Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

My sister and her husband are diehard parrotheads - they met in college when one of them was a wearing a Buffett t-shirt, they went and saw him at least once a year for the last 25 years, I had to wear a Hawaiian shirt when I stood in their wedding, and my mom actually wrote him a letter and invited him to said wedding, which he sadly declined but did send s signed photo. I’ve had a couple of friends text me today to ask (semi tongue in cheek) how my sister is doing.

I’m very indifferent to his work but am kind of sad I never saw him live, almost just to compare it to the crowds at the Phish and Dead shows I’ve seen, and he seemed like the kind of dude who’d be fun to hang out with.

I am legitimately surprised by the outpouring of Buffet love I've seen all day. Not just here but from my entire personal orbit.

And some of it's coming from people who I thought would have fronted like they were too cool for his cornball schtick two days ago.

This is making me love humanity even more than I already did. Even the cool people were harboring a secret soft spot for the goofiest, corniest crowd-pleasing shit. People are sometimes just a wonderful sebtimental blubbery mess. Rock on, Parrotheads.

someone suggested that he was in the 99th percentile of white guys born in mississippi in 1946 and i don't doubt it

I grew up in a 70s California beach town so Buffett was big even before "Margaritaville" was a hit. Junior high school kids knew some of the bits from "God's Own Drunk" as well as whatever was on SNL over the weekend.

Weird associative memory: for awhile in the early 90s, I had an IT job that took me to ~6-8 tech trade shows a year: both MacWorlds, Comdex, DigitalWorld, Seybold, etc. doing set-up and take down. There were a couple of Parrotheads that worked for Pinnacle MicroOptical and when the Buffett Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads box set was released, during teardown they would call out on their PA "WHAT WILL IT BE? BOATS? BEACHES? BARS? OR MAYYYYBE BALLADS?" and then play whatever was shouted back the loudest.

Zimbabwean cricketer (and Great Real Name), Heath Streak, 49.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/sep/03/heath-streak-former-zimbabwe-cricket-captain-dies-aged-49

i went to a margaritaville with coworkers literally last week and thought the margs were pretty solid tbh? like maybe not the best ones i’ve had but i’ve def had worse

Made from a mix — presumably the house brand mix they sell.

Some years ago Buffett himself published his own recipe for the perfect margarita, and it called for Rose's lime juice as well as regular lime juice. I wonder if that was more of a '70s taste, I don't see Rose's in margs nowadays. Ofc the margs he's making in his song are FROZEN, but we're not ready for that discussion.

Yeah, frozen margs are their own thing and I don't hold them to the same standard. But a regular margarita on the rocks should always always always use fresh lime juice, never mix or Rose's or any such abomination.

Gayle Hunnicutt, actress, 80.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/sep/03/gayle-hunnicutt-obituary

Fun Gayle Hunnicutt horror film: Eye of the Cat (1969), about scary house cats.

Calvin Parker, 68. Claimed to have been abducted by aliens in Pascagoula, MS in 1973. (this was briefly a big story at the time)
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2023/09/02/calvin-parker-alleged-victim-of-1973-alien-abduction-has-died/70706499007/

Robert Becerra, 64. Guitarist for the Stains:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CwwLqhKrHuO/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

The guitar-playing on the Stains album is fantastic. RIP.

Steve Harwell, singer for Smash Mouth, 56. Liver failure; he went into hospice care yesterday, apparently.

Somebody once told me the world was macaroni

So I took a bit out of a tree

It tasted kinda funky so I spit it at a monkey

and the monkey started cursing at me

(we changed that line to ‘started chasing me’ because of the teachers)

5000 years later the monkey was Darth Vader

and he threw his light saber at me

Gary Wright

https://www.tmz.com/2023/09/04/dream-weaver-love-is-alive-gary-wright-dead-dies/

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

aw RIP gary

Love is Alive >>>>>>>> Dream Weaver

Can't forget...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-0XNyUFUbc

RIP writer of Better by You Better than Me, aka the Judas Priest backward masking song

RIP, even if only for those two songs and that much-anthologized sf story by the other Gary Wright, “Mirror of Ice.”

Love is Alive >>>>>>>> Dream Weaver

tru

I think it might have been Mindhunter that used "Dream Weaver" reasonably well.

I'm not saying it's a conspiracy, but in the last few days we've seen the deaths of the singers of Spooky Tooth and Smash Mouth... take care Thom Yorke!

more like Wayne Coyne who shd be worried

Jawbone, Lipps Inc.

Um Jawbox

Yes, all of them in peril.

https://images.radiox.co.uk/images/593796?width=1400&crop=1_1&signature=iwiZvWDpX4yqGqvqhD67waElIeI=

I know MacNeal would be OK but it turns out Mouth died years ago.

Steve "Lips" Kudrow from Anvil, probably on his deathbed as I type this.

Aw.

Just kidding. He's probably fine.

Joe Fagin

Free jazz saxophonist Charles Gayle.

Also sound artist/composer Steve Roden. Talk about two sonic opposites...

RIP CG, saw him play a few years ago.

RIP to Charles Gayle despite some of his personal views, amazing to think he was born a year before Pharoah Sanders! Had no idea he was that old.

Bassist Richard Davis. I’m no jazz expert but he played on Pharoah Sanders Karma and Van Morrisons Astral Weeks. The bass playing in Ballerina alone made him a god to me. Taught at Oberlin when I entered which is cool.

Oh man. RIP. A true giant. A certain ILX0R studied him although not on bass.

Also played on the somewhat-maligned (though not in this house!) Laura Nyro album Smile.

Studied with him

Mike Yarwood, 82.

Trotting out his Ted Heath impression for St Peter as we speak!

Richard Davis, Roy Bittan, Randy Brecker: all Springsteen needed for "Meeting Across The River," one of his best tracks ever.

Richard Davis talk and memories here - Roll Call: Jazz Heroes of the Upright Bass

Lawrence English on Steve Roden's passing
https://thequietus.com/articles/33373-steve-roden-obituary

LA Times obit
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-09-08/steve-roden-obituary-artist-los-angeles

Thanks, love his work

Lisa Lyon, American bodybuilder and photo model for Helmut Newton and Robert Mapplethorpe, 70