Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

The two most notable deaths in August happened on the same day: the 22nd. I’ve already paid tribute to Nick Ashford (HERE); on the same day that great songwriter passed away, Jerry Leiber died. I don’t think it’s necessary to go into detail about the Leiber & Stoller story other than to say that they had a crucial impact on the development of rock & roll. Leiber was the lyricist, and as such got Elvis Presley to sing the great line in Jailhouse Rock: “Number 47 said to number 3,’You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see. I
sure would be delighted with your company, come on and do the Jailhouse Rock with me.'”

Billy Grammer died at 85. Fans of The Originals will appreciate the song in this mix: Grammer’s I Wanna Go Home later became a hit for Bobby Bare as Detroit City. Grammer played at the rally during which the racist Alabama governor and presidential hopeful George Wallace was shot. Grammer apparently wept after the incident, suggesting that his views on race relations were less than entirely endearing.

Akiko Futaba, one of Japan’s most popular singers, had a lucky break in utter tragedy on 6 August 1945. Just as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, the train she was travelling in entered a tunnel. The singer, who had started recording in 1936, lived to the age of 96.

In May, we lost Bob Flanigan of the pioneering vocal group The Four Freshmen; this month the last surviving member of the original line-up, Ross Barbour, died at the age of 82. Through many changes in the line-up, Flanigan and Barbour remained Freshmen until the latter’s retirement in 1977.

I don’t often include recored executives in the In Memoriam series, but there are two this month who qualfy. Rich Fitzgerald, who has died at 64, had a massive influence on pop music. In the 1970s he worked for RSO, with whom he helped spearheaded the massively-selling Saturday Night Fever and Grease soundtracks (and, later, that of Fame). After RSO, he ended up via a handful of record companies as vice-chairman of Warner Bros. Along the way, he helped give artists such as The Pretenders, Prince, Madonna and Green Day achieve their breakthrough.

Frank DiLeo was a executive at Epic Records where he nurtured the careers of acts like Meat Loaf, Luther Vandross, Gloria Estefan, Cyndi Lauper, REO Speedwagon and Quiet Riot, as well as the US success of The Clash and Culture Club. He was twice Michael Jackson’s manager, in the late 1980s and at the time of Jackson’s death. And he played Tuddy Cicero in GoodFellas, impressing as Paulie’s brother who executes Joe Pesci’s obnoxious Tommy character. He also appeared in Wayne’s World.

Finally, it’s not at all usual to include non-musicians on account of their being the subject of a song. But in the case of William ‘Stetson’ Kennedy I must make an exception. The human rights activist’s infiltration of the Ku Klax Klan helped bring down the racist organisation and made it his mission to expose racists. Woody Guthrie wrote a song named after Kennedy.

Trudy Stamper, 94, Grand Ole Opry artist relations manager and first female presenter on US radio, on July 30
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Grand Ole Opry Song (1972)
Grand Ole Opry Intro (Prince Albert Theme) (1940) Read more…

The cover of The Nightfly is my default answer when the question of favourite LP sleeves comes up. I”m not sure whether it actually is my favourite (how can there be just one anyway), but it is not a false answer either. Read more…

25 years since1982. Fuck!

Donald Fagen – I.G.Y.
The Nightfly had one of the coolest album covers in rock history: a monochrome shot of Fagen as graveyard shift DJ, smoking a Chesterfield (Warning: smoking is not cool, kids. Only when Fagen does, it is). When the Steely Dan man’s solo album came out, I had to hunt it down; I don’t know if it sold out or whether the record shops were unprepared for the demand it elicited.

Dexys Midnight Runners – Respect (live)
Yeah, a cover of the Otis Redding song (covered as well by Aretha something). This is a bonus track on the special edition of Too-Rye-Ay, one of the finest albums of the ’80s (check out Until I Believe In My Soul). I love the idea of the celtic soul sound infusing the soul classic; it’s the sound The Commitments should have adopted, not the karaoke gig the producers opted for.

Yazoo – Bad Connection
Upstairs At Eric’s came out of nowhere. They were an odd combination: synth boffin Vince Clark and would-be soul diva Alison Moyet. It worked brilliantly, with Moyet investing a warmth in Clark’s cold electronic sound. An album later they were done. Clark reappeared a couple of years later with Erasure, Moyet had a couple of successful solo albums before fading from view. This is the loveliest track on Upstairs At Eric’s.

Toto – Rosanna
Stop sniggering at the back. This is Toto in their pomp, Coke Rock at its best. Written about Rosanna Arquette, you know (as you did). These days retro-minded DJs and VJs will dig out “Africa”, which is a decent pop song. “Rosanna” is miles better: the jazzy keyboard, the coke-fuelled guitar solos, the fantastic horns, and a killer chorus. Toto were never good enough to produce a credible Best Of album, but this (as well as “Hold The Line” and “Georgy Porgy”) would make owning a copy worth the slight embarrassment one inevitably would suffer when pals rifle through one’s CD collection.

Crocodile Harris – Give Me The Good News
A South African classic, but a bigger hit in France (where it shifted 650,000 copies) than at home. The Croc didn’t get another hit, but this one will lasts. On constant rotation on Johannesburg’s Radio 5 at the time, the lyrics were interpreted as a veiled criticism of apartheid. Amandla!