Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

just got a genuine pang* checking out booth's (and weekend's and working week's) wikipedia pages: they are all distressingly scant, suggesting that here is a strand of music that has greatly fallen out of history's critical gaze since the 80s -- at the time these outfits were all important to me also, if only as ppl kinda getting post-punk's jazz turn WRONG (not now going to pretend i was getting things any righter tho i totally felt i was in the moment)**

* part sadness at a loss, part i guess guilt (did i ever diss him in print? i forget but it's not unlikely)
** one day i may try and explain this more fully but not today, RIP and sleep well, key figure i carelessly disdained long ago when there still seemed like all the time in the world to battle things out and find a good resolution for all :( :( :(

Mark I think one of our first conversations on here was me being grumpy about you being (v mildly) sniffy about this stuff.

(And Eazy, hope you enjoy, Vic is a pretty fascinating figure IMO and I hope he doesn’t appear again on this thread for a long long time)

Croatian author Dubravka Ugresic, who I've never read but who I've always read good things about.

RIP. I read Europe In Sepia a few years ago and learned a great deal.

Mick Slattery, old busking pal of Dave Brock and one of the founders of Hawkwind.

RIP NY radio dj Polito Vega

In an obituary in Billboard magazine, Leila Cobo, the author of “Decoding ‘Despacito’: An Oral History of Latin Music” (2020), wrote: “Vega’s importance to Latin music cannot be overstated. He was the most influential tastemaker in the country’s top market, dating back to when tropical music first became popular in the city in the 1960s and 1970s and stretching all the way to the 21st century.”

xxp That's a loss. I read Fox, I thought it was brilliant.

Her work sounds really interesting at a scan and I'm embarassed that I'm not familiar with it. Any recommendations to start with something besides Fox?

My friend wrote a really good essay about a book of her essays:

https://www.ronslate.com/on-the-age-of-skin-essays-by-dubravka-ugresic-translated-by-ellen-elias-bursac/

I recommended this on his recommendation to a Croatian friend of mine that had never heard of her.

Willis Reed

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35912570/new-york-knicks-legend-willis-reed-dies-80

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHzxM69qm50

Kirk Gibson before Kirk Gibson. From everything I've ever read, he didn't even have to play in the 7th game of the 1970 final; just hobbling onto the court for the pre-game warm-up was enough to thoroughly unnerve the Lakers. (I just checked, though, and he actually did play 27 minutes. Maybe I have the wrong game?...You've posted a clip, I'll have to check that.)

Rock crit Jud Cost, good writer who did a lot of work:

https://magnetmagazine.com/2023/03/20/r-i-p-magnet-contributing-editor-jud-cost/

rip willis reed, legendary knick

Seeing social media posts that Lee Purkis aka Insync has passed. There seem to be a lot of legendary 90s house and techno people leaving us too soon over the last few years.

Storm by Insync is one of those tracks made with the most basic of equipment that has stood the test of time.

Celeb journalist Bill Zehme:

When I first started subscribing to Rolling Stone in 1990, I fell in love with Bill Zehme's funny, sharp profiles of celebrities as varied as Barry Manilow and Warren Beatty. I never met him, but he was a huge influence on me. Sad to hear he's gone. https://t.co/QVVZoTXKiu

— Tim Grierson (@TimGrierson) March 26, 2023

Downtown NYC composer Scott Johnson, best known for working with tape loops and finding the melodic qualities of speech, a few years before Reich would do the same with Different Trains. This piece is very influential and quite fun. https://soundcloud.com/scottjohnson-composer/01-john-somebody-part-i

Oh yeah I used to listen to john somebody a lot

Extremely good obituary on Johnson in the NYT by Steve Smith, who also broke the news that his wife Marlisa Monroe, who apparently was big news in terms of NYC classical music publicity, passed this past Friday night -- Steve was very shaken up about having to write and report all this per his post on Facebook.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/26/arts/music/scott-johnson-dead.html

Rhys Chatham posting on Facebook that Johnson taught him the barre chord.

as an aside, I bought this CD, where I first heard part of John Sombeody, late in my high school years and it kinda blew my head wide open and definitely prepared me for my 4 years at Oberlin not long after:

https://www.discogs.com/master/2774882-Various-Late-In-The-20th-Century-An-ElektraNonesuch-New-Music-Sampler

Renée Gailhoustet (93), back in January.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/mar/27/emahoy-tsegue-maryam-guebrou-ethiopian-nun-and-pianist-dies-at-99

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, 99

Bobbi Ercoline, the woman on the cover of the Woodstock soundtrack.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/bobbi-ercoline-dies-blanket-draped-184232179.html

Awwwwwww... that was her future husband and they were still married, had no idea

I had seen then-and-now photos popping up on Facebook the past year or so.

That is very touching. It seems as though the world is a poorer place now.

Paul O'Grady, 67

RIP Paul

rip
unfortunate typo in that graun tribute when quoting tatchell.

Aw shame.

RIP Paul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKpl_vf2u7M

Oh that’s terrible. RIP Paul.

This sucks, RIP

LOL Rodri, get it right up ye's Spain.

"It's the way they play, but for me it's rubbish, always wasting time, provoking you, always they fall," he said. "For me, this is not football. The referee has to take on this, but he says nothing

... oops wrong thread!

ripi raka

When we worked together at Ch4, Paul O’Grady insisted that new roles on his show were advertised in the local Job Centre. He wanted anyone and everyone to be able to apply so they could get a break like he had. And it made the show better. A kind and generous man. pic.twitter.com/aQbs2ZUkww

— Mark Downie (@markmdownie) March 29, 2023

Keith Reid, Procol Harum Lyricist, Dies at 76

https://bestclassicbands.com/keith-reid-procol-harum-obituary-3-29-23/

Almost certainly the first lyricist-and-nothing-but to be the full-time member of a rock band.

Such an interesting thing, and relatively rare: I can only think of him, Peter Sinfield who wrote for King Crimson, and Robert Hunter for the Grateful Dead.

There's the woman who wrote the words for Renaissance, but I don't think she was ever considered a band member. And I guess the big precursor was Cream, who had five or six outside writers providing lyrics.

Michael Moorcock with Hawkwind, sort of

my first thought was Richard Meltzer with Blue Oyster Cult, but he was never considered a member and didn't do as many songs as I thought.

Pye Dubois for Max Webster, most famous for also writing the lyrics for Rush's "Tom Sawyer".
Blue Oyster Cult had shedloads of non-member lyricists, Sandy Pearlman foremost among them.

Robert Hunter, John Perry Barlow

Hunter already mentioned.

Dylan Thomas, for John Cale

xp Wow, for some reason I didn't even see that post.