musical deaths

[weimy froob]

Chuck Berry
Died: March 18, 2017
Charles Edward Anderson Berry was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958). Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music....Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986; he was cited for having "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance." Berry is included in several of Rolling Stone magazine's "greatest of all time" lists; he was ranked fifth on its 2004 and 2011 lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll includes three of Berry's: "Johnny B. Goode", "Maybellene", and "Rock and Roll Music". "Johnny B. Goode" is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record.

[weimy froob]

Randy Rhoads
Died: March 19, 1982
American heavy metal guitarist who played with
Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne. A devoted student
of classical guitar, Rhoads combined his classical
music influences with his own heavy metal style.
He died in a plane accident while on tour with
Osbourne in Florida in 1982. Despite his short career,
Rhoads, who was a major influence on neoclassical
metal, is cited as an influence by many guitarists.
Rhoads is included in several "Greatest Guitarist" lists.

[weimy froob]

Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer
and songwriter. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted more
than 120 hit singles across various genres, topping the country and pop album
charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone. He sold
more than 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, making him one
of the best-selling music artists of all time. His fame and career spanned mul-
tiple genres: jazz, folk, pop, rock, and country. He remade his career and was
one of the most successful cross-over artists of all time...His signature song,
1978's "The Gambler", was a crossover hit that won him a Grammy Award in
1980 and was selected in 2018 for preservation in the National Recording Registry
by the Library of Congress. He developed the Gambler persona into a character
for a successful series of television films starting with 1980's Emmy-nominated
Kenny Rogers as The Gambler.

[weimy froob]

Leo Fender
Died: March 21, 1991
American inventor, who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing
Company, or "Fender" for short. In January 1965, he sold the company to CBS
and later founded two other musical instrument companies, Music Man and
G&L Musical Instruments. The guitars, bass guitars, and amplifiers he designed
from the 1940s on are still widely used: the Fender Telecaster (1950) was the
first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar; the Fender Stratocaster (1954)
is among the world's most iconic electric guitars; the Fender Precision Bass
(1951) set the standard for electric bass guitars, and the Fender Bassman
amplifier, popular enough in its own right, became the basis for later amplifiers
(notably by Marshall and Mesa Boogie) that dominated rock and roll music.

[weimy froob]

Eric Weissberg
Died: March 22, 2020
Eric Weissberg was an American singer, banjo player, and multi-instrumentalist, whose most commercially
successful recording was his banjo solo in "Dueling Banjos," featured as the theme of the film Deliverance
(1972) and released as a single that reached number 2 in the United States and Canada in 1973.

[weimy froob]

Buck Owens
Died: March 25, 2006
Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens Jr. was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and
band leader. He was the lead singer for Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, which
had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music chart. He pioneered what came
to be called the Bakersfield sound, named in honor of Bakersfield, California,
Owens's adopted home and the city from which he drew inspiration for what he
preferred to call "American music"...From 1969 to 1986, Owens co-hosted the
popular CBS television variety show Hee Haw with Roy Clark (syndicated beginning
in 1971). According to Owens' son Buddy Alan, the accidental 1974 death of Don
Rich, his closest friend, devastated him for years and impacted his creative efforts
until he mounted a comeback in the late 1980s. Owens is a member of both the
Country Music Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

[weimy froob]

Ludwig van Beethoven
Died: March 26, 1827
German composer and pianist; his music is amongst the most performed of the
classical music repertoire, and he is one of the most admired composers in the
history of Western music. His works span the transition from the classical period
to the romantic era in classical music. His career has conventionally been divided
into early, middle, and late periods. The "early" period in which he forged his craft
is typically seen to last until 1802. His "middle" period, sometimes characterised as
"heroic", showing an individual development from the "classical" styles of Joseph
Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, covers the years 1802 to 1812, during which
he increasingly suffered from deafness. In the "late" period from 1812 to his death
in 1827, he extended his innovations in musical form and expression.

[weimy froob]

Paul Williams
Died: March 27, 2013
American music journalist and writer who
created Crawdaddy!, the first national US
magazine of rock music criticism, in January
1966. He was a leading authority on the works
of musicians Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, and Neil
Young, and science fiction writers Philip K. Dick
(serving as the executor of his literary estate)
and Theodore Sturgeon.

