What the World Needs Now is Love

This is just a tribute to some of the musicians who died in 2023. It will only be a limited list, because so many died, especially in January there were more deaths then there were days.

Jeff Beck, member of The Yardbirds, founder of the Jeff Beck Group and one of the most influential rock guitarists of all time, died on Tuesday (Jan. 10). He was 78 years old.

Burt Freeman Bacharach was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century. He died on February 8.

Stephen Patrick Mackey (10 November 1966 – 2 March 2023) was an English musician and record producer best known as the bass guitarist for the Britpop band Pulp, which he joined in 1989. As a record producer, he produced songs and albums by M.I.A., Florence + the Machine, The Long Blondes and Arcade Fire, he died on March 2.

Timothy Gregg Bachman was a Canadian guitarist and vocalist best known for his work with rock bands Brave Belt and Bachman–Turner Overdrive (BTO). Bachman was one of the four founding members of BTO, a group that have sold nearly 30 million albums worldwide[1] and also featured his brothers Randy (guitar/vocals) and Robbie (drums), as well as Fred Turner (bass/vocals). He dies on April 28.

Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock) was a singer, songwriter and actress. Known as the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the husband-wife duo Ike & Tina Turner before launching a successful career as a solo performer. She was recognized for her “swagger, sensuality, powerful gravelly vocals and unstoppable energy.”In 1994 she began living in Küsnacht, Switzerland, and relinquished her American citizenship after obtaining Swiss citizenship in 2013. She died on May 24

Christy Dignam was an Irish singer who was best known as the lead singer of the popular Irish rock band Aslan. His career of over 40 years was characterised by numerous successes on the Irish charts as well as recurring problems with drug addiction and recover. He died on June 13.

With her bald head, piercing eyes and fierce bearing, O’Connor burst onto the music scene in the late 1980s, serving as a rebuke to the parade of sexist tropes that dominated the era’s hair metal scene. She gave notice of her bold path away from the typical packaging of female pop stars from the very first notes of her 1987 debut, The Lion and the Cobra, which she recorded while pregnant at 20 with her first child. She died on 26 July.

Robbie Robertson, beloved guitarist, songwriter and front man of The Band, died after an unspecified long illness on Wednesday Aug. 9. He was 80 years old. He was lead guitarist for Bob Dylan in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s, guitarist and songwriter with the Band from their inception until 1978, and a solo artist.

Roger Henry Brough Whittaker was a British singer-songwriter and musician. His music is an eclectic mix of folk music and popular songs, the latter variously in a crooning or in a schlager style. He is best known for his baritone singing voice and trademark whistling ability as well as his guitar skills .He died on September 13

Steve Riley was an American rock drummer, best known for his work with Keel, W.A.S.P., and L.A. Guns.

After graduating high school in the 1970s, Riley moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career.[2] In 1979, he joined a revival of Steppenwolf, but the lineup broke up later that year.[3]

Riley joined up-and-coming L.A. band Keel and recorded their breakthrough album The Right to Rock with them in 1984.Later that year, Riley departed Keel to replace founding member Tony Richards in W.A.S.P., another L.A. band whose debut album had recently achieved gold status in sales. As a member of W.A.S.P., Riley performed on the albums The Last Command, Inside the Electric Circus, and Live… in the Raw. He died October 24

Shane MacGowan was a British-born Irish singer-songwriter and musician best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of Celtic punk band the Pogues. He also produced solo material and collaborated with artists including Joe Strummer, Nick Cave, Steve Earle, Sinéad O’Connor, Ronnie Drew, and Cruachan. Frequently noted for his exceptional songwriting ability as well as his heavy alcohol and drug use, MacGowan was described by The New York Times as “a titanically destructive personality and a master songsmith whose lyrics painted vivid portraits of the underbelly of Irish immigrant life. He died on November 30, making him the 3rd Irish music legend to die in 2023.

Denny Laine (born Brian Frederick Arthur Hines) was an English musician who co-founded two major rock bands: the Moody Blues and Wings. Laine played guitar in the Moody Blues from 1964 to 1966, and sang their hit cover version of “Go Now”. While the Moody Blues were on tour with The Beatles in 1965, Laine befriended Paul McCartney, who later asked him to join his band Wings.

