Died On This Date (April 17, 2009) Sable Starr / 1970s Super Fan and Scenester
themusicsover Sable Starr (Born Sable Shields)
1958 – April 17, 2009
Following in the tradition of Miss Pamela, Sweet Sweet Connie and Cynthia Plaster Caster, Sable Starr loved rock music and at times the rock musicians that moved her. She ruled ’70s Los Angeles and no doubt left many a-broken heart in her wake. Some may refer to her as a “groupie” but Starr transcended that by being part of a select club who have been memorialized in song. Iggy Pop’s “Look Away,” written about Johnny Thunders’ relationship with Starr includes the lines, “I slept with Sable when she was 13 / Her parents were too rich to do anything / She rocked her way around L.A. / ‘Til a New York doll carried her away / Look away Look away.” By the time Sable was in her early teens, she was holding court in Hollywood’s hippest spots, from Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco to the Whiskey a Go-Go; from the Rainbow to the Sunset Hyatt. She befriended the likes of Iggy Pop, Marc Bolan, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, David Bowie and Johnny Thunders with whom she moved to New York around 1973. What she thought was to be a long life with Thunders quickly fell apart mostly due to his escalating drug use. Their relationship ended with her slitting her wrist and being brought to Bellevue. She was soon living back with her parents in Los Angeles. She eventually dropped out of the scene, went back to school and lived a mostly “normal” life. In later years, Starr moved to Las Vegas and worked as a dealer at a casino. She died of cancer on April 17, 2009 at the age of 51.
Danny Federici was one of the foundations of Bruce Springsteen’s legendary E Street Band. Backing Springsteen, his organ fills can be heard in many of popular music’s greatest songs. He has been by Springsteen’s side both live and on record since the late ’60s. But it was Federici who actually gave Springsteen one of his earliest jobs when he asked him to join his band, Child. Springsteen later, of course, asked Federici to join his own band which would eventually become the E Street Band. Federici made a handful of his own albums during the E Street Band hiatus of the ’90s. In November of 2007, it was announced that Federici would be taking a medical leave from to band to pursue treatment for melanoma. He passed away because of the cancer on April 17, 2008. Longtime E Street Band mate 
Carlton Barrett was a reggae drummer and songwriter as well as brother of Aston “Family Man” Barrett. The Barrett brothers started out together, forming a session band first called Soul Mates, then Rhythm Force and finally the Hippy Boys that featured Max Romeo on vocals. By the early ’70s, the Hippy Boys were officially the house band for the great Lee “Scratch” Perry who renamed them the Upsetters. Barrett played behind Perry on some of reggae’s greatest instrumentals, such as “Clint Eastwood” and “Cold Sweat.” It was around this time that Barrett brothers met 
