Badlands of Indiana (October 21, 2020) - Eddie Van Halen, the mesmerizing lead guitarist for Van Halen who inspired countless future musicians to pick up the instrument during the arena rock era of the late 1970's, the 1980's and into the 90's, passed away this month at the age of 65.
Footage of Eddie Van Halen's final show with Van Halen is now available to watch on YouTube. The 21 song set includes an over the top guitar solo from the late guitarist was uploaded by user Greg L, who matched footage taken of the event from multiple angles with audio from the soundboard.
The concert took place on October 4, 2015, and was the second of two shows Van Halen played at the Hollywood Bowl to conclude their summer tour that year. The tour was their third since reuniting with front man David Lee Roth in 2007.
Check out the concert's full set list below:
Light Up The Sky
Runnin’ With The Devil
Romeo Delight
Everybody Wants Some!!
Drop Dead Legs
Feel Your Love Tonight
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
She’s The Woman
I’ll Wait
Little Guitars
Dance The Night Away
Beautiful Girls
Women In Love…
Hot For Teacher
Dirty Movies
Ice Cream Man (John Brim cover)
Unchained
Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
You Really Got Me (The Kinks cover)
Panama
Jump
The video has been viewed over 89,000 times since being uploaded on October 14. You can watch it in full below.
Thankfully, high-quality footage of Van Halen’s final public performances, which took place at the outdoor Hollywood venue on October 2nd & 4th in 2015, is still available for fans to enjoy.
Santa Monica, California, USA (October 6, 2020) - The iconic guitarist and founder of his eponymous rock band lost his battle with throat cancer. Van Halen’s son Wolfgang shared a touching memorial to his father on Tuesday, confirming the heartbreaking news.
Iconic guitarist Eddie Van Halen rockin' it
“I can’t believe I’m having to write this, but my father, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, has lost his long and arduous battle with cancer this morning."
He was the best father I could ever ask for. Every moment I’ve shared with him on and off stage was a gift,” said Wolfgang, 29, who was the band’s bassist since 2006." “My heart is broken and I don’t think I’ll ever fully recover from this loss. I love you so much, Pop.”
His wife Janie was by his side as the cancer spread throughout his body. He passed away in Santa Monica on Tuesday. The rocker experienced several health difficulties over the years following his cancer diagnosis. In 2019, he was hospitalized after suffering a bad reaction to his cancer medication.
Eddie was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and came to the US in 1962. Ten years later, he and his brother formed the band along with vocalist David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony.
They went on to break barriers in rock music, selling 80 million records worldwide and joining the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
Badlands of Indiana (September 12, 2020) - A previously unreleased song by Tom Petty has been released in anticipation of his upcoming Wildflowers & All the Rest box set.
“Confusion Wheel” was written by Petty in 1994 and has remained on the shelf ever since. The tune begins with the late rocker singing over a jangly acoustic guitar part. From there, the song slowly expands, as drums, vocal harmonies and electric guitar add extra layers to the poignant track.
Lyrically, Petty explores internal fears, searching for safety in a chaotic existence. “So much confusion has entered my life / So much confusion has torn me apart / So much confusion has made me afraid / And I don’t know how to love / And I don’t know who to trust / And I don’t know what I did,” he sings on the song’s chorus. Still, Petty tries to maintain a positive outlook, noting that “One of these days we’ll drive away / Drive away singing a brand-new song / We’ll wake up singing a brand-new song.”
You can listen to “Confusion Wheel” below.
The song is one of 10 tracks that make up the All the Rest portion of the upcoming set. The box will also feature the original Wildflowers LP, a collection of 15 Petty home demos, live versions of 14 songs recorded between 1995 and 2017 and 16 alternate studio versions of Wildflowers tracks.
Deluxe, Super Deluxe and Ultra Deluxe editions will offer the set in various forms, with varying bonus material, including a lithograph, tour-program replica, reproductions of handwritten lyrics and specially commissioned illustrations accompanying some of the versions.
Wildflowers & All the Rest will be released on Oct. 16; it's available for pre-order now.
Badlands of Indiana, USA (February 1, 2020) WHR — A tribute to a legend that has passed too soon, we take a look back at Prince’s iconic Super Bowl XLI Halftime Show through a rain and wind storm.
It had not rained during the Super Bowl in over 40-years, but when Prince took to the stage to showcase the Halftime Show, it was pouring. The rain and wind didn’t stop Prince from putting on one of the best Halftime Show’s in the history of the Super Bowl.
While the electrifying performance seemed effortless and even fitting in the rain — because, honestly, what’s cooler than “Purple Rain” in the rain? — Hayes revealed that it was extremely slippery to perform in the rain and that he and some of the other performers almost fell during the show.
In fact, Hayes revealed that it was raining so hard that while the musical equipment worked during the show, the instruments wouldn’t turn on again after the performance.
‘It was as though Prince ordered the rain’.
Prince’s incredible showmanship and talent shined through the rain and when he closed out his set playing ‘Purple Rain’, the moment could not have been any more perfect.
This was truly one of the best, true performances from an artist who was not looking to promote himself, but share his incredible talent with the entire world.
Santa Monica, California, USA (January 10, 2019) WHR — Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist for groundbreaking Canadian prog-rock band Rush, died Tuesday at age 67, according to a statement issued by a family spokesperson.
The statement said Peart died in Santa Monica, Calif., from brain cancer, “from which he suffered” for three and a half years. Born in Hamilton, Peart joined Rush in 1974, after the band’s first album, replacing original drummer John Rutsey.
Over a career that spanned four decades, Rush enjoyed considerable success in both the U.S. and Canada. Several of their albums — “2112,’’ “Moving Pictures,’’ “All the World’s a Stage’’ and “Exit ... Stage Left’’ — have sold more than one million copies each in the U.S. alone.
