After a fairly calm past two months, The Reaper was back with a vengeance. There was an unusual number of unnatural deaths this month: murder, drowning, plane crash, traffic accident, suicide…
Outside music, other than Robert Redford’s death: the college of 1930s Hollywood must be diminished to tiny numbers now. In September, another member departed in Marilyn Knowlden, who has died at the age of 99.
She appeared in more than 30 films between 1931 and 1944, often portraying the daughter of leading characters or playing the younger versions of lead actresses, such as Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams (1935) and Greta Garbo in Conquest (1937). Her credits also included Imitation Of Life (1934), Les Misérables (1935, as young Cosette), Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), and Marie Antoinette (1938). After retiring from Hollywood as a teenager, she acted on stage and wrote music for musicals (none of which seems to have been recorded).
Shortly after, Elaine Merk Binder, one of the last surviving munchkins from The Wizard Of Oz, died at 94.
The Supertramper
Before he was the keyboardist, co-lead singer and co-songwriter of Supertramp, Rick Davies played with other future stars in English bands. His first band, Rick’s Blues, had Gilbert O’Sullivan on drums. O’Sullivan credited Davies with teaching him to play the keyboards and later was best man at Davies’s wedding. In the mid-1960s, Davies played in Munich with The Joint, alongside future Moody Blues and Wings guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Mitch Mitchell, later a third of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
In Munich, Davies met Dutch millionaire Stanley August Miesegaes, who promised to finance the founding of a new rock group. Through an ad in the music newspaper Melody Maker in August 1969, he found members for that new venture, initially named Daddy but soon renamed Supertramp. Among them was Roger Hodgson, the bourgeois counter to working-class Davies. They would share lead singing and principal songwriting duties (with some input from guitarist Richard Palmer) until Hodgson’s departure in 1983.
Within a year, their debut album was released, but the breakthrough came in 1974 with the Crime Of The Century album, followed by the mega-seller Breakfast In America in 1979.
Davies and Hodgson complemented each other well. Their songwriting arrangement was much like that of Lennon/McCartney, in that all Supertramp songs were credited to both (later the pair gave some of the royalties to fellow band members, but that became an area of legal contention settled in court only a few weeks before Davies’ death). Davies’ most memorable tracks include Bloody Well Right, Crime Of The Century, Rudy, From Now On, Goodbye Stranger, Nobody But Me, Gone Hollywood, My Kind Of Lady, and Cannonball, apart from contributions to Hodgson’s songs, especially The Logical Song.
Their voices also worked well together, with Davies’ baritone counterbalancing Hodgson’s high tenor (though on some songs Davies himself sang in high tenor or even falsetto).
1982’s …famous last words… saw a departure from the old prog sounds towards a more eclectic mix of styles. After Hodgson’s departure in 1983, Davies returned the band to a more prog-rock and jazz-influenced sound. There were a few reunions, none involving Hodgson, but by 2015 Davies had to give up touring due to health reasons.
Davies is the first member of Supertramp’s classic line-up to die.
The Cricket
After Buddy Holly died, his old friend Sonny Curtis took over leading The Crickets, first as guitarist and later assuming co-lead vocal duties, and as songwriter. While they had very little chart success, The Crickets remained a popular live act.
Some of the songs Curtis wrote and first recorded with The Crickets in 1959 went on to become hits for others. I Fought The Law became a hit for the Bobby Fuller Four and later The Clash (read the story of that in The Originals: The Classics); More Than I Can Say (co-written with drummer Jerry Allison) for Bobby Vee and later Leo Sayer (the Crickets original features on The Originals: 1980s Vol. 1).
In 1961 he wrote the hit Walk Right Back for the Everly Brothers (later another 1970s hit, this time for Anne Murray). Curtis wrote and sang Love Is All Around, the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in 1970.
Curtis made a comeback as a hit-writer (with Ron Hellard) in 1989 when his I’m No Stranger to the Rain, recorded by Keith Whitley, became an instant country classic.
Curtis and the other Holly-era Crickets were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. He was the last survivor of that group.
The Songwriter
The outcry was great when it emerged that The Monkees hadn’t been playing their own instruments on their records. The two men behind the scenes producing those recordings were the duo of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. The latter has died at the age of 86.
