Continued from item 63 in the old music conference (item:music2,63)

106 responses total.

Today's news reports the death of Norman Granz, 83.  Granz' most important
work was the development of the Verve jazz label, which made many of the 
key recordings of Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald.  After he sold Verve
to a conglomerate, in the 1970s or so he started the Pablo label, which 
was still active when I got into jazz.  Pablo had lots of late small-group
recordings with Basie, and Duke Ellington, and still more 
Ella Fitzgerald.

  I'm not a big jazz fan, but Verve seems to have been quite an
  important label during its heyday..

By now everyone who has looked at a news web site probably has 
learned that George Harrison is dead.  (The inner grump says:
so much for this summer's vigorous denials of how sick Harrison was...)
 
I dug out the chintzy BEST OF GEORGE HARRISON cd that Capitol/EMI put
out some years ago: seven of his Beatles songs, and just six songs 
from his early solo career.  So we had a little memorial listening party
on the drive to work this morning.  That compilation lacks my 
favorite Harrison Beatles song, a single B-side called "Old Brown 
Shoe" which is on the PAST MASTERS v.2 set.  I also need to dig out
the Travelling Wilburys discs.

Harrison's fall from commercial favor is kind of surprising; 
IIRC, several of his solo albums were never released on CD and
most seem currently out of print.  (I'll have to dust off the 
turntable if I want to hear "33 1/3" which was highly regarded 
among my friends when it was released.)  Maybe Capitol can put 
together a nice tombstone set, a 2-cd compilation including *all*
of Harrison's Beatles recordings, and a more generous selection
of his solo work including the CLOUD NINE singles.

For more discussion and rememberance of George Harrison, please go to 
the Music Conference, item 59.

Of course George Harrison's best friend was fellow guitar god Eric Clapton,
and there is the famous story how how they were both in love with the same
woman.  She married Harrison.  Clapton went on a drug binge and wrote 
a song about his heartbreak over losing her, that of course being "LAYLA"

        Harrison knew and married Patty Boyd before both meet Clapton.
With Olivia, I think Harrison got the best of deal of Patty being 
stolen from him.

The Guardian reports the death of Stuart Anderson, the (former?)
leader of the band Big Country.  He was found dead in a hotel in 
Hawaii.  Age, 43.
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,620182,00.html

and that leads to a number of other links.

  Under the circumstances, I'd say it's definitely safe to remove
  the question mark following the word "former."

Damn.

Re #8: Well, there's former and then there's even formerer.

Usenet newsgroup rec.music.celtic carries a notice of the death 
of Tony Cuffe, who was the leader of the fine 70s-80s Scottish 
folk group Ossian.  Death from cancer.  I saw Ossian live once
in the early 1980s, they were quite impressive.
 
----
 
resp:7 :: argh, his name was Stuart Adamson, not Anderson.

Damn. Damn. Damn. Tony Cuffe too? I always loved Ossian. 

Yesterday I saw an obit for the singer in Big Country. Can't remember his
name, though.

I was just driving back home from downtown, listening to KGSR, and heard that
Waylon Jennings died this afternoon. I haven't searched yet to get more
details, but I believe the cause was complications from diabetes. He was in
his mid-60s. There will be a tribute tonight on KGSR, in the Eleventh Hour
(CST), in case anyone's interested. http://www.kgsr.com

Layne Staley, 34, singer of Seattle rock band Alice In Chains was found dead
in his house late last week.  

  Have they positively identified the body as Staley?  Initial reports here
  in Seattle were quite tentative -- they just said that a body had been
  found in his house in the U District and that it was believed to be Staley.

Quotes from Staley about the tragedy of Kurt Cobain's death were hauled 
out and were effectively ironic.

Dave Carter of Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer died yesterday at age 40.
Heart attack.  (Does anyone know if Dave and Tracy are husband and wife?)

Damn. And I've missed them every time they were at the Ark. They   were a
really good duo, and it's really sad that he died so young.

Wow, that's a shock.  They were just starting to peek in along the edge
of my awareness. 
 
NPR and the New York Times ran substantial obituaries on Alan Lomax, 
who died this week at 87.   Alan Lomax was a folksong collector and
promoter of folk music, very important in the history of American music.

He's not dead yet, but Wired and Rolling Stone report that 
Warren Zevon has been diagnosed with untreatable lung cancer.

  Bummer.  <must resist the urge to make jokes about needing a
  "Miracle of Science" or about poor, poor, pitiful he.  There's
  not much funny about lung cancer.>

Zevon's comment was that it would be a bummer if he didn't last 
long enough to see the next James Bond film.
(which is due in November or December.)   The stories say he is 
continuing to work on recording and on spending time with his kids.

   oops..  now that I re-read my response, I think "Miracle of Science"
   was a Marshall Crenshaw album, not Warren Zevon.  I don't know why I
   sometimes confuse those two..  I'll have to remember to listen to
   the "Excitable Boy" album when I get home..:

I'm sorry that this Warren Zevon guy is terminally ill, but I wonder 
why I've never heard of him before, if he's as ubiquitous a cultural 
icon for the post-60s generation as people are now saying.