Peart was known for his proficiency at playing an almost impossibly elaborate drum kit, which in addition to the traditional kick, snare, and tom drums could at any given time also include bells, chimes, symbols, gongs and electronic elements.
“Neil Peart was, in fact, one of the greatest drummers the universe has ever seen. He ranks up there with all the best,” said Alan Cross, a broadcaster and music historian. “We have lost one of the most important musicians this country has ever produced.”
Cross said Peart used his diverse collection of percussion instruments in innovative ways that went far beyond merely keeping the beat.
There could be a “very melodic sense of what he was doing, every bit as much as a guitar player,” Cross said. “Nobody sounded like him.”
Knowing that a local band could make it big on the world stage was a major source of inspiration for musicians in the city, said Dave Bidini, a member of the Toronto band the Rheostatics, who grew up listening to Rush in the 1980s.
Bidini, who wrote the 2016 documentary about Rush called “Time Stands Still,” said a turning point for the band came in 1976, when they played Massey Hall for three straight nights.
“That was a big deal in Toronto musical culture, having a band from Toronto achieve that measure of success. There weren’t a lot really before them,” Bidini said.
Rush’s career was particularly impressive, he said, because it was proof bands could achieve commercial success while pursuing their own musical vision. The band’s songs were idiosyncratic, often containing key changes and running far longer than typical pop tunes made for the radio.
“I don’t know if it was fearlessness or stubbornness or whatever, but they were really good at being themselves,” Bidini said.
Although a member of one of the most famous bands Canada ever produced, Peart famously eschewed the spotlight. He was reluctant to indulge in the typical trappings of rock stardom and often avoided meet-and-greets with fans and interviews with the media.
“Even as a kid, I never wanted to be famous; I wanted to be good,” he told the Star in 2015, a few months before Rush embarked on its 40th-anniversary tour, which would be the band’s last.
An avid motorcyclist, while on the road with Rush, Peart would ride to shows on his motorcycle rather than travel with the rest of the band and its entourage.
His travels fuelled one of his passions outside of music — writing. He wrote seven non-fiction books and co-authored a science-fiction novelization of Rush’s 2012 album “Clockwork Angels.”
In his 2002 book “Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road,” Peart recounted the motorcycle trip he took across North America to cope with the grief of losing both his daughter and wife in the span of 10 months.
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey on October 17 in 1954, Paula Rearden moved to New Brunswick when she was just 8 years old . Known in the Biker world as Pulsating Paula, her photographs of New Jersey bikers in the 1980's and 1990's seeped with authenticity and fun. Paula once said, “Got married to my first lay in 1973. 10 years later he bought me a camera, a Canon AE1. I still have it."
She started taking photos of biker parties and tattoo events and she sent them into ‘Biker Lifestyle’ magazine who later Paisano publications took over. They came out with ‘Tattoo’ magazine first of it’s kind ever.
Between the Biker and Tattoo magazines she had thousands of photos published. The 10 minute set up of her photography studio consisted of 2 flood lights that burnt the shit out of any poor person in front of them, and a 6×9 foot black cloth she got from Kmart that was tacked onto a wall. She never considered herself professional, ever. She just loved doing it with every fiber in her body.
She knew the wonderful people she met by name and places she has been in her journey will live on forever in her photographs. many of us are so glad that we were there with you.
Pulsating Paula was on the East Coast documenting bikers from her point of view. What is so compelling about her photography is that her photos bleed honesty, passion and a high level of respect for her subjects.
I’m not sure if she knew she was capturing history, but she did. Thank you Paula for all you have done, Rest In Peace.
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A (August 16, 2019) WHR — Peter Fonda, who broke out from under the legendary Fonda family name with Easy Rider, has died. He was 79.
Fonda, the son of acting legend Henry Fonda, the younger brother of Jane Fonda and the father of Bridget Fonda, died Friday morning at his home in Los Angeles, according to his rep. The cause of death was respiratory failure due to lung cancer.
"In one of the saddest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our hearts. As we grieve, we ask that you respect our privacy," said his family rep on Friday afternoon. "And, while we mourn the loss of this sweet and gracious man, we also wish for all to celebrate his indomitable spirit and love of life."
The family statement concluded: "In honor of Peter, please raise a glass to freedom."
Fonda received an Academy Award nomination as a screenwriter for Easy Rider, which he shared with Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern.
Fonda and Hopper dreamed up the idea of two motorcyclists who hit it big with a drug deal and take off across the country, ostensibly to attend Mardi Gras. Their trek was "in search of America," emblematic of the '60s zeitgeist of rebellion and drug experimentation. Featuring Jack Nicholson as their alcoholic, back rider/lawyer, the film was a low-budget, colossal hit.
Fonda produced Easy Rider for about $384,00, with Columbia Pictures picking up distribution rights. "I made Easy Rider for the same amount of money Roger Corman made Wild Angels, and [I knew] it would knock the audience's socks off," Fonda told The Hollywood Reporter in July for a feature on the 50th anniversary of the classic.
Shot in roughly seven weeks between L.A. and New Orleans, it introduced the studios to the bright, educated youth market, and Fonda paved the way for independent filmmakers. For the cataclysmic year of 1969, Easy Rider was a road movie that accomplished cinematically what Jack Kerouac's On the Road did for literature. It won a standing ovation at Cannes and the festival's best director award.
To a generation of young people, Fonda was "Captain America" and a poster-boy for the age. With his cool shades, leather jacket with the flag stitched on back, he sat perched atop a chrome-laden, high-handle-bar cycle, and the poster for the film was ubiquitous in college dorms in 1969 and the early '70s.
As a symbol for rebellious youth, Fonda, along with Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, Muhammad Ali and John Lennon, were among the most revered of countercultural poster boys.
