re: Endless Sleep - The Obituary Thread

John Goodsall (February 15, 1953 – November 11, 2021) was an American-British progressive rock and jazz fusion guitarist most noted for his work with Brand X, Atomic Rooster and The Fire Merchants.

No details on his passing other than he had been ill for some time.

Goodsall was born in Pennsylvania in February 1953, and has lived in England, Los Angeles, Milan and Minnesota. He began playing guitar at age 7. At 15, he became a professional musician and joined Carol Grimes' Babylon, with members of Joe Cocker's Grease Band, Juicy Lucy and Jon Hiseman's Colosseum. He then toured extensively, first with The Alan Bown Set, then with Atomic Rooster. For his stint with Atomic Rooster, he adopted the pseudonym "Johnny Mandala."

wiki page


Percy Jones statement


signed concert poster from a 2017 Seattle concert I attended.

I was also fortunate enough to see Brand X in 1979 in San Francisco when Phil Collins was the drummer..one of the best concerts I've ever seen.

Two legends in one day passing-RIP..

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Bill Hinsche, a lifelong musician who was part of the '60s teenybopper trio Dino, Desi & Billy, died Saturday after a short battle with lung cancer. He was 70.

According to his friend, "Lassie" actor Jon Provost, Hinsche died on the same day as his mother, Celia, who was 96.

Born June 29, 1951, in Manila, to the owner of a casino, Hinsche moved with his family to Beverly Hills. There, he met and became fast friends with Desi Arnaz Jr., the son of comedy icons Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and Dean Paul Martin, the son of crooning movie star Dean Martin and Jeanne Biegger.

Active from 1964-1969, Dino, Desi & Billy were staples of teen-entertainment magazines of the era, and found chart success with songs like "I'm a Fool" (#17, 1965) and "Not the Lovin' Kind" (#25, 1965). Their hits and their pedigree let to opening slots for the Beach Boys, Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Mamas & the Papas, the Lovin' Spoonful, and others.

After the group split, Hinsche went on to work as a backing musician for the Beach Boys (his sister was married to Carl Wilson).

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Dino, Desi & Billy - "Not The Lovin' Kind" -- On The Ed Sullivan Show, September 19, 1965

With Tiger Beat editor Ann Moses

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Stonewall Jackson — the Grand Ole Opry's most senior member — has died. Jackson notched hit songs in three different decades and was a familiar face at the Opry for over 50 years. "Waterloo" and "B.J. the D.J." were his two No. 1 hits but he placed 11 songs inside the Top 10 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.

The 89-year-old was a member of the Grand Ole Opry for 65 years, making him the most tenured member until his death on Saturday (Dec. 4). He joined the Opry on Nov. 3, 1956 and later recorded a live album from the stage. "Don't Be Angry" (1964), "A Wound Time Can't Erase" (1962), "Stamp Out Loneliness" (1967) and "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo" (1971) were among his other commercially successful songs. The latter was a cover of a Lobo song and Jackson's final Top 10 hit.

"Thank you for all the music and memories, Stonewall Jackson," the Grand Ole Opry tweeted. Saturday night's show will be dedicated to him.

Jackson was born in Tabor City, N.C. in 1932 but raised in Georgia. Stonewall was his real name, not a nickname. He was named after the Confederate General of the same name.

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"Waterloo" - this track made #5 on the pop chart



"I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water" - original version

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Monkees singer and guitarist Michael Nesmith, a pop visionary who penned many of the group’s most enduring songs before laying the groundwork for country rock with the First National Band in the early Seventies, died Friday from natural causes. He was 78.

“With Infinite Love we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully and of natural causes,” his family said in a statement. “We ask that you respect our privacy at this time and we thank you for the love and light that all of you have shown him and us.”

Nesmith was known as the Monkee in the green wool hat with the thick Texas drawl, and the writer of songs like “Mary, Mary,” “Circle Sky,” “Listen to the Band,” and “The Girl I Knew Somewhere.” But he raged behind the scenes that the group didn’t have creative control of its albums, and in 1967 led the successful rebellion against record producer Don Kirshner. The group would subsequently release Headquarters and other albums created largely on its own.

