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Posts Tagged ‘Neil Young’

Died On This Date (March 27, 2013) Paul Williams / Founder Of Crawdaddy! Magazine

Posted by themusicsover on March 27, 2013

Paul Williams
May 19, 1948 – March 27, 2013

paul-williamsPaul Williams was the founder of Crawdaddy!, considered by many to be America’s first national magazine devoted to rock music.  Launched while he was in college in 1966, the magazine first consisted of mimeographed pages written entirely by Williams himself.   Landing before by Rolling Stone and Creem, Crawdaddy called itself, “the first magazine to take rock and roll seriously,” making Williams a pioneer of rock journalism.    He left the magazine in 1968, but took it back over in 1993.  It ultimately closed shop in 2003.  Through a time before the internet and MTV, the pages of a handful of magazines like Crawdaddy! was where music lovers went to learn the goings-on of their favorite rock bands and musicians.  Throughout his career, Williams also penned more than 25 books including the widely acclaimed Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, a three book series.  He was considered to be an expert on the works of Dylan, Neil Young, and Brian Wilson.  In 1995, Williams suffered a severe brain injury during a bicycle mishap.  It is believed that that injury lead to his dementia and ultimately his death on March 27, 2013.  Paul Williams was 64 when he passed away.

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Died On This Date (June 2, 2012) Frazier Mohawk / Helped Form Buffalo Springfield

Posted by themusicsover on June 2, 2012

Frazier Mohawk (Born Barry Friedman)
December 12, 1941 – June 2, 2012

Frazier Mohawk was a man of many talents who was a prominent if not well-known figure of the Los Angeles music scene of the 1960s.  One of his earliest jobs was doing publicity for radio and television host, Bob Eubanks.  He quickly parlayed that into doing sound mixes for bands performing on TV.  He also worked as a publicist for Ike & Tina Turner and the Troubadour nightclub in those early days as well as the Beatles‘ Hollywood Bowl performance.  In 1966, while Stephen Stills was staying at his house, Mohawk was driving Stills and Richie Furay along Sunset Boulevard when they passed Neil Young and Bruce Palmer who were driving in a hearse in the opposite direction.  Mohawk turned the car around and the four met and soon formed Buffalo Springfield with Dewey Martin.  Mohawk took care of much of the band’s early business – including landing them a career-defining slot on the Byrds tour, before they hired on management. As a producer, Mohawk worked with Nico, Paul Butterfield, and John Cale.  He went on to open and run a studio/commune that was partially funded by Elektra Records in Northern California, but it eventually closed when it became more of a hang-out than a productive recording studio.  Tired of the music industry, Mohawk moved to Canada during the mid ’70s and started a traveling circus, and later, Puck’s Farm which was a recording studio surrounded by family attractions.   Frazier Mohawk was 71 when he passed away on June 2, 2012.  Cause of death was not immediately released.

Thanks to Henk de Bruin for the assist.

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Died On This Date (May 13, 2012) Donald “Duck” Dunn / Booker T. & The MG’s

Posted by themusicsover on May 13, 2012

Donald “Duck” Dunn
November 24, 1941 – May 13, 2012

As the house bassist for Stax Records throughout the ’60s and ’70s, Donald “Duck” Dunn provided the unmistakable bottom-end for countless soul and R&B songs that have stood the test of time. He can also be heard on some of the greatest rock recordings from the ’70s and ’80s.  From Otis Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose,” Sam & Dave’s “Hold On I’m Coming,” and Albert King’s “Born Under A Bad Sign” to Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks’ “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,”  Dunn’s groove can not be missed.  And in between, there was Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, and Rod Stewart, to name a few.  And as bassist for Booker T. & the MG’s, Dunn made his mark on such iconic songs as “Green Onions.”  In 1980, Dunn played himself alongside John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as part of the Blues Brothers band both in the movie, and at live performances.  Although semi-retired by 2000, Dunn continued to play at occasional Booker T. gigs and other events well into the new decade.  Donald “Duck” Dunn died in his sleep following a performance in Tokyo, Japan on May 12, 2012.  Cause of death was not immediately released.