Nearly 30 years after Easy Rider, Fonda's performance in Ulee's Gold (1997) as a beekeeper and sullen Vietnam War veteran whose family had nearly fallen apart earned him a best actor Oscar nom.
Fonda followed up Easy Rider by starring and directing The Hired Hand (1971), a feminist Western that his Pando Company made for Universal. He then helmed Idaho Transfer (1973), a message film about the environment.
He directed and starred opposite Brooke Shields in Wanda Nevada (1979), which featured a cameo by his father.
For a period after Easy Rider, Fonda lived on an 82-foot sailboat, essentially having dropped out. "I was writing during that period, and I got about as much writing done as a child in a sandbox," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1984.
In the early '80s, Fonda appeared in a humdrum batch of projects: He played as charismatic cult leader in Split Image (1982), a freewheeling adventurer in Dance of the Dwarfs (1983) and a suicidal father in the 1985 NBC movie A Reason to Live.
His other acting stints were uneven, from the lowbrow The Cannonball Run (1981) to a German impressionistic film, Peppermint Freiden (1983).
He also starred in Thomas McGuane's 92 in the Shade (1975), where he met Portia Rebecca Crockett; then the wife of the writer-director, she divorced him that year and quickly married Fonda. McGuane went on to marry actress Margot Kidder, who also was in the movie.
Rebecca convinced Fonda to move to Livingston, Mont., where they settled into a community at times populated by Jeff Bridges, Sam Peckinpah and other artistic off-roaders.
In the years before Ulee's Gold, he had become a cinematic recluse, living in Livingston, where he had two ranches and 300 acres and rejoiced in the solitude. "Most people can't hang in with me," he said in a 1997 interview. "I have a tendency to go tangential."
Peter Fonda was born in New York City on Feb. 23, 1939. As a child, he attended a number of boarding schools in the Northeast. When at home, he and Jane spent most of their time with their maternal grandmother.
In 1950, his mother, Frances, committed suicide on her 42nd birthday; Jane and Peter were told she died of a heart attack.
Throughout his adult life, he openly referred to an uneasy relationship with his dad, who died in August 1982.
His father remarried Susan Blanchard, the stepdaughter of Oscar Hammerstein II, but she left him after five years of marriage. Subsequently, Peter was sent to live with relatives in Nebraska. He enrolled at the University of Omaha but quit school during his third year and became an apprentice at the Cecilwood Theatre in Fishkill, New York.
After a year in New York, Fonda made his Broadway debut, playing an Army private in Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole. It was an auspicious turn: He received the Daniel Blum and the New York Drama Critics Award as the most promising young actor of 1961.
He was signed to a personal contract with producer Ross Hunter to produce and to act. It gave him the chance to leave Manhattan, which he loathed. "New Yorkers don't know what the people who live in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado know: the reality of this world, what it is made of, the reality of days, nights, weather, season, dirt, air, food, love."
Groomed to be the next Dean Jones, Fonda made his film debut opposite Sandra Dee in Tammy and the Doctor (1963). He followed up with The Victors (1963) and Lilith (1964), in which he played a suicidal mental patient. He then latched on with Roger Corman's low-budget enterprise and starred as biker Heavenly Blues in The Wild Angels (1966).
He followed that with another Corman opus, The Trip (1967), a paean to LSD that was written by Nicholson and featured Hopper playing a freaked-out character. The film was widely popular among college-age students and meshed with the counter-cultural mindset of the day.
Not content with cranking out cheapo motorcycle vehicles for Corman, the threesome decided to do "their own thing," in the parlance of the times, and that turned out to be Easy Rider.
Fonda also starred in such features as Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974) and Race With the Devil (1975) — where he starred with Warren Oates as two family men who take on a band of devil worshippers in Texas — and the Canadian horror film Spasms (1983).
In addition to his daughter Bridget, Fonda had a son Justin, by his first wife, Susan Brewer. With his second wife, Betty Crockett McGuane, the pair had a combined family, including her son Thomas McGuane.
Badlands of Indiana (July 8, 2019) WHR — The Allman Brothers Band revolutionized the music industry. Although the band was actually formed in Jacksonville, Florida, their ties to Macon made the city a recording hot spot in the years that followed and cemented the city’s place in music history. It’s a step back in time for visitors at 2321 Vineville Avenue in Macon.
“The old house has a unique aroma about it. It smells like an old home that had a lot of love in it and a lot of caring," said Richard Brent, director of The Big House Museum.
The house was for rent in 1969. By 1970, it became a place where band members, friends and family would stay for the next few years. The home’s location even influenced some of the band's lyrics.
"Rolling down Highway 41 and the song Ramblin' Man—to look out the window there and you see Highway 41. The song Blue Sky, 'good ole’ Sunday morning bells are ringing everywhere' and there’s church bells right behind you," said Brent.
Brent said The Big House is now the ultimate Allman Brothers Band experience. Memorabilia and artifacts line the walls from each decade the band performed. It’s an attraction that draws people to middle Georgia from all over the world—including fans who’ve followed the band since the beginning.
“They were the best band in the Unites States at that time. There’s no question about that. They played every single night somewhere, said James Devine, a fan of the band who was visiting from Daytona Beach.
“Seen them as individual players. We’ve seen them with Gregg Allman by himself," said Moira O'Leary, who was visiting with friends from New Jersey.
The band’s distinct style and sound changed the course of music forever. Southern Rock became a household name and the band consistently had success on the charts. But they did have their fair share of challenges. Band members Duane Allman and Berry Oakley both died in motorcycle crashes a year apart. The band also experienced personnel changes over the years, and even broke up and got back together more than once.
"They were just so super talented, genius musicians. That’s the only way I can describe their music," said Devine.
