re: Endless Sleep - The Obituary Thread

RIP Jim Seals

Jim Seals, of Seals and Crofts Duo That Ruled ’70s Soft-Rock, Dies at 80

By Chris Willman

Jim Seals, who as part of the duo Seals and Crofts crafted memorably wistful 1970s hits like “Summer Breeze” and “Diamond Girl,” died Monday at age 80. No cause of death was immediately given.

Several friends and relatives confirmed the death. “I just learned that James ‘Jimmy’ Seals has passed,” announced his cousin, Brady Seals, a former member of the country band Little Texas, Monday night. “My heart just breaks for his wife Ruby and their children. Please keep them in your prayers. What an incredible legacy he leaves behind.”

Wrote John Ford Coley, “This is a hard one on so many levels as this is a musical era passing for me. And it will never pass this way again, as his song said,” he added, referring to the Seals and Croft hit “We May Never Pass This Way (Again).” Coley was a member of another hit duo of the era, England Dan and John Ford Coley, with Jim Seals’ younger brother, the late Dan Seals.

“You and Dan finally get reunited again,” Coley wrote. “Tell him and your sweet momma hi for me.”

With Jim Seals as the primary lead vocalist of the harmonizing duo, Seals and Crofts came to be the very emblem of “soft rock” with a run of hits that lasted for only about six years. Although none of the pair’s hits ever reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, their biggest songs were for a time as ubiquitous as any that did top the chart. “Summer Breeze” in 1972 and “Diamond Girl” in 1973 both reached No. 6, as did a more upbeat song in 1976, “Get Closer,” sung with Carolyn Willis.

Besides those three songs that reached the top 10 on the Hot 100, four more made it to the adult contemporary chart’s top 10: “We May Never Pass This Way (Again)” in ’73, “I’ll Play for You” in ’75, “Goodbye Old Buddies” in ’77 and “You’re the Love” in ’78.

The duo broke up in 1980, followed by a couple of very fleeting reunions in the early ’90s and early 2000s, which generated only one album after their original run, the little-noticed “Traces” in 2004, They never reembarked together on the kind of nostalgia-stoking package tours that would have seemed a natural for an act with so many well-remembered hits. But neither member showed a particularly heavy interest in chasing the limelight after the 1970s.

John Ford Coley shared his thoughts at length in a Facebook post. “I spent a large portion of my musical life with this man,” he wrote. “He was Dan’s older brother, (and) it was Jimmy that gave Dan and me our stage name. He taught me how to juggle, made me laugh, pissed me off, encouraged me, showed me amazing worlds and different understandings on life, especially on a philosophical level; showed me how expensive golf was and how to never hit a golf ball because next came the total annihilation of a perfectly good golf club, and the list goes on and on. We didn’t always see eye to eye, especially as musicians, but we always got along and I thought he was a bona fide, dyed-in the-wool musical genius and a very deep and contemplative man. He was an enigma and I always had regard for his opinion.

“I listened to him and I learned from him,” Coley continued. “We didn’t always agree and it wasn’t always easy and it wasn’t always fun but it definitely was always entertaining for sure. Dan adored his older brother and it was because of Jimmy opening doors for us that we came to Los Angeles to record and meet the right people. … He belonged to a group that was one of a kind. I am very sad over this but I have some of the best memories of all of us together.”

For several years in the late ’50s and early ’60s, both Seals and Dash Crofts — who survives his partner — were members of a group that bore little stylistic similarity to their later act: the Champs, although they joined after that band had recorded its signature hit, “Tequila.” Seals played sax in that group and Crofts was on drums.

James Eugene Seals was born in 1942 to an oilman, Wayland Seals, and his wife Cora. ““There were oil rigs as far as you could see,” Seals told an interviewer of his upbringing in Iraan, Texas. “And the stench was so bad you couldn’t breathe.” Jim became transfixed by a visiting fiddler and his father ordered him an instrument from the Sears catalog when he was 5 or 6. In a 1952 contest in west Texas, Jim won the fiddle division while his father triumphed in the guitar category. His little brother, Dan, later to be a pop star himself, took up the stand-up bass.

Jim took up sax at age 13 and began playing with a local band, the Crew Cats, when rock ‘n’ roll broke out in 1955. The shy musician joined up with the more outgoing Darrell “Dash” Crofts, who was two years older and grew up the son of a Texas cattle rancher, inviting his friend to join the Crew Cats as well. In 1958, the offer came to join the Champs, who’d recently had a No. 1 smash with “Tequila.” They stayed with that band till quitting in 1965.

The pair moved to L.A. and joined a group called the Dawnbreakers, also playing for a time behind Glen Campbell, just before he broke out as a major star. Their manager, Marcia Day, was a member of the Baha’i faith, and the house they shared on Sunset Blvd. was full of adherents as well as secular members of the local rock scene; in 1967, five years before having their first hit, both Seals and Crofts converted.

