Category: News
It's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination time again. This year, while there are still nominations that boggle the mind, it seems as though the nominations are actually catching up to the commercial popularity of acts (hence the term fame) and nominating accordingly. Here are this year's nominees:
Paul Butterfield Blues Band: The second nomination for the legendary blues singer and harmonica player and his band. Given his influence they'll be inducted eventually.
Chic: This is the eighth nomination for a disco-era band that is essentially a two-hit wonder. Far more deserving nominees have been omitted, and this act really needs to disappear from the list.
Deep Purple: The second nomination for the hard rock band named for a 1930's pop song. Not the worst nomination on the list, but I don't see them getting inducted. I thought last year they might garner enough "sympathy votes" off the death of songwriter Joe South (who wrote "Hush," one of Deep Purple's biggest hits) to be inducted; however, this year I don't see them making it, especially considering the other nominees.
Peter Gabriel: His first solo nomination (he's inducted as a member of Genesis). I would say that Gabriel is one of the certainties this year, if for no other reason than the critical success of most of his work and the commercial success of So and its groundbreaking video hit "Sledgehammer."
Daryl Hall & John Oates: It is about time they were nominated! Hall & Oates have surpassed the Everly Brothers as the most commercially successful duo in rock music history. They should be inducted.
Kiss: Another "about time you got around to noticing this act" nomination. Kiss is about as lame as any band can be on record. It is their live shows that earned them their loyal following and keeps them (although I am not in that category). They should be inducted.
LL Cool J: Taking Steve Miller's nomination space this year. Shouldn't have been nominated, shouldn't win.
The Meters: Second nomination. As of this writing they are in next-to-last place in the fan vote (only Chic has fewer votes).
Nirvana: First nomination. Bet the ranch on their induction.
NWA: Second nomination, taking the Moody Blues' space on the ballot. Not deserving of the space on the ballot.
The Replacements: First nomination. As someone who thinks Pleased to Meet Me was one of the best albums of the 80's: WHY are they nominated?
Linda Ronstadt: First nomination. Tonight, November 2, 2013, let it be stated that I'm guaranteeing you she'll be inducted. This isn't clairvoyance, this is the pathetic reality of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: in July Ronstadt announced that, due to advanced Parkinson's Disease, she can no longer sing. Now that her marvelous voice has been silenced they're going to honor her. And that stinks worse than a skunk factory.
Cat Stevens: Let's face it, if you grew up listening to the radio in the 1970's you like at least one Cat Stevens song. One of the great folk singer-songwriters of that era, I sincerely hope that religious prejudice doesn't keep him from being inducted.
Link Wray: Second nomination. It's a crime that there had to be a second nomination. He should've been in a decade or two ago.
Yes: First nomination. I never cared for them, but there's no question they were the premiere "art rock" band of the 1970's.
The Zombies: First nomination. I don't see them getting in.
My bets are on Ronstadt more than anyone -- even Nirvana. Given that Nirvana basically created a new genre of rock I would be genuinely surprised if they aren't inducted. I would also be surprised if Hall & Oates aren't inducted, now that they have finally been nominated, and I would also list Peter Gabriel as a very likely winner. I would also like to see inductions for Cat Stevens, Kiss, and -- even though I am befuddled over their nomination -- the Replacements. (If you're going to nominate them, then induct them!) Finally, Link Wray -- it's embarrassing that he's not inducted, given that he's generally credited with inventing (or popularizing) the "power chord" in guitar playing. Where would rock and roll be without him?
And my annual plea for the "hey, remember to nominate these people" acts who have yet again been overlooked:
Moody Blues -- yeah, they're still touring nearly 50 years after they formed. And, unlike the Rolling Stones, they aren't charging a second mortgage for the tickets -- and they aren't a parody of themselves.
Steve Miller -- Miller just turned 70 last month. He's been at this longer than half the nominees have been alive. Half the people on this list don't have entire discographies that have sold more than Fly Like an Eagle.
ELO -- a novel idea became a massively successful act. That lousy song used in the coffee commercials in the mid-80's might be what keeps them from being nominated, but they should be nominated -- and inducted.
Neil Sedaka -- one of the premiere acts in rock and roll between Elvis and the Beatles, and his songwriting skills predated ("Stupid Cupid") and post-dated ("Love Will Keep Us Together") his 60's hits.
Don Henley -- hey, if you're going to nominate people already inducted again for their solo work you might as well nominate the most commercially successful solo Eagle career (which was also the best solo Eagle career).
Inductions will be announced in late December. Fans are allowed to vote for up to five nominees at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's site. The act with the most fan votes has one vote added to their "official" tally.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Update on Robbin Thompson
Category: News
When I didn't receive an e-mailed newsletter from Robbin Thompson for months following his February announcement that he had been battling stomach cancer for 12 years I naturally suspected the worst. Fortunately, the news from Robbin in his most recent newsletter contains good news.
"I know most of you got my newsletter from February that basically disclosed my 13 year fight with the cancer," Thompson wrote in his newsletter released on his website and e-mailed to his fans. "Well..I had my 1st check-up since the surgery and the news was pretty good. No visible signs of tumors!! woohoo! I know it's not over but it's the 1st time in 13 years I've heard a Dr. say that so, needless to say I'm pretty stoked. I still have to take the drugs and the drugs that keep those drugs from killin' me but I'm ok with that. Now I can concentrate on the normal stuff that happens to all of us at this age like bad knees and why the hell do my feet hurt? what are those spots in front of my eyes? Stuff that everyone gets...right? Thanks for all the support and prayers. it worked."
Thompson has other things to concentrate on as well, such as promoting his most recent album, A Real Fine Day. Thompson continues to appear in his native Virginia regularly, and he will be heading to Finland and Sweden for a tour starting in September.
Best wishes and continued prayers for a performer who was a significant part of my musical life for the two and a half years I lived in that "Sweet Virginia Breeze" that Robbin Thompson always sings about.
When I didn't receive an e-mailed newsletter from Robbin Thompson for months following his February announcement that he had been battling stomach cancer for 12 years I naturally suspected the worst. Fortunately, the news from Robbin in his most recent newsletter contains good news.
"I know most of you got my newsletter from February that basically disclosed my 13 year fight with the cancer," Thompson wrote in his newsletter released on his website and e-mailed to his fans. "Well..I had my 1st check-up since the surgery and the news was pretty good. No visible signs of tumors!! woohoo! I know it's not over but it's the 1st time in 13 years I've heard a Dr. say that so, needless to say I'm pretty stoked. I still have to take the drugs and the drugs that keep those drugs from killin' me but I'm ok with that. Now I can concentrate on the normal stuff that happens to all of us at this age like bad knees and why the hell do my feet hurt? what are those spots in front of my eyes? Stuff that everyone gets...right? Thanks for all the support and prayers. it worked."
Thompson has other things to concentrate on as well, such as promoting his most recent album, A Real Fine Day. Thompson continues to appear in his native Virginia regularly, and he will be heading to Finland and Sweden for a tour starting in September.
Best wishes and continued prayers for a performer who was a significant part of my musical life for the two and a half years I lived in that "Sweet Virginia Breeze" that Robbin Thompson always sings about.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Livin' in the Sweet Virginia Breeze
CATEGORY: News
You've probably never heard of Robbin Thompson. Most people who do know the name remember him from being in a band called Steel Mill, which also featured a fellow of some note by the name of Bruce Springsteen. That's too bad. Robbin is a gifted singer and songwriter. He's very well-known in Virginia, where his song "Sweet Virginia Breeze" is considered an unofficial state song.
I first heard of Robbin (and his name is "Robbin;" in fact, his second album noted the unusual spelling of his name in it's title, Two B's Please) courtesy of Poco's Indian Summer album. The song "Find Out in Time" was co-written by Thompson and Timothy B. Schmit. Schmit has made appearances on several Robbin Thompson albums. In 1980 Thompson's song "Brite Eyes" (with Schmit singing backup vocals) from the aforementioned Two B's Please cracked the Billboard Top 100.
Things changed for the better for me, regarding Thompson's music, when I was transferred to Norfolk from Jacksonville in 1981. I spent the next two and a half years seeing Robbin Thompson every chance I got. While he may evoke shrugs in the other 49 states, in Virginia this man is a star. And it's well-deserved, too.
