Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

You're thinking of Marty Friedman.

lol, was wondering why, with those songwriting credits, he would have had to live off his kid's earnings.

You can't pass on that Goonie money

I guess he's saying he's not his dad because he emancipated himself from him but that means he also wants the news to report that Bob isn't and never was his father or something

Joe the Plumber

Read that to Bowie's "Joe the Lion"

The insane thing about "Joe the Plumber" is that he was apparently 49 when he died, but if you look at this video still that's been running with the news, he looks 55:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4kopyyWoAEdfUZ.jpg

Alex Jones effect, pumped up with rage and ignorance.

Now he's gunning down fantasy home invaders in hell

in 2008 this man was only 35 years old. this is what happens when you're trying to buy a small business.

His last words were, "Tito the Builder still lives..."

Gábor Medvigy, cinematographer on Béla Tarr's 'Werckmeister Harmonies' and 'Sátántangó', aged 66.

https://index.hu/kultur/2023/08/28/medvigy-gabor-operator-meghalt-satantango-tarr-bela-makk-karoly-jeles-andras/

caleb southern died six weeks ago at 53

he was a local dude in chapel hill. produced the first archers of loaf record, plus several ben folds things. went on to become a computer science lecturer at georgia tech before dying in july.

obviously not a big name, but he (like gary young) was the kind of guy who made scenes happen. RIP

Medvigy shot Damnation too. Such an important member of that filmmaking team, because you have the time to observe the patterns of light and shadow so intensely in those films.

xp oh sad news about Caleb Southern. His name was definitely all over a bunch of cds I owned in the 90s.

William MacKaye, a Washington Post editor, dies at 89
A former Episcopal seminarian, he left the politics beat to join The Post’s religion desk as a way to combine his spiritual and journalistic interests

Father of Ian , Alec. And other Mackaye s in music

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/08/28/william-mackaye-journalism-dead/

Portland street poet Walt Curtis, 82. Wrote Mala Noche, which eventually became Gus Van Sant's first film.

"He was also the city’s most accomplished heckler. “Banned from more readings by more open mic hosts than anyone else,” wrote fellow poet Gary D Aker on social media over the weekend. “That’s doing it right.”"

https://www.wweek.com/arts/books/2023/08/28/walt-curtis-portlands-iconoclastic-street-poet-dies-at-82/

https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780688090128-us-300.jpg
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/yvUAAOSw-T1h9FaE/s-l1600.jpg

Children's book illustrator Gale Owens, 84
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/kansascity/name/gail-owens-obituary?id=52018309

rip legend <3

(doh! meant to write "Gail")

poet Gboyega Odubanjo, 27

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-66668998

So heartbreaking.

Mohammed "Al" Fayed!

Never knew he was related by marriage to Jamal Khashoggi

I have a giant Harrods bottle opener

Sakevi of G.I.S.M.! https://www.brooklynvegan.com/g-i-s-m-vocalist-sakevi-yokoyama-has-reportedly-passed-away/

Curtis Fowlkes, jazz singer and trombonist, 73.

Jimmy Buffett

https://variety.com/2023/music/obituaries-people-news/jimmy-buffett-dead-margaritaville-1235711632/

RIP guy whose music I've never heard and I always use as an example of an artist who seems to be an exclusively American phenomenon.

heard for the first time last year, don't think I can remember how it went though.

Curtis Fowlkes was cool. Buffett ... nah, but RIP.

When I interviewed Robert Forster, he said Buffett was an example of a great melodist.

Honest question, do you think Forster spent a lot of time with Buffett, or just knew the one song?

RIP Margaritadude. I never saw him in concert, but once years ago we were having dinner in a little Silver Spring seafood place. The owner came over and pointed out Buffett, saying she had known him in college and whenever he was in town he ate there.

Honest question, do you think Forster spent a lot of time with Buffett, or just knew the one song?

― Josh in Chicago

No idea. The admission came out of nowhere when I mentioned I was a Floridian.

I can't stand his two most famous songs, but a few years ago I belatedly found out that "Come Monday" was his. I had somehow misattributed it to Gordon Lightfoot.

"Come Monday" is not a bad song.

I was playing music in a bar last night and am glad this news had not yet reached the world.

Fortunately I am not playing out tonight, but I'll betcha tomorrow I am going to have to grit my teeth while some chucklehead does "Cheeseburger in Paradise."

RIP Gail Owens and Curtis Fowlkes.
Lounge Lizards forever!

*Gale

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/02/arts/jimmy-buffett-dead.html

didn’t like his music, but he seemed like a genuinely unique, affable dude and the world will miss him

In 1996 another of Mr. Buffett’s planes, Hemisphere Dancer, was shot at by the Jamaican police, who suspected the craft was being used to smuggle marijuana. Onboard the airplane, which sustained little damage, were Bono of U2; Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records; and Mr. Buffett’s wife and two daughters. The Jamaican authorities later admitted the incident was a case of mistaken identity, inspiring Mr. Buffett to write the song “Jamaica Mistaica,” a droll sendup of the affair.

It seems very much in character for him to have waited until the end of summer.

Keep on stepppin' on pop tops, my dude.

“Jamaica Mistaica”

omigod

It was a beautiful day, the kind you want to toast
We were tree top flyin' movin' west along the coast
Then we landed in the water, just about my favorite thrill
When some asshole started firing as we taxied to Negril
Just about to lose my temper as I endeavored to explain
We had only come for chicken we were not a ganja plane
Well, you should have seen their faces when they finally realized
We were not some coked up cowboy sporting guns and alibis

We're catchin' fire, and there wasn't even a spliff

This would make a good poll.

When I interviewed Robert Forster, he said Buffett was an example of a great melodist.

I know a bunch of songwriters who've grappled with the "Jimmy Buffett is actually a good songwriter, it's just that his image & his themes obscure the craft" position, and I'm one of them. I don't think he was like a secret Townes van Zandt, but the lane he lived in was absolutely a choice; he was a very VERY good storyteller, a guy who could write a melody you only had to hear once to hum it for the rest of your life. It is weird and bears a little unpacking that his craft, while immensely popular, never warranted much critical ink in an era when people talk a lot about the pop star as persona etc etc. He was an ascended master of the form, too good at it for the people who write about that sort of thing to notice.

Earlier this summer, after some Buffett-Dylan talk on another thread, I was really tempted to start a "Buffett In The '70s" listening thread over on ILM. Obviously that didn't happen.

If people find the persona odious, though, that's going to discourage them from pursuing the music.

...which you say, but relatively few people are so interested in songwriting craft that they'll study songs whose subjects have no appeal for them. Even more so when the songs are so dependant on writing/performing persona.