Very sad

I always liked to listen to them-Seals and Crofts. They always seemed to be on in the background somewhere.

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Jimy Sohns, whose snarlingly muscular voice powered The Shadows of Knight, a garage rock band from the Chicago suburbs that hit big in 1966 with the gloriously sloppy hit “Gloria,” has died.

Mr. Sohns, who was 75, was still shouting out “G-L-O-R-I-A!” at performances as recently as last month, according to his daughter Raechel Sohns-Stebbins.

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The Shadows of Knight were among the biggest garage bands and rockers to come out of Chicago in the late 1960s. The group was “one of the archetypes of garage rock and helped define Chicago rock ‘n’ roll,” according to Stevie Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

The Shadows remade “Gloria,” which Van Morrison wrote and recorded with his band Them.

Mr. Sohns’ daughter said the remake cleaned up a line that hardly seems controversial today. Them’s version went: “And then she comes in my room and she make me feel alright.” Mr. Sohns sang the more radio-friendly: “And then she call out my name, that made me feel alright.”

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Mr. Sohns was about 5-feet-6 from his head to the ground but wouldn’t hesitate to stand up for himself or others.

Chicago punk pioneer Jim Skafish said Mr. Sohns, while working as road manager for his band from 1978 to 1980, made sure club owners and promoters paid up.

Skafish said Mr. Sohns also once put an end to what was quickly becoming an out-of-control situation involving Sid Vicious at a New York club. According to Skafish, Vicious — free on bail at the time on charges he killed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen — caused a disturbance during a Skafish show at the club Hurrah in New York City in December 1978.

Skafish recalled on his blog: “Sid first began making gestures from the audience at my guitarist/vocalist Karen Winner. As our set progressed, Sid took notice of Skafish female drum roadie Tara and started making flirtatious advances toward her, including pinching her."

Todd Smith — brother of Patti Smith and later Tara's husband — approached Vicious, Skafish said Monday, then, “Sid took a beer bottle and smashed it over Todd’s face.”

“What was on the verge of becoming complete mayhem was stopped by Jimy Sohns,” who was at the mixing board, Skafish said. “He rushed to the front, punched Sid Vicious, grabbed him, dragged him through the club and down a flight of stairs.”

He added, “Jimy sort of had one gear. In that sense, he was a true rock star.”

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The Shadows of Knight, Jimy Sohns center (striped shirt)



They're best-known for "Gloria", but IMHO their masterpiece was this:

The Shadows of Knight - "I'm Gonna Make You Mine"

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Judith Durham, the Australian folk-music icon who sang lead on the Oscar-nominated single "Georgy Girl" with the Seekers, has died at the age of 79.

Durham died Friday at Alfred Hospital in Melbourne as a result of complications from a long-standing chronic lung disease, according to a statement from Musicoast Pty. Ltd. and Universal Music Australia posted to the Seekers' official Facebook page.

Durham joined the Seekers in 1963, and the group soon rose to international fame with hits such as "I'll Never Find Another You" and "The Carnival Is Over." The track "Georgy Girl" was the title song for the 1966 Lynn Redgrave film of the same name.

In March 1967, the Seekers claimed a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for their performance at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, which was attended by 200,000 people — roughly one-tenth of the city's population at the time. The Seekers eventually sold 50 million records.

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One of the all time greatest songwriters. Those HDH songs will still be played 1,000 years from now.

Olivia Newton-John, who sang some of the biggest hits of the 1970s and ’80s while recasting her image as the virginal girl next door into a spandex-clad vixen — a transformation reflected in miniature by her starring role in “Grease,” one of the most popular movie musicals of its era — died on Monday at her ranch in Southern California. She was 73.

The death was announced by her husband, John Easterling, who did not give a specific cause in his statement, though he cited the breast cancer diagnosis she had lived with since 1992. In 2017, she announced that the cancer had returned and spread. For years she was a prominent advocate for cancer research, starting a foundation in her name to support it and opening a research and wellness center in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. English-born, she grew up in Australia.

Ms. Newton-John amassed No. 1 hits, chart-topping albums and four records that sold more than two million copies each.

Her performance on the charts made that blurring clear. She scored seven Top 10 hits on Billboard’s country chart, two of which became back-to-back overall No. 1 hits in 1974 and ’75. First came “I Honestly Love You,” an earnest declaration co-written by Peter Allen and Jeff Barry, followed by “Have You Never Been Mellow,” a feather of a song written by the producer of many of her biggest albums, John Farrar.

“I Honestly Love You” also won two of the singer’s four Grammys, for record of the year and best female pop vocal performance.

