Talkin’ Music with Jack – Only The Good Die Young

Only The Good Die Young

Way Too Young

By Jack Coll

2-19-14

     Many of our musicians die way too young, way too young.  When I think of the lives lost for one reason or another at a young age, well it saddens me.  Names that come to mind include Mama Cass, Jim Croce, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Harry Chapin, Del Shannon, Patsy Cline, Bobby Fuller, several members of the Temptations, John Denver, Otis Redding, John Lennon, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, the “Bopper,” and Bill Haley among others.  There are really dozens, too many to mention.

The funny thing is, what brought me to this subject is my filing system.  This is my 27^th Music Column, I’ve been writing this column for 27 weeks and when I file, I file under Music One, Music-2, Music-3 etc.  So when I looked up at the Music 27, I thought of the “27 Club,” not a good club to be a member of.

The “27 Club” consist of musicians who died at the age of 27.

I don’t think I need to explain Joplin, Hendrix and Morrison, we should all be pretty familiar with them.  I’m referring to Janis Joplin who died on October 4, 1970, Jimi Hendrix who passed away two weeks earlier on September 18, 1970 and Jim Morrison who died on July 3, 1971, all at the age of 27.

But a few of the lesser known musicians who passed away at the ripe old age of 27 included one of my most favorite guitarists Brian Jones.  Brian was a guitarist with the Rolling Stones and played this really boss white pearl pear shaped guitar.  Brian had this long white hair and was a big influence on the early Stones stuff.  A little freaky that Brian passed away two years earlier than Morrison, Brian died on July 3, 1969 in his swimming pool, and Morrison died on July 3, 1971 from reported heart failure.

In recent years Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse added their names to the growing club.  I wasn’t real familiar with Cobain’s music, he was the lead singer and guitarist for a band called Nirvana, a very successful rock and roll band.  Cobain committed suicide with a shotgun.  I can’t say I was real familiar with Amy Winehouse’s music either but I heard her sing a couple of times before her passing and found her to be very talented.   Amy died from Alcohol poisoning.

A little before our time but I’m well aware of Robert Johnson, who only recorded 29 songs but was a very interesting story.  Robert was this up-and-coming Blues singer and piano player when he died of strychnine poisoning on August 16, 1938, if the date August 16, sounds familiar it is, Elvis Presley died on that date in 1977, Elvis was 42 years old.

I didn’t know of him but Jesse Belvin died at the age of 27 from a car accident, Jesse was a Rhythm and Blues singer, pianist and songwriter, he was killed on February 6, 1960. Rudy Lewis was a vocalist for the Drifters when he passed at the age of 27 from a drug overdose as the Drifters were making it big in 1964.  Malcolm Hale was an original member and lead guitarist of Spanky and Our Gang, (“Sunday Will Never Be The Same”)   Hale died from Carbon monoxide poisoning during the bands prime in 1968.

Another guy who went down just when his band was hitting it big was Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson, lead singer and primary composer of Canned Heat.  Blind Owl couldn’t shake the monkey and died from a barbiturate overdose, his death was called a possible suicide on September 3, 1970.

Again I’m not real familiar with her but Linda Jones died at 27 from complications from diabetes, Linda was a successful soul singer.  Somehow we all knew the Grateful Dead was gonna work its way into this column, Ron “Pigpen” McKerman was a founding member, keyboardist and singer for the popular band, my man Pigpen died from what they called gastrointestinal hemorrhage, or in our language alcoholism, he died on March 8, 1973.

On February 10, 1975, Dave Alexander died of pulmonary edema, he was a bass guitar player for the Stooges.  Pete Ham of Badfinger committed suicide on April 24, 1975, he was the keyboardist, guitarist, and leader of Badfinger, at that time Badfinger was on the verge of breaking up, they regrouped in 1979 and band-mate Tom Evans committed suicide on November 23, 1983.  Badfinger was known for songs such as “Come And Get It,” “No Matter What,” “Day After Day,” and “Baby Blue.”

Other members of the “27 Club” that you might or might not recognize include Nat Jaffe, Dickie Pride, Fat Pat, Freaky Tah, Rodrigo Bueno, Sean Patrick McCabe, Maria Serrano Serrano, Jermy Michael Ward, Bryan Ottoson, Valentin Elizalde, Richard Turner, Arlester “Dyke” Christian, Leslie Harvey, Roger Lee Durham, Wallace Yohn, Gary Thain, Cecilia, Helmut Kollen, Chris Bell, Jacob Miller, D. Boon, Alexander Bashlachev, Jean Michael Basquiat, Pete de Freitas, Mia Zapata, Kristen Pfaff, and Richey Edwards.

Yes, there are a few others but I think we made our point. It was reported on a number of occasions that Kurt Cobain committed suicide just so he would be remembered as a member of the “27 Club.”  The funny thing is dying at the age of 27 barley gets you remembered at all, it’s a very crowded club, unfortunately with some very talented members.

On the flip side there is this whole other club who have died in plane crashes, talented musicians who were cut down in their prime.  Just like Janis, Hendrix and Morrison in the above piece, plane crash victims include Buddy, Richie and the Bopper, I don’t see the need to cover these guys.  But they are joined by some very famous names you’ll be sure to recognize, like Patsy Cline who flew into a mountainside in Camden, Tenn. on July 31, 1963.  A little more than a year later fellow country singer Jim Reeves crashed in Nashville Tenn., he was known for “Four Walls,” and “Welcome To My World.”  A major blow to the Stax Recording industry came on December 10, 1967 when the plane in which Otis Redding was a passenger went down in a lake near Madison Wis.  One of my all-time favorites Jim Croce went down on September 20, 1973 near Natchitoches, La.  Jim was a Villanova boy who made good, real good.

Sad, sad, sad, Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Stevie Gaines of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd died in a plane crash in McComb, Miss on October 21, 1977.  OK, this is about as strange as it gets, on March 19, 1982 Randall “Randy” Rhoads, lead guitarist in rock star Ozzy Osbourne’s band, was flying a Beechcraft Bonanza plane and flew too low while buzzing the band van while on tour in Leesburg Fla. Randy and two others were killed.

Ricky Nelson’s plane caught fire on December 31, 1985 and went down near DeKalb, Texas.  On August 27, 1990 Blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan died when his helicopter crashed into a hill in East Troy, Wis., after departing from a concert.  John Denver, another favorite of mine died in his experimental plane off the California coast on October 12, 1997, hard to believe that it was more than 16 years ago.

Other notable musicians who have been killed in plane crashes include but not limited to Dean Paul Martin; of “Dino, Desi and Billy”, Bill Graham; concert promoter, Aaliyah; actress and R& B singer, Melanie Thomton; of pop duo La Bouche, Gerry Niewood and Coleman Mellett; two members of Chuck Mangione’s Band.

Many other musicians have died way too young like Townes Van Zandt, Gram Parsons among others, but that’s another story for another time.

If you ever thought about seeing one of your favorite bands or performers, no time like the present, we never know what’s just around the corner, we just never know!

Just give me some of that old time rock and roll music.