Many of The Monkees’ tracks had been previously recorded as demos by Boyce and Hart, with the vocal tracks simply being replaced. Some of them were also written by the duo, including Theme from The Monkees, Last Train to Clarksville, and I Wanna Be Free.
They also wrote hits such as Jay & The Americans’ Come a Little Bit Closer, Paul Revere & The Raiders’ (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone, and The Leaves’ Words. They also wrote the theme song of the soap Days of Our Lives. Hart also wrote Hurt So Bad for Little Anthony & The Imperials, which in 1980 was a US Top 10 for Linda Ronstadt.
Hart and Boyce also fronted their own performing group, releasing albums and scoring hits such as I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight.
In the mid-1970s, Hart and Boyce joined up with two Monkees members for a global tour and an album. Unable to use the Monkees name for legal reasons, the quartet performed as Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart. Notably, they were the first US band to perform in Thailand. Boyce died by suicide in 1994.
The Double Bassist
As a child in London, Danny Thompson took up the upright double bass, and by his mid-teens was already making his mark in the clubs of 1950s Soho. His early career saw him with Alexis Korner’s
Blues Incorporated, where he cut his teeth in 1964 on records like Red Hot From Alex.
In 1967 he became a founding member with folk singer Bert Jansch of The Pentangle, the folk-jazz fusion group that transformed British folk music by blending traditional tunes, jazz harmonies, blues and rhythmical innovation.
Thompson was a frequent collaborator with Richard Thompson (no relation) and John Martyn. He also contributed with his upright bass from the 1960s into the new millennium to albums by Marianne Faithfull, Cliff Richard (on Congratulations), Donovan (including Jennifer Juniper, Sunny Goodge Street, There Is a Mountain), Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, Julie Felix, Sandy Denny, Magna Carta, Rod Stewart (including Maggie May and Gasoline Alley), Linda Lewis, Ralph McTell, T. Rex, Loudon Wainwright III, Kate Bush (including The Dreaming and Hounds of Love), Billy Bragg, Talk Talk, David Sylvian, ABC, The The, Everything But The Girl, Alison Moyet, Tasmin Archer, Indigo Girls, Loreena McKennitt, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Peter Gabriel, The Beautiful South, Paul Weller and others. Thompson also produced acts like Thompson, Jansch and McTell.
He very rarely touched the electric bass. Thompson said that the upright bass was his “voice”, and he resisted switching to electric even when his instrument was considered old-fashioned.
In 1987, Thompson released his first solo album, Whatever, which attracted critical praise for its blending of folk, jazz, melody and improvisation. He followed that up with Whatever Next and various collaborations.
Thompson converted to Islam in 1990, adopting the Muslim name Hamza.
The Turtle
With his powerful voice and lively stage presence as the co-lead singer of The Turtles, Mark “Flo” Volman helped drive 1960s classics like Happy Together, She’d Rather Be With Me (which featured on the recent Any Major Sunshine Pop) and Elenore. When The Turtles disbanded in 1970, he and fellow Turtle Howard Kaylan joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention while also recording and touring as the duo Flo & Eddie (the nickname was derived from The Phlorescent Leech). The duo worked happily together until Kaylan’s retirement due to health issues in 2018.
Volman also worked as a producer and radio host, and later taught music industry studies at various universities.
In 2023, Volman was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia; he died on September 5 at the age of 78 from a blood disease.
The Synthpopper
For a couple of years in the 1980s, synthpop duo Blancmange were one of the hottest acts in England with hits such as Living on the Ceiling, Waves, Blind Vision and Don’t Tell Me. The keyboard arrangements of Stephen Luscombe, who has died at age 70, were key to Blancmange’s sound, giving singer Neil Arthur the scope to express himself. Luscombe and Arthur also wrote their own material, other than a very good cover of ABBA’s The Day Before You Came (which featured on Any Major ABBA Songbook).
After Blancmange first split in 1986, Luscombe took part in projects exploring Indian and world music influences, most notably with Boy George in West India Company. A later revival of Blancmange was cut short when Luscombe had to withdraw due to ill health in 2012 (Arthur continued on his own).
Luscombe also did arrangements for movie soundtracks.
The Singing Siren
She was one of the great actresses of European cinema, but Claudia Cardinale had a brief sideline as a recording artist in the 1970s. She was never a professional singer in the sense of pursuing a full musical career, but her glamorous celebrity led producers to encourage her to record songs, sometimes tied to promotional campaigns or film projects.
In 1977/78 Cardinale, by then in her late thirties, tried her luck at disco songs, such as Love Affair and Sun…I Love You. None threatened to become instant classics of the genre. Cardinale herself downplayed these musical ventures, insisting that she was not a singer but an actress who was singing for fun.
The Wild Drummer
Before Keith Moon set the standard for drummer madcappery, there was Viv Prince of The Pretty Things. The son of a jazz drummer (delightfully named Harry Prince), Viv specialised in chaos on stage, usually while high on speed and/or drunk — including setting fires. Reportedly, Moon was a keen student of Prince’s performances. When the pupil eclipsed the master, it was Prince who gave The Who’s drummer his famous nickname, “Moon the Loon”.
Viv’s antics with the Pretty Things came to a boil at the end of a 1965 New Zealand tour, where his behaviour — which included parading on stage wearing a rotting crayfish — got the band banned from the country. When Prince ended the tour by brawling with crew members, the rest of the group simply flew home without him. A few months later, they fired him for unreliability. Still, decades later, in 1999, The Pretty Things dedicated a new track to him.
Prince later released a couple of solo records and worked with various acts, including the Jeff Beck Group. He ran a London nightclub, where he moved in the orbit of Jimi Hendrix (Prince claimed to have recommended musicians for the Jimi Hendrix Experience).
He went on to campaign for Screaming Lord Sutch’s Monster Raving Looney Party, and even managed to get expelled from the Hell’s Angels — for bad behaviour! He died in Portugal at the age of 84.
The Over the Liner
Folk-rock duo Brewer & Shipley, best known for their hit One Toke Over the Line (featured on Any Major Hits from 1971), are now both gone following the death at 84 of Tom Shipley, less than a year after his singing partner Mike Brewer — who featured in In Memoriam – December 2024, and just 11 months after their producer died.
Brewer and Shipley wrote most of their own material, including One Toke Over the Line, which was singled out by disgraced US Vice-President Spiro Agnew as “subversive” — which, with its drug theme and possible blasphemy, it arguably was. Meanwhile, conservative TV host Lawrence Welk cheerfully hailed the song, performed on his show by a cornfed pair called Gail and Dick, as a wholesome “modern spiritual”.
Alongside performing with Brewer until fairly recently, Shipley also worked in academia and video production, and was an activist with Engineers Without Borders.
The Songwriter
It’s always a shock when a musician dies in a plane crash. That was the fate of country songwriter, producer, and singer Brett James, who died at 57 along with two others in a light aircraft accident in North Carolina.
Born Brett James Cornelius, he had originally been studying medicine before dropping out to pursue a career music. His debut album appeared in 1995, but neither it nor subsequent releases found commercial success. Instead, James devoted himself to songwriting — and found success.
He wrote or co-wrote more than 500 songs recorded by many leading names in contemporary country, as well as artists such as Bon Jovi, Backstreet Boys, and Chicago. His country #1 hits include Jessica Andrews’ Who I Am, Martina McBride’s Blessed, Kenny Chesney’s When The Sun Goes Down and Out Last Night, Carrie Underwood’s Jesus Take the Wheel, Rodney Atkins’ It’s America, and Jason Aldean’s The Truth.
James was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020.
The Headhunter
His death on August 8 was announced only in late September, but with the passing of Robert “Rabbit” Jaramillo, reportedly all original members of Chicano rock pioneers Cannibal And The Headhunters are now gone.
The band took their name from lead singer Frankie “Cannibal” Garcia’s nickname and from a shrunken head that Jaramillo had hanging from the rearview mirror of his car (a 1949 Chevy, apparently).
The band had only one hit: their 1965 cover of Chris Kenner’s Land of 1000 Dances, which reached #30 on the Billboard charts. But it was their version that added the famous “na na na na na” hook — apparently improvised when Garcia forgot the lyrics. (Years later it was sampled by Ini Kamoze for Here Comes The Hotstepper. For Kenner’s original, see The Originals: Soul Vol. 1). The hit earned them a place on a bill with The Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Righteous Brothers, and Marty Robbins at a concert in Birmingham, Alabama, in May 1965. Soon after, they opened for The Beatles on their US tour — including the legendary Shea Stadium and Hollywood Bowl concerts, followed by a tour supporting The Animals.