The combination of Ms. Newton-John’s consistently benign music — she was never a favorite of critics — and comely but squeaky-clean image caused many writers to compare her to earlier blond ingénues like Doris Day and Sandra Dee. “Innocent, I’m not,” Ms. Newton-John told Rolling Stone in 1978. “People still seem to see me as the girl next door. Doris Day had four husbands,” she said, yet she was still viewed as “the virgin.”

Ms. Newton-John in an undated photo. In the 1980s she sought to shed her innocent image, emerging with “Physical,” which spent 10 weeks at No. 1 in Billboard’s rankings.
Ms. Newton-John in an undated photo. In the 1980s she sought to shed her innocent image, emerging with “Physical,” which spent 10 weeks at No. 1 in Billboard’s rankings.
The album featured Ms. Newton-John singing in a somewhat more forceful voice. Though her sales dipped as the 1970s turned into the ’80s, by early in the decade she began the most commercially potent period in her career, peaking with the single “Physical,” which spent 10 weeks on Billboard’s top perch. Later, the magazine declared it to be the biggest song of the 1980s.

Olivia Newton-John was born on Sept. 26, 1948, in Cambridge, England, the youngest of three children of Brinley and Irene (Born) Newton-John. Her mother was the daughter of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born. Her Welsh-born father had been an MI5 intelligence officer during World War II and afterward served as headmaster at Cambridgeshire High School for Boys.

When Ms. Newton-John was 6, her family immigrated to Melbourne, Australia, where her father worked as a college professor and administrator. At 14, she formed her first group, Sol Four, with three girls from school. Her beauty and confidence soon earned her solo performances on local radio and TV shows under the name “Lovely Livvy.” On “The Go!! Show” she met the singer Pat Carroll, with whom she would form a duet, as well as her eventual producer, Mr. Farrar, who later married Ms. Carroll.

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Ms. Newton-John won a local TV talent contest whose prize was a trip to Britain. While tarrying there, she recorded her first single, “’Til You Say You’ll Be Mine,” which Decca Records released in 1966.

After Ms. Carroll moved to London, she and Ms. Newton-John formed the duet Pat and Olivia, which toured Europe. When Ms. Carroll’s visa expired, forcing her to go back to Australia, Ms. Newton-John stayed in London to work solo.

In 1970, she was asked to join a crudely manufactured group named Toomorrow, formed by the American producer Don Kirshner in an attempt to repeat his earlier success with the Monkees. Following his grand design, the group starred in a science-fiction film written for them and recorded its soundtrack. Both projects tanked.

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Ms. Newton-John tried to expand her acting career with the 1980 musical “Xanadu,” here in a scene with the actor Michael Beck. Its soundtrack went double platinum.Credit...Universal/Kobal, via Shutterstock
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“It was terrible, and I was terrible in it,” she later told The New York Times.

Her debut solo album, “If Not for You,” was released in 1971, its title track a cover of a Bob Dylan song.

After some duds in the United States, Ms. Newton-John released the album “Let Me Be There” (1973), which led to a Grammy win for best female country vocal performance.

Two key changes in pop music boosted her career that decade: the rise of “soft rock” in reaction to the harder genres of the late 1960s, and the mainstreaming — some would say the neutering — of country music, also epitomized by stars like John Denver and Anne Murray.

The latter trend became an issue in 1974, after Ms. Newton-John was chosen female vocalist of the year by the Country Music Association over more traditional stars like Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. Protests led to the formation of the fleeting Association of Country Entertainers. Yet, after Ms. Newton-John recorded her “Don’t Stop Believin’,” album in Nashville in 1976, the friction eased.

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The second phase of her career, which began with “Grease,” found further success through a duet with Andy Gibb, “I Can’t Help It,” followed by an attempt to expand her acting career with the 1980 musical film “Xanadu,” with Gene Kelly. While the movie floundered, its soundtrack went double-platinum, boasting hits like “Magic” (which commanded Billboard’s No. 1 spot for four weeks) and the title song, recorded with the Electric Light Orchestra.

A campy Broadway show based on the film opened in 2007 to some success.

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Ms. Newton-John performing in Chile in 2017, the year she said her cancer had returned and had metastasized.Credit...Mario Ruiz/EPA, via Shutterstock
Ms. Newton-John’s smash “Physical” also yielded the first video album to hit the market, with clips for all the album’s tracks. “Olivia Physical” won the Grammy in 1982 for video of the year.

She was paired again with Mr. Travolta in the 1983 movie “Two of a Kind,” an attempt to repeat the success of “Grease.” But the film disappointed even as its soundtrack proved popular, especially the song “Twist of Fate.”

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Ms. Newton-John was named an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1979.

By the mid-80s, her career had cooled. For several years she cut back on work to care for her daughter, Chloe Rose, whom she had with her husband at the time, the actor Matt Lattanzi. They had met on the set of “Xanadu” and married in 1984; they divorced in 1995.

