August 4, 2012 saw the passing of guitar player Stuart Swanlund. He was 54. Stuart played guitar with the Marshall Tucker Band from 1983 until his passing. The band’s heyday was the 1970’s, but he was a great addition to the later version of the band. Here is the band playing Walk Outside The Line.
Blues great Johnnie Bassett died on August 4, 2012 at the age of 76. He was a much in demand electric blues guitarist and a singer-songwriter. In addition to his session work, he toured with such notables as Tina Turner and Little Willie John. In session, he played with the Miracles and others. Here is one of his own compositions played live with the band, Hideaway.
Singer Songwriter Jimmy Jones died on August 2, 2012. He was 75. He was a Sam Cooke style singer, with a great falsetto. He is best known for his huge hit from 1960 “Handy Man“, which reached number 2 in 1960. His other hit was Good Timin’, which rose to number 3, also in 1960. After these 2 successes, he continued to record and write. His influence has been noted by such people as Del Shannon.
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Australian singer, actor and television personality Darryl Cotton passed away at 62 on July 27. As I researched his career, I was amazed at the depth and connections he had. He played with Rick Springfield, was involved with a group that morphed into the Little River Band, song-wrote for Donny and Marie Osmond, Olivia Newton-John, Shaun Cassidy, The New Seekers and Engelbert Humperdink.
Enjoy his 1980 hit “Same Old Girl”.
Jazz bassist, Don Bagley, left us on July 26, 2012. He was 85. Born in Salt Lake City, he played with such greats as Shorty Sherock, Bill Holman and Stan Kenton. He also did session work with Nat King Cole and Maynard Ferguson. The tribute song I have chosen is a performance by Julie London, with Don being the only player accompanying her.
Larry Hoppen, lead singer for the 70’s group, Orleans, passed away on July 24, 2012. He was 61. Orleans had a string of hits in the 70’s, none bigger than “Still The One” which hit #5 in 1976.
Their other big hit, Dance With Me charted at Number 6 in 1975.
July 16, saw the passing of rock keyboard innovator, Jon Lord. He was 71. Best known as one of the founding members of 70’s icons, Deep Purple, he also played with Whitesnake. He played on the classic song by The Kinks, “You Really Got Me“. He was on albums by David Gilmour and George Harrison. He virtually created the riffs used to this day by keyboardists in all types of popular music.
In my life, Deep Purple was one of the bands that formed my musical tastes. Machine Head is still an album that makes me perk up and listen. I will never forget Smoke On The Water or Highway Star, which are very much a part of the soundtrack of my life. The band in heaven just got a bit better.
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You like the Motown sound? Bob Babbitt, bass player extraordinaire, was likely responsible for that. He passed away on July 16, leaving behind a huge legacy and body of work. He played bass for Motown’s studio band, The Funk Brothers from 1966 to 1972. This would make a lot of people very familiar with his work, without realizing it. He was the bass player on such hits as Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours“, Smokey Robinson’s “Tracks of My Tears” and Freda Payne‘s “Band of Gold”. He also played with such greats as Phil Collins and Jimi Hendrix. Very diverse portfolio. Here are a few tracks.
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On our arrival in Lisbon. Portugal, we were saddened to be informed that my cousin Lynn’s husband Dale had succumbed to cancer.
Keeping in mind that we are not Catholic, and neither are Dale and Lynn, we decided on an appropriate tribute (we think) in that we were in Spain and Portugal, both of which have a multitude of beautiful cathedrals. We decided we would light a candle in remembrance in each cathedral we visited. Our first candle was lit in Lisbon and we now moved into Spain.
Our travels took us to Toledo.
From Toledo, we moved on to Seville
Our next stop was a day trip to Cordoba and the world-famous Mezquita de Cordoba.
Zack Booher of the band While We’re Up was killed in a car accident on July 8, 2012. He was 22. The band is an acoustic rock duo with one indie album to their credit, “Every Moment”. Terrific duo, great song, terrible loss.