Nowadays, The Big House continues to thrive—about 20,000 visitors a year—double the number from just two years ago, according to Brent. The artifacts and the experience still excites fans to this day.
“It’s just been a thrill. This is like one of these where I’ve got to pinch myself that actually I’m here and seeing all of this memorabilia. It’s just been so wonderful," said O'Leary.
Duane Allman, Berry Oakley and Gregg Allman are all buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, which is about two miles from The Big House.
March 26th was the actual 50th anniversary of the band.
Badlands of Indiana (March 17, 2019) WHR — Nearly 60 years ago, surfers flocked to the waves along Newport Beach to try mastering the new craze. When the sun set, they needed someplace to dance and Dick Dale delivered it at Rendezvous Ballroom on the Balboa Peninsula. Nearly every week for two years, Dale and his band packed over 3,000 people into the ballroom.
“The energy between the Del-Tones and all those surfers stomping on the hardwood floor in their sandals was extremely intense. The tone of Dale’s guitar was bigger than any I had ever heard,” recalled Del-Tones bandmate Paul Johnson.
Dale, whose death was confirmed Sunday, manifested a quintessentially Southern California story, forged in surf, sand and rock ’n’ roll. They called him the Pied Piper of Balboa Beach, but his musical instrument of choice was defiantly not a flute. Rather, the electric-guitar playing son of a Lebanese father melded elements of the music of his ancestral homeland with roaring instrumental rock sounds emerging in the late-1950s, and helped pioneer an iconic American genre known as surf music.
“When I got that feeling from surfing,’” he told the writer Barney Hoskyns, “‘the whitewater coming over my head was the high notes going dikidikidiki, and then the dungundungun on the bottom was the waves, and I started double-picking faster and faster, like a locomotive, to feel the power of the waves.”
Those rushing guitar lines energized generations across the Southland and reverberated around the world.
Dale, who was 81, died Saturday after a long bout with rectal cancer, longtime friend and former bassist Steve Soest said Sunday.
That guitar tone arrived via a blindingly fast picking technique, one of the centerpiece elements of his breakthrough hits “Let’s Go Trippin’” in 1961 and “Misirlou” the following year, that caused guitar picks to melt in his hand. A few decades later, director Quentin Tarantino tapped “Misirlou” to serve as the theme to "Pulp Fiction."
The sound featured a liberal use of electronic reverb with his signature Fender Stratocaster guitar, cranked to wall-rattling volume through juiced up Fender amplifiers. Other rock instrumentalists charted wordless hits before Dale came to the fore in the early days of the electric guitar, among them Link Wray’s “Rumble” and Duane Eddy’s “Rebel Rouser,” but Dale helped push surf music into the mainstream through those high-energy performances, supplying a sound that paired perfectly with that growing surf craze.
It began as a regional phenomenon in Southern California and soon spread around the world influencing the likes of the Beatles and Rolling Stones in England, and a high-school aged Canadian named Neil Young long before he found fame. According to Hoskyns’ “Waiting for the Sun,” a young Jimi Hendrix was said to have seen Dale and his band play. Echoes of Dale’s fiery guitar runs and showmanship can be heard in Hendrix’s style.
Dale was born Richard Anthony Monsour May 4, 1937, in Boston to a father who had emigrated from Lebanon and a mother who was Polish Belarusian. Growing up in a Lebanese neighborhood in Quincy, Mass., outside of Boston, exposed him to the sounds of Arabic music, which became a signature of his musical amalgam.
His musical training started with his childhood interest in piano. Early on, he studied trumpet and also acquired a ukulele before eventually picking up a guitar and trying his best to emulate one of his heroes, country music titan Hank Williams.
A friend suggested he call himself “Dick Dale,” rather than Richard Monsour, because it sounded more fitting for a would-be country singer.
The Monsour family moved to Southern California in 1954, when his father landed a job at Hughes Aircraft Co. in El Segundo, near the beach. Dale became a regular at the weekly live country music television show "Town Hall Party."
"I wanted to be a cowboy singer, so I went on 'Town Hall Party' and entered their talent contest every week," he told the Glendale News-Press in 2015. "And I did, every week."
The confluence of Dale’s ethnic heritage and newfound geographic proximity to the beach and to the flourishing factory in Fullerton, Calif., where electric guitar innovator Leo Fender worked, all blended into the music Dale would soon bring to listeners.
“Misirlou” represented a cross-cultural blend, coupling minor key motifs and Middle Eastern musical scale with pounding drums and throbbing bass, all fueling Dale’s stinging “wet” electric guitar pyrotechnics.
A section of the song featuring trumpet also brought in an element of the mariachi music that was prevalent around Southern California.
In interviews he would often overstate his role in the development of Fender products, but he was an important early adopter of instruments and amplifiers that would change the sound and content of popular music beginning in the 1950s. Dale liked to consider himself one of Fender’s favorite guinea pigs, and he did push guitars and amplifiers to the limits in his live performances.
"Playing guitar was only a window in my life," he said in 2015. "I never practiced the guitar and when I'm done playing I just put it down. Music is like building a house. It's like going out deep into the desert to see what nature is doing. It's like painting, like Salvador Dali. I try to do that with my music, make it like a Salvador Dali painting."
A freak accident, when hot oil exploded while he was cooking popcorn in 1983 left second-degree burns over much of his body, put him out of commission as a musician for months.
“With every problem comes a gift in hand,” he told The Times in 1985. “For instance, when I do shows to raise money for burn victims, now I can talk to them and know what they are going through. And I can tell their family and friends that when the doctor says the recovery has begun, that's really the time they need your concern and love.”
