I didn’t watch the show, but this tribute to Glenn Frey popped up on Facebook shortly after the awards were handed out. If you’re going to perform a tribute, it’s helpful to have the song’s co-author around to sing the lead and most of the rest of the band still available as well. Here are …
Cory Wells of Three Dog Night died in October of last year of myeloma. He was the second member of the band to die, following keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon, who died of melanoma in 2014. I always liked Three Dog Night. There was something joyous about their performances. They could sing serious songs and then follow …
Earth, Wind and Fire’s longtime bandleader died today at 74 of complications from Parkinson’s Disease, which he battled for twenty years. Here’s the band’s first big hit: February is starting out as January ended, with artists from my most intense music-listening years dying nearly once a week. I hate it.
I hate this January. It seems like every day this month a star from my past has died. Today it was Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane and (later) Jefferson Starship. I know that in some cases it’s nearly a miracle some of these musicians have lived this long, but still. Kantner was one of the …
The town of Winslow was so pleased to be mentioned in an Eagles song it built a park, complete with statue and mural. Here’s the song, co-written by Glenn Frey and Jackson Browne circa 1971. Mr. Frey died today in New York of complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia.
I wasn’t ever a big fan of David Bowie or his music, probably because I didn’t hear a lot of his 1970s material since I was out of the country almost continuously from 1972 to 1978. Nonetheless I recognize how big a cultural icon he was. I’d know that if only by the volume of …
Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Funny Girl. Omar Sharif appeared in an awful lot of films and television movies, but he was best known in America for the three listed above. Sharif died today at 83. Here’s his first appearance on-screen in Lawrence of Arabia:
Former Raider, Oiler and Saint quarterback Ken Stabler died today of colon cancer at the young age of 69. If Ken Stabler had the ball with two minutes left in the game and you were rooting for the Raiders’ opponent, you were in trouble and you knew it. He was a superb passer and leader. …
Austin was one of the three surviving members of The Firesign Theater (Pete Bergman died in 2012). Austin died today. I spent many a night listening to their first four albums, trying to understand their surrealistic humor while ingesting substances which might have had an impact on that understanding. His most famous role in the …
How much tragedy does one family need? Beau was one of the survivors of the car crash which killed his mother and sister in 1972, and now he’s dead of brain cancer at the young age of 46. Mr. Biden is survived by his wife, Hallie, and their two children, Natalie, 11, and Hunter, 9; …