Rolling Obituary Thread: 2021

Saw the Bay City Rollers in 1989, booked as the end-of-classes party at the student union, no plaid or pretense of former glory, just a fun plainclothes set. I recall being told the woman on stage with them was the head of their fan club back in the day, elevated to tambourine player.

I read the Simon Spence and Caroline Sullivan books back-to-back a couple of years ago. Rivetingly bleak and shocking.

Shock G

https://allhiphop.com/news/shock-g-digital-underground-dead-at-57/

RIP, bumping "The Humpty Dance" in tribute

:(

today sucks

Oh man Sex Packets has been burned into my memory for 30 years and 30 years from now I’m still going to know every word of Humpty Dance and my cousin and I will still reference MC Blowfish to crack each other up. That album got me searching for P-Funk and the Band of Gypsies records which was hard as hell in the middle of nowhere in the early 90s.

RIP Peace and Humptiness forever

Too young, RIP

Sex Packets was an outright classic.. RIP Greg.

More discussion here, if anyone wants it: Digital Underground: C/D?

Alber Elbaz, fashion designer, from Covid complications, 59.

Bob Fass, longtime radio host on WBAI-FM

#BobFass, Legendary Icon, the Father of Free Form Radio who had a program and home @WBAI since 1963, passed away peacefully today. He was 87 years old. We love you Bob.. Rest in Peace. pic.twitter.com/IvmnJELHaW

— WBAI New York at 99.5 FM, streaming at wbai.org (@WBAI) April 25, 2021

German mezzo Christa Ludwig has died at the age of 93.

https://slippedisc.com/2021/04/sda-news-christa-ludwig-has-died-at-93/

Ewig, ewig...

RIP. :(

cosign on Jon's post

Alber Elbaz, fashion designer, from Covid complications, 59.

Denny Freeman, long-time Austin Blues/Roots scenester and lead guitarist on Dylan's Modern Times lp.

https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2021-04-25/denny-freeman-the-graceful-guitarist-who-made-everyone-sound-better-has-died/

Bay Area painter/filmmaker William T. Wiley

https://www.instagram.com/p/COLYhCWlegb/

It's worth adding that Elbaz died of Covid 19 despite having been fully vaccinated. RIP.

Recording engineer Al Schmitt.
https://www.musictech.net/news/industry/al-schmitt-dies-91/

Michael Martin, actor in New Orleans, gave a fantastic performance recently in Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets.

I received word this morning that my old friend and collaborator @michaelmnola, whom many of you would know from his role in #BloodyNoseEmptyPockets, died of apparently natural causes last night. 1/2

— Matthew Wilson (@MattDWLine) April 27, 2021

He was incredible in that. Throughout the entire movie my wife and I kept trying to figure out who were the real actors and who were the amateurs, but he clearly seemed like something who knew what he was doing, in the best way.

Yeah I'm bummed out by this, not to be flippant, but I wrote about the movie and he was very active on Twitter, usually at the same times as me (2-3am EST). We interacted fairly often and I was about to send him some zines.

Oh hey, I knew him pretty well, good to see him mentioned here. He was almost like a latter-day Tennessee Williams in his recklessness and creative passion and the rest.

https://louderthanwar.com/anita-lane-rip-birthday-party-bad-seeds-solo/

Anita Lane, long term Nick Cave/Barry Adamson collaborator and Mute artist in their own right.

Recording engineer Al Schmitt, who worked on a million records, notably Steely Dan's Aja. The story about working with Duke Ellington is great:

After serving in the U.S. Navy, Schmitt apprenticed at Apex Recording Studios in New York City, working alongside the noted producer Tom Dowd. On one memorable occasion when Dowd wasn't present, Schmitt, 19 at the time, wound up engineering several sides by the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

"I kept saying, 'You know, Mr. Ellington, I'm really not qualified to do this. This was a huge mistake,'" Schmitt told Billboard. "And he kept patting me on the leg and saying, `Don't worry, son. We're going to get through this.' And that was it. I got thrown in, we got it done, we did four sides. The nice thing was it gave me confidence that I was able to do it. I often think that if they'd told me the night before that I was going to record Duke Ellington the next day, I probably would have called in sick."

