With Davy Jones dying just ten days after I saw him on stage at BB King's… it got me to thinking. How many swan songs have I seen? Now, a swan song doesn't mean a singer hasn't hung up their spurs the very next day. But rather, that is their last area performance.
So, here we go… swan songs!
James Brown
Ike Turner
Frank Sinatra
Mel Torme
Peggy Lee
Rosemary Clooney
Considering how many concerts I've been to, I guess that isn't too bad.
Peggy Lee was brilliant and she lasted maybe four years after I saw her. Ray Charles, Mel Torme and Rosemary Clooney were showing their age.Frank Sinatra was reading lyrics off songs he had sung for 50 years straight from a teleprompter and he had no voice left and made it ALL ON HIS PHRASING! If Ike Turner's point was that "What's Love Got To Do With It" was NOT THE ENTIRE STORY, consider the point made.
James Brown was always an erratic performer by this stage of his career. He was pretty good and he was undoubtedly James Brown. And Rosemary Clooney was undoubtedly Rosemary Clooney and there was a lot of her! She fell soon pretty soon after this.
I had a tix to see Ian Curtis, but he hung himself before his New York debut. The selfish bastard