As a celebrity, he capitalized on quirky passions. At one point he kept live tigers at his Balboa Peninsula mansion, which had previously belonged to Gillette shaving company magnate King Gillette, and titled an early-‘80s live album “The Tigers Loose.” That was his first album in 18 years after surf music fell out of favor in the mid-1960s with the rise of the Beatles, the British Invasion, psychedelic music and other genres.
A decade ago Dale battled back from cancer, even playing a show in south Orange County shortly after being released from a nine-day stay at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for treatment of an infection.
“I thought, ‘I cannot cause this [club owner] to lose thousands of dollars,’” he said at the time.
That’s when he started trying to promote a new moniker to substitute for the “King of the Surf Guitar” label often applied to him: he wanted to be referred to as “Dick Dale-Cancer Warrior.”
With characteristic bravado, he told The Times, he would soon return to the hospital because “everything is messed up, and if it continues that way, I will die. But I’m not ready to leave my son, not ready to leave [his wife] Lana, I’m not ready to leave all the Dick Dale music lovers. They’ve been my medicine.”
Although he has not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he was elected to the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville a decade ago. He experienced recurring brushes with widespread popularity, notably in 1994 when Tarantino used “Misirlou” in “Pulp Fiction.”
In 2010, a career retrospective album “Guitar Legend: The Very Best of Dick Dale” also helped introduce his music to a new generation.
Through his life Dale practiced martial arts and explored eastern philosophy, which he often quoted in interviews.
"There are four sentences [taken from Eastern philosophy] in my life that I go by: 'To experience is to know. To know is to understand. To understand is to tolerate. To tolerate is to have peace',” he told The Times in 1985. “It took me 17 years and [training with] masters of the martial arts to make me understand what that means. But I understand it and that's how I can put up with all the stuff that goes on.
"That's one of the reasons I like working with tigers and lions. If you can understand animals like that, then you can really put up with the reasons why people are the way they are and love them."
Dale’s survivors include his wife, Lana, and his musician son, Jimmy. Information on services was not immediately available.
Badlands of Indiana (February 21, 2019) — Peter Tork, who played bass and keyboards with The Monkees, has died at the age of 77. According to The Washington Post, Tork died on Feb. 21. His death was confirmed by his sister, Anne Thorkelson.
Tork appeared with the rest of The Monkees — Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, and Davy Jones, who passed away in 2012 — on two seasons of the band’s eponymous TV show in the late ’60s and in the 1968 film, Head.
During this period, the group enjoyed a string of hits, including “Daydream Believer,” “I’m A Believer,” “Last Train to Clarksville,” “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You,” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.”
“The songs that we got [in the ‘60s] were really songs of some vigor and substance,” Tork told EW in 2016. “‘(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone’ is not peaches and cream. It comes down hard on the subject, poor girl. And the weight of the song is indicated by the fact that the Sex Pistols covered it.
Anybody trying to write ‘‘60s songs’ now thinks that you have to write ’59th St. Bridge.’ Which is an okay song, but has not got a lot of guts. ‘Stepping Stone’ has guts.”
Tork was the first member to leave the band, at the end of the ’60s, but participated in reunions, starting in the mid-’80s. In 1994, he released a solo album, Stranger Things Have Happened.
“It is with beyond-heavy and broken hearts that we share the devastating news that our friend, mentor, teacher, and amazing soul, Peter Tork, has passed from this world,” This Facebook account said. “We ask for your kindness and understanding in allowing us to grieve this huge loss privately.”
HIs cause of death wasn’t immediately known, but Tork was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare cancer affecting his tongue, in 2009.
The Monkees debuted on NBC in the fall of 1966 and were an immediate success both on TV and on the music charts.
The group’s first single, “Last Train to Clarksville,” had become a number one hit a few weeks earlier.
Tork played a goofy, lovable character on the TV show, essentially becoming The Monkees equivalent of Ringo Starr in The Beatles.
The TV show was canceled after two seasons but lived on in reruns
The Monkees carried on in different incarnations over the years.
When their 45th anniversary rolled around in 2011, the trio of Dolenz, Jones, and Tork decided to re-form and headed out on an extensive tour of North America, according to AllMusic.com. It was to be their last set of performances with Davy Jones, who passed away at the age of 66 in February of 2012.
Although often dismissed as the “Prefab Four," because The Monkees were the creation of TV executives, Tork and Michael Nesmith had solid performing and recording experience before joining the band, AllMusic.com reported. Dolenz and Jones were primarily actors but had also dabbled in pop music and had strong vocal abilities.
Prescott, AZ (January 2, 2019) WHR — Daryl Dragon—the musician best known as the
Captain of 1970's duo Captain & Tennille—has died at age 76. According to a family spokesman, Dragon died today of renal
failure at a hospice in Prescott, Arizona.
Dragon’s longtime musical
collaborator and former wife Toni Tennille was reportedly by his side.
“[Dragon] was a brilliant musician with many friends who loved him greatly,”
Tennille said in a statement. “I was at my most creative in my life when I was
with him.”
Before joining forces with Tennille in the mid ’70s, Dragon
performed with the Beach Boys from 1967 to 1972. As Captain & Tennille,
Dragon and Tennille topped the charts with hits like “The Way I Want to Touch
You,” “Love Will Keep Us Together,” “Muskrat Love,” “Do That One More Time,”
and more. Dragon and Tennille were married for 39 years before divorcing in
2014, though they reportedly remained close until Dragon’s passing.
Daytona Beach, Fla. (December 31, 2018) WHR — Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show star Ray
Sawyer has died at 81.The singer, famous for his cowboy hat and eye-patch, passed
away in Florida on Monday morning after suffering a brief illness.
Ray Sawyer with his cowboy hat and eye patch
Sawyer, perhaps best known for singing lead vocal on “Cover
of Rolling Stone,” passed away in Daytona Beach, Fla., according to his
publicist. No cause of death was given, but we’re told that Sawyer suffered a brief illness from which he didn’t recover.
