-o-o-, will you answer too-o-o-o”… that’s Slim Whitman, the yodeling master deeply influenced by one Jimmy Rodgers and much bigger in the UK and the rest of Europe
Not just the essence of rock and roll but the essence of rock and roll as an art form, Marianne released herself and us from these earthly bonds as we all became highway stars shining forever.
“We were offered a renewal with rates that weren’t necessarily onerous. But after much thought, given the changing nature of Hoboken and the difficulties of trying to run a business in this town, we decided it was time.”
Steven Paul Perry was a Boston legend and a popular guitarist who played with everybody from Robert Cray to John Hiatt as well as his own band the Human Condition. It was one of those lives seeped in rock guitar, the sort people don’t have any more. But he died of lung cancer despite several attempts to fund care for his battle with lung cancer. Along with sorrow for his passing, how about health care for musicians. Before you continue to blast Obamacare, please consider what the alternative can be.
Marshall Lyte was the bass player in Bill Haley And the Comets and played on “Rock Around The Clock” till he left to found The Jodimars with drummer DICk Richards and saxophone player Joey Ambrose. In 1986, Lyte rejoined the Comets and played with them till he retired 2011. So we had our first big rock and roll band playing for us till two years ago. Last year the Comets were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. He died of lung cancer at the age of 79.
They got their band sound from the keyboards, it is still their most distinctive element and it is the break on “Fire” that made Morrison a superstar sex symbol. Also, with those sideburns and shades, Ray was an important visual element.
After a spate of deaths in March and April, the Grim Reaper has been passing on musicians for the past couple of weeks. Not that it helps Dr. Joyce Brothers any and which Helen went through cartwheels to include even scaring up an interview Dr. Brothers conducted with Kiss. But no. Taylor Meade on the other hand…
I’ve always loved the Doors myself even if those in the know got muzzled by Morrisson’s over the top coyote blues poetics, Manzarek steadied the sound for a pop world. By the end, by the time of Morrison Hotel and LA Woman, the band were where they needed to be.
Popdoses Ken Shane wrote “Now that George is gone, Vince has the most beautiful voice in country music” and if you don’t think that’s high praise may I remind you George Strait is still alive
This is such a horrible death, I mean do not google pictures of it unless you have a very strong stomach: imagine the flesh-eating bacteria slowly destroying your muscles, fat, skin and deep tissues and the only way to save your life is to remove the diseased tissues
Lead guitarist and a founding member of thrash rock innovators Slayer, died of liver failure at the age of 49. The 1980s progenitors of all things thrash came up thru the ranks of metal to join Metallica as a pinnacle of cool heaviness.
Jones imparted gravitas to everything he sang. Knowing sin and salvation, he could effortlessly convey anguish, hope, and humor. He stuck to his knitting
Everybody from Elvis C. to Emo rock owes their vocabulary of pain to the great man and nobody around today or yesterday for that matter can compare. Even Ray Charles loved him.
Richie Havens – Forever immortalized at Woodstock for his “Motherless Child/Freedom” medley, the hippie folk singer gave a hard strummed acoustic guitar and a soulful vocal to bags full of 1960s classic covers. He was 72 years old when he died.
The graphic designer whose Hipgnosis design house, was behind all those Pink Floyd album covers, Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, the whole lot. As well as Led Zeppelin and Peter Gabriel album covers. Something of a lost art form in the digital age, or at least not really necessary, Storm, a childhood friend of David Gilmore, was the vision of Pink Floyd. Cancer took him to the great gig in the sky at the age of 69.
Chi Chi Cheng – The Deftones first bassist, Chi Chi played with them from beginning and on their first five albums, including their breakthrough 2000’s White Pony. The loud/soft metal grunge coming of age party happened here, moving metal past both. In 2008, Cheng was in a car crash and never fully recovered. He was 42.
I didn’t much like her myself, but I, unlike Morrissey, am not a socialist. I believe in some form of middle ground between rampant monopolies and goverment run business. Thatcher brought the UK back from the brink but she destroyed millions of lives while doing it.
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.
Phil Ramone produced Clay Aiken, Burt Bacharach, The Band, Bono, Laura Branigan, Ray Charles, Karen Carpenter, Chicago, Peter Cincotti, Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Sheena Easton, Melissa Errico, Gloria Estefan, Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Elton John, Quincy Jones, Patricia Kaas, B. B. King, Julian Lennon, Shelby Lynne, Madonna…
Fran Warren auditioned to sing for the Duke ellington Band when she was just sixteen years on. She didn’t get the gig but she spent the next decades singing for some of the biggest swing bands in the country. And nailing down a handful of hits singles, including her signature tune “A Sunday Kind Of Love”. She died recently at the age of 87
This is the second of our ongoing column about deaths in the music business. It is a depressing business but like just about everything I do, I’m just keeping track and paying my respects.
Great musicians die all the time and rock nyc tends to pass on writing an obituary of way too many, so we are going to start a round up of passings so at least we can provide a wave goodbye before we move back to Chelsea Handler thinking Taylor Swift is a virgin and Billie Joe Armstrong now sober again.