I've certainly seen his song titles used as catchphrases, but up until 
last week I never knew those were song titles at all, let alone whose; 
and somehow his name never came up.

As someone whose friends introduced him to Talking Heads back when they 
were still an obscure NYC art band (and this was apparently right 
around when Zevon was making his big impact), I didn't think I was that 
culturally obtuse.

  "ubiquitous cultural icon for the post-60s generation" is definitely
  stretching it a bit, but he did have a successful career and a dedicated
  following, despite the fact that his starkly cynical songs often weren't
  very radio-friendly.

  It's hard to believe you didn't at least hear *some* of his work
  ("Werewolves of London", anyone?) without knowing whose it was, and likely,
  too, that you often heard his songs covered by other performers without
  knowing they were his (e.g. Linda Ronstadt's cover of "Poor, Poor,
  Pitiful Me")

The only reason I ever heard Warren Zevon was because of my gaming group.
(They also introduced me to Blue Oyster Cult...) Of course, once I did hear
him, I became a fan, but I don't think he was ubiquitous unless you happened
to be in circles that had a reason to have heard of him.

"Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner"

"Lawyers, Guns and Money"

"The Envoy"

resp:27 - Twila, it turns out I -am- in circles that had a reason to 
have heard of Zevon.  It's friends of mine who are mourning his 
illness, and they're citing listening to him in the days when I knew 
them best, and was, willy-nilly, listening to what they listened to.

Yet I don't think I heard his songs, because in those contexts I knew 
who I was listening to.

And I know further that he was a cultural icon for these folks, because 
I was hearing and reading frequently in those days phrases - like "I'll 
sleep when I'm dead" and "Send lawyers, guns, and money" - that I now 
discover are Zevon song titles.  Yet up until last week I never knew 
they were song titles at all, let alone whose.

resp:26 - Mike, I believe I may have heard "Werewolves of London".  Was 
that a song whose chorus consisted of, or contained, a howl followed by 
the title phrase, the whole then repeated?  I may well have heard some 
of the music, but I never heard nor read the name.

  Yes, pretty much..

    " I met a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
      Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain.
      He was looking for a place called Lee Ho Phuk's   [sp?]
      Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein.

      Aaaahhooooohh!  Werewolves of London..  Aaaahhhooooohh! "

  I think my favorite Zevon song is "Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me."
  It's typical of his cynicism and humorous word-play and a
  fun up-tempo number..

    " I met a girl in West Hollywood,
      ah, but I ain't namin' names.
      She really worked me over good,
      she was just like Jesse James.

      She really worked me over good,
      she was a credit to her gender.
      She put me through some changes, Lord,
      sort of like a Waring blender. "

  Perhaps Zevon was overshadowed in his fame by other songwriters
  even more cynical and dark.  I know I enjoy his music but I don't
  hold him in the same esteem as Elvis Costello or Richard Thompson.
  I think in some ways I sort of see him as Elvis-Costello Lite,
  but that's definitely not being fair to Zevon.

Hell, I say "I'll sleep when I'm dead" all the time, and I haven't heard any
Zevon past "Werewolves of London" in my life.

Well, okay, I used to say it all the time.  My appreciation for sleep has gone
up in the past few years.

Judging by the tenor of the comments I've seen about Zevon in the 
weblogs of his fans, if you wrote "I enjoy his music but I don't hold 
him in the same esteem as Elvis Costello or Richard Thompson" there, 
they might stampede you.

OTOH, if it were Richard Thompson who was terminally ill, they'd 
probably be grieving even more.  Those people talked in those days (and 
still do today) about Richard Thompson the way they now claim they 
talked about Warren Zevon.  (Elvis Costello, no, but I certainly heard 
of him.  I have never been able to take seriously anyone who would 
voluntarily adopt the name Elvis, so I can't be too objective here.)

I'm not sure it was entirely voluntary. I think his manager came up with it.

Warren Zevon is still not dead; in fact, he must be feeling pretty 
good, he's been announced as David Letterman's guest for Wednesday
night.   11:30 pm Eastern time on CBS, channel 62/cable 14 in 
Ann Arbor.

Warren Zevon's ghost is haunting / Cable Channel 14 ...

Lonnie Donnegan died Sunday at the age of 71.

He'd just be a very minor footnote in music, except that the "skiffle" music
craze he started in 1960's England inspired a lot of kids (including those
who later formed The Beatles and The Who) to start playing.

Skiffle also played a large role in the 1960s British folk revival.

IWLTA with great sadness the passing of Zal Yanovsky, who was an 
original member of the 1960's group The Lovin'Spoonful.  He left the 
Spoonful under less than friendly terms with the group, especially 
frontman John Sebastian.  More recently, he owned a restaurant in 
Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

"Zally" died of an apparent heart attack on December 13.  He would have 
turned 58 later this week.

Sad news indeed.  The Lovin' Spoonful is one of my favorite rock groups
from the 60s; I still have some of their LPs that I acquired back then.
I always thought Zal was a great contributor to the group and was sorry
when he split.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss