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
Pascual Saura was the longtime bassist for the popular Spanish rock band, M-Clan. Formed as Murcielagos Clan in 1992, the band built a sizable following around the world. Saura has been with M-Clan since 1993. He died unexpectedly on Friday, December 17, 2010. Cause of death was not immediately released, but he had suffered a brain hemorrhage in recent months.
Robin Rogers was a contemporary blues singer who built herself a sizable following throughout southeastern United States and beyond. Most recently living in Charlotte, North Carolina, Rogers ran away from home in her early teens and eventually found her voice as a singer while on the road. By the early ’80s, Rogers was living in South Florida where she first recorded for Sal Sol. In more recent years, she cut albums for 95 North and Blind Pig Records. Robin Rogers passed away on December 17, 2010 after battling liver cancer.
Nick Hunter was a respected music industry veteran who worked in radio promotion and sales. Over the course of a career that spanned some 40 years, he worked for Giant, Atlantic, and Warner Bros. Records, among others. In 1999, he founded his own label, Audium Records. Over the years, Hunter was directly involved with the successes of such artists as Willie Nelson, Randy Travis, and Johnny Paycheck who he is credited for reviving his career and probably his life in the early ’70s. In later years, Hunter was perhaps better known as “Nick the Stick” for his two decades as a popular radio sports commentator in Nashville. Nick Hunter, 67, passed away on December 15, 2010 after a long struggle with cancer.
Shaun Nielsen was a singer, songwriter, producer, and pianist who is perhaps best remembered for his time singing with