musical deaths

[weimy froob]

Stuart Sutcliffe
Died: April 10, 1962
Scottish painter and musician better known as the original bass
guitarist of the English rock band the Beatles. Sutcliffe left the
band to pursue his career as a painter, having previously attended
the Liverpool College of Art. Sutcliffe and John Lennon are credited
with inventing the name "Beetles", as they both liked Buddy Holly's
band, the Crickets. The band used this name for a while until Lennon
decided to change the name to "The Beatles", from the word beat. As
a member of the group when it was a five-piece band, Sutcliffe is one
of several people sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Beatle".

[weimy froob]

J Geils
Died: April 11, 2017
American guitarist. He was known as the leader of The J. Geils Band. Grow-
ing up in New York City, Geils became interested in jazz and blues. After mov-
ing to Massachusetts for his college education, he formed the J. Geils Blues
Band while still a student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. After dropping
the word "Blues" from their name, the band released their first album in 1970,
performing soul and rhythm and blues-influenced rock music for most of the
1970s before turning to pop music in the 1980s. After the band broke up in 1985,
Geils left regular performing to take up restoration and racing of automobiles,
with occasional forays into music production.

[weimy froob]

Wynton Kelly
Died: April 12, 1971
Jamaican American jazz pianist and composer. He is known for his lively,
blues-based playing and as one of the finest accompanists in jazz. He began
playing professionally at the age of 12, and was pianist on a No. 1 R&B hit at
the age of 16.

[weimy froob]

Percy Sledge
Died: April 14, 2015
Percy Tyrone Sledge was an American R&B, soul and gospel singer. He is best known
for the song "When a Man Loves a Woman", a No. 1 hit on both the Billboard Hot 100
and R&B singles charts in 1966. It was awarded a million-selling, Gold-certified disc
from the RIAA...He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

[weimy froob]

Joey Ramone
Died: April 15, 2001
American musician and singer-songwriter, lead vocalist of the punk rock band
the Ramones. Joey Ramone's image, voice, and tenure as frontman of the
Ramones made him a countercultural icon.

[weimy froob]

Eddie Cochran
Died: April 17, 1960
American musician. Cochran's rockabilly songs, such as "Twenty Flight Rock",
"Summertime Blues", "C'mon Everybody" and "Somethin' Else", captured teen-
age frustration and desire in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. He experimented
with multitrack recording, distortion techniques, and overdubbing even on his
earliest singles. He played the guitar, piano, bass, and drums. His image as a
sharply dressed and good-looking young man with a rebellious attitude epitomized
the stance of the 1950s rocker, and in death he achieved an iconic status.

[Slap Shot]

Dickey Betts - April 18, 2024.

[weimy froob]

Levon Helm
Died: April 19, 2012
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm was an American musician and actor who achieved
fame as the drummer and one of the vocalists for the Band. Helm was known
for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, multi-instrumental ability, and
creative drumming style, highlighted on many of the Band's recordings, such
as "The Weight", "Up on Cripple Creek", and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie
Down"...Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 91 in its list of 100 Greatest
Singers of All Time,. In 2010, Electric Dirt, his 2009 follow-up to Dirt Farmer,
won the first Grammy Award for Best Americana Album, a category inaugurated
in 2010. In 2011, his live album Ramble at the Ryman won the Grammy in the
same category. In 2016, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 22 in its list of
100 Greatest Drummers of All Time.

[weimy froob]

Steve Marriott
Died: April 20, 1991
English musician, songwriter and frontman guitarist of rock bands Small Faces
(1965–1968 and 1975–1978) and Humble Pie (1969–1975 and 1979–1983), spanning
over two decades. Marriott was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame in 2012 as a member of Small Faces.