Laine was a constant member of Wings for their entire run from 1971 to 1981, playing guitar, bass, keyboards, singing backing and lead vocals, and co-writing songs with McCartney including the 1977 hit “Mull of Kintyre” He died on December 5.

May they all rest in peace.

Yeah, but what is your real name?

I was watching a music quiz show the other day, one of the question was “Can you name the real name of this artist?” For this post I am going to turn it around. I am going to mention the real name, and a music clip, and you can figure out what the artist name is, There are no prices to be won, just some fun you can do from the comfort of your own armchair.

Starting with the serious lookin dude above.: Chaim Klein Witz.

James Newell Osterberg, JR

Vincent Damon Furnier

Saul Hudson

Ronald James Padavona

Joan Larkin

David Howell Evans

John Anthony Gillis

SOURCE

https://planetradio.co.uk/absolute-radio/music/news/musicians-real-names/

Holocaust and Rock ’n’ Roll

I know there will be people who might think the title of the post is quite disrespectful, but it is far from it. The post will reflect how close and relevant the Holocaust still is.

So many great rock songs would never have been written or recorded if the Nazis had succeeded in their plans to murder all Jews. I have done a post on Kiss before, both Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are children of Holocaust survivors, as is Billy Joel.

However, there are so many other rock musicians who have a direct connection to the Holocaust. Below are just a few of them.

Bass player Bob Glaub may not be a household name, but check the credits on Rod Stewart’s album “Atlantic Crossing” and John Lennon’s “Rock & Roll.”

He is a bass player and session musician. He has played with such artists and bands as Journey, Steve Miller Band, John Fogerty, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ringo Starr, Dusty Springfield, Aaron Neville, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Donna Summer, John Lennon, Rod Stewart, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bee Gees. He has also accompanied Dwight Yoakam — on concert tours. He’s the bass player on Adam Sandler’s, “Hanukkah Song.”

His mother, a Hungarian-speaking Czech, and Glaub’s mother, Edith, were working as a nanny in Budapest when Hitler’s troops swept through Hungary in 1944. His father, from the same Czech village as his mother, spent the war in a series of slave labour camps in Ukraine. Glaub’s parents were reunited after the war and immigrated to the United States in 1949. (His father, Zoltan, paid their way by helping to paint the ship.)

One of the most iconic rock classics is Procol Harum”s “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” The song’s most innovative feature is its unique pairing of musical source material from Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach and from soul singer Percy Sledge’s hit, “When A Man Loves A Woman.

“We skipped the light fandango… .“Her face, at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale” — were the product of the band’s co-founder and poet-in-residence, Keith Reid, one of only a handful of nonperforming members of rock bands.

Reid’s father, Irwin Reid, a Viennese lawyer fluent in a half-dozen languages, was one of over 6,000 Jews arrested in Vienna during Kristallnacht on November 9 and 10, 1938. Like most Viennese Jews, he was transported to Dachau. He was, however, released several months later after promising to leave the country; with his younger brother, he promptly immigrated to England, leaving behind his parents, whom he would never see or hear from again and whose fate remains a mystery.

Canadian Rock band ‘Rush’ Geddy Lee’s (born Gary Lee Weinrib) parents were Jewish Holocaust survivors from Poland who had survived the ghetto in Starachowice (where they met), followed by their imprisonments at Auschwitz and later Dachau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps during the Holocaust and World War II. They were in their teens when they were initially imprisoned at Auschwitz. “It was kind of surreal pre-teen shit”, says Lee, describing how his father bribed guards to bring his mother shoes. After a period, his mother was transferred to Bergen-Belsen and his father to Dachau. When the war ended four years later, and the Allies liberated the camps, Morris set out in search of Manya and found her at a Bergen-Belsen displaced person camp. They married there and eventually emigrated to Canada.

In 1984, Geddy Lee together with Neil Peart and Alex Lifeson wrote “Red Sector A” is a song that provides a first-person account of a nameless protagonist living in an unspecified prison camp setting.

Geddy Lee explained the genesis of the song in an interview:

“The seeds for the song were planted nearly 60 years ago in April 1945 when British and Canadian soldiers liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Lee’s mother, Manya (now Mary) Rubenstein, was among the survivors. (His father, Morris Weinrib, was liberated from the Dachau concentration camp a few weeks later.) The whole album “Grace Under Pressure,” says Lee, who was born Gary Lee Weinrib, “is about being on the brink and having the courage and strength to survive.”

