The Dead Musicians thread

[Pandemonium]

Joe Perry, Aerosmith's guitarist currently guesting with Johnny Depp's cover band Hollywood Vampires apparently had a heart attack onstage tonight. During "Rebel Rebel," Perry appears unsteady on his feet, sits on the drum rising trying to continue playing and then staggers offstage where he collapsed unconcious. Paramedics revived and transported him to a hospital where he is recovering.

[clickie]

He's alive and kicking

[clickie]

I feel like you guys think its a race to see who posts first when somebody famous dies

[drifter]

Bonnie Brown of the country music trio the Browns

her band, known for their harmony, was just inducted into the country rock hall of fame

http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/bon ... li=BBnbfcL



she/they toured with elvis in 1956

[Artemis]

RIP Alan Vega of Suicide

If you’re into the history of electronic music and /or the left-of-centre material that came out of New York in the middle 70s, you’ll be aware of Suicide. They weren’t musically punk–at least not in the Ramones/Talking Heads/Blondie sense–but in terms of attitude and aesthetics, they were very much part of the scene.

Suicide was formed by Alan Vega and Martin Rev back in 1970, determined to make sounds and to project an attitude no one had ever seen before and soon became friends with proto-punk pioneers like Iggy Pop and the New York Dolls. On a tour of the UK, they support the Clash (someone threw an axe at them in Glasgow, but never mind.) Even Springsteen was a fan. He once performed this song as an encore.

If you had to compare them to someone else, let’s go with “punk Kraftwerk”–the same desire to experiment with electronics but with an in-your-face attitude. Their 1977 self-titled debut album is definitely worth exploring.

Sadly, Alan Vega died this weekend at age 78. Here’s the statement from the family.

With profound sadness and a stillness that only news like this can bring, we regret to inform you that the great artist and creative force, Alan Vega has passed away.

Alan passed peacefully in his sleep last night, July 16. He was 78 years of age.

Alan was not only relentlessly creative, writing music and painting until the end, he was also startlingly unique. Along with Martin Rev, in the early 1970’s, they formed the two person avant band known as Suicide. Almost immediately, their incredible and unclassifiable music went against every possible grain. Their confrontational live performances, light-years before Punk Rock, are the stuff of legend. Their first, self-titled album is one of the single most challenging and noteworthy achievements in American music.

Alan Vega was the quintessential artist on every imaginable level. His entire life was devoted to outputting what his vision commanded of him.

One of the greatest aspects of Alan Vega was his unflinching adherence to the demands of his art. He only did what he wanted. Simply put, he lived to create. After decades of constant output, the world seemed to catch up with Alan and he was acknowledged as the groundbreaking creative individual he had been from the very start.

Alan’s life is a lesson of what it is to truly live for art. The work, the incredible amount of time required, the courage to keep seeing it and the strength to bring it forth—this was Alan Vega.

Alan is survived by his amazing family, wife Liz and son Dante. His incredible body of work, spanning five decades, will be with us forever.

[Pandemonium]

RIP Alan Vega of Suicide

I am aware of Vega and Suicide and their place in early punk/new wave but the music remains one of those odd holes in my listening vocabulary. That Ghost Rider tune is right up my alley, has kind of a early Cramps vibe to it. Gimme recommendations!

[Artemis]

RIP Alan Vega of Suicide

I am aware of Vega and Suicide and their place in early punk/new wave but the music remains one of those odd holes in my listening vocabulary. That Ghost Rider tune is right up my alley, has kind of a early Cramps vibe to it. Gimme recommendations!

I don't know too much about Alan Vega or Suicide, but this Suicide 77 is pretty good, I think.

[SR]

And some nails are falling....