[weimy froob]

Earl Scruggs
Died: March 28, 2012
American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger
banjo picking style, now called "Scruggs style," which is
a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His three-
finger style of playing was radically different from the
traditional way the five-string banjo had previously been
played. This new style of playing became popular and
elevated the banjo from its previous role as a background
rhythm instrument to featured solo status. He popularized
the instrument across several genres of music. Scruggs re-
ceived four Grammy awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement
Award and a National Medal of Arts. He became a member of
the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and was given
a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1985, Flatt and Scruggs
were inducted together into the Country Music Hall of Fame and
named, as a duo, number 24 on CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country
Music. Scruggs was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the
National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honor in the folk and t
raditional arts in the United States. Four works by Scruggs have been
placed in the Grammy Hall of Fame

[weimy froob]

Emmett Miller
Died: March 29, 1962
Emmett Miller was an American minstrel show performer and recording artist known for his falsetto,
yodel-like voice. Miller was a major influence on many country music singers, including Hank Williams,
Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, Milton Brown, Tommy Duncan, and Merle Haggard. His music provides a link
among old-time Southern music, minstrelsy, jazz, and Western swing.

[weimy froob]

Bill Withers
Died: March 30, 2020
American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from
1970 until 1985. He recorded several major hits, including "Lean on Me", "Ain't
No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands".
Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for four more. His life was
the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill. He was inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

[weimy froob]

O'Kelly Isley Jr.
Died: March 31, 1986
American singer and one of the
founding members of the family
group The Isley Brothers.

[weimy froob]

Marvin Gaye
Died: April 01, 1984
American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He helped to
shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session
player and later as a solo artist with a string of hits, earning him the
nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul"...On April 1, 1984,
the eve of his 45th birthday, Gaye was shot dead by his father, Marvin
Gay Sr., at their house in West Adams, Los Angeles, after an argument.
Gay Sr. later pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter, and re-
ceived a six-year suspended sentence and five years of probation.
Many institutions have posthumously bestowed Gaye with awards and
other honors including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and
inductions into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, the Song-
writers Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[weimy froob]

Buddy Rich
Died: April 02, 1987
American jazz drummer and bandleader. He is considered one of the most
influential drummers of all time and was known for his virtuoso technique,
power, and speed. He performed with Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Count
Basie, and led a big band. Rich's technique, including speed, smooth execution
and precision, is one of the most coveted in drumming and has become a common
standard. Gene Krupa defined him as "the greatest drummer ever to have drawn
breath". In 2016, readers of Rolling Stone magazine ranked Rich No. 15 in their list
of the 100 Greatest Drummers of all time. In a readers' poll in 2011, he ranked No. 6.

[weimy froob]

Sarah Vaughan
Died: April 03, 1990
Nicknamed "Sassy" and "The Divine One", she won four Grammy Awards, including
the Lifetime Achievement Award. She was given an NEA Jazz Masters Award in 1989.
Critic Scott Yanow wrote that she had "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th
century"

[weimy froob]

Arthur Russell
Died: April 04, 1992
Arthur Russell was an American cellist, composer,
producer, singer, and musician from Iowa, whose
work spanned a disparate range of styles. Trained
in contemporary experimental composition and
Indian classical music, Russell relocated to New
York in the mid-1970s, where he became associated
with Lower Manhattan's avant-garde community as
well as the city's disco scene.

[weimy froob]

Kurt Cobain
Died: April 05, 1994
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer,
songwriter, and musician. He was the frontman
of the rock band Nirvana, serving as the band's
guitarist, lead vocalist, and primary songwriter.
Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-
establishment persona, Cobain's compositions
widened the thematic conventions of mainstream
rock music. He was often heralded as a spokesman
of Generation X and is considered to be one of the
most influential musicians in the history of alternative
rock...Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Nirvana bandmates
Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, in their first year of
eligibility in 2014. Rolling Stone included Cobain in its
lists of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, 100
Greatest Guitarists, and 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
He was ranked 7th by MTV in the "22 Greatest Voices in
Music". In 2006, he was placed 20th by Hit Parader on
their list of the "100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time".

