Died On This Date (December 17, 2010) Captain Beefheart / Rock Legend
themusicsover Captain Beefheart (Born Don Glen Vliet)
January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010
Captain Beefheart was a respected, innovative, and highly influential rock musician who launched his 40-year career in 1964. A multi-instrumentalist with a powerful voice, Beefheart found himself at the top 1960s avant-garde rock heap. He was a high school classmate of Frank Zappa with whom he occasionally recorded and performed with. In 1969, Beefheart released his groundbreaking opus, Trout Mask Replica on Zappa’s Straight Records. Sonically, the album found itself somewhere in the middle of blues, psychedelia, jazz and rock. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine positioned it at #58 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time. It is commonly cited as an influence on post-punk and alternative rock. Beefheart could count no less than Paul McCartney and John Lennon as fans – at one point they had planned to make him the first artist on their experimental label, Zapple, but the idea for the label was scrapped. Others he is said to have influenced are the Velvet Underground, the Residents, Throbbing Gristle, and arguably, the entire industrial movement. He retired from music in 1982 to put more focus on his talents as a visual artist. It has been reported that his paintings can command as much as $40,000. Captain Beefheart died on December 17, 2010 of complications from Multiple Sclerosis. He was 69.
What You Should Own
Shaun Nielsen was a singer, songwriter, producer, and pianist who is perhaps best remembered for his time singing with 
Reg King was a respected British singer and songwriter whose band, the Action, with all due respect to the Kinks, Small Faces and the Who, were widely considered the best of the UK mod scene. King also helped popularize “blue eyed soul” throughout the region. What endeared the Action to mods was that they were edgier than their contemporaries and often included the latest American soul covers in their live sets. Even though they never were able to break out of a cult status, their fans were markedly loyal. Formed in 1963, the Action were signed to Parlophone Records in 1965. Even though they had developed a rabid fan base thanks to their live shows, none of their records sold very well. In spite of that, future stars like Paul Weller and Phil Collins claim them as favorites and inspirations. In fact, Collins played with the Action for a reunion show in 2000. Reg King was 65 when he died of cancer on November 8, 2010.
James Freud is best remembered as the lead singer and bassist for ’80s Australian new wave rock band, the Models. Formed in Melbourne (originally without Freud) in 1979, musically the Models had much in common with fellow countrymen, INXS, including a handsome and charismatic front man in Freud. Over the next ten years, the group scored a handful of moderate hits, both in Australia and the U.S., but they never quite broke out of cult status. Freud was just 16 when he formed his first band, and after hearing the Sex Pistols a year later, he realized rock ‘n roll was his true calling. By the end of the ’70s, James Freud & the Radio Stars were causing a local stir and were quickly signed to Australia’s storied Mushroom Records. Their first single “Modern Girl” was successful enough to land them on a Gary Numan tour. Freud then joined the Models in 1982, and went on to write a some of their biggest hits. Records like “Barbados” and “Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight” helped them become one of Australia’s post-punk bands. After they broke up in 1988, Freud embarked on a solo career which included Mushroom’s most expensive album to date, Step Into The Heat. He also wrote two autobiographies, 
Eva Cassidy was an American guitarist and vocalist who was equally adept at interpreting jazz, blues, country, folk, and pop standards. Without much more than a cult following outside of her hometown of Washington DC, Cassidy never failed to wow audiences with her remarkable technical ability and passion with which she sang. Unfortunately, and at no fault of her own, record companies ignored her, but only because of their own confusion on how to best market her. In 1993, Cassidy had a malignant mole removed from her back, and her health seamed fine from that point on, but roughly three years later, she began feeling stiffness and pain in her hips. Further tests revealed that she was suffering from advanced stages of melanoma. Eva Cassidy was 33 when she died from the cancer on November 2, 1996. Ironically, after spending her entire adult life trying to get her music heard, it took her death to finally expose her beyond her local fan base. In the years following her passing, collections of her recordings started coming out, leading to critical praise and several charting singles in the UK. In 2005, nearly 10 years after her death, amazon.com ranked her as their 5th best-selling musician behind the Beatles, U2, Norah Jones, and Diana Krall.