Rolling Obituary Thread: 2019

Nick Tosches

RIP. He wrote some great stuff.

RIP. Seems like maybe now I’ll finally get around to reading the Emmett Miller book.

I've only read In the Hand of Dante and the Dean Martin book. I'm sure Hellfire is as good as everyone says, but...I just don't care that much about Jerry Lee Lewis, or feel like there's anything I need to know that I can't get from listening to the records.

Hellfire is great, it's written like a novel, iirc, so more than just another "and then this happened, and then this ..." etc.

I'm reading the Emmett Miller book right now.

Is that directly or indirectly because of the Ken Burns Country doc?

No, haven't watched that yet, I've had the book for a while but am currently listening to 1929 and there is lots of Emmett making the cut, so thought I would give it a go, and it's really good.

Always loved his piece about listening to the Rolling Stones in Stranded.

Oh yeah. Forgot he wrote that one. Think about it quite often.

Actually its the Simon Frith one I think about sorry.

Deborah Orr, cancer

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/oct/20/award-winning-columnist-deborah-orr-dies-aged-57

The story of her cancer relapse is so awful and was 100 per cent avoidable. I didn’t know her well but we have tons of mutuals and one of these posted about her death first thing this morning, and I’ve been ruminating on it all day. RIP Deborah.

sorry to hear about nick tosches, who was just an astonishingly good writer at his best. unsung heroes of rock'n'roll was my favorite, but hellfire is just as good as everyone says it is. it was often hard to tell how much he was bending the truth in his books; i remember the bill haley chapter in unsung heroes ends with a throwaway line that goes almost exactly like "he died, out of his mind, in 1981." which i took as a kind of joke for years until i read a long article about bill haley's sad final days and realized he hadn't been kidding. it also seems at once unbelievable and utterly fitting that JLL outlived tosches.

Ok can someone please say this isn't the case... a friend just texted me that WFMU is reporting that Dylan is dead

He played the guitar just a few nights ago for the first time in years, was sounding great

I really want this to not be true

I mean, they're doing THIS, and this was announced a long time before, so I think your friend is confused:

Today on WFMU: Ken & Andy’s Bob Dylan Extravaganza (IN PROGRESS!); Lawrence Kumpf, Blank Sheets founder/director; Piano Blues; salute to New York Rocker magazine; producer/DJ CX Kidtronik. Times & more info at https://t.co/y7ToJBzprk pic.twitter.com/SazCA0LXGl

— WFMU (@WFMU) October 23, 2019

ok

phew

highlighted by a live remake of the famous 1996 WFMU Bob Dylan Advanced Obituary Show, from 10:15 to 11:15 AM, during which time listener phone calls and remembrances of Bob will be welcome on the air at 201-209-9368

this is completely fucked

Masters of War (of The Worlds)

Shades of...

http://66.media.tumblr.com/34ccaf41e4e1ecf9378d28b4d00e77ad/tumblr_mvcgbb5SfR1qbvaudo5_250.gif

lol it's Ken & Andy

It's an update of an hourlong advance-obituary show they did in the mid '90s. For 23 years, there's been a cassette of it on the studio wall in a transparent case that read "In case of Dylan death, break glass." (i've seen it)

I like these guys but fuck them today

I've heard about that cassette

Now you guys know how Justin Bieber fans feel.

RIP Justin Bieber

Hans Zender, German composer, conductor and arranger, perhaps best known for his orchestral reinterpretation of Schubert's Winterreise. He was 82. RIP.

Saxophonist, composer, arranger, orchestra leader and educator Ray Santos became widely known in the 1990s for arranging the Oscar-nominated theme song for the movie The Mambo Kings. The Julliard-trained Nuyorican musician, who died on Thursday (Oct. 17) at age 90, was himself a mambo king.

Santos started out playing Latin big band music at resorts in upstate New York's Catskills, and performed with Machito’s orchestra at New York's city's Palladium in the 1950s. Over his long career he collaborated with Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez, Paquito D’Rivera and many others.

He won a Grammy award with Linda Ronstadt for her 1992 album Frenesí. Recently, he had arranged Jon Secada’s 2017 album tribute to Beny Moré, To Beny Moré With Love -- Santos had previously worked with the great Cuban musician himself.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/latin/8533458/ray-santos-dead-latin-music-maestro-dies

https://thedcline.org/2019/10/14/a-dc-jewel-memorial-service-today-to-celebrate-the-life-and-music-of-rb-singer-little-margie-clarke/

Margie Clarke, singer with DC r'n'b girl group the Jewels who had a hit with "Opportunity" and toured and recorded with James Brown, passed. She was still singing in DC through 2018.

Paul Barerre of Little Feat

Belated RIP for Bessie Smith biographer and record producer Chris Albertson:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/obituaries/chris-albertson-dead.html
https://jazztimes.com/features/tributes-and-obituaries/jazz-and-blues-historian-chris-albertson-dies-at-87/

Robert Evans

"...the human anus is almost nightmarishly elastic..."

That Patton bit is the only reason I knew that Evans survived the 70s.

Film producer Robert Evans.

― Dan Worsley, Sunday, February 3, 2019 4:48 PM (eight months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Was he young? Not anymore. Was he still active? Not as much as he’d like to be. But was he still spending his days on the right side of the dirt, entertaining old pals in his long-time residence, and toying with the notion of making one last hit? You bet your sweet bippy, baby.

― The Very Fugly Caterpillar (sic), Sunday, February 3, 2019 5:11 PM (eight months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Is that post fantastic? Better than that, friend: it's sensational.

The guy who sang "Little Girl" for the Syndicate of Sound--one of the greatest garage hits ever--died a few days ago.

http://bestclassicbands.com/don-baskin-obituary-10-24-19/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA8tUUrSTIw

John Witherspoon

https://www.vibe.com/2019/10/beloved-friday-actor-john-witherspoon-passes-away-at-age-77

Just saw that. RIP. Loved him in Hollywood Shuffle

The guy who sang "Little Girl" for the Syndicate of Sound--one of the greatest garage hits ever--died a few days ago.

Love this song.

Two months old, but Richard Gregson, ex-husband of Natalie Wood, father of Natasha Gregson-Warner, Brother of Michael Craig (and actor & agent in his own right):

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/10/28/richard-gregson-film-producer-oscar-nominated-screenwriter-agent/

*Natasha Gregson Wagner

John Witherspoon

https://www.vibe.com/2019/10/beloved-friday-actor-john-witherspoon-passes-away-at-age-77

― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, October 29, 2019 10:53 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

"you better put some water on that damn shit"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-50232957

Julian Keane, BBC WS reporter. Could recognise his voice but not his face.

RIP Yahoo Groups

Bernard Slade, creator of "The Partridge Family" and author of Broadway warhorse Same Time, Next Year

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bernard-slade-dead-partridge-family-creator-was-89-1251174

Gerry Teekens, owner of the Dutch jazz label Criss Cross. Tons of great records on this label over the years, but they always had a low profile in the US thanks to a basically nonexistent promo budget.

Marie Laforêt
https://youtu.be/VcOd-sfsYcY

Yvette Lundy

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/04/yvette-lundy-french-resistance-heroine-dies-aged-103

Gay Byrne

The death has been announced of RTÉ broadcaster Gay Byrne. He was 85 and had been ill for some time. | https://t.co/fWGZqrGHqR https://t.co/kTRuH0QUDd

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 4, 2019