Fave Recording Artists Who Passed in 2017

 

The thing about when musicians, singers and recording artists pass away to join that grand band in the heavens is, we mortals left behind can continue to hear them on our vinyl, CD, tape or virtually forever.

Having said that, the following are my notables who I will miss seeing “live” as they left the physical world in two-thousand and seventeen:

 

Chuck Berry – the rock and roll pioneer who I blogged about on the Mothership, www.achilliad.wordpress.com right after it happened.

Fats Domino – American blues pioneer and legend

Al Jarreau – not a personal favorite (his style distracted me) but he was widely popular and always a good request to play on my early Top 40 radio shows.

Mel Tillis – The Country music legend

Gregg Allman – backbone of The Allman Brothers, one of my best rock bands of all times

J. (Warren) Geils, Jr. – of the J. Geils Band, another fantastic rock group.

Tom Petty – What can I say about this favorite who was introduced to me during my early years as a Top 40 radio DJ; Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  The first record I played by them on WFTQ AM, Worcester, Massachusetts was “Don’t Do Me Like That”, followed by the classic, “Refugee”.  Sad irony is that he died during the same hours of that tragic and horrific Las Vegas concert massacre on October 1^st.

Joni Sledge – I think the oldest of the hit family group, Sister Sledge (Atlantic Records), one of my all-time favorite female aggregation. In spite of the commercial success and longevity of “We Are Family”, my favorite Sister Sledge songs are the ballad, “How Can I Believe”? and the Chic-produced (Nile Rogers, et al) “Lost In Music”.

Cuba Gooding, Sr. – Last, but not least on this list, best known as the lead singer of the R&B smash hit group, The Main Ingredient.  After I first interviewed him at Manhattan’s Sweetwater’s, he became a friend and hang-out partner at bars and after-hours clubs we frequented back in the 1980s and 1990s. I will write more extensively about him here, once I am reunited with my music library collection.  We have “stories”!  A great guy who I am saddened to learned died where he did. ‘Nuff said 4 now.

 

This is not, by any means, the whole list, but just a few who came to my jukebox-like mind yesterday, New year’s Eve.  Who are your favorite performers who we lost in 2017?  Tell us in “comments”, please.

Happy Musikal New Year, from KratesfullO’Jointz Musik!

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Valentine’s Time for Revisiting “Refections”

(Classic Holland-Dozier-Holland genius lyrics…)

I can dig it thoughout my own unrequited love story. Happy “Valentines’s Day”.

There are times in all of our lives when we need to meditate and reflect. Some now use the complicated verb “to chill” to describe the same need.   It is healthy for mind, body and soul.  I am in one of those periods now, which probably spawned my latest phantasmagoric “tune-wedgie”, “Reflections” by The Supremes.

Speaking of “soul” , that is what this music was labeled as back in the 1960s in America in Billboard magazine and on the radio..

When the record, “Reflections”, first came out in 1967, the intro sound was markedly different than their earlier, more melodious hits like the 1965 smash, “I Hear A Symphony”.  The intro was electro-spacey and Star Trek psychedelic for The Supremes, who had by then become known as Diana Ross and The Supremes.  Maybe it was at the same time that The Temptations’ “Psychedelic Shack”attacked the charts.  The sound of Motown was evolving.

Ms. Ross’ stage presence evolved as well. In the first performance below, in living “black and white” television, she was shyly portraying the song.  By the time of the next video, you can see her confidence and showmanship grow, exuding a playful and sneaky self-depricating smile that endeared generations of listeners and fans to this very day, in my opinion (IMO).

Check out, enjoy and compare these four performances:

 

and the outfit changes!

I love how Ms. Ross’s funky confindence grows into this song each time she sings it and how she seems to do the “boogaloo” between verses (a little neck movement thing and the dane of the day when you had to know how to do the latest dance in order to be hip and party hardy!) Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops did a similar jig.

This is the best one, IMO and Ms. Ross et-al get really into it as the song-story progresses!

See the confidence Ms. Ross and the ladies have in the second and third ones?  Mary, why did you hide behind her at one point? lol

Ross is so cute at 1:46 when she is into it and gives a little ad lib “Hoop!” Nice.

and this one with full French orchestra in back…Awesome.

This is Hall Of Fame and lifetime favorite music that I want to remind the world, especially the ” millennials” I worked among recently, about. History is important, whether is it conquering territory or music, the latter being much more soothing.

Always take time to “reflect” and pray because the music will heal your brain and your prayers will be answered.