In a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Nesmith explained why he was so adamant that the Monkees write and record their own material despite the huge success they were enjoying at the time. “We were kids with our own taste in music and were happier performing songs we liked – and/or wrote – than songs that were handed to us,” he said. “It made for a better performance. It was more fun. That this became a bone of contention seemed strange to me, and I think to some extent to each of us — sort of “What’s the big deal, why won’t you let us play the songs we are singing?”

Before he even joined the Monkees, Nesmith wrote a breakup song called “Different Drum.” The Monkees producers “said to him, ‘That’s not a Monkees song,’” Micky Dolenz told Rolling Stone in 2016. “Michael said. ‘Wait a minute, I am one of the Monkees.’ He gave it to Linda Ronstadt, and the rest is history.”

When the Monkees dissolved in the late Sixties, Nesmith formed the First National Band. And despite recording three classic country-rock albums, escaping the shadow of the Monkees proved nearly impossible. The group broke up shortly before the Eagles hit big with “Take It Easy.”

“I was heartbroken beyond speech,” Nesmith told Rolling Stone in 2018. “I couldn’t even utter the words ‘the Eagles,’ and I loved Hotel California and I love the Eagles, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, all that stuff. That was right in my wheelhouse, and I was agonized, Van Gogh–agonized, not to compare myself to him, but I wanted to cut something off because I was like, ‘Why is this happening?’ The Eagles now have the biggest-selling album of all time and mine is sitting in the closet of a closed record company?”

Nesmith spent the rest of the Seventies recording under-the-radar solo albums. In 1977, he promoted his single “Rio” with a clever music video that got a lot of play in Europe and Australia, turning the song into a minor hit. It gave him an incredible idea. “[I realized that] radio is to records as television is to video,” he told Rolling Stone in 2013. “Then it was like, ‘Of course!’ and thus MTV was born. I just took that idea and put together some programs and sent it over to Warner Bros. and so forth. Next thing you know, there it was.”

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Charlie Watts
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, who helped them become one of the greatest bands in rock 'n' roll, has died at the age of 80.

It said he was "a cherished husband, father and grandfather" and "one of the greatest drummers of his generation

Watts' publicist, Bernard Doherty, said Watts passed away peacefully in a London hospital surrounded by his family on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. He was 80.

Charlie Watts, the self-effacing and unshakeable Rolling Stones drummer who helped anchor one of rock’s greatest rhythm sections and used his “day job” to support his enduring love of jazz, has died, according to his publicist. He was 80.

“Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also as a member of The Rolling Stones one of the greatest drummers of his generation,” Doherty said.

Watts had announced he would not tour with the Stones in 2021 because of an undefined health issue.

The quiet, elegantly dressed Watts was often ranked with Keith Moon, Ginger Baker and a handful of others as a premier rock drummer, respected worldwide for his muscular, swinging style as the Stones rose from their scruffy beginnings to international superstardom. He joined the band early in 1963 and remained for nearly 60 years, ranked just behind Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as the group’s longest lasting and most essential member.

Watts stayed on, and largely held himself apart, through the drug abuse, creative clashes and ego wars that helped kill founding member Brian Jones, drove bassist Bill Wyman and Jones’ replacement Mick Taylor to quit and otherwise made being in the Stones a most exhausting job.

A classic Stones song like “Brown Sugar” and “Start Me Up” often began with a hard guitar riff from Richards, with Watts following closely behind, and Wyman, as the bassist liked to say, “fattening the sound.” Watts’ speed, power and time keeping were never better showcased than during the concert documentary, “Shine a Light,” when director Martin Scorsese filmed “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” from where he drummed toward the back of the stage.

The Stones began, Watts said, “as white blokes from England playing Black American music” but quickly evolved their own distinctive sound. Watts was a jazz drummer in his early years and never lost his affinity for the music he first loved, heading his own jazz band and taking on numerous other side projects.

