re: Endless Sleep - The Obituary Thread

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Musician, songwriter and producer Stan Kesler, a pivotal figure in the Memphis birth of rock 'n' roll whose keen ear, innovative playing and studio smarts enhanced the careers of such rock and soul legends as Jerry Lee Lewis, James Carr, Sam the Sham and Elvis Presley, has died.

Kesler, who had suffered from deteriorating health for some time, passed away Monday in a hospice facility in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, according to family members. He was 92, and the cause of death was bone cancer.

Although hardly a household name, Kesler made essential contributions to dozens of records that found their ways into the homes of music lovers around the world. He was a Zelig-like figure in Memphis music during the key decades when the city was a lodestone of rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues innovation: He wrote songs for Elvis, played bass on "Great Balls of Fire," produced "Wooly Bully," and engineered recordings at Goldwax, a label that never achieved the fame of Stax or Hi even as it produced music of comparable greatness.

"Guys like him were a big influence on me, because he was a bass player, a steel guitar player, an engineer, a producer, a songwriter — and that's the same way I've been able to make a living in music, that same model," said Memphis musician, composer, bandleader and Electraphonic Recording studio chief Scott Bomar. "He had success in all of it."

"He was such a big part of Memphis, most people don't even realize," said Grammy-winning Memphis producer and engineer Matt Ross-Spang, who has worked with Jason Isbell and John Prine. "I definitely looked up to him a lot. He was one of those guys who could do it all."

One of 10 children, Stanley Augustus Kesler was born in Abbeville, Mississippi, where music was a family affair.

As a boy, he learned to play guitar, mandolin and dobro while harmonizing with various family members. "When company would come," he told The Commercial Appeal in 2014, "my mother would say, ‘OK, boys, get your instruments now and sing some songs for Aunt Hattie and Uncle Dick.

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At Sun, Kesler began working as an engineer, and soon established his bona fides as a musical jack-of-all-trades.

During the famous "Sun sessions" that launched Elvis Presley's career and ignited the Big Bang of modern rock 'n' roll, Elvis recorded two songs co-written by Kesler, "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone," and "I Forgot to Remember to Forget." A 1964 Beatles performance of the latter song, with George Harrison on lead vocals, appears on the compilation recording "Live at the BBC."

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The Kesler-Elvis connection remained strong throughout the singer's career. In 1957, after Presley moved from Sun to RCA, Elvis recorded Kesler's composition, "Playing for Keeps." Another Kesler song, "Thrill of Your Love," appeared on the 1960 album "Elvis Is Back!," which was Presley's first post-Army LP.

Finally, during the 1969 sessions at Chips Moman's American Sound Studio in Memphis that revitalized the singer's career, Elvis recorded Kesler's "If I'm a Fool (for Loving You)."

"Most of my songs are the love songs, the hurting tear-jerkers," Kesler said in 2014.

During the heyday of Sun, Kesler played on records by Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, including Lewis' epochal 1957 hit, "Great Balls of Fire." "He was one of the first two or three people to own an electric bass in Memphis, and play it on a record," said Bomar, also a bass player.

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Some others who recorded Kesler songs include Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Wanda Jackson and John Prine.

Beyond country, rockabilly and rock, Kesler played a significant role in Memphis soul. One of Kesler's Sun colleagues, Quinton Claunch, later was a co-founder of the Hi and Goldwax record labels. Kesler joined Claunch at Goldwax, engineering many records that remain especially prized by soul connoisseurs, including 1967's "The Dark End of the Street" by James Carr.

At Goldwax, Kesler provided a direct although largely overlooked contribution to one of Memphis' greatest contributions to the music of the era: He organized the band of ace session musicians that became famous as the "Memphis Boys" after Moman lured them to his American studio, where they provided backing for Elvis, Neil Diamond, Dusty Springfield and many others.

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Len Barry, the lead singer of the Dovells on their danceable early-1960s hits “Bristol Stomp” and “You Can’t Sit Down” and later a solo artist whose career peaked with his infectious love song “1-2-3,” died on Nov. 5 in a hospital in Philadelphia. He was 78.