[Hornets]

Kurt Cobain
Died: April 05, 1994
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer,
songwriter, and musician. He was the frontman
of the rock band Nirvana, serving as the band's
guitarist, lead vocalist, and primary songwriter.
Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-
establishment persona, Cobain's compositions
widened the thematic conventions of mainstream
rock music. He was often heralded as a spokesman
of Generation X and is considered to be one of the
most influential musicians in the history of alternative
rock...Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Nirvana bandmates
Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, in their first year of
eligibility in 2014. Rolling Stone included Cobain in its
lists of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, 100
Greatest Guitarists, and 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
He was ranked 7th by MTV in the "22 Greatest Voices in
Music". In 2006, he was placed 20th by Hit Parader on
their list of the "100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time".

Are you a Nirvana fan Weimy? I dig a couple of their tunes....can't believe he's been dead for 30 years. Time flies by Weimy, time flies by.

[weimy froob]

Kurt Cobain
Died: April 05, 1994
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer,
songwriter, and musician. He was the frontman
of the rock band Nirvana, serving as the band's
guitarist, lead vocalist, and primary songwriter.
Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-
establishment persona, Cobain's compositions
widened the thematic conventions of mainstream
rock music. He was often heralded as a spokesman
of Generation X and is considered to be one of the
most influential musicians in the history of alternative
rock...Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Nirvana bandmates
Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, in their first year of
eligibility in 2014. Rolling Stone included Cobain in its
lists of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, 100
Greatest Guitarists, and 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
He was ranked 7th by MTV in the "22 Greatest Voices in
Music". In 2006, he was placed 20th by Hit Parader on
their list of the "100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time".

Are you a Nirvana fan Weimy? I dig a couple of their tunes....can't believe he's been dead for 30 years. Time flies by Weimy, time flies by.

yep. had a gal pal who told me how great he was when he was alive (she went and saw him when he played here) and i held her opinion in high regard--so i paid some attention to his music. i listened to it a lot more after he was dead though.

[Hornets]

Kurt Cobain
Died: April 05, 1994
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer,
songwriter, and musician. He was the frontman
of the rock band Nirvana, serving as the band's
guitarist, lead vocalist, and primary songwriter.
Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-
establishment persona, Cobain's compositions
widened the thematic conventions of mainstream
rock music. He was often heralded as a spokesman
of Generation X and is considered to be one of the
most influential musicians in the history of alternative
rock...Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Nirvana bandmates
Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, in their first year of
eligibility in 2014. Rolling Stone included Cobain in its
lists of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, 100
Greatest Guitarists, and 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
He was ranked 7th by MTV in the "22 Greatest Voices in
Music". In 2006, he was placed 20th by Hit Parader on
their list of the "100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time".

Are you a Nirvana fan Weimy? I dig a couple of their tunes....can't believe he's been dead for 30 years. Time flies by Weimy, time flies by.

yep. had a gal pal who told me how great he was when he was alive (she went and saw him when he played here) and i held her opinion in high regard--so i paid some attention to his music. i listened to it a lot more after he was dead though.

Whatever happened to that gal pal Weimy?

[weimy froob]

Are you a Nirvana fan Weimy? I dig a couple of their tunes....can't believe he's been dead for 30 years. Time flies by Weimy, time flies by.

yep. had a gal pal who told me how great he was when he was alive (she went and saw him when he played here) and i held her opinion in high regard--so i paid some attention to his music. i listened to it a lot more after he was dead though.

Whatever happened to that gal pal Weimy?

moved to rochester and i haven't seen her in years. she was a good one though. had a wild and crazy side to her.

[Hornets]

yep. had a gal pal who told me how great he was when he was alive (she went and saw him when he played here) and i held her opinion in high regard--so i paid some attention to his music. i listened to it a lot more after he was dead though.

Whatever happened to that gal pal Weimy?

moved to rochester and i haven't seen her in years. she was a good one though. had a wild and crazy side to her.

Good memories I bet! Ever think of trying to see what she's up to these days? Has to have entered your mind at some point....

