Rolling Obituary Thread: 2017

RIP Tommy Gemmell ;_;

Scoring vs. Inter Milan, European Cup Final, 1967

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i31RBFSpqbk

Rubber legs vs. Inter Milan, European Cup Final, 1967

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i31RBFSpqbk

Scoring vs Feyenoord, European Cup Final, 1970

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFz0hXtzQj4

Kicking a German up the arse, 1969

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnja51VticQ

Oops, here are the rubber legs, as promised...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlaOgEHHn4

:-(

Gustav Metzger

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/mar/02/auto-destructive-art-pioneer-gustav-metzger-dies-aged-90

Lovely obit for Don Markham - Merle Haggard's horn player.
http://www.bakersfield.com/entertainment/luckiest-man-in-oildale-haggard-s-horn-player-close-friend/article_659d39cd-5764-588b-b457-55102611ce43.html

forgot to mention, read the comments on that for a fun story from Merle's bus driver.

sad news about Tommy Gemmell

Free jazz pianist Misha Mengelberg

Very sad. He had such an amazing career, going from accompanying Eric Dolphy to being one of the key figures of the European scene for decades.

I missed this at the time - Alex Young, passed away Feb 27 aged 80. A God to Evertonians a generation before mine and titular subject of Ken Loach's 1968 BBC drama-doc The Golden Vision.

8 caps for Scotland. Typical.

Well, they were World Champions without him.

Tommy Page!

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7710182/tommy-page-ill-be-your-everything-singer-and-former-billboard-publisher-dies-at-46?utm_source=twitter

Miriam Colón, who played Al Pacino’s Cuban mother in Scarface and founded the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in 1967

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/miriam-colon-dead-scarface-actress-dies-1202002194/

Willard Grant Conspiracy frontman Robert Fisher

http://www.vanyaland.com/2017/02/13/rip-willard-grant-conspiracys-robert-fisher-has-died-after-cancer-battle/

Tommy Page!

Man, I have no memory of that single at all.

Yeah I've never heard that song but I know this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DH2StgTvP4

Aw, that's so sad. I was briefly fixated on Tommy Page as the ultimate Cool Dude when I was like eleven.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C6Qb3Z3XEAEykEs.jpg:small

Dammit, I was already gutted about other things. Still, he had a damn good run as the face of TCM.

;_;

that's a tough one

Damn, a friend and I were just speculating about his health last night. RIP

Gerald Hirschfeld, veteran cinematographer who shot Fail-Safe, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Young Frankenstein

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/gerald-hirschfeld-dead-young-frankenstein-fail-safe-cinematographer-was-95-977763

one of the true greats of the underground cartoonists, Jay Lynch RIP
http://www.tcj.com/jay-lynch-1945-2017/

Ric Marlow, who co-wrote the oft-recorded "A Taste of Honey"

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ric-marlow-dead-taste-honey-songwriter-was-91-983854

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/arts/music/dave-valentin-dead-latin-jazz-flutist.html?_r=0

Had a stroke in 2012 and had Parkinson's.

Caught that on the WBGO feed. Glad I got to see him once at the Jazz Standard. RIP.

Fred Weintraub, owner of NYC's The Bitter End hotspot in the '60s

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/fred-weintraub-whose-bitter-end-club-showcased-comic-singing-talent-in-1960s-dies-at-88/2017/03/08/73ccd9fa-041c-11e7-b1e9-a05d3c21f7cf_story.html?utm_term=.91de108a9c33

Lynne Stewart, radical attorney

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/3/8/rip_lynne_stewart_peoples_lawyer_fmr

John Surtees, only person ever to be world motorcycle and Formula One champion.

http://bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/35126201

Joni Sledge

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/12/joni-sledge-group-sister-sledge-dies-60

Robert James Waller, author of The Bridges of Madison County

http://variety.com/2017/film/obituaries-people-news/robert-james-waller-dead-bridges-of-madison-county-author-dies-1202006294/

http://music.blog.austin360.com/2017/03/12/evan-johns-60-left-his-mark-on-austin-music-as-a-firebrand-guitarist/

Hard-living guitarist who learned from bluesmen at Smithsonian folklife fest, Danny Gatton, punk rock and more and made his own guitar sounds in DC till 1984, and after that in Austin, Texas

Johns’ stint in the LeRoi Brothers led to his participation in Big Guitars From Texas, a local all-star “guitar army” whose 1985 album “Trash, Twang & Thunder” earned a Grammy nomination.

I grew up listening to this album on countless family cartrips. One of the great roots records of the 80s. RIP

John Lever, drummer for the Chameleons.

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2017/03/13/john-lever-chameleons-dies/

RIP, that's awful

HOLY shit, what terrible news.

Ed Whitlock

http://runningmagazine.ca/ed-whitlock-dies-at-86/

Ran a 2:54 marathon at age 73. Was still running sub 4 up until last year.

Tommy LiPuma, record producer, exec.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/obituary/7721006/tommy-lipuma-obit

On Facebook seeing that Maxx Kidd, who ran late 70s /early 80s DC go-go music label TTED has died. Kidd was also a mid-70s era DC soul songwriter, and later played a role in go-go getting on Island Records and that failed movie Good to Go.

Dan Lucas
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/mar/14/dan-lucas-guardian-cricket-rugby-union-writer-dies?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

so far, this year seems heavy on ppl known to either US or UK nearly exclusively

(eg footie/rugby persons, Pofessor Irwin Corey)

The threshold for this thread has always been....niche

It is true I have no idea who most of these dead Americans are.

A lot of the time it doesn't matter if I haven't heard of them - I just like a good obituary.

Dan Lucas used to write for Drowned in Sound and Louder than War, in case you haven't read that far down.

i managed to completely miss his coverage despite reading a lot of the guardian sports section by not caring about those two sports but jesus sudden death at 31. so tragic.

also the whole point of this obit thread was to collect obituaries of people whose passings would not generate enough reaction to merit a separate thread, there is really no low bar beyond being involved in public life in some way

Jay Lynch, of Garbage Pail Kids (and apparently lots of other stuff I don't know) fame

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/12/arts/design/jay-lynch-underground-comics-creator-dies-at-72.html

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/03/16/520453907/james-cotton-legend-of-the-blues-harmonica-dies-at-81