But there were no further hits, and by 1967 Jaramillo had left the band for more stable work. He did return for a reunion tour, though most of his later music-making was confined to his church.
The Murder Victims
Two Colombian urban musicians were found dead on September 22 after having been missing for six days. Bayron Sánchez Salazar, 31, known as B-King, and Jorge Luis Herrera Lemos, 35, known as DJ Regio Clown, had last been seen on September 16 at a gym in Mexico City’s upscale Polanco district.
Their bodies, and those of three others were discovered in Cocotitlán, with a message from a criminal group left beside them. Their heads had been cut off. Colombian President Gustavo Petro tweeted: “They murdered our youth in the United Mexican States.”
B-King had been active since about 2016, building a following through digital platforms. Regio Clown, a DJ, producer, and spiritual coach, had lived in Mexico for a while, working in music production, image consulting, and motivational content. B-King had travelled to Mexico for his first nightclub performance there.
As always, this post is reproduced in illustrated PDF format in the package, which also includes my personal playlist of the featured tracks. PW in comments.
Robert Jaramillo, 78, member of Chicano rock band Cannibal & The Headhunters, on Aug. 8
Cannibal And The Headhunters – Land Of 1000 Dances (1965)
Tom Shipley, 84, singer-songwriter with folk rock duo Brewer & Shipley, on Aug. 24
Brewer & Shipley – Time And Changes (1968, also as writer)
Brewer & Shipley – Tarkio Road (1970, also as co-writer)
Ted Robert, 81, Swiss singer-songwriter, on Sept. 3
Robby Turner, 62, pedal steel guitarist, bassist, guitarist, on Sept. 4
Gin Blossoms – Cheatin’ (1992, on steel guitar)
Rick Davies, 81, co-lead singer, keyboardist and songwriter of Supertramp, on Sept. 5
Supertramp – Bloody Well Right (1974, as writer and on lead vocals)
Supertramp – Goodbye Stranger (1979, as writer and on lead vocals)
Supertramp – My Kind Of Lady (1982, as writer and on all lead vocals)
Mark ‘Flo’ Volman, 78, singer, musician, songwriter (The Turtles, Flo & Eddie), on Sept. 5
The Turtles – Happy Together (1967)
Frank Zappa – Magic Fingers (1971, as member of The Mothers of Invention)
Ras Sheehama, 59, Namibian reggae musician, by suicide on Sept 5
Bruce Loose, 66, singer and bassist with punk band Flipper, announced Sept. 5
Flipper – Sex Bomb (1981)
Josef Marc, guitarist of garage rock band The Hitmakers, announced Sept. 5
Spencer Taylor Jr., 97, lead singer with gospel group The Highway Q.C.’s, on Sept. 5
The Highway Q.C.’s – Nobody’s Fault (1977)
Linda Bergen, 76, German schlager singer, on Sept. 6
Atomic Steif, drummer of German thrash metal band Sodom, announced Sept. 6
Allen Blickle, 42, drummer of heavy metal band Baroness, announced Sept. 7
Susan E. Cunningham, 57, bluegrass fiddler, festival organiser, rocket scientist, on Sept. 7
Inge Brück, 88, German singer and TV actress, on Sept. 8
Inge Brück – Anouschka (1967)
Angela Ro Ro, 75, Brazilian singer-songwriter, on Sept. 8
Angela Ro Ro – Cheirando A Amor (1979)
Allan Cole, 74, Jamaican football international and songwriter, on Sept. 9
Bob Marley & The Wailers – War (1976, as co-writer)
Bobby Hart, 86, half of duo Boyce & Hart and songwriter, on Sept. 10
Jay & The Americans – Come A Little Bit Closer (1964, as co-writer)
The Monkees – Last Train To Clarksville (1966, as co-writer and co-producer)
Boyce & Hart – I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight (1968, also as co-writer, co-producer)
Linda Ronstadt – Hurt So Bad (1980, as co-writer)
Viv Prince, 84, English drummer of Pretty Things (1963-65), announced Sept. 11
The Pretty Things – Don’t Bring Me Down (1964)