Every now and then I get a nostalgic twinge and look up something in my past. That happened when I found some old photos of Robbin playing at a club in Virginia Beach in 1981. I did an internet search and sure enough, he's still out there, making great music. His web site keeps everyone up-to-date about his concerts and offers his albums for sale.
This month his e-mailed newsletter contained a very personal message. Robbin wrote at length about his 12-year battle with cancer. Because his words are so powerful I am posting his remarks here without edit:
The Lottery, Sweet Virginia Breeze, Cancer and The Chesapeake Bay.
What do these 4 things have in common? Well...to me, they go hand in hand and I'll tell you why in this Newsletter.
The Lottery
It was the summer of 2000 and was sitting in my office at our newly constructed In Your Ear recording studios in Richmond's Shockoe Bottom. I'd just settled in to this great space a few months back. It was in the attic of a historic building. My desk was my grandfather's old roll-top and it was situated so i could see the Richmond skyline. I was busy with writing some music for a tv commercial for someone. Our receptionist came on the intercom to tell me I had a phone call from some one about doing a concert and he was holding on the line. I wish I could remember his name now but for the life of me I can't. I picked up the phone and the guy on the other end sez, "hi I just won x million in the Va. Lottery and I want to know how much you'd charge me to perform a concert for me and my friends?" I was a bit stunned for a second but I remember chuckling and saying "well...you've made your 1st post lottery mistake." "what's that? he said. "You told me you won the lottery and then asked me how much I'd charge you to play a concert!!" We both laughed and then agreed on a fee which included a limo for my wife Vicki and I for the evening. The concert was a few weeks away and I got a kick out of telling the story of that phone call for quite some time. Then, I went back to writing whatever music I was involved in doing thinking how cool it was that some guy who'd just won the lottery called me instead of Jimmy Buffett or Lynrd Skynrd.
SWEET VIRGINIA BREEZE
Back in 1975 I recorded the song "Boy From Boston." In some ways it was a song about me because I was born outside of Boston but that was about as far as it went from an autobiographical sense. It was subconsciously a story about how I didn't want my life to end up being. A singer/songwriter who wrote great songs, touched people and ended up drinkin' himself to death. I entered it in a contest, The American Song Festival. Long story short, it won best song in the "folk" category and a $5000.00 prize, got to go to Hollywood and be on a tv special. after that I ended up with a record deal signed to Atlantic Records to Nemperor, a label named after Brian Epstein's record store and owned by Nat Weiss, The Beatles attorney in the USA. I met some of my heroes, a few played on my record. It was a year of dreamworld. Then...it was over. I was back in Richmond playing bars trying to figure out what my next move (if any)would be.
Then, Steve Bassett and I wrote "Sweet Virginia Breeze," recorded it and it was a new beginning. I'm skipping a lot of the gory details here but the point is....it wasn't over yet and there was life after a major recording contract. I stopped worrying about writing for someone in NYC and writing for myself. That's where the line in the song "Together" ("tell NY to shove it, the people back home will love it...") came from. Sweet Va. Breeze became an anthem of sorts and as several Governors have said "the official unofficial state song of Virginia."
So...it wasn't a surprise when our lottery winner asked me to sing this song at his party. I started singing it, the crowd as most Virginia crowds started singing it as well. In this song there's a high note that's at the top of my range. Y'all know where it is, it takes some gut muscles to hit it. So... I get there and hit it strong but this time i felt something tweak, like i pulled a muscle or something. No big deal. On the way home in the limo I mentioned it to my Wife Vicki. The next morning, the pain was so intense I couldn't get out of bed.
CANCER
MCV Emergency Room. I can hardly stand up. 2 hours go by. can't handle it any longer, we get in the car and go to Henrico Drs. Hospital E.R. and walk right in. I get a CT scan. the next thing I know is there are several Drs. in the room telling me of the "mass" I have that's as big as a volleyball. Life, as I know it, changes.
Days now go by like minutes. The next thing I know I'm back at MCV talking to a Surgeon. They don't know what this mass is but they do know it has to come out. Surgery is scheduled. I go in and eight hours later I've delivered an 8lb tumor as big as a volleyball. It was said to be a G.I.S.T. a gastrointestinal stromal tumor. a malignant tumor that doesn't respond to chemotherapy or radiation. Nothing to do but "wait and see."
4 months go by and I go in for a routine check up. It had returned in a smaller package. A couple of them.
After a day of walkin' around in a stupor I get a call from My oncologist at Henrico Drs. There's a study testing a new drug that will hopefully be used on this specific tumor I have. It's out of a hospital in NYC. I need to be in it and I need to be there by the next morning to get in it.
With a lot of help from my friends I get there, get in the study, start taking a drug called GLEEVEC and...it works on my tumors. Not eliminating them but keeping them from getting any bigger. For the next 12 years I get in to the routine of having blood tests and CT scans every 4-6 months along with train rides to NYC and getting to know cancer gurus on a 1st name basis.
This routine became...routine. it was just part of what I did. It was part of my schedule. I got to know the radiology dept. of Henrico Drs Hospital very well. The conductors on Amtrack knew me. As mentioned this went on for 12 years. 12 years ended about a year ago when I went for my semi-annual check-up/ct scan in NYC. My Dr. came in and said..."there's a bit of a problem...your tumors have gotten a little bigger." The Gleevec had stopped working. my tumors had become immune to it. Considering the average was 4 years...a pretty good run. What next? Another drug. I started taking it last May after I returned from my 5th European tour. It worked like a champ shrinking the little buggers and I was back on the mend.
I guess it was October when I was back in NYC for my 2nd check up for this new drug I'm on. All was well and the Drs. there started talking to me about possibly going back in and removing these very small tumors while I was on a drug that worked so well on me. The idea was to turn back the clock to zero while the drug was working. I agreed. The operation would be basically the same operation as the 1st one(you don't wanna know). So...on February 7th I went under the knife at Memorial Sloan Kettering. The operation was successful, they removed the small tumors which they said were 80- 90% dead along with a few others that were the same. I was in the hospital for 4 days. a semi-private room during the big snowstorm they called "nemo." Sharing the room with me was a guy in his 50's who'd been there for 8 days. He was from Long Island and worked for JP Morgan. We finally got to talking while we were walking the halls with our med trees. It's what you do to get everything working again. You gotta walk the halls in your hospital gown, high on morphine looking like death warmed over. He asked where I was from after hearing Vicki's southern accent and I told him I was from Virginia. He said he'd gone to college at ODU and graduated in 1981. I told him I was in a band called The Robbin Thompson Band that played the clubs back in those days at clubs all around Norfolk. He said he had seen us at least 10 times and asked me what I played in the band. I told him who I was and he started tweeting all his alum friends. Small world.
THE CHESAPEAKE BAY
Through all of this the one thing that has kept me sane is the time I have spent sailing my sailboat on the Chesapeake Bay. It's cleansed my soul, kept me thinking positively and thinking about stuff other than what was going on inside me. Some people say a boat is a hole in the water where all your money goes, I say it's a place where you can go to throw all your problems overboard. Through all this I can safely say that I have drowned many a depressing day in the Bay.
So...here I am. On the mend at home. I can't wait to get out of the house but feeling really good...considering. I felt it was time to write this for a number of reasons. It's not like I'd kept it a secret, most of my friends have known since the beginning. This cancer shit can happen to anybody. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do. Some of us get it, fight it and eventually become "cancer free" and are survivors. Some of us are surviving with cancer, and live long lives with whatever kind of cancer we have. I've learned that IT'S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD!! I've survived with cancer for 13 yrs so far and I plan on surviving a lot longer. It took cancer to get me to start traveling the world. I suggest that you don't wait for this kind of news to start living like there's no tomorrow.
I would like to ask two things of you. First, do Robbin a favor and pray for this man as he continues to fight this dreaded disease. Second, do yourself a favor and find some of his music.
You've probably never heard of Robbin Thompson. Most people who do know the name remember him from being in a band called Steel Mill, which also featured a fellow of some note by the name of Bruce Springsteen. That's too bad. Robbin is a gifted singer and songwriter. He's very well-known in Virginia, where his song "Sweet Virginia Breeze" is considered an unofficial state song.