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... ad-w434907

[Artemis]

Preston Hubbard from the Fabulous Thunderbirds: 63

Preston Hubbard, who played bass with the Fabulous Thunderbirds during their greatest period of fame, has died. He was 63.
The cause of death is not known to the public at this time. American Blues Scene says that he was found dead in his home on Wednesday.
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, he began playing bass at age 14 and, within a few years, fell in love with the blues, in particular Muddy Waters and his bass player, Willie Dixon. He eventually joined Roomful of Blues, the veteran blues/swing band based out of Rhode Island.
In 1984, he joined the Fabulous Thunderbirds, which coincided with their signing to Epic. His first record with them, 1986’s Tuff Enuff, saw them land two hit singles, the Top 10 title track and a cover of Sam & Dave’s “Wrap It Up.” A couple of years later saw them have another hit when “Powerful Stuff” was the first single released from the soundtrack to the Tom Cruise film, Cocktail. He stayed in the Thunderbirds for 10 years, during which time he also contributed as a session musician to Bonnie Raitt’s Nick of Time.
Unfortunately, Hubbard was also a longtime drug user. The first-person bio on his website goes into great detail about his addictions, and he even spent two years in jail in Texas after his fourth bust.
Following his release, he moved to St. Louis and became a part of that city’s blues scene. But although, according to the Riverfront Times, he had quit heroin by this point, he was drinking heavily. A diabetic, two years ago, he found himself in the emergency room as a result of what he called “critical blood sugar.” It took three blood transfusions and insulin treatments and 30 hours before he was declared stable. It was suggested at the that his years of hard living had caught up with him.

[Artemis]

Matt Roberts- 38

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... 38-w435461

Matt Roberts, Original 3 Doors Down Guitarist, Dead at 38
Guitarist and "Kryptonite" co-writer performed with band from 1996 formation until 2012

Matt Roberts, the longtime lead guitarist for rock band 3 Doors Down before he left the band in 2012, died early Saturday morning in a hotel outside Milwaukee. He was 38.

Roberts served as 3 Doors Down's guitarist from their 1996 formation until 2012, when he left the group for health reasons. According to CNN, Roberts had been rehearsing for a Wisconsin fundraising concert for veterans when he and his father went back to the hotel. Hours later, police were called to the hotel for a man "either asleep or passed out in the hallway of his hotel."
"I was wakened at 8:50 this morning by some detectives beating on my door. It's always scary as a parent, they were in suits and that's when they told me. They asked me if Matt Roberts was your son, I said yes, and they said 'we have bad news to tell you, Matt deceased last night,'" Matt's father Darrell Roberts told CNN.
An autopsy will be conducted to determine Roberts' cause of death, but TMZ reports that a drug overdose is suspected. "I know he had prescription drug addiction. He suffered greatly from anxiety," Darrell Roberts said. "I thought he had beaten it all."
Roberts, along with singer Brad Arnold and bassist Todd Harrell, formed 3 Doors Down in 1996 in Escatawpa, Mississippi. Four years later, the band's hit "Kryptonite," co-written by Roberts, soared to Number Three on the Billboard Hot 100. The track, off 2000's The Better Life, was the first in a string of Hot 100-reaching singles that were penned by Roberts and his band mates, including "Be Like That," "Here Without You" and "When I'm Gone."
Following 2002's multiplatinum Away from the Sun, 3 Doors Down twice topped the Billboard 200 thanks to 2005's Seventeen Days and 2008's 3 Doors Down. 2011's Time of My Life was the band's final LP with original members Roberts and Harrell; the latter was fired from the group after the bassist was charged with vehicular manslaughter in 2013.
In May 2012, Roberts departed 3 Doors Down, telling fans in a statement that "performing nearly 300 dates each year" with the band had "exacerbated" the "health and circulation issues" he had been dealing with. 3 Doors Down will always have a special place in my heart and it saddens me to take this time off,” Roberts said at the time. "But my health has to be my first priority."

[Artemis]

RIP Prince Buster...





https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/ ... ca-jamiaca

Prince Buster obituary
Jamaican musician who helped pioneer ska music in the 60s and who provided inspiration for a subsequent generation of British musicians including Madness

It was boxing ability as much as musical talent that helped Prince Buster become a key figure in the birth of Jamaican ska music. During the mid-1950s Buster, who has died aged 78, sang in a number of small-time bands in the island’s capital, Kingston. But he also had a promising career as a street fighting boxer, and it was his reputation as a quick-witted and assertive gang leader that brought him to the attention of the legendary Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, operator of the famous Downbeat sound system that travelled the country playing the latest dance records from the United States.