Viv Prince – Light Of The Charge Brigade (1966)
Anja Hauptmann, 84, German singer, lyricist, TV announcer, on Sept. 11
Nicky Ryan, 79, Irish music producer (Enya, Clannad), on Sept. 11
Enya – Orinoco Flow (1988, as producer)
Andreas Martin, 72, German schlager singer, on Sept. 13
Stephen Luscombe, 70, musician and songwriter of Blancmange, on Sept. 13
Blancmange – Waves (1983, also as co-writer)
Blancmange – Don’t Tell Me (1984, also as co-writer)
Akiko Tsuruga, 58, Japanese jazz composer and keyboardist, on Sept. 13
Hermeto Pascoal, 89, Brazilian jazz musician, composer, producer, arranger, on Sept. 13
Miles Davis – Little Church (1971, as writer and on electric piano and whistle)
Hermeto Pascoal – Bebê (1973, also as writer)
Gerard Cox, 85, Dutch singer and actor, on Sept. 13
Tony Bianco, 72, jazz drummer and composer, on Sept. 14
Joel Moss, 79, engineer and producer, on Sept. 15
Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald – On My Own (1986, as engineer)
Catherine Zeta-Jones – And All That Jazz (2002, as engineer)
Sidney ‘Omen’ Brown, 49, R&B and hip hop producer, announced Sept. 15
Lil Wayne – I’m Single (2009, as co-producer)
Joke Bruijs, 73, Dutch actress, singer and cabaret artist, on Sept. 16
Tomas Lindberg, 52, singer Swedish metal band At the Gates, on Sept. 16
Michael Sutherland, drummer of Australian funk rock band Skunkhour, on Sept. 17
Brett James, 57, country singer, songwriter and producer, in plane crash on Sept. 18
Carrie Underwood – Jesus, Take the Wheel (2005, as co-writer)
Brett James – Like You Found Me (2020)
Fausto Amodei, 91, Italian folk singer-songwriter and politician, on Sept. 18
Fausto Amodei – Per i morti di Reggio Emilia (1960)
Chris Doheny, 64, Australian rock singer and guitarist (Geisha), in a car crash on Sept. 19
JD Twitch, 57, DJ of Scottish dance act Optimo, on Sept. 19
Mike Wofford, 87, jazz pianist, on Sept. 19
Sonny Curtis, 88, rock & roll and pop singer, musician and songwriter, on Sept. 19
The Crickets – I Fought The Law (1959, as member and as writer)
The Everly Brothers – Walk Right Back (1961, as co-writer)
Sonny Curtis – Love Is All Around (1970, also as writer)
Keith Whitley – I’m No Stranger To The Rain (1989, as co-writer)
Zubeen Garg, 52, Indian singer and multi-instrumentalist, drowned on Sept. 19
Wally Warning, Aruban-Dutch reggae musician, on Sept. 19
Amelia Bernet, 63, Spanish jazz singer, on Sept. 21
Ron Carroll, house DJ, singer and producer, on Sept. 22
Superfunk feat. Ron Carroll – Lucky Star (1999)
B-King, 31, Colombian musician, announced Sept. 22
Regio Clown, 35, Colombian musician, announced Sept. 22
Randy Richter, c.51, German rockabilly guitarist, YouTube guitar instructor, announced Sept. 23
Danny Thompson, 86, English bassist, on Sept. 23
Donovan – Jennifer Juniper (1968, on double bass)
The Pentangle – Once I Had A Sweetheart (1969, as member)
Danny Thompson – Idle Monday (1987)
Richard Thompson – 1952 Vincent Black Lightning (1991, on double bass)
Bob Draga, 78, jazz clarinetist, on Sept. 23
Claudia Cardinale, 87, Italian actress and occasional singer, on Sept. 23
Claudia Cardinale – Popsy Pop Song (1970)
Claudia Cardinale – Sun…I Love You (1977)
Silu Seppälä, c.70, bassist with Finnish band Leningrad Cowboys, actor, announced Sept. 24
Leningrad Cowboys – Thru The Wire (1987, also as co-writer)
Christian, 82, Italian pop singer, announced Sept. 26
Jim McNeely, 76, jazz pianist, composer and arranger, on Sept. 26
Vanguard Jazz Orchestra – Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing (2009, on piano and as conductor)
Pablo Guerrero, 78, Spanish singer-songwriter, on Sept. 30
GET IT!
Previous In Memoriams
Keep up to date with dead pop stars on Facebook
Recent Comments