“Ray Sawyer, an original member of Dr. Hook from 1969-1981,
passed away this morning,” the statement read. “We send our condolences to his
family at this difficult time.”
Born in Alabama in 1937, Sawyer was working as a logger in
Oregon when he lost of his right eye in a car crash. His trademark eyepatch
reminded his bandmates of Peter Pan’s nemesis Captain Hook and they named their
act Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. The band released its first album in
1972.
With Sawyer in the band, the abbreviated Dr. Hook scored
hits with songs like Sylvia’s Mother, When You’re in Love With a Beautiful
Woman, and Cover of the Rolling Stone. He was inducted into the Alabama Music
Hall of Fame in 2005.
Nashville, TN (October 25, 2018) WHR —A record label representative says Tony Joe White, the country bluesman and hit songwriter behind such successes as "Polk Salad Annie" and "Rainy Night in Georgia," has died. He was 75.
Tony Joe White performing
A statement released Thursday from the record label Yep Roc Music Group said White's family confirmed the rocker died Wednesday in Nashville, Tennessee. The label did not have any details on his cause of death. Yep Roc released his last album in September called "Bad Mouthin,'" a collection of blues classics.
White, originally from Louisiana, had a hit in 1969 with "Polk Salad Annie" and his songs were covered by Elvis Presley, Hank Williams Jr., Tina Turner, Ray Charles, Waylon Jennings and many more.
In his five decades as a singer-songwriter, White was best known for his swamp rock style mixing blues, country and rock 'n' roll, which earned him the nickname the Swamp Fox especially with his fans overseas.
With his deep growling voice, his song about the Southern greens wasn't an immediate hit, but months after its release it eventually became a pop hit.
White told The Associated Press in 2006 that in the late '60s many people thought he was singing about something else.
"Back then, people thought polk salad was grass," White said. "They'd bring me bags of grass backstage and say, 'Hey, we brought you a little polk.'"
Presley often covered the song in the 1970s and performed it with relish, waving his arms over his head and dancing throughout the song.
He would later record more of White's songs, including "I've Got a Thing About You Baby."
Raised on a cotton farm in Goodwill, Louisiana, about 20 miles west of the Mississippi River, he became infatuated with the hypnotic sound of Lightnin' Hopkins and has often cited hearing the song "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry as his inspiration for songwriting.
After the success of "Polk Salad Annie," R&B artist Brook Benton had a hit in 1970 with White's song "Rainy Night in Georgia," which also became a song often covered by other artists.
Jennings and White also wrote "Trouble Man," which Jennings recorded in 1989. White worked with Turner on her critically acclaimed and popular "Foreign Affair" album in 1989, contributing four songs and playing guitar and harmonica.
White said also in 2006 that Turner was taken aback when they first met.
"She turned around and looked at me and started hysterically laughing and couldn't get her breath," he recalled. "She was doubling over and I thought, 'Are my pants unzipped or something?' Finally she got her breath and came over to me and gave me a big hug and said, 'I'm sorry, man. Ever since 'Polk Salad Annie' I always thought you were a black man.'"
Turner recorded his song "Steamy Windows," which was later recorded by John Anderson and Kenny Chesney.
Tanya Tucker, who recorded his song "Gospel Singer," said in a statement that White's writing and voice were both raw and pure.
"A big part of the South is quiet now with his passing," she said. "Reckon God wanted a little polk salad!"
Shooter Jennings, Waylon's son, wrote on Twitter that his father would often record White's songs or have White play on his records.
"He was always the Swamp King living in a modern world," Jennings wrote. "His shows and his style were one of a kind and untouched by anybody else."
Los Angeles, California (February 7, 2018) WHR — Mickey Jones, who was a popular character actor in both film and TV along with being a drummer for Kenny Rogers and the First Edition died on Wednesday (February 7) morning at the age of 76. No cause of death has been released but he had been in and out of the hospital a few times in the past months.
Jones was born in Houston and attended Sunset High School outside of Dallas where he first started playing drums in local bands.
In the late-50's, he became the drummer for Trini Lopez but left in 1959 to go to North Texas State College, getting a degree in business administration. After graduating, he moved to San Diego to work in industry but wasn't happy with the job and moved to Los Angeles to get back into show business. Soon after, he once again became Lopez' drummer.
By the mid-60's, Jones started working with other artists including Johnny Rivers and Bob Dylan, taking the place of Levon Helm for his 1966 tour of Australia and Europe. That position came to an end when Dylan had his motorcycle accident and had to take an extended period off, so Mickey decided to try acting, getting a few bit parts.
Mickey Jones, Dead at 76
In 1967, he was asked to become the drummer for the new group The First Edition which included lead singer Kenny Rogers and other former members of the New Christy Minstrels. Before the end of the year, the band would have a top ten record with the psychedelic tinged "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" and followed with such hits as "But You Know I Love You", "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town", "Reuben James", "Something's Burning" and "Tell It All Brother". He was also part of the group's variety hour, Rollin', which ran from 1971 to 1973.
In 1974, the group appeared in a made-for-TV movie, The Dream Makers, but the exposure wasn't enough to revive their career and, the next year, they broke up with Jones pursuing an acting career.
Mickey Jones (L) on the set of Home Improvement
Jones' film career was marked by a number of big hits among lesser fare, including Wild in the Streets, National Lampoon's Vacation, Starman, Total Recall, Tin Cup and Sling Blade while his television credits included a number of appearances on The Incredible Hulk, a recurring role on Home Improvement, a regular spot on Justified and guest spots on over two dozen other shows.
He also released his autobiography, That Would Be Me, in 2009.