I first heard of Robbin (and his name is "Robbin;" in fact, his second album noted the unusual spelling of his name in it's title, Two B's Please) courtesy of Poco's Indian Summer album. The song "Find Out in Time" was co-written by Thompson and Timothy B. Schmit. Schmit has made appearances on several Robbin Thompson albums. In 1980 Thompson's song "Brite Eyes" (with Schmit singing backup vocals) from the aforementioned Two B's Please cracked the Billboard Top 100.
Things changed for the better for me, regarding Thompson's music, when I was transferred to Norfolk from Jacksonville in 1981. I spent the next two and a half years seeing Robbin Thompson every chance I got. While he may evoke shrugs in the other 49 states, in Virginia this man is a star. And it's well-deserved, too.
 |
| Robbin Thompson playing in a Virginia Beach bar in 1981 |
This month his e-mailed newsletter contained a very personal message. Robbin wrote at length about his 12-year battle with cancer. Because his words are so powerful I am posting his remarks here without edit:
The Lottery, Sweet Virginia Breeze, Cancer and The Chesapeake Bay.
What do these 4 things have in common? Well...to me, they go hand in hand and I'll tell you why in this Newsletter.
The Lottery
It was the summer of 2000 and was sitting in my office at our newly constructed In Your Ear recording studios in Richmond's Shockoe Bottom. I'd just settled in to this great space a few months back. It was in the attic of a historic building. My desk was my grandfather's old roll-top and it was situated so i could see the Richmond skyline. I was busy with writing some music for a tv commercial for someone. Our receptionist came on the intercom to tell me I had a phone call from some one about doing a concert and he was holding on the line. I wish I could remember his name now but for the life of me I can't. I picked up the phone and the guy on the other end sez, "hi I just won x million in the Va. Lottery and I want to know how much you'd charge me to perform a concert for me and my friends?" I was a bit stunned for a second but I remember chuckling and saying "well...you've made your 1st post lottery mistake." "what's that? he said. "You told me you won the lottery and then asked me how much I'd charge you to play a concert!!" We both laughed and then agreed on a fee which included a limo for my wife Vicki and I for the evening. The concert was a few weeks away and I got a kick out of telling the story of that phone call for quite some time. Then, I went back to writing whatever music I was involved in doing thinking how cool it was that some guy who'd just won the lottery called me instead of Jimmy Buffett or Lynrd Skynrd.
SWEET VIRGINIA BREEZE
Back in 1975 I recorded the song "Boy From Boston." In some ways it was a song about me because I was born outside of Boston but that was about as far as it went from an autobiographical sense. It was subconsciously a story about how I didn't want my life to end up being. A singer/songwriter who wrote great songs, touched people and ended up drinkin' himself to death. I entered it in a contest, The American Song Festival. Long story short, it won best song in the "folk" category and a $5000.00 prize, got to go to Hollywood and be on a tv special. after that I ended up with a record deal signed to Atlantic Records to Nemperor, a label named after Brian Epstein's record store and owned by Nat Weiss, The Beatles attorney in the USA. I met some of my heroes, a few played on my record. It was a year of dreamworld. Then...it was over. I was back in Richmond playing bars trying to figure out what my next move (if any)would be.
Then, Steve Bassett and I wrote "Sweet Virginia Breeze," recorded it and it was a new beginning. I'm skipping a lot of the gory details here but the point is....it wasn't over yet and there was life after a major recording contract. I stopped worrying about writing for someone in NYC and writing for myself. That's where the line in the song "Together" ("tell NY to shove it, the people back home will love it...") came from. Sweet Va. Breeze became an anthem of sorts and as several Governors have said "the official unofficial state song of Virginia."
So...it wasn't a surprise when our lottery winner asked me to sing this song at his party. I started singing it, the crowd as most Virginia crowds started singing it as well. In this song there's a high note that's at the top of my range. Y'all know where it is, it takes some gut muscles to hit it. So... I get there and hit it strong but this time i felt something tweak, like i pulled a muscle or something. No big deal. On the way home in the limo I mentioned it to my Wife Vicki. The next morning, the pain was so intense I couldn't get out of bed.
CANCER
MCV Emergency Room. I can hardly stand up. 2 hours go by. can't handle it any longer, we get in the car and go to Henrico Drs. Hospital E.R. and walk right in. I get a CT scan. the next thing I know is there are several Drs. in the room telling me of the "mass" I have that's as big as a volleyball. Life, as I know it, changes.
Days now go by like minutes. The next thing I know I'm back at MCV talking to a Surgeon. They don't know what this mass is but they do know it has to come out. Surgery is scheduled. I go in and eight hours later I've delivered an 8lb tumor as big as a volleyball. It was said to be a G.I.S.T. a gastrointestinal stromal tumor. a malignant tumor that doesn't respond to chemotherapy or radiation. Nothing to do but "wait and see."
4 months go by and I go in for a routine check up. It had returned in a smaller package. A couple of them.
After a day of walkin' around in a stupor I get a call from My oncologist at Henrico Drs. There's a study testing a new drug that will hopefully be used on this specific tumor I have. It's out of a hospital in NYC. I need to be in it and I need to be there by the next morning to get in it.
With a lot of help from my friends I get there, get in the study, start taking a drug called GLEEVEC and...it works on my tumors. Not eliminating them but keeping them from getting any bigger. For the next 12 years I get in to the routine of having blood tests and CT scans every 4-6 months along with train rides to NYC and getting to know cancer gurus on a 1st name basis.
This routine became...routine. it was just part of what I did. It was part of my schedule. I got to know the radiology dept. of Henrico Drs Hospital very well. The conductors on Amtrack knew me. As mentioned this went on for 12 years. 12 years ended about a year ago when I went for my semi-annual check-up/ct scan in NYC. My Dr. came in and said..."there's a bit of a problem...your tumors have gotten a little bigger." The Gleevec had stopped working. my tumors had become immune to it. Considering the average was 4 years...a pretty good run. What next? Another drug. I started taking it last May after I returned from my 5th European tour. It worked like a champ shrinking the little buggers and I was back on the mend.
I guess it was October when I was back in NYC for my 2nd check up for this new drug I'm on. All was well and the Drs. there started talking to me about possibly going back in and removing these very small tumors while I was on a drug that worked so well on me. The idea was to turn back the clock to zero while the drug was working. I agreed. The operation would be basically the same operation as the 1st one(you don't wanna know). So...on February 7th I went under the knife at Memorial Sloan Kettering. The operation was successful, they removed the small tumors which they said were 80- 90% dead along with a few others that were the same. I was in the hospital for 4 days. a semi-private room during the big snowstorm they called "nemo." Sharing the room with me was a guy in his 50's who'd been there for 8 days. He was from Long Island and worked for JP Morgan. We finally got to talking while we were walking the halls with our med trees. It's what you do to get everything working again. You gotta walk the halls in your hospital gown, high on morphine looking like death warmed over. He asked where I was from after hearing Vicki's southern accent and I told him I was from Virginia. He said he'd gone to college at ODU and graduated in 1981. I told him I was in a band called The Robbin Thompson Band that played the clubs back in those days at clubs all around Norfolk. He said he had seen us at least 10 times and asked me what I played in the band. I told him who I was and he started tweeting all his alum friends. Small world.
THE CHESAPEAKE BAY
Through all of this the one thing that has kept me sane is the time I have spent sailing my sailboat on the Chesapeake Bay. It's cleansed my soul, kept me thinking positively and thinking about stuff other than what was going on inside me. Some people say a boat is a hole in the water where all your money goes, I say it's a place where you can go to throw all your problems overboard. Through all this I can safely say that I have drowned many a depressing day in the Bay.
So...here I am. On the mend at home. I can't wait to get out of the house but feeling really good...considering. I felt it was time to write this for a number of reasons. It's not like I'd kept it a secret, most of my friends have known since the beginning. This cancer shit can happen to anybody. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do. Some of us get it, fight it and eventually become "cancer free" and are survivors. Some of us are surviving with cancer, and live long lives with whatever kind of cancer we have. I've learned that IT'S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD!! I've survived with cancer for 13 yrs so far and I plan on surviving a lot longer. It took cancer to get me to start traveling the world. I suggest that you don't wait for this kind of news to start living like there's no tomorrow.