He had his eccentricities — Watts liked to collect cars even though he didn’t drive and would simply sit in them in his garage. But he was a steadying influence on stage and off as the Stones defied all expectations by rocking well into their 70s, decades longer than their old rivals the Beatles.

Watts didn’t care for flashy solos or attention of any kind, but with Wyman and Richards forged some of rock’s deepest grooves on “Honky Tonk Women,” “Brown Sugar” and other songs. The drummer adapted well to everything from the disco of “Miss You” to the jazzy “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and the dreamy ballad “Moonlight Mile.”

He also had an impact on the Rolling Stones that extended beyond drumming. He worked with Jagger on the ever more spectacular stage designs for the group’s tours. He also provided illustrations for the back cover of the acclaimed 1967 album “Between the Buttons” and inadvertently gave the record its title.

To the world, he was a rock star. But Watts often said that the actual experience was draining and unpleasant, and even frightening.

Watts found refuge from the rock life, marrying Shirley Ann Shepherd in 1964 and having a daughter, Seraphina, soon after. While other famous rock marriages crumbled, theirs held. Jagger and Richards could only envy their bandmate’s indifference to stardom and relative contentment in his private life, which included happily tending horses on a rural estate in Devon, England.

Author Philip Norman, who has written extensively about the Rolling Stones, said Watts lived “in constant hope of being allowed to catch the next plane home.” On tour, he made a point of drawing each hotel room he stayed in, a way of marking time until he could return to his family. He said little about playing the same songs for more than 40 years as the Stones recycled their classics. But he did branch out far beyond “Satisfaction” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by assembling and performing with jazz bands in the second half of his career.

Charles Robert Watts, son of a truck driver and a homemaker, was born in Neasden, London, on June 2, 1941. From childhood, he was passionate about music — jazz in particular. He fell in love with the drums after hearing Chico Hamilton, and taught himself to play by listening to records by Johnny Dodds, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and other jazz giants.

He worked for a London advertising firm after he attended London’s Harrow Art College and played drums in his spare time. London was home to a blues and jazz revival in the early 1960s, with Jagger, Richards and Eric Clapton among the future superstars getting their start. Watts’ career took off after he played with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, for whom Jagger also performed, and was encouraged by Korner to join the Stones.

Watts wasn’t a rock music fan at first and remembered being guided by Richards and Brian Jones as he absorbed blues and rock records, notably the music of bluesman Jimmy Reed. He said the band could trace its roots to a brief period when he had lost his job and shared an apartment with Jagger and Richards because he could live there rent-free.

“Keith Richards taught me rock and roll,” Watts said. “We’d have nothing to do all day and we’d play these records over and over again. I learned to love Muddy Waters. Keith turned me on to how good Elvis Presley was, and I’d always hated Elvis up ’til then.”

Watts was the final man to join the Stones; the band had searched for months to find a permanent drummer and feared Watts was too accomplished for them. Richards recalled the band wanting him so badly to join that members cut down on expenses so they could afford to pay Watts a proper salary. Watts said he believed at first the band would be lucky to last a year.

“Every band I’d ever been in had lasted a week,” he said. “I always thought the Stones would last a week, then a fortnight, and then suddenly, it’s 30 years.”


With his financial future secure because of the Stones’ status as one of the world’s most popular live bands, Watts was able to indulge his passion for jazz by putting together some of the most talented musicians in Britain for a series of recordings and performances. They typically played during the long breaks between Stones tours.

His first jazz record, the 1986 “Live at Fulham Town Hall,” was recorded by the Charlie Watts Orchestra. Others by the Charlie Watts Quintet followed, and he expanded that group into the Charlie Watts and the Tentet.

Watts was an acclaimed jazz bandleader when he was stricken with throat cancer in 2004. He received extensive treatment and made a full recovery. His return to health allowed him to resume touring with both the Stones and his jazz band.

By then, the young man who had worn his brown hair down to his shoulders in the late 1960s had evolved into a craggy, white-haired, impeccably dressed senior statesman of rock. Getting Watts to talk about his place in rock history was almost impossible, but he seemed to enjoy talking about fashion. It was not unusual to see him attired in a custom-made suit and polka dot tie while his bandmates wore jeans and T-shirts.

