Died On This Date (January 2, 1997) Randy California / Spirit
themusicsover Randy California (Born Randy Wolfe)
February 20, 1951 – January 2, 1997
Randy California was the original lead singer, guitarist and primary songwriter for the psychedelic rock band, Spirit. Formed in Los Angeles in 1967, the group is best remembered for their 1969 hit, “I Got A Line On You.” California mastered the electric guitar as a child and when he was just 15, he was invited to play in Jimi Hendrix’s Jimmy James & the Blue Flames. It was Hendrix who began calling him Randy “California” to distinguish him from the band’s Randy Palmer who then became known as Randy Texas. It is believed that California would have become a member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Since he was just 15 at the time, his parents would not allow him to go with the Blue Flames to Europe where Hendrix ultimately formed the Experience. California soon helped form Spirit who released their first album, Spirit, when he was still just 17. That album included the song, “Taurus,” a song that includes a California guitar part that many have accused Jimmy Page for lifting when he wrote Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” By the early ’70s, California parted ways with Spirit and released his first solo album, but then reformed a new version of the group with original member, Ed Cassidy in 1974. They continued on until California’s tragic death. On January 2, 1997, Randy California drowned while rescuing his son from a powerful rip tide while swimming in the ocean off Hawaii. His son survived, but California was killed at the age of 46.
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Hank Williams was not only the patriarch of a musical family that includes Hank Jr, Hank III, Holly Williams, Jett Williams and Hillary Williams, but is also considered by many to be the patriarch of honky-tonk music. Williams’ career began when, at 17, he took up residence outside the local radio station on weekends and after school. He was soon invited to perform on the air which lead to a twice-weekly program of his own. Over the course of the next 15 years, Williams released a string of records that cemented his place in music history as one of the most influential songwriters of all time. With nearly a dozen #1 hits, his catalog included such classic country songs as “Move it on Over,” “Jambalaya,” “Hey Good Lookin’,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” and “Cold, Cold Heart.” Not only have his songs been covered by hundreds of country, folk, R&B, and rock singers, but Williams himself has been the subject of or mentioned in over 50 songs by the likes of 
If you lived in Los Angeles in the mid ’90s and were into music, you know doubt heard the proverbial “buzz” about this old black soul/blues singer belting it out for change on the Venice boardwalk. That voice belonged to Ted Hawkins, and thank God, the folks at Geffen Records followed that buzz until they also witnessed one of the greatest contemporary blues voices as he soothed the crowds of beach urchins. But before all that, Hawkins was forced to survive a rough childhood when he was abused and left to fend for himself as an illiterate child. In and out of reform school and jail, Hawkins finally settled in Los Angeles, but not before spending time in Mississippi’s notorious Parchman Farm penitentiary. By the time he hit his mid 30s, Hawkins had made several attempts at establishing a music career in Los Angeles, but nothing substantial materialized. But in the mid ’80s, Hawkins was becoming somewhat of a blues legend in Europe thanks to a British DJ spinning his records. Hawkins moved overseas and found a bit of success throughout Great Britain and Japan. But returning home to Los Angeles, he was met with the same indifference. And then in 1994, Hawkins was finally “discovered” and signed to Geffen Records. The label then released The Next Hundred Years, a collection of soulful blues with a voice that is at once as smooth as the an L.A. sunset and as rough as windblown Venice boardwalk. In a cruel twist of fate, Hawkins died of a stroke just as the rest of us were just catching up to him.
In a perfect world, you wouldn’t need to tell you who Moon Mullican was. As a singer, songwriter a pianist associated with country music, what he was doing would be called rock ‘n roll some ten or so years later. By combining elements of hillbilly, jazz and blues, he created a sound and a fury that was a direct influence on Jerry Lee Lewis, 