I would like to ask two things of you. First, do Robbin a favor and pray for this man as he continues to fight this dreaded disease. Second, do yourself a favor and find some of his music.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Court's Adjourned!
Category: TV/Tribute
Reinhold Weege passed away in December. As you probably scratched your head going, "Who?," I was hit with an attack of nostalgia and dragged out my DVDs.
Reinhold Weege was a comedy writer who worked on Barney Miller in the 70s. He had, as he said, the usual share of failed pilots and shows in his career as well, including Park Place, a sitcom about work in the Legal Aid office. In 1983 NBC came to Weege and asked him to develop a series. They gave him one word to work with: court. What Weege gave back to NBC was a classic: Night Court. In watching the DVDs of the show I am reminded of just how incredible this series was.
The show was set in a criminal court room in Manhattan, and in reality it could not have been set anywhere else in order to obtain the cast of loonies that marched through the court on a weekly basis. We may all know someone like Phil the wino or Dan the pervert, but only in New York could they all congregate in a single room. Many of the situations were so outlandish that one would think Weege had, like David Byrne did for the characters in True Stories, lifted situations from the headlines of Weekly World News. But that was part of the show's charm.
The main joy, however, was the regular cast of goofball characters. Harry Anderson, as the story goes, went to the casting audition for Night Court and told Weege, "I am this guy!" Weege said he rolled his eyes at Anderson's proclamation, but Anderson wasn't lying: like Harold T. Stone, Anderson is a gifted magician and a Mel Tormé fan (so much so that Anderson gave the eulogy at Tormé's funeral in 1999). It's impossible to think of anyone other than Anderson in that role. Fun-loving, as apt to use an exploding gavel as a real one, and a man with a heart as big as he is tall, Harry Stone is the judge we all want to face should we ever find ourselves in court. The ace up his sleeve, figuratively and literally, was that he would listen, no matter how absurd the defendant's argument sounded. It endeared him to the people brought before him.
John Larroquette, however, was the towering strength in a towering cast (quite literally: Weege said that, unintentionally, Night Court boasted the tallest cast in prime-time history, with 6'2" Charles Robinson, 6'4" Anderson and 6'5" Larroquette still looking up to 6'8" Richard Moll). Dan Fielding is one of the legendary characters in television history thanks to Larroquette's brilliant acting and his willingness to do anything and everything -- from taking a pie in the face to wearing a pair of jockey shorts that had been "guaranteed not to ride up" around his neck -- to get a laugh. Dan Fielding was, as Weege said, "the crème de la scum" of nighttime television characters, a bootlicker that could make the best bootlickers before him (think Hogan's Heroes' Colonel Klink or Bewitched's Larry Tate) look like independent thinkers in comparison; and his obsession with cheap sex (when called a "nondescript, morally bankrupt gigolo" in one episode Dan snapped in disgust, "Hey! Who are you calling 'nondescript'?"), or any sex (demanding that Christine repay him for saving her life by sleeping with him) endeared him to no one.
Larroquette is an avid book collector, but the books in his home don't have enough space to hold the things that can be written regarding his acting genius. He won four consecutive Best Supporting Actor Emmy awards as Dan Fielding; and, had he not withdrawn his name from consideration after the fourth award, he probably would still be getting Emmys for playing a character in a series that ended 21 years ago. Larroquette continues to wow, picking up a Tony in his Broadway debut for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying as well as a fifth Emmy, in 1998, for a role in The Practice. He is currently in the NBC series Deception, and if he gets Emmy number six this fall I will not be the least bit surprised. The man could play a log and get an award -- because he is that good.
One of the things that may be overlooked because of all the silliness that went on between rulings is how legally accurate the show was. One attorney group hailed Night Court as the most accurate show, from the standpoint of the legal rulings, on television. That is partially because Weege spent time in actual courts, watching the procedures.
Weege said he loved to put friends' names in the episodes as characters. The judge's name was remarkably similar to that of actor Harold J. Stone, who coincidentally appeared in an episode of Barney Miller that Weege wrote. Carla Bouvier, the prostitute that fell in love with Harry in the first season, was also named after one of Weege's friends. The most notorious "naming," however, was revealed in the third season episode "Hurricane," when Dan admitted that his real first name was not Dan, but Reinhold. (In the second season Dan's parents showed up, revealing his last name was not "Fielding" but Elmore, making Dan's real name Reinhold Fielding Elmore.)
After reading the book Sweeps: Behind the Scenes in Network TV, I am amazed that Night Court ever got past a pilot, let alone lasted nine seasons. Anderson said in the DVD interview that the members of the show were, in his words, "strung along," with a pilot made, two episodes months later (while Anderson was busy conning Sam Malone out of everything but the bar on Cheers as Harry the Hat), then three more, before finally being renewed for a full season. That probably contributed to the revolving door of actors in the first two seasons: Karen Austin, the no-nonsense court clerk Lana Wagner (who in the pilot referred to the court as her court, not the judge's) was gone by the end of the first season, replaced by guest stars before Charles Robinson settled into the role of Mac in the second season. Paula Kelly was great as Liz, possessing a little more "street smarts" (that Marsha Warfield later brought with her Roz character) than the relative innocence of Markie Post's Christine Sullivan; however, she, too, probably tired of the uncertainty of the show's future and left. Ellen Foley, who sang the spectacular female part on Meat Loaf's classic "Paradise By the Dashboard Lights," was a wonderful counterpart to both Dan's sleazy remarks and Harry's hustling (warning him that she was no slouch at pool when he challenged her to a game on her first night of work), but she, too, departed, making room for Christine.
Then there were the deaths. Selma Diamond's role as the caustic bailiff Selma Hacker was written expressly for her by Weege, who admired her work as a writer on Your Show of Shows. Diamond chain smoked, a fact that, like many other similarities between actors and their characters (such as both Larroquette and Fielding being natives of Louisiana), was written into the show. How the constant smoking made it on network TV some dozen years after cigarette commercials were banned is beyond me. The smoking, although comedic on screen (after someone said an action was touching bailiff Selma replied, "Let me have a cigarette and I'll well up with you"), took Diamond's life at the age of 64. Her replacement, Florence Halop, lasted only one season before she also succumbed to cancer (breast cancer).
Now Weege is gone, too. He died of "natural causes" that were most likely heart-related (he had bypass surgery in the early 90s) at the age of 63.
Reinhold Weege's great legacy, sadly, is not in syndication anywhere at present time. It is criminal (pardon the pun) to think that a show that ran for nine years, with the awards and consistently high ratings, is nowhere to be found while eight different cable/satellite channels will be showing the exact same episode of Two and a Half Men tonight. I hope the programmers are charged with neglect in this matter, and I hope Judge Stone throws the book at them.
Reinhold Weege passed away in December. As you probably scratched your head going, "Who?," I was hit with an attack of nostalgia and dragged out my DVDs.
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| Night Court creator Reinhold Weege |
Reinhold Weege was a comedy writer who worked on Barney Miller in the 70s. He had, as he said, the usual share of failed pilots and shows in his career as well, including Park Place, a sitcom about work in the Legal Aid office. In 1983 NBC came to Weege and asked him to develop a series. They gave him one word to work with: court. What Weege gave back to NBC was a classic: Night Court. In watching the DVDs of the show I am reminded of just how incredible this series was.
The show was set in a criminal court room in Manhattan, and in reality it could not have been set anywhere else in order to obtain the cast of loonies that marched through the court on a weekly basis. We may all know someone like Phil the wino or Dan the pervert, but only in New York could they all congregate in a single room. Many of the situations were so outlandish that one would think Weege had, like David Byrne did for the characters in True Stories, lifted situations from the headlines of Weekly World News. But that was part of the show's charm.