Watts is survived by his wife Shirley, sister Linda, daughter Seraphina and granddaughter Charlotte

John Miles
Rock musician John Miles, best known for achieving a Top 3 single in 1976 with 'Music', died on 5th December 2021 aged 72. Alongside his own career, Jarrow born John Miles toured with Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder and Jimmy Page as a session musician. His manager Cliff Cooper said in a statement: "The UK has lost one of its most talented musicians. John famous for his worldwide hit 'Music was my first love and it will be my last' died peacefully in his sleep with his family at his bedside. John played alongside a plethora of artists from Tina Turner, Jimmy Page, Joe Cocker to Andre Botticelli amongst many others. As John's manager and friend for over 50 years, John was not only so kind and gentle but a brilliant musician and songwriter on the world stage. John leaves behind his wife Eileen married 50 years, two children and two grandchildren. Grief is the price we pay for love. He will be greatly missed, but his music will live on forever."

Phil Chen
Bassist Phil Chen, who toured with many musicians and played on some of Sir Rod Stewart’s most well-known hits, has died at the age of 75.

The star died following a ‘long battle with cancer.’

A statement posted on his Facebook page reads: ‘Dear Friends and Family of Phil Chen, with heavy hearts we share the news that Phil Chen passed away on the morning of December 14, 2021 after a long battle with cancer.

‘He spent his final days surrounded by family and close friends and cherished time with his grandchildren who always brightened his day.


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Joe Simon, a Grammy-winning R&B singer whose hits included 1969’s “The Chokin’ Kind” and 1972’s “Power of Love” and was sampled in OutKast’s “So Fresh, So Clean” and other hip-hop classics, died Monday (Dec. 13) in his longtime hometown near Chicago. He was 85.

Born in Simmesport, La., Simon hated picking cotton and moved to Los Angeles to make it as a singer, spending his early years there homeless and living in a chicken coop. With nothing to do at night, he wrote 20 to 30 songs daily and developed his voice to the point that a label owner paid him $1,100 to record four songs written by others. He brought in local musicians including future funk greats Sly Stone and Larry Graham to play on 1964’s “My Adorable One,” which became Simon’s breakthrough hit.

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Simon’s career moved quickly, as he landed three No. 1s and 14 top 10s on what is now called the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and a best R&B vocal performance, male Grammy for “The Chokin’ Kind.” He collaborated with Philly Sound hitmakers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff for 1971’s “Drowning In the Sea of Love,” then created the theme to 1973’s Cleopatra Jones.

He was known as “The Mouth of the South,” compared to Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and, perhaps most aptly, Jackie Wilson. “He had a very different and distinct voice,” says his grandson, David Simon, a professional basketball player who toured with Simon toward the end of his R&B career in the ’80s. “You can definitely pick his voice out of any crowd.”

Early in his touring career, Simon played New York’s Apollo Theatre, where an employee told him he wouldn’t amount to anything. “I went from the cotton field to the chicken coop to a superstar of rhythm and blues — you can’t tell me I ain’t gonna be nothin’,” Simon said in his 2016 documentary, Looking Back with Joe Simon.

At the Apollo, he agreed to let a young soul band, the Jackson 5, appear on the same bill. “I remember going up to Michael and looking at him real close, thinking, ‘OK now, is this kid a midget or not?'” Simon told J. Randy Taraborrelli in his Jackson biography The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story 1958-2009. “‘Hey man, stop starin’ at me, OK?’ [Jackson] told me.”

For all his success, Simon turned away from R&B, because, he said in the documentary: “To sing rhythm and blues, you had to act like a fool. Everybody out there was doped up.” In 1981, Jet magazine declared Simon, with his on-stage earrings and wigs, “as famous for his bizarre attire as he is for hits” and reported he was evolving to a more conservative suit-and-tie image.