JACKSONVILLE, FL. (October 20, 1977) — Three days after Lynyrd Skynyrd released its its fifth album, "Street Survivors," lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, vocalist Cassie Gaines, their assistant tour manager and two pilots died and dozens of others were hurt when their twin-engine plane went down in a wooded area in Gillsburg, Mississippi.
The Jacksonville-based band that named itself as a mocking tribute to Robert E. Lee High School physical education teacher Leonard Skinnerd, who hassled guitarist Gary Rossington about his long hair, is widely credited as the first band to bring Southern rock music to an international audience.
Skynyrd was on the most ambitious headlining tour of their career, traveling between concert dates in Greenville, South Carolina, and a date at LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when their Convair CV-300 ran out of fuel, clipped some trees and went down in a remote forest.
Lynyrd Skynyrd in happier times
According to reports, drummer Artimus Pyle and two crew members crawled from the wreckage and hiked through swampy woods until they finally flagged down a local farmer, who sent for help.
Band members Rossington, Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson and Billy Powell were hospitalized with serious injuries. Skynyrd disbanded after the accident, leaving the survivors to try to make their own way with varying degrees of success and failure.
News Cast of Crash
Remaining members of the band reunited in 1987 for a tour. Rossington, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson, Artimus Pyle and guitarist Ed King, who had left the band two years before the crash, were joined by Ronnie Van Zant's younger brother, Johnny, as their new lead singer. The band stayed together and has produced nine more albums. In March 2006, members of Lynyrd Skynyrd were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
Despite the deaths of Collins in 1990, Wilkeson in 2001, Powell in 2009, and the band's first drummer, Robert Burns Jr. in 2015, Skynyrd continues to tour extensively, performing last Friday at the St. Augustine Amphitheater.
Allman Brothers Band Great Gregg Allman Dead at 69
Savannah GA, (May 27, 2017) — There’s sad news to report
as Gregg Allman, longtime vocalist, keyboardist and a founding member of the
Allman Brothers Band, has passed away at the age of 69.
A statement on his website and social media (LINK) reveals that
Allman passed away peacefully at his home in Savannah, Ga., on Saturday (May
27). The singer had struggled with several health issues in recent years. An
official cause of death was not revealed.
According to the statement, “Gregg considered being on
the road playing music with his brothers and solo band for his beloved fans,
essential medicine for his soul. Playing music lifted him up and kept him going
during the toughest of times.”
Gregg Allman in his younger days
Gregg’s longtime manager and close friend, Michael Lehman
said, “I have lost a dear friend and the world has lost a brilliant pioneer in
music. He was a kind and gentle soul with the best laugh I ever heard. His love
for his family and bandmates was passionate as was the love he had for his
extraordinary fans. Gregg was an incredible partner and an even better friend.
We will all miss him.”
The musician is survived by his wife, Shannon Allman, his
children, Devon, Elijah Blue, Delilah Island Kurtom and Layla Brooklyn Allman;
3 grandchildren, his niece, Galadrielle Allman, lifelong friend Chank
Middleton, and a large extended family. The family will release an additional
statement soon, but for now ask for privacy during this very difficult time.
Allman founded the Allman Brothers band with his older
brother, guitarist Duane Allman. The group also featured guitarist Dickey
Betts, bassist Berry Oakley, and drummers Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny “Jaimoe”
Johanson. They were known for their blues and country-infused improvisational
jam style and their band became one of the leaders in what many coined
“Southern Rock.”
The Allman Brothers Band in 1969
With the Allman Brothers Band, Allman and his bandmates
churned out such classic songs as “Ramblin’ Man,” “Melissa,” “Whipping Post”
and “Midnight Rider.” The group entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
And as a solo artist, Allman went on to release multiple albums, with the songs
“I’m No Angel” and “Anything Goes” achieving his biggest successes.
Our condolences to the extended Allman family, his
friends and peers.
He could play a guitar just like ringing a bell.
St. Louis, MO (March 18, 2017) – Chuck Berry, the dazzling guitarist and rock and roll legend who wrote Johnny B. Goode, Maybelline, Roll Over Beethoven, Memphis, Sweet Little Sixteen and many other classic tunes, died Saturday, police said he died in a residence outside St. Louis, MO.
His music transcended race, fused genres and has passed the test of time.
Berry, who was 29 when he had his first hit, has been called "the father of rock-and-roll." John Lennon famously made the case that Berry had more influence on the genre than any other musician.
"If you tried to give rock ‘n' roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry,'' Lennon said, adding that without Berry there would have been no Beatles.
Berry came from a middle-class family, born the fourth of six children on Oct. 18, 1926 in St. Louis. He lived on Goode Avenue – which may have provided the name of his most famous song, Johnny B. Goode.
The archetypal character of the song may not have learned to read and write too well, but Berry could read and write just fine.
His mother, Martha, was a college graduate, very rare for an African American woman in that time. His father, Henry, was a carpenter and a deacon at the Antioch Baptist Church.
He learned to play the guitar from a neighborhood jazz guitarist named Ira Harris and first performed on stage at a high school assembly, performing Confessing the Blues at the age of 15. He got into trouble for the inappropriateness of the tune.
Berry got into trouble a lot, consistent with his rock-and-roll persona. Scandals and run-ins with the law spotted his career.
When he was a teenager he and a couple of friends dropped out of high school and left town for an impulsive trip to California. They got in trouble before they hit the state line.
They found a gun in a Kansas City parking lot and decided to use it rob three businesses; they stole a car before the state police caught them.
Berry and his friends were convicted and received a maximum sentence of 10 years. He served three years at the Intermediate Reform School for Young Men in Jefferson, MO. He was released on his 21st birthday.
After that, he held a series of odd jobs, picking up the guitar again and marrying Themetta Suggs. The couple eventually had four children together.