The main joy, however, was the regular cast of goofball characters. Harry Anderson, as the story goes, went to the casting audition for Night Court and told Weege, "I am this guy!" Weege said he rolled his eyes at Anderson's proclamation, but Anderson wasn't lying: like Harold T. Stone, Anderson is a gifted magician and a Mel Tormé fan (so much so that Anderson gave the eulogy at Tormé's funeral in 1999). It's impossible to think of anyone other than Anderson in that role. Fun-loving, as apt to use an exploding gavel as a real one, and a man with a heart as big as he is tall, Harry Stone is the judge we all want to face should we ever find ourselves in court. The ace up his sleeve, figuratively and literally, was that he would listen, no matter how absurd the defendant's argument sounded. It endeared him to the people brought before him.
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| Judge Stone (Harry Anderson) lays down the law |
Anderson always claimed that he is not an actor and that the ensemble cast just made him look good. Weege, however, vehemently disagreed: "He is a good actor," he said when interviewed for the DVD release. "He's a very good actor." Three Emmy nominations for the role of Harry Stone as well as Anderson's post-Night Court roles, including playing Dave Barry in Dave's World and Elwood P. Dowd in a Hallmark updated version of Harvey, indicate that Weege's proclamation was far more accurate than Harry's.
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| John Larroquette racking up the Emmys as sleazeball Dan Fielding |
Larroquette is an avid book collector, but the books in his home don't have enough space to hold the things that can be written regarding his acting genius. He won four consecutive Best Supporting Actor Emmy awards as Dan Fielding; and, had he not withdrawn his name from consideration after the fourth award, he probably would still be getting Emmys for playing a character in a series that ended 21 years ago. Larroquette continues to wow, picking up a Tony in his Broadway debut for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying as well as a fifth Emmy, in 1998, for a role in The Practice. He is currently in the NBC series Deception, and if he gets Emmy number six this fall I will not be the least bit surprised. The man could play a log and get an award -- because he is that good.
One of the things that may be overlooked because of all the silliness that went on between rulings is how legally accurate the show was. One attorney group hailed Night Court as the most accurate show, from the standpoint of the legal rulings, on television. That is partially because Weege spent time in actual courts, watching the procedures.
Weege said he loved to put friends' names in the episodes as characters. The judge's name was remarkably similar to that of actor Harold J. Stone, who coincidentally appeared in an episode of Barney Miller that Weege wrote. Carla Bouvier, the prostitute that fell in love with Harry in the first season, was also named after one of Weege's friends. The most notorious "naming," however, was revealed in the third season episode "Hurricane," when Dan admitted that his real first name was not Dan, but Reinhold. (In the second season Dan's parents showed up, revealing his last name was not "Fielding" but Elmore, making Dan's real name Reinhold Fielding Elmore.)
After reading the book Sweeps: Behind the Scenes in Network TV, I am amazed that Night Court ever got past a pilot, let alone lasted nine seasons. Anderson said in the DVD interview that the members of the show were, in his words, "strung along," with a pilot made, two episodes months later (while Anderson was busy conning Sam Malone out of everything but the bar on Cheers as Harry the Hat), then three more, before finally being renewed for a full season. That probably contributed to the revolving door of actors in the first two seasons: Karen Austin, the no-nonsense court clerk Lana Wagner (who in the pilot referred to the court as her court, not the judge's) was gone by the end of the first season, replaced by guest stars before Charles Robinson settled into the role of Mac in the second season. Paula Kelly was great as Liz, possessing a little more "street smarts" (that Marsha Warfield later brought with her Roz character) than the relative innocence of Markie Post's Christine Sullivan; however, she, too, probably tired of the uncertainty of the show's future and left. Ellen Foley, who sang the spectacular female part on Meat Loaf's classic "Paradise By the Dashboard Lights," was a wonderful counterpart to both Dan's sleazy remarks and Harry's hustling (warning him that she was no slouch at pool when he challenged her to a game on her first night of work), but she, too, departed, making room for Christine.
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| Selma Diamond & Richard Moll provided what Weege referred to as a "Mutt & Jeff" appearance |
Then there were the deaths. Selma Diamond's role as the caustic bailiff Selma Hacker was written expressly for her by Weege, who admired her work as a writer on Your Show of Shows. Diamond chain smoked, a fact that, like many other similarities between actors and their characters (such as both Larroquette and Fielding being natives of Louisiana), was written into the show. How the constant smoking made it on network TV some dozen years after cigarette commercials were banned is beyond me. The smoking, although comedic on screen (after someone said an action was touching bailiff Selma replied, "Let me have a cigarette and I'll well up with you"), took Diamond's life at the age of 64. Her replacement, Florence Halop, lasted only one season before she also succumbed to cancer (breast cancer).
Now Weege is gone, too. He died of "natural causes" that were most likely heart-related (he had bypass surgery in the early 90s) at the age of 63.
Reinhold Weege's great legacy, sadly, is not in syndication anywhere at present time. It is criminal (pardon the pun) to think that a show that ran for nine years, with the awards and consistently high ratings, is nowhere to be found while eight different cable/satellite channels will be showing the exact same episode of Two and a Half Men tonight. I hope the programmers are charged with neglect in this matter, and I hope Judge Stone throws the book at them.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
The Final Curtains of 2012
Category: Tribute
Here are the musicians and music-related individuals who took their final bows in 2012.
Mark Abrahamian (September 2, heart attack, age 46): guitarist for the Mickey Thomas incarnation of Starship.
Willie Ackerman (December 13, unknown cause, age 73): prolific country session drummer who can be heard on tracks such as Marty Robbins' "El Paso" and Ferlin Husky's "Wings of a Dove." He also appeared regularly on Hee Haw and the Grand Ole Opry.
Richard Adler (June 21, natural causes, age 91): Tony Award-winning songwriter of such hits as Damn Yankees and Pajama Game.
Dave "Omar the Magnificent" Alexander (January 18, suicide [gunshot], age 73): influential blues "boogie woogie" piano player.
Inez Andrews (December 19, cancer, age 73): one of the voices of what is known as "the golden age" of gospel music.
Tom Ardolino (January 6, long illness, age 56): the drummer for the legendary band NRBQ.
Mike Auldridge (December 28, cancer, age 73): the Dobro player for the legendary bluegrass band the Seldom Scene.
Bob Babbitt (July 16, brain cancer, age 74): prolific Motown session musician and bassist in the Funk Brothers.
Perry Baggs (July 12, complications of diabetes, age 50): the drummer for the seminal rock band Jason and the Scorchers.
Bill Bailey (January 14, natural causes, age 81): legendary disc jockey, known as the "Duke of Louisville" for his years at WAKY. He also worked at stations in Cincinnati and Chicago.
Fontella Bass (December 26, complications from heart attack, age 72): powerhouse R&B singer, best known for her 1965 hit "Rescue Me."
Eddie Bell (ne Eddie Blazonczyk; May 12, natural causes, age 70): Grammy-winning polka bandleader.
Pete Bennett (November 22, heart attack, age 77): music promoter who worked with the Beatles, as a group and solo, as well as Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones.
Bob Birch (August 16, suicide [gunshot], age 56): bass player for Elton John.
Doug Bounsall (September 1, car accident, age 61): a former member of the Dillards.
Chuck Brown (May 16, pneumonia, age 75): affectionately known as "the godfather of go-go music," his band the Soul Searchers hit the charts in 1979 with "Bustin' Loose."
Dave Brubeck (December 5, heart failure, age 91): a master of jazz piano and one of the few jazz performers to cross over to widespread pop success thanks to his hit "Take Five," he died en route to a doctor's appointment one day before his 92nd birthday.
Billy Bryans (April 23, lung cancer, age 57): percussionist and producer who worked with the Parachute Club and produced the soundtrack to the Disney film Jungle 2 Jungle.
Larry Butler (January 20, natural causes, age 69): a man with many hats, including the songwriter of BJ Thomas' 1975 #1 country and pop hit "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song." Butler also produced numerous country music acts, but his work with Kenny Rogers brought them both phenomenal success. In 1980 Butler became the first, and to date the only, country music producer to win the "producer of the year" Grammy award.
Leslie Carter (January 31, drug overdose, age 25): rising pop singer who followed her successful brothers Nick Carter and Aaron Carter into the business.
Ed Cassidy (December 6, cancer, age 89): drummer for the 60s band Spirit.
Hadley Castle (October 25, brain tumor, age 79): Cajun fiddler who saw his music featured in films such as A Perfect World and A Man and His Dog.