[weimy froob]

Whatever happened to that gal pal Weimy?

moved to rochester and i haven't seen her in years. she was a good one though. had a wild and crazy side to her.

Good memories I bet! Ever think of trying to see what she's up to these days? Has to have entered your mind at some point....

i've thought about her many a time over the years. she was a free spirit, good looking and kept in good shape. we were young then though. cobain was alive for gawd's sake. did you ever know anybody that saw nirvana live?

edit: i wasn't all that young--but she was six years younger than me.

[Hornets]

moved to rochester and i haven't seen her in years. she was a good one though. had a wild and crazy side to her.

Good memories I bet! Ever think of trying to see what she's up to these days? Has to have entered your mind at some point....

i've thought about her many a time over the years. she was a free spirit, good looking and kept in good shape. we were young then though. cobain was alive for gawd's sake. did you ever know anybody that saw nirvana live?

edit: i wasn't all that young--but she was six years younger than me.

A 30 year old Gus Munger was introduced to Nirvana by his 20 year old Edina girlfriend. This gal was also a free spirit, good lookin, and had incredible legs...she was a long time figure skater! I think about her often, just like you think about your former gal!

[weimy froob]

Frances Bean Cobain Writes Moving Tribute on 30th Anniversary of Kurt Cobain's Death: 'I Wish I Could've Known My Dad'



https://people.com/frances-bean-cobain- ... ry-8627465

[Slap Shot]

Both Cobain and Layne Staley died on April 5 (1994 and 2002 respectively).

[weimy froob]

Merle Haggard (check the birthday too.)
Died: April 06, 2016
Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country
singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler...After being released from San Quentin
State Prison in 1960, he managed to turn his life around and launch a successful
country music career. He gained popularity with his songs about the working class
that occasionally contained themes contrary to anti–Vietnam War sentiment of
some popular music of the time. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, he had 38
number-one hits on the US country charts, several of which also made the Billboard
all-genre singles chart. Haggard continued to release successful albums into the
2000s. He received many honors and awards for his music, including a Kennedy
Center Honor (2010), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006), a BMI Icon
Award (2006), and induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977),
Country Music Hall of Fame (1994) and Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame (1997). He
died on April 6, 2016—his 79th birthday—at his ranch in Shasta County, California,
having recently suffered from double pneumonia.

[weimy froob]

John Prine
Died:April 07, 2020
John Edward Prine was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music. He was active as
a composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional actor from the early 1970s until
his death. He was known for an often humorous style of original music that has elements of
protest and social commentary...A member of Chicago's folk revival, a laudatory review by
critic Roger Ebert built Prine's popularity. Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson heard Prine at
Steve Goodman's insistence, and Kristofferson invited Prine to be his opening act, leading to
Prine's eponymous debut album with Atlantic Records in 1971. The acclaim Prine earned from
his first LP led to three more albums for Atlantic. He then recorded three albums with Asylum
Records. In 1981, he co-founded Oh Boy Records, an independent label where he released most
of his subsequent albums. Widely cited as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation,
Prine was known for humorous lyrics about love, life, and current events, as well as serious songs
with social commentary and songs that recollect sometimes melancholy tales from his life. According
to Bob Dylan, "Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree.
And he writes beautiful songs. All that stuff about 'Sam Stone', the soldier junkie daddy, and 'Donald
and Lydia', where people make love from ten miles away. Nobody but Prine could write like that." In
2020, Prine received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

[weimy froob]

Marian Anderson
Died: April 08, 1993
American singer, one of the most celebrated of the twentieth century. Music
critic Alan Blyth said: "Her voice was a rich, vibrant contralto of intrinsic beauty."
She performed in concert and recital in major music venues and with famous
orchestras throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965.

[weimy froob]

Dave Prater
Died: April 09, 1988
American Southern soul and rhythm & blues singer and musician, who was the
deeper baritone/tenor vocalist of the soul vocal duo Sam & Dave from 1961
until his death in 1988. He is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (1992),
the Grammy Hall of Fame (1999, for the song "Soul Man"), the Vocal Group Hall
of Fame, and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame (1997), and he was a Grammy Award–
winning (1967) and multiple Gold Record award-winning recording artist.