His son Spencer Borisoff said the cause was myelodysplasia, a bone marrow disease.

The Dovells were a doo-wop group whose members had all sung lead at various times. When the group auditioned for Cameo-Parkway Records in Philadelphia in late 1960, Mr. Barry sang lead on “No, No, No,” a song he had written. They got the deal, and his strong, soulful voice secured his role with the group.

“Lenny had a great voice,” Jerry Gross, one of the Dovells, said in a phone interview. “He had the sound they wanted.”

The back cover of the group’s first album, “Bristol Stomp,” featured brief biographies of each singer. Mr. Barry’s said, “His hobbies include rock an’ roll, basketball and, naturally, girls.”

“Bristol Stomp” — about teenagers dancing a new step in Bristol, Pa. — rose to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1961. The group performed the song in the 1962 film “Don’t Knock the Twist,” with Mr. Barry displaying a commanding stage presence.

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Rest In Peace Sylvain Sylvain

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Sylvain Sylvain, the punk icon and guitarist for New York Dolls whose riffs bridged the gap between punk and glam, died Wednesday. He was 69.

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The sisters gave their last big performance on a 2004 PBS special, “Magic Moments: The Best of ’50s Pop.”

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Jimmie Rodgers, singer of the 1957 hits “Honeycomb” and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” whose career in music and movies was disrupted by a severe head injury a decade later, has died at age 87.

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In 1967 pop star Jimmie Rodgers was found badly injured on a Los Angeles roadside, what happened remains a mystery

December 1, 2017
The Daily Telegraph

POP singer Jimmie Rodgers, best known for his 1957 number one hit Honeycomb, had just left a Christmas party and was making his way home along the Los Angeles freeway. He took a turn-off near his home when he noticed someone in a car behind him flashing their lights. Rodgers pulled over to the side of the road.

A man approached the car, so Jimmie rolled down his window thinking it was his conductor Eddie Samuels who had left the party at the same time. All Rodgers remembers after that moment was being hit on the head and arm by something hard and heavy before he blacked out.

The incident, which happened 50 years ago today, remains something of a mystery. But it left the pop star with a broken arm, fractured skull and a long journey back to health, waylaying what had once been a glittering career.

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In his 2010 biography Me, the Mob, and the Music, singer Tommy James wrote that Morris Levy, the Mafia-connected head of Roulette Records, had arranged the attack in response to Rodgers' repeated demands for unpaid royalties he was due by the label. All of Rodgers' most successful singles had been released by Roulette, who were notorious for not paying their artists for their record sales.

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George Reinecke, 59, a native and resident of New Orleans, died Sat., Dec. 26, 2020, after complications from surgery.

A self-taught and talented guitarist, Reinecke got his start in New Orleans nightclubs the early 1980s, playing with punk-influenced rockabilly groups. He played venues around the world with the Memphis, Tenn.-based Panther Burns and eventually led his Toronto-based group, Busted Flush. He collaborated and recorded with music notables Alex Chilton and Cordell Jackson.

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AMONG MY LITTLE CIRCLE OF LOCAL MUSICIANS AND MUSIC GEEKS, George Reinecke showed up in Toronto as something of a celebrity. A native of New Orleans, he had arrived in Toronto via London, like most people who turn up here unexpectedly chasing a girl. He quickly established himself among the city's network of independent bands, a small but intricately woven circle of groups that included the Cowboy Junkies, Change of Heart, the Rheostatics and other veterans of the Queen West scene of the '80s.

George's reputation preceded him - a former member of Tav Falco's Panther Burns and a friend of the legendary Alex Chilton (Box Tops, Big Star, producer of The Cramps,) he had bona fides to die for. The question we kept asking among ourselves was, of course, "Why is he staying here for so long?" Canada in general and Toronto in particular were still a tidal pool far down the shoreline of the music business, but it wasn't long before his band, Busted Flush, got signed to the Canadian arm of Polygram, a music multinational.

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George hung around Toronto for a few more years, but the last time I saw him was outside Dupont subway station near the end of the decade. After that I heard he'd returned to New Orleans, where I'm sure the weather probably suits him much better.

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