Jimmy Castor (January 6, heart failure, age 71): the leader of the Jimmy Castor Bunch, the group who had hits with "Troglodyte" and "Bertha Butt Boogie."
Tony Cianciola (January 25, aneurysm, age 87): a Knoxville-based accordion player who followed his cousin onto the WNOX Midday Merry-Go-Round, where he performed with country acts such as Chet Atkins, Archie Campbell, Don Gibson, and Johnnie & Jack. Atkins was such a fan that he used Cianciola on some recording sessions.
Dick Clark (April 18, heart attack, age 82): long before MTV there was American Bandstand, thanks to the man affectionately known as "the world's oldest teenager."
Susanna Clark (June 27, illness, age 73): the wife of legendary songwriter Guy Clark was a songwriter herself, co-writing the country classic "Easy From Now On" with Carlene Carter. She was also a gifted painter. Her artwork adorned the cover of Willie Nelson's Stardust album.
Eddie Clerto (February 2, natural causes, age 93): based on the west coast for most of his career, Clerto managed one minor hit, "Flying Saucer Boogie." His band the Roundup Boys worked with numerous west coast country performers including Rose Maddox.
Maria Cole (July 10, cancer, age 89): a singer herself, she was also the widow of Nat "King" Cole and mother of Natalie Cole.
Charlie Collins (January 12, stroke, age 78): A well-known east Tennessee performer in his early life, Collins joined "king of country music" Roy Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys in 1966. After Acuff's death in 1992 Collins remained on the Grand Ole Opry as part of the square dance band.
Don Cornelius (February 1, suicide [gunshot], age 75): the originator and host of the R&B version of American Bandstand, Soul Train.
Pete Cosey (May 30, post-operative complications, age 68): long-time guitarist with jazz great Miles Davis.
B.B. Cunningham (October 14, murdered [shot to death], age 70): as a member of the Hombres he wrote "Let It All Hang Out;" later he played bass for Jerry Lee Lewis.
Nick Curran (October 6, oral cancer, age 36): punk, blues and roots rock musician.
Ted Curson (November 4, heart attack, age 77): jazz trumpet player who performed with Charlie Mingus.
Hal David (September 1, stroke, age 91): Burt Bacharach's songwriting partner and a prolific lyricist.
Carl Davis (August 9, lung disease, age 77): producer of such hits as "Higher and Higher" and "Duke of Earl."
Michael Davis (February 17, liver failure, age 68): the bassist for the band MC5.
Bill Dees (October 24, brain tumor, age 73): songwriter responsible for the Roy Orbison smash "(Oh) Pretty Woman."
Al DeLory (February 5, unknown causes, age 82): a session musician (the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album) who had one hit on his own, his rendition of the theme song to M*A*S*H, DeLory was the Grammy-winning producer and arranger for Glen Campbell during Campbell's rise to superstardom.
Robert Dickey (December 29, 2011, announced January 4, 2012, unknown causes, age 72): the "Bobby" in James & Bobby Purify, who had the hit "I'm Your Puppet."
Doug Dillard (May 16, lung infection, age 75): Sheriff Andy Taylor's favorite band was the Darlings, and Doug Darling was their banjo player. The Dillards, of course, were a legitimate bluegrass band, inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2010. Aside from his work with the Dillards, Doug also teamed up with one-time Byrd member Gene Clark for the duo Dillard & Clark.
Lee Dorman (December 21, suspected heart attack, age 70): bassist for the band Iron Butterfly, best-known for "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida."
Cleve Duncan (November 7, unknown cause, age 78): member of the 50s vocal group the Penguins, best-known for their hit "Earth Angel."
Donald "Duck" Dunn (May 13, heart attack, age 70): a bass player's bass player, he began with Booker T. & the MG's and moved on to session work across the spectrum of music. He also played himself in the classic 1980 film The Blues Brothers.
Jimmy Elledge (June 10, stroke, age 69): the man who had the first huge (million-selling) version of the Willie Nelson composition "Funny How Time Slips Away."
Jimmy Ellis (March 8, Alzheimer's disease, age 74): a member of the Trammps, the band with the mid-70s hit "Disco Inferno."
Chris Ethridge (April 23, pancreatic cancer, age 65): the bassist for Gram Parson's influential country-rock band the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Dan Evins (January 14, cancer, age 76): the founder of Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores, the "home cooking" restaurant that has started its own record label. The label's releases include albums by the Oak Ridge Boys, Dolly Parton, and two Grammy-nominated releases by Dailey & Vincent.
Martin Fay (November 14, long illness, age 76): one of the founders of the legendary Irish folk band the Chieftains.
Pete Fornatale (April 26, brain aneurysm, age 66): one of WNEW's legendary DJs.
Isaac "Dickie" Freeman (October 17, long illness, age 84): a member of the gospel group the Fairfield Four.
Gil Friesen (December 13, leukemia, age 75): the president of A&M Records.
Robin Gibb (May 20, cancer, age 62): a member of the Bee Gees.
Joel Goldsmith (April 29, cancer, age 56): the son of composer Jerry Goldsmith, he was the composer for the music for the TV series Stargate SG-1.
Minnette Goodman (December 5, lung cancer, age 85): the mother of late folk singer/songwriter Steve Goodman was also a dedicate supporter and promoter of the Chicago folk music scene.
Don Grady (June 27, cancer, age 68): the My Three Sons actor was also a musician (he had a minor hit in 1966) and songwriter.
R.B. Greaves (September 27, prostate cancer, age 68): the performer of the hit "Take a Letter, Maria."
Bob Green (January 26, unknown causes, age 80): Anita Bryant's former husband was also her manager.
Andy Griffith (July 3, heart attack, age 86): the folksy sheriff of Mayberry was a good guitarist and singer, having a comedy hit with "What It Was, Was Football" and a string of successful gospel recordings. Griffith was one of three people from his 1960s TV series to die this year (along with Doug Dillard and George Lindsey).
Jackie Guthrie (October 14, liver cancer, age 68): the wife of folk legend Arlo Guthrie.
Greg Ham (body found April 19, undetermined cause, age 58): the flautist of the 80s Australian band Men at Work.
Marvin Hamlisch (August 7, brief illness, age 68): composer who became internationally famous with his work on the soundtrack of the 1973 classic The Sting.
Richard Harding (May 12, cancer, age 82): the owner of the Chicago folk club the Quiet Knight, where John Prine was discovered while opening for Kris Kristofferson.
Major Harris (November 9, congestive heart failure and liver failure, age 65): a one-time member of the group the Delfonics who later had a solo hit with "Love Won't Let Me Wait."
Dee Harvey (December 1, complications of an illness, age 47): an R&B singer best-known for his 1991 song "Leave Well Enough Alone."
Levon Helm (April 19, cancer, age 71): the backbone and back beat of The Band whose talent and reach spanned genres and decades. He acted in several films beginning with Coal Miner's Daughter and later won Grammy awards for his solo projects Dirt Farmer and Ramble at the Ryman.
Walt Hensley (November 25, cancer, age 76): the "Banjo Baron of Baltimore" played with many bluegrass bands including the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers and the Country Gentlemen.
Stephen Hill (August 5, heart attack, age 55): gospel singer/songwriter who frequently appeared on the Gaither Homecoming shows and taught at the Stamps Baxter School of Music.
Larry Hoppen (July 24, unknown cause, age 61): co-founder of the band Orleans, responsible for hits such as "Dance With Me" and "Still the One."
Michael Hossack (March 12, cancer, age 65): drummer for the Doobie Brothers.
Whitney Houston (February 11, drowned in bathtub, age age 48): singer and actress whose career was sadly eclipsed by, and ultimately ended by, her personal demons.
Etta James (January 20, leukemia, age 73): a vocalist....oh, what a vocalist.
Billy Johnson (February 27, unknown cause, age 51): country session and touring guitarist for the likes of Billy Walker, Jim Ed Brown and Porter Wagoner.
Tim Johnson (October 21, cancer, age 52): a board member of the Nashville Songwriters Association International and author of over 100 songs including "Thank God for Believers," "I Let Her Lie" and "Do You Believe Me Now."