Coxsone took Buster on as a security guard-cum-personal helper, and the young man used the experience to learn all he could about the fledgling Jamaican music business.

Propitiously, he had been born – as Cecil Campbell, the son of a railway worker – in Orange Street, the central commercial street in Kingston that was to become the heart of the island’s music scene. Known as Buster in his gang-oriented youth because of his middle name Bustamante (after the Jamaican Labour Party leader Sir Alexander Bustamante), he later took on the nickname Prince for his boxing exploits, and had a natural entrepreneurial flair as well as musical talent and street sense. He left Dodd in the late 1950s to set up a record store, Buster’s Record Shack, and then his own sound system, the Voice of the People.

While both ventures were successful, it was his next move – into the recording studio – that really left its mark. In 1960 he embarked on a couple of marathon recording sessions with various artists at the studios of the local radio station RJR that were to shift the island’s musical axis away from the all pervasive influence of America. Among those early recordings was a Buster-produced song by the Folkes Brothers called Oh Carolina that became an instant hit in Jamaica. In a typically bold and unheard-of move that was to characterise Buster’s innovative career, he used the Rastafarian percussionist Count Ossie for the backing track. But more importantly he also asked the guitarist, Jah Jerry, to emphasize the afterbeat instead of the downbeat. The same radical syncopation was used on many of the other tracks, including classics such as Little Honey, Humpty Dumpty, They Got to Go and Thirty Pieces of Silver. Ska had been born.

Most of the singles from those sessions were hits in his homeland, and Buster never looked back. Over an eight-year period he released hundreds of productions on various labels, many of them chronicling the gun happy “rude boy” activities of an increasingly violent, newly independent Jamaica. He became rich, living the high life of sharp suits and fast cars, though remaining an aggressive champion of the underdog.

As ska slowed down in the mid 60s and turned into rocksteady – a transition Buster did much to nurture – he set Jamaica alight with a series of records featuring his mythical character Judge Dread, a super-tough magistrate who handed out ridiculously long sentences to recalcitrant rude boys.

But his influence went far beyond Jamaica. Many of his own compositions, as well as those he produced, were released on the seminal Blue Beat label in the UK, where ska became the music of choice for many mods and skinheads.

He was the first Jamaican to have a top 20 hit in Britain – with Al Capone in 1965 – toured the country regularly to sell-out crowds, and appeared on Ready Steady Go in 1964. It was also in Britain that he converted to Islam and changed his name to Mohammed Yusef Ali after a meeting with the boxer Muhammad Ali.

As the 60s drew to a close, Buster moved with the times to produce records for some of the new breed of Jamaican DJs, including Big Youth, and continued to work with well-known artists such as Dennis Brown. He even ventured into early dub music.

But by the early 1970s, when rock steady was transmogrifying into roots reggae, Buster’s influence and interest began to wane – partly because as a Muslim he found it difficult to move along with the Rasta-influenced tide. He moved to Miami to pursue various business interests, including the running of a jukebox company he had set up.

His influence did, however, resurface in the late 1970s, when his music was the key inspiration for the ska revival in Britain. In 1978 a London band called Morris and the Minors renamed themselves Madness after Buster’s classic song Madness is Gladness, and in 1978 their first single, The Prince, went straight into the top 20. The band later reached number seven with a reworking of the Buster song One Step Beyond.

Their hero resisted a comeback then, but did reappear onstage in the late 1980s and 1990s, and toured Japan with ska legends the Skatalites as his backing group. He even recorded again in 1992, and in 1998 re-entered the British charts for the first time in 31 years with a new version of an old song, Whine and Grind. Essentially, though, his comeback was low key.

In 2001 Buster was awarded the Order of Distinction in Jamaica for his contribution to the development of the country’s music industry. He had long since received countless accolades from his peers, but it was nonetheless fitting recognition for a man whose self-proclaimed title as King of Ska was never seriously disputed.

