Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

The Grim Reaper took it relatively easy this month. The headline deaths were those of bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs and Robert B Sherman, who with his brother wrote Disney standards for films such as 101 Dalmations, The Jungle Book and Mary Poppins. The idea for Let’s Go Fly A Kite, from Mary Poppins, apparently was inspired by the Sherman brothers’ father, Al Sherman, who was a songwriter and hobby kitemaker.

But perhaps the most interesting lifestory to reach its end in March was that of Australian musician and AIDS activist Vince Lovegrove, who as a young man in the 1960s played in a group with Bon Scott, whom he is said to have introduced to AC/DC. He worked as a journalist and as a manager. His clients included the Divinyls, before they found international fame with I Touch Myself. Lovegrove resigned from management to care for his wife, Sue Sidewinder, and little son Troy who were HIV-infected. A 1987 documentary on their struggle, which premiered just a few weeks after Sue”s death, has been credited with doing much to overcome the false notion of AIDS as a “gay disease”. Troy died in 1993 at the age of eight, also just before a screening of a documentary about him. Lovegrove made international headlines when in a biography on INXS frontman Michael Hutchence he claimed that Paula Yates entrapped the singer with a pregnancy. A libel case was settled out of court.

Lucio Dalla, 68, Italian singer-songwriter and musician, on March 1
Josh Groban ““ Caruso (2003, as composer)

Ronnie Montrose, 64, guitarist of hard rock group Montrose and session musician (Van Morrison, Gary Wright a.o.), on March 3
Edgar Winter Group ““ Freeride (1972, as guitarist)

Frank Marocco, 81, accordionist, arranger and composer, on March 3
Frank Marocco Group – Just Friends (2002)

Robert B. Sherman, 86, Tin Pan Alley and Disney film songwriter, on March 5
Johnny Burnette – You’re Sixteen (1960)
Mary Poppins – Let’s Go Fly A Kite (1964)
The Jungle Book (Louis Prima) – I Wanna Be Like You (1966)

Joe Byrd, 78, jazz piano and bass player (brother of Charlie Byrd), on March 6
Joe Byrd Trio – Saw Your Old Lady (2001)

Jimmy Ellis, 74, singer of soul group The Trammps, on March 8
The Trammps – Penguin / Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart (1972)

Buddy “˜Bugs” Henderson, 68, blues guitarist, on March 8

Terry Teene, 70, rockabilly singer and clown (creating a template for Ronald McDonald), on March 9

Michael Hossack, 65, drummer of The Doobie Brothers, on March 12
The Doobie Brothers – Rockin’ Down The Highway (1972)

Eddie King, 73, blues guitarist and singer, on March 13

Cedric Sharpley, 59, drummer for Gary Numan/Tubeway Army, on March 13

Karl Roy, 43, singer of Filipino rock bands P.O.T. and Kapatid, on March 13

Gary Cornell, 34, singer of Australian rock band Pyramid of the Coyote, on stage on March 18

Johnny McCauley, 86, Irish folk singer and songwriter, on March 22

Eric Lowen, 60, songwriter and member of Lowen & Navarro, on March 23
Pat Benatar ““ We Belong (1984, as co-writer)

Nick Noble, 85, country and easy listening singer, on March 24
Nick Noble – Moonlight Swim (1957)

Marion Marlowe, 83, singer and actress, on March 24
Marion Marlowe – Whither Thou Goest (1954)

Vince Lovegrove, 65, Australian musician, manager, journalist and Aids activist, in a car crash on March 24

Tom Wells, 70, television composer (Buffalo Bill, WKRP in Cincinnati, Open All Night), on March 26
Steve Carlisle – WKRP In Cincinnati (1978, full version  of the theme)

Earl Scruggs, 88, bluegrass banjo legend, on March 28
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs  – Why Don’t You Tell Me So? (1949)
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs-Like A Rolling Stone (1968)
Earl Scruggs – Honky Tonk Women (1971)

Jerry “˜Boogie” McCain, 81, blues musician, on March 28
Jerry McCain – My Next Door Neighbor (1955)

Zoran Romic, guitarist with Australian rock group Chocolate Starfish, on March 31

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