[weimy froob]

Prince
Born: June 07, 1958
American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, dancer,
actor, and director. He is known for his flamboyant and androgynous persona,
eclectic work, and wide vocal range, which included a far-reaching falsetto
and high-pitched screams. Prince's music incorporated a wide variety of styles,
including funk, R&B, rock, new wave, soul, synth-pop, pop, jazz, and hip hop.
He often played most or all instruments on his recordings...Prince sold over 150
million records worldwide, ranking him among the best-selling music artists of
all time. His awards included the Grammy President's Merit Award, the American
Music Awards for Achievement and of Merit, the Billboard Icon Award, an Academy
Award, and a Golden Globe Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 2004, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, and the Rhythm and Blues Music
Hall of Fame in 2016.

[weimy froob]

Richie Havens
Died: April 22, 2013
American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music encompassed elements
of folk, soul, and rhythm and blues. He had an intense and rhythmic guitar
style (often in open tunings), and played soulful covers of pop and folk songs.
He was the opening act at Woodstock.

[weimy froob]

Chris Ethridge
Died: April 23, 2012
American country rock bass guitarist. He was a member
of the International Submarine Band (ISB) and The Flying
Burrito Brothers, and co-wrote several songs with Gram
Parsons. Ethridge worked with Nancy Sinatra, Judy Collins,
Leon Russell, Delaney Bramlett, Johnny Winter, Randy New-
man, Ry Cooder, Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds, Jackson Browne,
and Willie Nelson.

[mlhouse]

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

Was listening to Nirvana unplugged and I cannot believe it is now more than 30 years. He has been dead longer than he lived. 27 is a hard age for heroin addicts.

[weimy froob]

Pete Ham
Died: April 24, 1975
Welsh singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as a lead
vocalist and composer of the 1970s rock band Badfinger, whose
hit songs include "No Matter What", "Day After Day" and "Baby Blue".
He also co-wrote the ballad "Without You", a worldwide number-one
hit for Harry Nilsson that has become a standard covered by hundreds
of artists. Ham was granted two Ivor Novello Awards related to the song
in 1973.

[weimy froob]

Harry Belafonte
Died: April 25, 2023
American singer, songwriter, activist, and actor. One of the most successful
Jamaican-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso"
for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience
in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) is the first million-selling
LP by a single artist. Belafonte is known for his recording of "The Banana Boat
Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O".

[weimy froob]

George Jones
Died: April 26, 2013
George Glenn Jones was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter.
He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best-
known song "He Stopped Loving Her Today", as well as his distinctive voice and
phrasing. For the last two decades of his life, Jones was frequently referred to
as the greatest living country singer...In 1959, Jones recorded "White Lightning",
written by The Big Bopper, which launched his career as a singer. His second
marriage ended in divorce in 1968; he married fellow country music singer Tammy
Wynette a year later. Years of alcoholism compromised his health and led to his
missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones". After his
divorce from Wynette in 1975, Jones married his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, in
1983 and became sober for good in 1999. Jones died in 2013, aged 81, from hypoxic
respiratory failure.

[weimy froob]

Vern Gosdin
Died: April 28, 2009
Vernon Gosdin was an American country music singer.
He had 19 top-10 solo hits on the country music charts
from 1977 through 1990. Three of these hits went to
Number One: "I Can Tell By the Way You Dance (You're
Gonna Love Me Tonight)", "Set 'Em Up Joe", and "I'm
Still Crazy".

[weimy froob]

Cisco Houston
Died: April 29, 1961
Gilbert Vandine "Cisco" Houston was an American folk singer and songwriter,
who is closely associated with Woody Guthrie due to their extensive history
of recording together. Houston was a regular recording artist for Moses Asch's
Folkways recording studio. He also performed with such folk/blues musicians
as Lead Belly, Sonny Terry, Woody Guthrie and the Almanac Singers.

[weimy froob]

Muddy Waters
Died: April 30, 1983
McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American
blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II
blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues"...In the
early 1950s, Muddy Waters and his band—Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica,
Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Elga Edmonds (also known as Elgin Evans) on drums and
Otis Spann on piano—recorded several blues classics, some with the bassist and
songwriter Willie Dixon. These songs included "Hoochie Coochie Man," "I Just Want
to Make Love to You" and "I'm Ready"...In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Waters at
number 72 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.