Davy Jones (February 29, heart attack, age 66): one of the pre-fab four, the Monkees.
Peter Jones (May 18, brain cancer, age 58): the drummer for the band Crowded House.
Jimmy Jones (August 2, unknown causes, age 82): a songwriter responsible for the hit "Handy Man."
Dick Kniss (January 27, pulmonary disease, age 74): a one-time bassist for folk music icons Peter, Paul & Mary, he went on to work with John Denver, including co-writing "Sunshine on My Shoulder."
Charlie Lamb (March 7, pneumonia, age 90): a country music journalist for over 60 years who coined the term "with a bullet" to signify fast-rising songs on the music charts.
John Levy (January 20, natural causes, age 99): the first African-American talent manager, he worked with jazz acts such as Nancy Wilson and Ramsey Lewis.
Tonmi Lillman (February 14, unknown causes, age 38): drummer for metal bands Synergy and To/Die/For.
George Lindsey (May 6, illness, age 83): "Goober" on The Andy Griffith Show later became a regular on Hee Haw.
Jon Lord (July 16, pulmonary embolism and pancreatic cancer, age 71): songwriter and keyboard player for Deep Purple.
Andrew Love (April 12, Alzheimer's disease, age 70): a member of the Memphis Horns section, he played on many Elvis records.
Eric Lowen (March 23, Lou Gehrig's disease, age 60): half of the songwriting duo Lowen and Navarro, who wrote hits such as Pat Benatar's "We Belong."
Jim Marshall (April 5, cancer, age 88): the inventor of the Marshall amplifiers.
Mark "Bam Bam" McConnell (May 24, kidney failure, age unknown): the drummer for Sebastian Bach.
Jimmy McCraclin (December 20, hypertension & diabetes, age 91): singer/songwriter who wrote the hit "The Walk."
Kathi McDonald (October 2, unknown cause, age 64): blues/rock singer who also appeared on albums by the Rolling Stones and Joe Cocker.
John McGann (April 6, kidney disease, unknown age): multi-instrumentalist and influential mandolin teacher.
Jon Mcintire (February 15, lung cancer, age 70): the manager for the Grateful Dead during the 70s.
Scott McKenzie (August 18, illness, age 73): folk-rock singer who had the hit "San Francisco (Flowers in Your Hair)."
Fred Milano (January 1, lung cancer, age 72): a member of Dion and the Belmonts.
Ronnie Montrose (March 3, suicide [gunshot]/suffered from prostate cancer, age 64): hard rock singer and session guitarist.
Danny Morrison (February 14, heart attack, age unknown): country songwriter behind "Blaze of Glory" and "Is It Cold in Here."
Teddy Mueller (June 28, hepatitis C, age 57): drummer for the hard rock band Axe.
Joe Muraryi (April 20, stroke, age 84): the final surviving clarinet player who worked with Louis Armstrong.
Johnny Otis (January 17, long illness, age 90): an R&B drummer and producer who wrote the classic "Willie and the Hand Jive."
Frank Peppiatt (November 6, bladder cancer, age 85): one of the co-creators of Hee Haw.
Charles "Skip" Pitts (May 1, cancer, age 65): guitarist who worked with Isaac Hayes, including on the classic song "Theme From Shaft."
Dory Previn (February 14, natural causes, age 86): singer/songwriter best-known for writing the theme to the movie Valley of the Dolls.
Mark Reale (January 25, subarachnoid hemorrhage & Crohn's disease, age 56): guitarist for the band Riot.
Herb Reed (June 4, chronic heart disease, age 83): the last surviving original member of the legendary vocal group the Platters.
Natina Reed (October 26, hit by car, age 32): member of the band Blaque, who had the hit "Bring It All Back to Me."
Tom "Cat" Reeder (June 30, heart attack, age 78): WAMU's bluegrass host and a Disc Jockey Hall of Fame member.
Ken Regan (November 25, cancer, no age given): legendary rock photographer who took photos of everyone from the Beatles to Muhammad Ali.
Larry Reinhardt (January 2, infection/cancer, age 63): guitarist for the 60s band Iron Butterfly. He was one of two band members to die in 2012 (Lee Dorman was the other).
Jenni Rivera (December 8, plane crash, age 43): Spanish pop singer with huge following in Mexico and America, she had signed a deal to appear in an ABC sitcom eight days before her death.
Kenny Roberts (April 29, natural causes, age 85): country music singer and yodeler who also did some acting.
Buddy Rogers (May 30, unknown cause, age 73): the owner of a chain of "Uncle Bud's Catfish" restaurants in Nashville was also a session drummer who worked with the likes of Jerry Reed and Danny Davis & the Nashville Brass.
Martin Rushent (June 4, unknown cause, age 62): British rock record producer whose hits included the Human League's "Don't You Want Me."
"Sweet Joe" Russell (May 5, kidney disease, age unknown): founder of the a cappella band the Persuasions.
Mike Scaccia (seizuire while onstage, December 22, age 47): guitarist for the heavy metal band Ministry.
Earl Scruggs (March 28, natural causes, age 88): the man for whom the banjo seemed to be invented, his three-finger style of playing revolutionized bluegrass music.
Ravi Shankar (December 11, respiratory and heart failure, age 92): the world's foremost sitar player (and George Harrison's sitar teacher) was also the father of singer Nora Jones.
Dick Shelton (January 17, pneumonia, age 71): country singer Blake Shelton's father.
Robert Sherman (March 5, illness, age 86): one of the Sherman Brothers who wrote songs for numerous Disney films and the song "It's a Small World," which has a ride named after it at the Disney theme parks.
John Shuffler (December 21, illness/complications of a stroke, age 81): the bass player in the Shuffler Family bluegrass band began his career playing with the Stanley Brothers.
Danny Sims (October 3, colon cancer, age 75): the record producer credited with discovering Bob Marley.
Joe South (September 5, heart attack, age 72): primarily considered a country songwriter because of songs such as "Don't It Make You Wanna Go Home," "Games People Play," and "Rose Garden," he also wrote the Deep Purple classic "Hush."
Chris Stamp (November 24, cancer, age 70): manager for such acts as the Who and Jimi Hendrix.
John Stockfish (August 20, natural causes, age 69): the longtime bassist for folk icon Gordon Lightfoot.
Billy Strangs (February 22, illness, age 81): a man who wore many hats, including playing guitar on the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album, arranging songs such as Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Were Made for Walkin,' and writing songs including "A Little Less Conversation."
"Big Jim" Sullivan (October 2, heart disease/diabetes, age 71): prolific British session guitarist who worked on hits for Gilbert O'Sullivan, Dusty Springfield, and Tom Jones.
Rollin "Oscar" Sullivan (September 7, leukemia, age 93): half of the Grand Ole Opry comedy duo Lonzo & Oscar, Sullivan was also a member of Eddy Arnold's band in the 1940s. His mandolin work can be heard on Arnold's early recordings.
Donna Summer (May 17, lung cancer, age 63): initially known as the "disco queen" she continued to have hits (e.g., "Unconditional Love") long after the disco craze died. She was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.
Stuart Swanlund (August 6, natural causes, age 54): Marshall Tucker Band guitar player.
Richard Teeter (April 10, unknown cause, age 61): drummer for the punk band the Dictators.
Jim Thomas (December 19, long illness, age 87): Branson, Missouri businessman who is credited with starting the popularity of music theaters in the city.
Joe Thompson (February 20, natural causes, age 93): African-American fiddler from North Carolina who performed with the Carolina Chocolate Drops and served as an ambassador for traditional music.
Herby Wallace (April 5, heart attack, age 64): Steel Guitar Hall of Fame inductee who played on over 2,000 country sessions.
Willa Ward (August 12, natural causes, age 91): member of the gospel group the Ward Sisters.
Mack Watkins (March 25, unknown causes, age unknown): country session guitar player and the husband of Jeannie Kendall of the duo the Kendalls.
Doc Watson (May 29, complications from colon surgery and pneumonia, age 89): one of the best friends a guitar could ever have. His majestic playing thrilled audiences for decades, and his memorial to his late son, MerleFest, brought bluegrass, country and Americana artists and fans together in North Carolina for a quarter of a century.