Though ‘Red Sector A,’ like much of the album from which it comes, is set in a bleak, apocalyptic future, what Lee calls “the psychology” of the song comes directly from a story his mother told him about the day she was liberated.

I once asked my mother her first thoughts upon being liberated,” Lee says during a phone conversation. “She didn’t believe [liberation] was possible. She didn’t believe that if there was a society outside the camp how they could allow this to exist, so she believed society was done in.”

Just think of the impact the Holocaust had on the arts and music and how much worse it could have been.

Sources

The Holocaust and Rock ‘n’ Roll

https://forward.com/culture/music/370234/procol-harum-jewish-history/

https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/96051

Epic Rock-Episode 5:Black Sabbath-Headless Cross

Headless Cross is the thirtieth single from Black Sabbath

“Headless Cross”

Look through the people, and on through the mist
To the hill of the headless cross
Where all witches meet, on a night such as this,
And the power of darkness is host
They come face to face, eye to eye, soul to soul,
With an Angel that fell from the sky
Borne on the air, are the screams and the wails
Of the masses appointed to die

Listen for the feet as they pound the land to a tune of thunder
Watch as the legions ride again to a fate of death or torture,
At the headless cross, at the headless cross

From the first evil night, when a black flash of light
Cut the crucifix half to the ground
There’s been no escape from the power of Satan,
On a nation so brave and so proud

Listen for the feet as they pound the land to a tune of thunder
Watch as the legions ride again to a fate of death or torture,
At the headless cross, at the headless cross

How do you feel, when the locks refuse the key
And the master is calling your name,
Does the luck of the charm, really keep you from harm
Does the talisman protect you from pain

Listen for the feet as they pound the land to a tune of thunder
Watch as the legions ride again to a fate of death or torture,
At the headless cross, at the headless cross

From the first evil night, when a black flash of light
Cut the crucifix half to the ground
There’s no escaping from the power of Satan
For a people so brave and so proud

Listen for the feet as they pound the land to a tune of thunder
Watch as the legions ride again to a fate of death or torture,
At the headless cross, at the headless cross
At the headless cross, at the headless cross

Where will you run to, at the headless cross
Look, to the headless cross

Writer(s): Cozy Powell, Anthony Hareford, Anthony Lommi

RIP Vangelis Papathanassíou-AKA Vangelis

The news broke earlier today that Vangelis died on 17 May , aged 79, at a hospital in Paris due to heart failure.

Born in the Greek coastal town of Agria in 1943, the largely self-taught musician formed his first band, The Forminx, in 1963 at the age of 20 and followed that with the internationally successful Aphrodite’s Child, who also featured vocalist Demis Roussos. After two albums of psychedelic pop – the band’s debut single Rain And Tears was a top 30 hit in the UK in 1968, it was the band’s third album 666, a concept album about the Book Of Revelation, which made the band a hit with serious-minded music fans, even though they had actually split up by the time of the album’s release.

The musical style of Vangelis is diverse; although he primarily used electronic music instruments, which characterize electronic music, his music has been described as a mixture of electronica, classical (his music was often symphonic), progressive rock,[ jazz, ambient.

He is sometimes categorized as a new-age composer, a classification others have disputed, including Vangelis himself. He called New-age music a style which “gave the opportunity for untalented people to make very boring music”.

He has worked together with many other artist like Jon Anderson from Yes. He also composed many soundtracks to films such as The Bounty (1984) and 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) and solo albums such as Voices (1995) and Oceanic (1996) further cemented his reputation and a long-held fascination with outer space saw him work with the European Space Agency on 2016’s Rosetta and he continued exploring his love of space on last year’s Juno To Jupiter.

Here are just some of his works.

source

https://www.loudersound.com/news/vangelis-papathanassiou-dead-at-79

Happy Birthday Burt Bacharach.

Burt Bacharach is one of the must influential composers of popular music, of the 20th century.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri on 12th May 1928, Burt Bacharach grew up in Forest Hills, an upper middle suburb of New York City. Although Bacharach began taking piano lessons at the age of eight, his musical breakthrough came at fifteen years old when he began sneaking into Manhattan’s jazz clubs to see both Dizzy Gillespie and the Count Basie Band perform.