Awesome

Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, known to me mostly as the subject of the Jethro Tull song "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me".

Legendary motorcycle racer Dick Mann: 6/13/34 - 4/26/21

https://nationalmcmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/DickMannMain-1.jpg

Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, known to me mostly as the subject of the Jethro Tull song "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me".

― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, April 28, 2021 10:24 AM (forty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

known to me as "not that michael collins".

the guy who went to the moon but didn't get to strut. RIP

RIP unlucky astronaut

Probably the most famous line from Collins’ lovely, lyrical memoir, “Carrying the Fire”

“I am alone now, truly alone. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be 3 billion plus 2 over on the other side of the Moon, and one plus God only knows what on this side.” pic.twitter.com/Zg92Le9yzs

— Rebecca 🌕 Boyle (@rboyle31) April 28, 2021

Mike Stax has reported on FB that Ali Mackenzie of the (British) Birds has passed.

Anne Douglas, widow of Kirk Douglas, aged 102.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/30/entertainment/kirk-douglas-widow-dies/index.html

Johnny Crawford, of television's The Rifleman.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/johnny-crawford-young-star-of-the-rifleman-dies-at-75

had not heard that Giancarlo DiTrapano died. Had my back and forth with the NY Tyrant vibe but his commitment to helping out writers he believed in, to being an active force in literature, was undeniable; his was the sort of presence on the scene that keeps it vibrant, humming. And a good dude in my limited talking with him, and per everybody who knew him as far as I can tell. A loss.

https://www.vulture.com/2021/04/remembering-the-founder-of-new-york-tyrant-and-tyrant-books.html

somehow totally missed that former US attorney general-turned-activist Ramsey Clark died three weeks ago

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/ramsey-clark-dead/2021/04/10/70314e68-9949-11eb-a6d0-13d207aadb78_story.html

Man, somebody should POLL the Al Schmitt discography, but it might be too much work.

Just found out about Surfin' with the Astronauts, for example.

https://louderthanwar.com/anita-lane-rip-birthday-party-bad-seeds-solo/

Anita Lane, long term Nick Cave/Barry Adamson collaborator and Mute artist in their own right.

More obit links (by Rob Sheffield and Nick Cave) over here if anyone wants them: Nick Cave : Classic or Dud ?

Eli Broad, mover and shaker in LA's construction and art scene, at 87.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/us/eli-broad-dead.html

Olympia Dukakis

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/05/olympia-dukakis-dies-at-89-1234634665/

;_;

I love Olympia Dukakis.

Walter Jones, pretty obscure not prolific but consistently excellent house producer, perhaps best known for 'I'll Keep On Loving You / Living Without Your Love' on DFA in 2009

I've just learned of the passing of the Dj and Producer Walter jones, who was an amazing, lovely dude. I'm honored I got to know him, one of the real ones. Rest in peace man, we love youhttps://t.co/mo9WUGUaDL

— John Barera (@johnbarera) April 29, 2021

Milva, Italian singer and actress, 81.

Love Milva, her album of Ennio Morricone songs from 1972 is a perennial fave. The one of Brecht/Weill songs from 1971 is also classic. She was in my pantheon of 80-something Italian singers along with Mina and Ornella Vanoni.

https://www.musicinafrica.net/fr/node/15368

Earlier bio of Amha Eshete covering his years as a pioneering Ethiopian producer and label owner, plus touching on his later years after he fled to Washington DC and started the Blue Nile and the Ibex restaurant/ clubs. Eshete who has been sick for awhile, has just passed ( per an email from H in Addis and Facebook and Twitter)

afterthought re Milva: you gotta love the nicknames the Italian press gave to singers in the '60s -

Milva was "The Panther of Goro"
Mina was "The Tigress of Cremona"
Ornella Vanoni was "The Singer of the Bad Life (i.e. the Underworld)"
Iva Zanicchi was "The Eagle of Ligonchio"

Thanks, Josefa. Did they marry anyone that would qualify them for the other thread?

Milva was in a relationship with the spaghetti western and giallo actor Luigi Pistilli (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly). He committed suicide after they split up.

Bummer. "Living Without Your Love" was one of my favorite singles of the last decade.