Prince Buster, musician, born 24 May 1938; died 8 September 2016

[Artemis]

Jerry Corbetta from Sugarloaf, 68

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/jerry-co ... loaf-dies/

Jerry Corbetta of Sugarloaf, best known for their 1970 smash, “Green-Eyed Lady,” died on Sept. 16 in Denver. He was 68.

He’d been diagnosed with Pick’s disease, which slowly destroys the nerve cells in the brain similarly to Alzheimer’s disease. The condition forced him into retirement upon diagnosis in 2009.

Originally a drummer, where he gained fame around Denver as a child, he switched to keyboards in his teen years, serving in a couple of bands with guitarist Bob Webber, one of which became the Moonrakers and cut four singles in the mid-‘60s. The second, Chocolate Hair, featured Corbetta, Webber and another ex-Moonraker, bassist Bob Raymond. They eventually picked up drummer Bob MacVittie and got signed to Liberty Records.

But before their debut could be released, the label requested the band change their name due to the potential for “Chocolate Hair” to be seen as racially insensitive. They decided to honor their Colorado roots and name themselves after Sugarloaf Mountain, which is near Boulder, Colo.

1970’s Sugarloaf was an instant hit, rising to No. 24 on the strength of “Green-Eyed Lady,” a seven-minute song that fit in perfectly with the psychedelic heavy blues of the day. It was edited a number of times for the purposes of radio airplay, and wound up reaching No. 3 on the Billboard singles chart.

Despite a pair of minor hits in “Tongue in Cheek” and “Mother Nature’s Wine” from their second effort, 1971’s Spaceship Earth, they were unable to build upon their momentum. This coincided with Liberty virtually being shut down by their parent company, Transamerica. Sugarloaf signed with Brut, where there tenure lasted only one album, 1973’s I Got a Song, before that label folded, too.

After being turned down by CBS, they mocked the music industry in “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You,” which their manager, Frank Slay, released on his own label, Claridge. it gave Steppenwolf a second major hit, peaking at No. 9. They added the single to I Got a Song and re-released it under the name of the song in 1975.

Webber and Raymond left later that year, and Corbetta carried on with Sugarloaf until 1978. He then joined Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons for a few years in early ‘80s, and continued to work on the oldies circuit, particularly with the Classic Rock All-Stars and an occasional Sugarloaf reunion.

[Artemis]

Stanley ‘Buckwheat Zydeco’ Dural, Jr., Ambassador of Zydeco, Dies

Stanley Dural, Jr., who, using his stage name of “Buckwheat Zydeco,” was a global ambassador for the Louisiana music genre of zydeco, died this morning (Sept. 24). He was 68.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer this summer, and a gofundme page was set up to help raise funds for his treatment, making nearly $20,000 of its goal of $50,000. It was a recurrence of the disease that first sidelined him in 2013.
“It’s a tough one for us and the entire Zydeco community and the greater music community,” family friend Dustin Cravins told nola.com. “Words like legend and icon are tossed around so much these days that it almost sounds water downed, but he was the true definition of it.”
Born in Lafayette, La., in 1947, Dural picked up the nickname of “Buckwheat” in his youth due to his resemblance to the Little Rascals character. He started out on piano, then moved to organ and led his own funk band in the early ‘70s. After their breakup, he joined up with Clifton Chenier, arguably the most important name in the history of zydeco, and eventually moved to the accordion. He stepped out on his own, calling himself “Buckwheat Zydeco” and fronting his own group, in 1979.
For nearly a decade, they recorded for small labels and toured relentlessly with an energetic live show. This attracted the attention of Island Records, who signed him — the first zydeco act to be on a major label — and released On a Night Like This in 1987. A year later, they toured with Eric Clapton, who also played guitar on a cover of Derek and the Dominos’ “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad” from Taking It Home.
Over the course of the next 30 years, Dural toured the world became the go-to name for musicians looking to add some authentic Louisiana heat to their sound. In addition to Clapton, he recorded and/or performed with such names as Robert Plant, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, U2, Paul Simon, Warren Haynes and Mavis Staples. His final album, 2009’s Lay Your Burden Down, won a Grammy for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album.
He is survived by Burnite Dural, his wife of more than 40 years, and their five children, Sir Reginald M. Dural, Stanley Paul Dural III, April Germain Dural, Stacie Durham and Tomorrow Lynn Dural.