Bob Welch (June 7, suicide [gunshot], age 66): lead guitarist for Fleetwood Mac who spearheaded their transition from blues band to mainstream rock, he was replaced by Lindsey Buckingham upon his departure. He later found solo success with "Sentimental Lady," a re-working of a song he first recorded with Fleetwood Mac. He was one of two former Fleetwood Mac members to die in 2012.
Kitty Wells (July 16, stroke, age 92): in 1952 she kicked the door down for female country singers with "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," rightfully earning her the title "Queen of Country Music."
Bob Weston (January 3, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, age 64): guitar player for Fleetwood Mac on the albums Mystery to Me and Penguin. He was one of two former Fleetwood Mac members (along with Bob Welch, who was also on the Mystery to Me album) who died in 2012.
Andy Williams (September 25, bladder cancer, age 84): more than a host of Christmas specials and the man who discovered the Osmond Brothers, he was one of the definitive pop vocalists in music.
Carmilla Williams (January 29, cancer, age 92): opera soprano who had the distinction of being the first African-American woman to work with an American opera company.
Frank Wilson (September 27, lung infection, age 71): a Motown producer and songwriter who co-wrote the Diana Ross & the Supremes hit "Love Child."
Belita Woods (May 14, heart failure, age 63): a member of Parliament-Funkadelic and Brainstorm.
Adam Yauch (May 4, cancer, age 47): founding member of the Beastie Boys.
Finally, a couple of deaths related to The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which went from a Tony-nominated Broadway musical to a 1982 film starring Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton. On December 12 Lawrence King, the man who wrote the original 1973 Playboy magazine article about the "chicken ranch" and later collaborated on the play, died from emphysema at the age of 83. Twelve days later veteran character actor Charles Durning, who stole the show with his performance of "The Sidestep," died of natural causes at the age of 89.
Farewell, and thank you for the music.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Called It, Didn't I?
Category: News
Frank Burns once said he wasn't right very often. Even the doctor of dunce from M*A*S*H could have called some of the winners in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee balloting. Heck, I got most of them right!
As previously predicted, Randy Newman was inducted, as was the late queen of disco Donna Summer and legendary blues man Albert King. I was also thrilled to see that the Hall of Fame is finally getting around to putting commercially successful but critically panned acts in, as evident by the induction of Heart and Rush. This gives me hope that maybe next year we will see the nomination (note that not only are these household names not inducted, they have NEVER BEEN NOMINATED) of other legendary acts such as Steve Miller, Linda Ronstadt, the Electric Light Orchestra, the Moody Blues, and Kiss. Yeah, Kiss's music may be lame but I guarantee you that more people know who they are than know who Erik B. & Rakem (one of this year's nominees) are. And as I always like to point out, it is a hall of FAME.
Congratulations, especially, to Rush. I have never cared for that band (Geddy Lee's voice is worse than a cat using a chalkboard for a scratching post), but who on this earth in his/her right mind can argue with their success? Their native country put them in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame a decade and a half ago. It's nice to see the music snobs in Cleveland put their tastes aside for a change and put the most worthy act in.
Maybe next year Miller, Ronstadt, ELO and the Moodies will join them.
Frank Burns once said he wasn't right very often. Even the doctor of dunce from M*A*S*H could have called some of the winners in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee balloting. Heck, I got most of them right!
As previously predicted, Randy Newman was inducted, as was the late queen of disco Donna Summer and legendary blues man Albert King. I was also thrilled to see that the Hall of Fame is finally getting around to putting commercially successful but critically panned acts in, as evident by the induction of Heart and Rush. This gives me hope that maybe next year we will see the nomination (note that not only are these household names not inducted, they have NEVER BEEN NOMINATED) of other legendary acts such as Steve Miller, Linda Ronstadt, the Electric Light Orchestra, the Moody Blues, and Kiss. Yeah, Kiss's music may be lame but I guarantee you that more people know who they are than know who Erik B. & Rakem (one of this year's nominees) are. And as I always like to point out, it is a hall of FAME.
Congratulations, especially, to Rush. I have never cared for that band (Geddy Lee's voice is worse than a cat using a chalkboard for a scratching post), but who on this earth in his/her right mind can argue with their success? Their native country put them in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame a decade and a half ago. It's nice to see the music snobs in Cleveland put their tastes aside for a change and put the most worthy act in.
Maybe next year Miller, Ronstadt, ELO and the Moodies will join them.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Shaking My Head in Disbelief Yet AGAIN
Category: News
What on this earth is it going to take for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to wake the heck up and start nominating legendary ROCK AND ROLL acts? It almost seems as though they'll put the Bay City Rollers on the ballot before acts like Steve Miller, Linda Ronstadt, Kiss, or ELO.
Here are this year's nominees:
Paul Butterfield Blues Band (hope they make it!)
Chic (are you kidding me? FIVE top 40 hits in their entire CAREER? Steve Miller had more than that in two years!)
Deep Purple (I am going to go out on a limb and say they'll make it on a Joe South sympathy vote: South, who wrote one of their biggest hits, "Hush," died last month)
Heart (they have more legitimacy than Chic!)
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (another one-hit wonder act)
Albert King (and let's all say it together now, "You mean he's not already in???")
Kraftwerk (taking the ballot place of Miller, Ronstadt, ELO, Chicago, etc., the only reason I can think of them being nominated)
Marvelettes (ditto the Albert King remark)
The Meters (one of the founding bands of funk)
Randy Newman (mark it down now, Tuesday, October 16, 2012, that I'm predicting this: Randy will be inducted. Bet the ranch on it.)
N.W.A. (ah, yes, the rap & roll hall of fame....)
Procol Harum ("A Whiter Shade of Pale" is on my 100 favorites list, but one hit does not a hall of fame career make)
Public Enemy (see NWA)
Rush (whaddaya know, they're FINALLY getting around to nominating these guys, after 40 million albums sold, a documentary, and induction into Canada's music hall of fame. I'm not a fan of the band but I sincerely hope they are inducted!)
Donna Summer (mark it down, she's in, sympathy vote)
I'm hoping Albert King, the Butterfield Blues Band, Rush, and Randy Newman make it. I'm also hoping that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will start picking up those commercially successful but not critically well-received acts and putting them on the ballot. As I often say, it's not a hall of "quality" or hall of "critics' darlings," it's a hall of FAME.
What on this earth is it going to take for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to wake the heck up and start nominating legendary ROCK AND ROLL acts? It almost seems as though they'll put the Bay City Rollers on the ballot before acts like Steve Miller, Linda Ronstadt, Kiss, or ELO.
Here are this year's nominees:
Paul Butterfield Blues Band (hope they make it!)
Chic (are you kidding me? FIVE top 40 hits in their entire CAREER? Steve Miller had more than that in two years!)
Deep Purple (I am going to go out on a limb and say they'll make it on a Joe South sympathy vote: South, who wrote one of their biggest hits, "Hush," died last month)
Heart (they have more legitimacy than Chic!)
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (another one-hit wonder act)
Albert King (and let's all say it together now, "You mean he's not already in???")
Kraftwerk (taking the ballot place of Miller, Ronstadt, ELO, Chicago, etc., the only reason I can think of them being nominated)
Marvelettes (ditto the Albert King remark)
The Meters (one of the founding bands of funk)
Randy Newman (mark it down now, Tuesday, October 16, 2012, that I'm predicting this: Randy will be inducted. Bet the ranch on it.)
N.W.A. (ah, yes, the rap & roll hall of fame....)
Procol Harum ("A Whiter Shade of Pale" is on my 100 favorites list, but one hit does not a hall of fame career make)
Public Enemy (see NWA)
Rush (whaddaya know, they're FINALLY getting around to nominating these guys, after 40 million albums sold, a documentary, and induction into Canada's music hall of fame. I'm not a fan of the band but I sincerely hope they are inducted!)
Donna Summer (mark it down, she's in, sympathy vote)
I'm hoping Albert King, the Butterfield Blues Band, Rush, and Randy Newman make it. I'm also hoping that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will start picking up those commercially successful but not critically well-received acts and putting them on the ballot. As I often say, it's not a hall of "quality" or hall of "critics' darlings," it's a hall of FAME.
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