His music is characterized by unusual chord progressions, influenced by his background in jazz harmony, and uncommon selections of instruments for small orchestras. Most of Bacharach’s and David’s hits were written specifically for and performed by Dionne Warwick, but earlier associations (from 1957 to 1963) saw the composing duo work with Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Gene McDaniels, and Jerry Butler. Following the initial success of these collaborations, Bacharach went on to write hits for Gene Pitney, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Jackie DeShannon, Bobbie Gentry, Tom Jones, Herb Alpert, B. J. Thomas, the Carpenters, among numerous other artists. He arranged, conducted, and produced much of his recorded output.

A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach’s songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists. As of 2014, he had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits.

Today he is celebrating his 94th birthday.

This is just one of his many songs he co wrote with Carole Bayer Sager

sources

Burt Bacharach

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Bacharach

Music was my first love and it will be my last.-The Musicians we lost in 2021

2021 has seen the loss of quite a few musicians. I won’t mention all of them because there are too many to mention. Below are just a few of them.

January 3 Gerry Marsden, British rock vocalist and TV personality (Gerry & Pacemakers – Ferry Cross The Mersey), dies at 78

Eponymous Gerry and the Pacemakers star Gerry Marsden died on 3rd January 2021 aged 78 following a brief illness. The Pacemakers were rivals and friends of The Beatles in their native Liverpool in the 1960s and they scored a string of huge hits including ‘Ferry Cross The Mersey’, ‘How Do You Do It?’, ‘I Like It’ and their defining cover of the show tune ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, which became the anthem of Liverpool FC and Celtic. Paul McCartney said: “Gerry was a mate fr

om our early days in Liverpool. He and his group were our biggest rivals on the local scene. His unforgettable performances of You’ll Never Walk Alone and Ferry Cross the Mersey remain in many people’s hearts as reminders of a joyful time in British music…”

February 8 Mary Wilson, American pop vocalist (Supremes – “Where Did Our Love Go?”), died at 76

Former Procol Harum bassist Alan Cartwright died on Thursday 4th March 2021 from stomach cancer aged 75. Born in London on 10th October 1945, Cartwright first met Procol Harum singer and keyboardist Gary Brooker in 1966 and he joined the band five years later when bassist Chris Copping decided to focus solely on his organ work. Cartwright’s debut release was 1972 orchestral album ‘Procol Harum Live: In Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’ and he contributed to three studio albums: 1973’s ‘Grand Hotel’, 1974’s ‘Exotic Birds and Fruit’ and 1975’s ‘Procol’s Ninth.’ Gary Brooker said upon Cartwright’s death: “Looking back, he was always a very solid, musical, and reliable bass player, and a good bloke who gave of his best both in the studio and on the extensive tours Procol did when he was with us.”

April 20 Leslie McKeown, Scottish pop vocalist (Bay City Rollers – “Saturday Night”), dies at 65

Early Judas Priest drummer John Hinch died on Thursday 29th April 2021 aged 73. Prior to joining Judas Priest, Hinch was a member of the band Hiroshima from 1972 to 1973 alongside Rob Halford. The pair were recruited by K.K. Downing and Ian Hill to join Judas Priest in 1973 and John Hinch went on to perform on just one studio album, Priest’s 1974 debut ‘Rocka Rolla.’ He exited the band soon afterwards due to musical differences. Paying tribute to Hinch, Rob Halford said: “His style was strong, direct and unique. I’ll be blasting ‘Rocka Rolla’ today!” K.K. Downing said: “There are so many memories of crazy and fun times we all shared together. John was always so dependable and did everything to the best of his ability, including his drumming which looking back can only be described as faultless. The fact that he continued to play to his very last day is testimony to his ability and dedication to his love of the drums.”