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Briefcase Full of Blues - The Blues Brothers

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Died On This Date (April 19, 2012) Levon Helm / Drummer & Co-Lead Singer For The Band

Posted by themusicsover on April 19, 2012

Mark “Levon” Helm
May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012

Levon Helm was a rock musician, singer and songwriter best known for his time spent in the Band, one of Canada’s most celebrated rock bands.   Helm was still a few years shy of his teens when he first took up the guitar.  The drums were soon to follow.  After graduating from high school, he was invited by Ronnie Hawkins to join his back up band, the Hawks.  Hawkins later recruited Canadian musicians, Rick Danko, Robbie RobertsonGarth Hudson and Richard Manuel.  After splitting away from Hawkins in 1963, the group forged on as Levon & The Hawks – touring throughout Canada and the northern U.S. until they got a call from Bob Dylan asking them to support him on the road.   Changing their name to simply the Band by the late ’60s, they secured a deal with Capitol Records and delivered their debut, Music From Big Pink, one of rock music’s true masterpieces.  That was followed by albums like The Band, Stage Fright, and Cahoots which only added more songs to one of rock’s finest catalogs. Helm sang lead on many of the group’s best songs.  On Thanksgiving night of 1976, the Band performed what would be their final show as that unit at San Francisco’s Winterland.  To the surprise of the audience, the Band proved to be the greatest backing band of all times as a cavalcade of the era’s most respected performers showed their own respect by joining them on stage throughout the evening.  That list included Neil Young, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, and Dylan, each arguably giving the single greatest live performance of their careers.  Fortunately, the evening was captured on film by Martin Scorsese, who released it theatrically as The Last Waltz, often noted popular music’s greatest concert film.  Following the band’s break up, Helm continued on as a solo act and participated in later reincarnations of the Band.  In later years, Helm hosted numerous concerts at his home and studio in Woodstock, NY.  These Midnight Rambles, as they became to be known, played host to a veritable who’s who of roots music.  He later took the show on the road, even releasing one such evening, Ramble at the Ryman, on CD in 2011.  During the late ’90s, Helm learned he had throat cancer.  He eventually recovered enough to hit the Ramble stage and record arguably his two best solo albums of his career, 2007’s Dirt Farmer, and 2009’s Electric Dirt.  They earned him Grammys for Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Americana Album, respectively.  Ramble at the Ryman was named Best Americana Album as well.  During the second week of April, 2012, Helm’s family released a statement that he was in the final days of a battle with cancer.  On April 19, 2012, Levon Helm passed away at the age of 71.

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Dirt Farmer - Levon Helm

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Died On This Date (October 5, 2011) Bert Jansch / Scottish Folk Great

Posted by themusicsover on October 5, 2011

Bert Jansch
November 3, 1943 – October 5, 2011

A highly influential singer-songwriter, Bert Jansch was one of the cornerstones of the British folk revival of the ’60s.  Cited as an influence by no less than Neil Young, Jimmy Page, and  Paul Simon, Jansch’s mark was made on younger generations as well as evident by praise from and collaborations with the likes of Devendra Banhart, Pete Doherty, Johnny Marr, and Beth Orton.  Considered a virtuoso of the acoustic guitar, he is often mentioned in the same breath as John Fahey or Leo Kottke.  Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Jansch launched his career in 1960 and began building a following by playing British folk clubs.  By the mid ’60s he was hitchhiking and busking across Europe.  He soon settled in London where he recorded his first album, Bert Jansch, which has since been included in the reference guide, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.   In 1968, Jansch co-founded Pentangle, a British folk supergroup of sorts that counted John Renbourn, Jacqui McShee, Danny Thompson, and Terry Cox among its members.  Perhaps a bit more jazz and baroque influenced than Jansch’s solo work, the group was one of the most popular of its kind during the late ’60s and early ’70s.   Pentangle disbanded in 1973 after which Jansch moved to a farm and took a bit of a break from the business.  He had regrouped by the end of the ’70s and continued on as a solo performer but reunited with Pentangle during the ’80s.  He continued on and off with the band for the better part of the next decade.  The 2000s found Jansch enjoying a renaissance of sorts, as evident by releases coming out on such hipster indie labels as Drag City and Cooking Vinyl.  His 2006 release for Drag City, The Black Swan, is considered one of his finest.  As reported by ABC News, Bert Jansch died of lung cancer on October 5, 2011.  He was 67.

Thanks to Harold Lepidus for the assist.

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L.A. Turnaround (Remastered) - Bert Jansch

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