[drifter]

Jean Shepard Honored at 'Celebration of Life' Ceremony
http://www.rollingstone.com/country/vid ... fe-w442793

[Artemis]

Pete Burns, frontman of Dead or Alive, dies aged 57
Burns, who rose to fame in the 1980s with the band’s hit song You Spin Me Round, suffered fatal cardiac arrest



The singer Pete Burns, who founded pop group Dead Or Alive, has died of a cardiac arrest aged 57.

Burns rose to fame in the 1980s with the band’s hit song You Spin Me Round (Like a Record). He also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006, coming fifth in the final.

A statement released by his partner, Michael Simpson, his ex-wife, Lynne Corlett, and his manager and former band member, Steve Coy, read: “All of his family and friends are devastated by the loss of our special star. He was a true visionary, a beautiful talented soul and will be missed by all those who loved and appreciated everything he was and all of the wonderful memories he has left us with.”

Born in Cheshire to a Liverpudlian father and German mother who was a survivor of the Holocaust, Burns described his upbringing as unconventional. His mother was an alcoholic, and attempted suicide several times when Burns was growing up.

“As far as parental skills go in the conventional, normal world, she certainly wasn’t a mother, but she’s the best human being that I’ve ever had the privilege of being in the company of, and I know that she had a special plan for me,” he said. “She called me ‘Star Baby’ and she knew that there was something special in me.”



Never one to conform to the rules, Burns dropped out of his Liverpool boys school at the age of 14 after he was summoned to the headmaster’s office “with no eyebrows, Harmony-red hair and one gigantic earring”. He began working in a record shop in Liverpool, where he formed his first band, the Mystery Girls, though they played only one gig. Burns formed Dead Or Alive with Mike Percey, Steve Coy and Tim Lever in 1980.



Burns became famous for his androgynous style and his progressive approach to gender. He often wore women’s clothes and, speaking to the Guardian in 2007, said: “Everyone’s in drag of some sorts, I don’t give a fuck about gender and drag. I’m not trying to be a girl by putting on a dress – gender is separated by fabric. I was brought up with an incredible amount of freedom and creativity. Society has put certain constraints on things.”

Boy George, who Burns once accused of ripping off his style, paid tribute to the singer, writing: “Tearful about the passing of Pete Burns, he was one of our great true eccentrics and such a big part of my life! Wow. Hard to believe!”

The presenter Davina McCall shared her memories of Burns. “So so sad to hear about Pete Burns. We partied hard in the 90s. RIP Pete,” she said.

Burns lived out his life in the full public glare, though his most notorious appearance was on season four of Celebrity Big Brother, in which he memorably performed a dance with the former MP George Galloway, both dressed in lycra leotards.




Galloway paid tribute to the singer, tweeting: “Sad to hear of the demise of Pete Burns. He was a cross between Oscar Wilde and Dorothy Parker. You don’t get more brilliant than that. RIP.”

He married his first wife, Lynn, a hairdresser, in 1978 but the pair separated in 2006 and Burns married his partner, Michael Simpson, soon after, inviting television cameras to their wedding.



He also admitted to having an addiction to cosmetic surgery, having over 300 operations in his lifetime, mainly on his face, and in 2006 almost died on the table during nose surgery.

He once said that “changing my face is like buying a new sofa” and that there was “not a part of me, apart from the soles of my feet, which has not had work done. For me, plastic surgery is a matter of sanity, not vanity.”

However, his decades-long obsession with surgically changing his appearance eventually led to bankruptcy after he had to pay out thousands for 18 months of corrective surgery in Italy when an operation on his lips went wrong.