May 29 B.J. Thomas, American singer (“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head”; “Hooked On A Feeling”; “Growing Pains Theme”), dies of lung cancer at 78

Former Uriah Heep vocalist John Lawton died on Tuesday 29th June 2021 aged 74. Lawton fronted Uriah Heep from 1976 to 1979 and lent his distinctive voice to three studio albums – ‘Firefly’ (1977), ‘Innocent Victim’ (1977), and ‘Fallen Angel’ (1978). He also fronted the hard rock band Lucifer’s Friends and represented Germany at Eurovision 1976 performing ‘Sing Sang Song’ with the Les Humphries Singers. Breaking the news of Lawton’s death, Uriah Heep wrote: “It is with deep regret that we share the devastating and tragic news of the sudden and totally unexpected passing of John Lawton on 29. June 2021. Contrary to reports, there was no illness involved, which makes his passing incomprehensible. He went peacefully with his wife at his side. John will be greatly missed. A private funeral service to celebrate John’s life will be held following his wishes, with only family and close friends attending. We would appreciate that the family’s privacy is respected during this difficult time.”

Dusty Hill – bassist, co-vocalist, and one third of ZZ Top – passed away on 28th July aged 72, with the band confirming the sad news in a statement on their official Facebook page; accompanied by a photo of the always-sunglassed Dusty in a typically cool pose.

“We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, TX. We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ‘Top’. We will forever be connected to that ‘Blues Shuffle in C.’ You will be missed greatly, amigo. Frank & Billy.”

August 24 Charlie Watts, British rock and jazz drummer (Rolling Stones), dies at 80.

September 5 Sarah Harding, British pop singer (Girls Aloud – “Sound of the Underground,” “Love Machine), dies of breast cancer at 39

October 21 Nils Einár Grönberg, Swedish rapper (“Första klass”; “Katten i trakten”), shot to death in suspected gang-related incident at 19

Nov 6 Astro [Terence Wilson], British reggae-rock vocalist (UB40 – “Red Red Wine”), dies at 64.

Rock musician John Miles, best known for achieving a Top 3 single in 1976 with ‘Music’, died on 5th December 2021 aged 72. Alongside his own career, Jarrow born John Miles toured with Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder and Jimmy Page as a session musician. His manager Cliff Cooper said in a statement: “The UK has lost one of its most talented musicians. John famous for his worldwide hit ‘Music was my first love and it will be my last’ died peacefully in his sleep with his family at his bedside. John played alongside a plethora of artists from Tina Turner, Jimmy Page, Joe Cocker to Andre Botticelli amongst many others. As John’s manager and friend for over 50 years, John was not only so kind and gentle but a brilliant musician and songwriter on the world stage. John leaves behind his wife Eileen married 50 years, two children and two grandchildren. Grief is the price we pay for love. He will be greatly missed, but his music will live on forever.”

Dec 8 Robbie Shakespeare, Jamaican reggae bassist (Sly & Robbie – “DJ Riot”), dies of kidney failure at 68

Dec 10 Michael Nesmith, American rock guitarist (The Monkees), and singer-songwriter (“Different Drum”), dies of heart failure at 78

sources

https://planetradio.co.uk/planet-rock/news/rock-news/rock-star-deaths-2021/

https://www.onthisday.com/music/deaths/date/2021

ROCKTOBER-Love is all

When you hear “Love is all” you are probably more reminded of something the Beatles may have done rather then a bunch of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal artists. Yet that is exactly who were involved in the creation of this beautiful, colourful even fairytale like tale and melody.

The song was released in 1974 and was written and composed by Jon Lord of Deep Purple and Eddie Hardin of the Spencer Davis group. The song was taken from the concept album “The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast” which featured artists like David Coverdale(Whitesnake) Glenn Hughes(Deep Purple & Black Sabbath) Les Binks(Judas Priest) Jon Lord(Deep Purple) and many more.

In 1973 Roger Glover left Deep Purple because of work pressure and tensions between him and Ritchie Blackmore. Together with Jon Lord he worked on a solo project. Their plan was to make a rock opera based on William Plomer and Alan Aldridge’s book The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast , in itself based on the eponymous poem by British historian William Roscoe.

Eddie Hardin wrote the song Love Is All based on a song featured in The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast named Love’s all you need, which was inspired by The Beatles’ song All You Need Is Love (1967). The song was sung by Ronnie James Dio, although the single was credited to Glover. The B-side was Old Blind Mole/Magician Moth.

I always presumed that the song had been a global hit, but it only reached the no 1 position in the Dutch and Belgian charts.

The song came with an animated music video featuring a guitar playing frog gathering animals in the forest for the upcoming ball. The animation was created by the Halas and Batchelor studio and one of the animators was Harold Whitaker. The video received a lot of airplay over the decades, particularly as a fill-in during technical difficulties, such as on the French TV channel Antenne 2, and in the United States in children’s TV programs such as The Great Space Coaster and Nickelodeon morning shows. Those random airings, together with the psychedelic tone of the clip and the lack of subtitles, made it very popular amongst young viewers.

In 1980, the video was featured on the Australian music show Countdown, and the song entered the Australian Top 10.The video was also used regularly as an interstitial program on Australia’s ABC TV.

The song was covered by Sacha Distel in 1976. In 2002, Flemish singer Dana Winner released a cover version. Other artists who covered the song have been Gonzales (2008), Keedz (2010) and Playing for Change (2013).

But the original is still the best.

August 16 not a good day in Music history.

According to legend, as a young man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi, Robert Johnson had a tremendous desire to become a great blues musician. One of the legends often told says that Johnson was instructed to take his guitar to a crossroad near Dockery Plantation at midnight. (There are claims for at least a dozen other sites as the location of the crossroads.)There he was met by the Devil, who took the guitar and tuned it. The Devil played a few songs and then returned the guitar to Johnson, giving him mastery of the instrument. This story of a deal with the Devil at the crossroads mirrors the legend of Faust. In exchange for his soul, Johnson was able to create the blues for which he became famous.

The story was initially told of an older bluesman, Tommy Johnson (no relation), but he died in 1956, aged 60. It was more hauntingly apposite for Robert Johnson, who died in 1938, aged only 27, after a troubled life and an itinerant career. His only recordings, made a year before his death, still have a spooky quality even 80 years on.

His death was as mysterious as his life. He died on August 16, 1938, at the age of 27, near Greenwood, Mississippi, of unknown causes. His death was not reported publicly; he merely disappeared from the historical record and it was not until almost 30 years later, when Gayle Dean Wardlow, a Mississippi-based musicologist researching Johnson’s life, found his death certificate, which listed only the date and location, with no official cause of death. No formal autopsy was done; instead, a pro forma examination was done to file the death certificate, and no immediate cause of death was determined. It is likely he had congenital syphilis and it was suspected later by medical professionals that may have been a contributing factor in his death. However, 30 years of local legend and oral tradition had, like the rest of his life story, built a legend which has filled in gaps in the scant historical record.

Elvis Aaron Presley, aka Elvis, aka the “King of Rock and Roll”, he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and initial controversy.

Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8,1935.

On the evening of Tuesday, August 16, 1977, Presley was scheduled to fly out of Memphis to begin another tour. That afternoon, Ginger Alden discovered him in an unresponsive state on a bathroom floor. According to her eyewitness account, “Elvis looked as if his entire body had completely frozen in a seated position while using the toilet and then had fallen forward, in that fixed position, directly in front of it. … It was clear that, from the time whatever hit him to the moment he had landed on the floor, Elvis hadn’t moved.”[295] Attempts to revive him failed, and his death was officially pronounced at 3:30 p.m. at the Baptist Memorial Hospital.

I remember that day as if it was Yesterday. I was 9 at the time. I came home from school and my mother asked me “Guess who died today?” I asked who, she replied Elvis. Trying to be the tough guy I said “What is it to me?” . But when I went to my room, I cried for the rest of the day.

Joseph Ronald Drew, or Ronnie Drew was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor who achieved international fame during a fifty-year career recording with The Dubliners. He is most recognised for his lead vocals on the single “Seven Drunken Nights” and “The Irish Rover” both charting in the UK top 10 and then performed on TOTP. He was recognisable for his long beard and pale blue eyes and his voice.

On 25 October 2007, Drew—now bald and beardless—appeared on Ryan Confidential on RTÉ 1 to give an interview about his role in The Dubliners, his life since leaving the band and being diagnosed with throat cancer. Later in 2007, he appeared on The Late Late Show, where he spoke some more about the death of his wife and his ongoing treatment for cancer.

Drew died in St. Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin on 16 August 2008, following his long illness. He was buried three days later in Redford Cemetery in Greystones.

Aretha Franklin was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Referred to as the “Queen of Soul”, she is regarded as the most influential female vocalist of the 1960s. Franklin began her career as a child, singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was a minister.

On August 13, 2018, Franklin was reported to be gravely ill at her home in Riverfront Towers, Detroit.[She was under hospice care and surrounded by friends and family. Stevie Wonder, Jesse Jackson and former husband Glynn Turman visited her on her deathbed. Aretha Franklin died at her home on August 16, 2018, aged 76, without a will.The cause of death was a malignant pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET),which is distinct from the most common form of pancreatic cancer.[Numerous celebrities in the entertainment industry and politicians paid tribute to Franklin, including former U.S. President Barack Obama who said she “helped define the American experience”.[ Civil rights activist and minister Al Sharpton called her a “civil rights and humanitarian icon”.

Pink Floyd

This blog will be confusing to some people because it will be about Pink Floyd and yet it won’t be. I will not be talking about Pink Floyd but rather about Pink and Floyd.

Pinkney “Pink” Anderson was an American blues singer and guitarist.

Anderson was born in Laurens, South Carolina, on February 12,1900 and was raised in nearby Greenville and Spartanburg.

He spent much of his career performing in traveling medicine shows, doing old minstrel, folk and ragtime tunes and even performing early blues numbers. As a child he made money by dancing and singing in the streets of Spartanburg, not far from where he was born. Around 1915 he formed a team with Simmie Dooley and hooked up with the “Dr. W.R. Kerr Indian Remedy Company Medicine Show” and traveled throughout the South for several years, entertaining crowds with their singing and dancing while the good doctor hawked his “miracle” cure-all. The pair are known to have cut two records for Columbia Records in 1928, but as far as is known, those are the only recordings they ever made.

In the late 1920s or early 1930s the pair broke up the act. Dooley left the “entertainment” business, but Anderson kept right on with traveling medicine shows up until the mid-’50s, when his declining health finally forced him to retire. In the 1960s, however, young fans of folk music “discovered” his music. He recorded a new album for Prestige Records, “Carolina Blues Man, Vol. 1”, in the early 1960s and made an appearance in a documentary about blues music and musicians, The Blues (1962).

Anderson was recorded by the folklorist Paul Clayton at the Virginia State Fair in May 1950. He recorded an album in the early 1960s and performed at some live venues.

Attempts by the folklorist Peter B. Lowry to record Anderson in 1970 were not successful, although apparently he could occasionally summon up some of his past abilities. A final tour took place in the early 1970s with the aid of Roy Book Binder, one of his students, taking him to Boston and New York City. Pink Anderson died on October 12, 1974 of a heart attack, at the age of 74. He is interred at Lincoln Memorial Gardens, in Spartanburg.

Floyd Council was an American blues guitarist, mandolin player, and singer. He was a practitioner of the Piedmont blues, which was popular in the southeastern United States in the 1920s and 1930s. He was sometimes credited as Dipper Boy Council and promoted as “The Devil’s Daddy-in-Law”.

He was born on Sept 2,1911 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to Harrie and Lizzie Council,

He began playing in the Chapel Hill, North Carolina area at clubs, with two brothers, Leo and Thomas Strowd, as the Chapel Hillbillies. recording a reported twenty seven songs, and backing Blind Boy Fuller on at least seven. He was considered one of the areas best guitarists. His throat muscles were partially paralysed by a stroke, but he made a final recording in 1970.

Council died on May 9, 1976 of a heart attack, after moving to Sanford, North Carolina. He was buried at White Oak AME Zion Cemetery in Sanford.

No records are available which exclusively feature Council’s work. The CD Carolina Blues features six songs he recorded: “I’m Grievin’ and I’m Worryin'”, “I Don’t Want No Hungry Woman”, “Lookin’ for My Baby”, “Poor and Ain’t Got a Dime”, “Runaway Man Blues” and “Working Man Blues”.

In a 1969 interview, Council stated he had recorded 27 songs over his career, seven of them backing Blind Boy Fuller. Fuller’s Complete Recorded Works contains many songs with Council playing guitar.

Syd Barrett, of the British rock band Pink Floyd, created the band’s name by juxtaposing the first names of Pink Anderson and North Carolina bluesman Floyd Council.

sources

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5943597/bio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Council

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14625991/floyd-council