Died On This Date (September 15, 2004) Johnny Ramone / The Ramones

Johnny Ramone (Born John Cummings)
October 8, 1948 – September 15, 2004

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Johnny Ramone was the founding guitarist for legendary punk band, the Ramones.  He and Joey Ramone were the only two members to stay in the group during its entire 22-year run.   It was Johnny’s aggressive guitar playing that helped turn the Ramones into one of rock music’s most influential bands.  His prowess has been noted in both Rolling Stone and Time magazine who included him in their list of the 10 greatest electric guitarists of all time.  Ramones albums like Road To Ruin, Rocket To Russia, and End of the Century are required listening for any true rock music fan.  Johnny Ramone died of prostate cancer on September 15, 2004.  He was 55.

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Died On This Date (September 15, 2008) Rick Wright / Founding Member Of Pink Floyd

Richard Wright
July 28, 1943 – September 15, 2008

Rick Wright was a founding member of Pink Floyd.  His keyboards and vocals can be heard on such classic albums as The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, Wish You Were Here, Meddle, and Dark Side Of The Moon.  Helping form the band with Roger Waters, Syd Barrett and Nick Mason in 1965, Wright also contributed significantly as a songwriter and sang lead on a handful of the band’s early recordings.  He resigned from Pink Floyd during the recording of The Wall, but returned from time to time to work in the studio or on the road with the band, but more as a guest than a full member of the group.  Outside of Pink Floyd, Wright formed a short-lived band named Zee with whom he released one album, and recorded two solo albums.  None were able to ignite much of a career for him.  Rick Wright died of cancer at the age of 65.

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Pink Floyd

Died On This Date (September 15, 2008) Warren Wayne Brown / Former VP of MCA Music

Warren Wayne Brown
1916 – September 15, 2008

Warren Wayne Brown was a one-time vice president of MCA Music as well as brother of jazz band leader, Les Brown.  After WWII, Brown who had played the trombone in the Navy band, went to work as a song plugger for Leeds Music.  When MCA purchased Leeds, Brown moved to Los Angeles to become VP.  He retired  in 1981 and passed away of an undisclosed illness on September 15, 2008.

Died On This Date (September 11, 2009) Jim Carroll / Proto Punk Great; Wrote “The Basketball Diaries”

Jim Carroll
August 1, 1950 – September 11, 2009

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Jim Carroll was a poet, author, purse snatcher, glue sniffer, male prostitute, heroin addict, post-punk rocker, and one of the greatest basketball players New York City has ever known.  His troublesome early life was documented in his own memoirs, written between the ages of 12 and 16.   They were  later anthologized in best-selling The Basketball Diaries, which was the inspiration of a somewhat fictionalized film of the same name, starring Leonard DiCaprio as Carroll. He published his first book of poetry at the age of 17 and within a few years he was working for Andy Warhol writing script dialog, and later, co- managing his theater.   At one point while still a teenager, Carroll became the youngest person ever nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.  He formed the Jim Carroll Band in 1978 with the help of Patti Smith, and soon released Catholic Boy.  It’s “People Who Died” was an instant underground hit and is considered a staple of the New York punk scene of the era.  The songs eulogizes his real life childhood friends, the “characters” from The Basketball Diaries. Carroll recorded several more albums of music and spoken word over the next few decades, but in recent years he was mostly writing poetry and fiction.  Jim Carroll suffered a fatal heart attack on September 11, 2009.

 

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