Despite various attempts, Burns’s solo career never reached the mainstream success of Dead Or Alive. His last single, Never Marry an Icon, was released in 2010.

[Artemis]

Also Bobbie Vee: 73

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... 73-w446448

[Artemis]

Today I have to report another death...Eddie Harsch, 59

Eddie Harsch, a former keyboardist with the Black Crowes, has died. He was 59 years old. No cause of death was given.
Harsch, who was born in Toronto, played with the Black Crowes from 1991 through 2006, performing on such albums as 1992’s The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion (their only No. 1 LP), 1994’s Amorica (which hit No. 11) and 1996’s Three Snakes and One Charm (which reached No. 15).
During one of the Black Crowes’ breaks, he played in the Detroit-based jam band Bulldog. Most recently, he was the keyboardist in the Magpies, the band formed by ex-Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson that also includes guitarist Marc Ford and bassist Sven Pipien, other past members of the Crowes.
“It is with the saddest of hearts that we bid farewell to our dear friend Eddie Harsch,” Robinson says in a statement. “Eddie was a brilliant musician, with a beautiful heart. We should remember Eddie for his music, his great sense of humor and his positive outlook on life. We ask that everyone please respect the privacy of Eddie’s family at this time. Let’s honor him by celebrating his musical contributions to the world, and by sending positive thoughts and prayers to him and his family. Our hearts will forever remain with our musical brother.”

[Artemis]

2016 keeps on sucking...

RIP, Mr Cohen..



http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... 82-w449792


Leonard Cohen Dead at 82
Hugely influential singer and songwriter's work spanned five decades




Leonard Cohen released his final album last month 'You Want it Darker'

[Artemis]

Another shitty week...Leon Russell died on Sunday, today, Sharon Jones. RIP..

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... 60-w451517

Sharon Jones, Soul Singer With Dap-Kings, Dead at 60
Singer dies following "heroic battle against pancreatic cancer"

Sharon Jones, the fiery soul singer who spent decades in obscurity before becoming a Grammy-nominated soul and funk vocalist with her longtime backing band the Dap-Kings, died on Friday of pancreatic cancer. She was 60.

"We are deeply saddened to announce that Sharon Jones has passed away after a heroic battle against pancreatic cancer," the singer's rep wrote in a statement. "She was surrounded by her loved ones, including the Dap-Kings."
Jones was diagnosed with stage two pancreatic cancer in 2013 but later went into remission nine months later. The cancer returned in 2015, with tumors spreading to her lung, liver and lymph nodes.

Jones started numerous funk groups in the 1970, earning extra money by performing in wedding bands and singing gospel music. But for decades, she had trouble breaking in to the industry. After retreating from music for a few years, Jones became a back-up singer for New York funk and soul label Desco Records in 1996 and would release her debut album Dap Dippin' with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, in 2002.
The group continued to record and tour constantly, watching their crowds grow as Jones' roaring voice, frenetic energy and gregarious personality surpassed the initial "female James Brown" comparisons.
Jones, alongside the Dap-Kings, released seven albums, most recently 2015's It's a Holiday Soul Party.
This story is developing.

[Artemis]

Inspiral Carpets’ drummer Craig Gill dies, aged 44



http://www.nme.com/news/music/inspiral- ... ium=social

[drifter]

Another shitty week...Leon Russell died on Sunday

[drifter]

guitarist tommy carter for 'concrete poet' passed this Saturday age 47

[Artemis]

Greg Lake - 69 King Crimson, Emerson,Lake and Palmer

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38251936

Greg Lake, who fronted both King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, has died aged 69.
One of the founding fathers of progressive rock, the British musician is known for songs including In the Court of the Crimson King and his solo hit I Believe in Father Christmas.
He died on Wednesday after "a long and stubborn battle with cancer", said his manager.
The news comes nine months after Lake's band-mate Keith Emerson died.
Keyboardist Emerson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, coroners in the US said.

[drifter]

http://vcm.bc.ca/dave-brubeck/

[SR]

Colossal loss. RIP