Berry played in local St. Louis bands, developing his electrifying stage presence and a sound like no other. In 1952, local musician Johnny Johnson invited him to join his band and perform at the Cosmopolitan Club, an all-black nightclub. Berry's blend of country, blues and R&B attracted a bi-racial crowd in a sharply segregated city. Berry always said that the character Johnny B. Goode was based on Johnny Johnson.
He started making road trips to Chicago, looking for a break. There he met blues legend Muddy Waters, who introduced him to Chess Records.
Berry wrote Maybelline and played it for the record company, which signed him on the spot. The song, with hillbilly roots and blues licks, made it to No. 1 on the R&B charts and No. 5 on the usually white pop charts.
Berry went on to write a string of classics in the late 1950s and 1960s. He introduced his signature "duck-walk," kneeling, holding his right foot straight out and kicking his way across the stage while playing the guitar, during a concert in New York in 1956.
Berry's life got complicated after his sudden stardom. He and his record company clashed, and he lost royalties from many of his early songs. A teenage girl who worked in a club he owned in St. Louis accused him of having an affair with her, and he spent two years in prison after he was convicted of a morals charge.
He served another prison term for tax evasion in 1979, and sex tapes stolen from his home ignited another scandal. Police raided his home in 1990 looking for cocaine – charges were later dropped. He was also sued by women who claimed they had been videotaped in bathrooms without their consent.
Berry received a lifetime achievement from the 1985 Grammy Awards and was in the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee in 1986. He was the subject of a 1987 documentary called Hail, Hail Rock and Roll, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and received a lifetime achievement award at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Berry continued performing onstage well into his 80s – reportedly insisting to be paid up front, accepting no less than $10,000 and playing for no more than 45 minutes.
Paul Kantner, one of the giants of the San Francisco music scene, died
Thursday of multiple organ failure. Mr. Kantner, a founding member of
the Jefferson Airplane, was 74 and had suffered a heart attack this
week.
His death was confirmed by longtime publicist and friend, Cynthia Bowman, who said he died of multiple organ failure and septic shock. Mr. Kantner suffered from a string of health problems in recent years, including a heart attack in March 2015.
With Jefferson Airplane, Mr. Kantner pioneered what became known as the San Francisco sound in the mid-1960s, with such hits as “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit.”
The Airplane was renowned for thrilling vocal gymnastics by singers Marty Balin, Grace Slick and Mr. Kantner, the psychedelic blues-rock sound developed by guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bass player Jack Casady and the LSD-spiked, ‘60s-era revolutionary fervor of its lyrics.
The band was formed in a Union Street bar called the Drinking Gourd, when Balin met Mr. Kantner and expressed his interest in forming a “folk-rock” band. It didn’t take long for the Airplane to attract a sizable local following, enough so that when fledgling promoter Bill Graham opened his legendary Fillmore Auditorium, the Jefferson Airplane served as the first headliner.
The Airplane was the first of the so-called “San Francisco sound” bands to sign a recording contract with a major label, and in August of 1966, its debut album, “The Jefferson Airplane Takes Off,” was released. Slick joined the band a year later and songs like “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” became national hits as the love children came streaming into San Francisco.
The group quickly became an integral part of the ’60s rock scene, from the Matrix club to Golden Gate Park’s “Human Be-In” to Monterey Pop. The Airplane’s high point may have been its sterling early-morning performance at Woodstock, while its nadir may have come only months later, at the violence-plagued Altamont concert, when Balin was knocked unconscious by the rampaging Hells Angels.
Lemmy had been battling an extremely aggressive cancer
News of his death was first reported by radio and TV host Eddie Trunk, who was a longtime friend of Lemmy. Several others have since confirmed the news, including Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, who wrote on Twitter, “Lost one of my best friends, Lemmy, today. He will be sadly missed. He was a warrior and a legend. I will see you on the other side.”
In a statement posted to Facebook, Motörhead wrote, “There is no easy way to say this… our mighty, noble friend Lemmy passed away today after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer. He had learnt of the disease on December 26th, and was at home, sitting in front of his favorite video game from the Rainbow which had recently made it’s way down the street, with his family. We cannot begin to express our shock and sadness, there aren’t words. We will say more in the coming days, but for now, please… play Motörhead loud.”
In addition to cancer, Lemmy had been suffering from a number of other well-publicized health issues, including hematoma. In 2013, he was fitted with an implantable defibrillator to correct an irregular heartbeat. His health issues had caused the cancelation of multiple Motörhead performances in recent years, though Lemmy remained an active force up until the time of his death.
Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister was born Staffordshire, England in 1945. Inspired to become a musician after seeing The Beatles perform in concert, Lemmy spent his 20s playing in a variety of bands, and also served as a roadie in the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
In 1972, he was hired to play bass in the UK space rock group Hawkwind, despite having no previous experience on the instrument. He quickly honed his skills, helping shape the band’s sound on critically acclaimed albums such Space Ritual, while also signing lead vocals on the song “Silver Machine”, which peaked at No. 3 on the UK charts.
Lemmy was lead vocalist, bassist, principal songwriter and the founding, and the only constant member of Motörhead since the band’s formation in 1975. To date, Motörhead have released twenty studio albums and achieved 30 million in sales worldwide. Their last record, Bad Magic, was released in August 2015.
Motörhead saw far more commercial success in the UK, though they achieved a cult status in the US. Their ferocious hard-rock style rejuvenated the metal genre in the late 1970s and inspired everyone from Metallica to Guns N’ Roses to Dave Grohl. Albums such as Ace of Spades, Orgasmatron, and Rock N’ Roll were critically lauded, though ironically the band’s only Grammy Award came via a cover of Metallica’s “Whiplash”, which they recorded for a tribute CD.