In 1983, he gave up what he called “worldly music,” according to his grandson, to become an ordained minister, working as a traveling pastor, beginning with a sermon to 4,000 people at the Rapides Coliseum near New Orleans. He made the change after a dramatic onstage moment before 10,000 fans when he forgot the words of the pop and R&B hits he’d been singing for 25 years: “I said to the people, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like for everyone to sit down. I want you to know that I’m not able to sing these songs tonight…. I want everyone to go to the front door to the office and get your money back. Because I’m going to church.’ And 10,000 people said, ‘Hallelujah!'”

Still, Simon’s secular hits, and his influence, continue to pop up all over the world — David Simon spotted one of his grandfather’s old posters in the 1999 Denzel Washington film The Hurricane. “I travel internationally, and when I’m in Asia, we go to karaoke bars, and they have his music in karaoke books,” the 39-year-old athlete says. “It really spanned everywhere.”

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Joe Simon - "Drowning In The Sea Of Love"

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Denis O'Brien (September 12, 1941 – December 3, 2021) was an American attorney, best-known as the business manager of George Harrison of the Beatles and co-founder of the film studio HandMade Films.

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O'Brien met George Harrison when the former Beatle was looking to extricate himself from Allen Klein's management. He was introduced to Harrison by Peter Sellers, one of the financial clients O'Brien successfully helped by turning around his flailing career in 1974 when Sellers signed on to make The Return of the Pink Panther. O'Brien helped the former Beatle sort out his mounting tax issues after becoming his manager in 1973. Their partnership was initially founded on mutual admiration. Harrison said of O'Brien, "In 20 minutes, he gets more from a budget sheet than most people do in 20 hours", while O'Brien recalled of their first meeting: "The chairman of Shell, of RTZ, of IBM, of Ford – I've met all these people and I've never met anyone as together as George."

Harrison and O'Brien founded the film production company HandMade Films in 1978 to finance the completion of Monty Python's Life of Brian after EMI Films, the original backers, pulled out at the last moment. O'Brien ran HandMade Films, as well as acting as executive producer for Life of Brian, and later productions such as The Long Good Friday, Time Bandits, The Missionary, Mona Lisa, Withnail and I and Nuns on the Run. The company ceased operations in 1991 and was sold three years later to Paragon Entertainment, a Canadian corporation.

Harrison brought a lawsuit against O'Brien in Los Angeles in January 1995, claiming O'Brien had deprived him of £16 million over a 12-year period. The court found that O'Brien had mismanaged HandMade and ruled that he should pay Harrison $11 million. He was subsequently instructed to pay Harrison £6.7 million in damages. Harrison felt betrayed by O'Brien, whom he considered a close family friend. According to Eric Idle of Monty Python, Harrison wrote the unreleased song "Lyin' O'Brien" about his former manager.

O'Brien filed for bankruptcy, while Harrison sued O'Brien in bankruptcy court without success. In August 2001, the judge dismissed the case because Harrison failed to appear for a deposition, and also dismissed Harrison's claim that his poor health had prevented him from doing so.

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Beatles fans have reason to be grateful to O'Brien. If he doesn't rob George, George has plenty of money and doesn't do Anthology.

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Songwriter Dallas Frazier, known for penning hits including The Oak Ridge Boys‘ 1981 classic “Elvira,” and Gene Watson‘s “Fourteen Carat Mind,” died Friday (Jan. 14). Frazier was 82.

Frazier was born in Spiro, Okla., on Oct. 27, 1939, and raised in Bakersfield, California. At age 12, he was already writing songs and won a talent competition hosted by Ferlin Husky. By age 14, Frazier was recording for Capitol Records. In 1960, Frazier had his first success as a songwriter, when “Alley Oop” became a pop hit for the Hollywood Argyles. Three years later, he moved to Nashville.

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In 1967, the Frazier-penned “There Goes My Everything,” recorded by Jack Greene, was named song of the year by the Country Music Association.

Another’s of Frazier’s best-known songs, “Elvira,” was previously recorded by Rodney Crowell before it became a smash hit for the Oak Ridge Boys in 1981. The group’s recording of the song earned the Country Music Association’s single of the year honor.

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