That same year, she met Patrick McDermott, a cameraman whom she dated, on and off, for the next nine years. In 2005, Mr. McDermott disappeared while fishing off the California coast. Three years later, a U.S. Coast Guard investigation said that the evidence suggested that Mr. McDermott had been lost at sea.

In 2008, Ms. Newton-John married Mr. Easterling, the founder of the Amazon Herb Company.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by her daughter, Chloe Rose Lattanzi; her sister, Sarah Newton-John; and her brother, Toby.

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Jerry Allison, drummer for Buddy Holly and the Crickets and co-writer on some of their biggest hits, has died. He was 82.

The official Facebook page for Holly announced Allison’s death, though no cause or date of death was given. “JI was a musician ahead of his time, and undoubtedly his energy, ideas and exceptional skill contributed to both The Crickets, and rock n’ roll itself, becoming such a success. Buddy is often heralded as the original singer-songwriter, but JI, too, wrote and inspired so many of the songs that would go on to be eternal classics.”

Allison, born in 1939, met Holly in the Fifties and the two began playing as a duo — Allison on drums, Holly on guitar and vocals. Per a bio on AllMusic, Allison even accompanied Holly to Nashville for his first unsuccessful recording session in 1956.

One year later, Holly and Allison linked up with bassist Joe B. Mauldin and officially became the Crickets. Not only did Allison’s drums anchor the pioneering rock and roll group’s sound, but he also played an important role in crafting the group’s songs. He’s credited as a co-writer on some of Holly and the Crickets’ most famous tunes, including their debut single, “That’ll Be the Day,” and classics like “Peggy Sue” and “More Than I Can Say.”

Despite their swift, trailblazing success, Holly and the Crickets split in 1958; Holly died in a plane crash the following year. The Crickets, however, continued to tour and record into the Sixties and beyond, and Allison established himself as a go-to studio musician, working with artists like J.J. Cale and Johnny Rivers.

The Crickets were also closely associated with another musical great from Lubbock, Texas, Waylon Jennings, touring with him for several years during the Eighties. The band also got to collaborate with Paul McCartney, who provided piano and backing vocals to the band’s 1988 single, “T Shirt.”

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Jerry Allison and his wife Peggy Sue

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Joseph West (July 30, 1937 – September 8, 2022), better known as Sonny West, was an American songwriter and musician, best known as the co-writer of two of Buddy Holly's biggest hits: "Oh, Boy!" and "Rave On".

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[He's not to be confused with the Sonny West of Elvis' Memphis Mafia -- that's a different guy]

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In February 1957, West recorded a song, "All My Love", with McKay (drums), Metz (trumpet), and Glen Dee Hardin (piano). Only a few copies of this recording were made, which were sent to record companies to attract their interest in releasing the record commercially. One of the copies was heard by Buddy Holly, who with The Crickets recorded a version of the song at Petty's studios in Lubbock, as "Oh, Boy!" in July 1957. It was subsequently released in October and went on to reach number 10 on the US charts and number 3 on the UK charts in early 1958. The song was attributed to West, Petty, and Bill Tilghman, although according to West it was written by him alone, with Petty requiring his name to be added as part of the commercial contract with Holly. It was not until 2002 that West's version of "All My Love" was commercially released, when it was included on his debut solo album, Sweet Rockin' Rock-Ola Ruby.

At the end of 1957, Petty took over as West's manager and arranged a two-year recording contract with Atlantic Records, with a minimum of four releases. In December that year West recorded "Rave On", which was released on February 17, 1958, with the B-side, "Call on Cupid", on Atlantic Records, but achieved little commercial success. The song was inspired by a line from Carl Perkins' 1956 song "Dixie Fried".

On January 25, 1958, Holly recorded a version of "Rave On" at Bell Sound Studios in New York as a track for his debut solo album, Buddy Holly, with Coral Records releasing it as a solo single in April 1958. Although it barely made the top 40, peaking at No. 37 in the United States, it reached No. 5 in England

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Sonny West - "All My Love" aka "Oh Boy"

Sonny West - "Rave On"

RIP Anton Fier

Anton Fier was an American drummer, producer, composer, and bandleader. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Fier was an early member of The Lounge Lizards and The Feelies. He was in The Lodge, worked with Pere Ubu, was briefly in the Voidoids, and founded The Golden Palominos

Fier was an early member of The Lounge Lizards and The Feelies.[1] He was in The Lodge (with John Greaves), worked with Pere Ubu,[2][1] was briefly in the Voidoids, and founded The Golden Palominos.[2] The 1978 Pere Ubu EP titled Datapanik in the Year Zero was dedicated to Fier.

Fier collaborated extensively with Bill Laswell[1] and also toured and recorded with Hüsker Dü guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Bob Mould.[3] He also played with bassist Jack Bruce and Japanese guitarist Kenji Suzuki on the 1987 album Inazuma Super Session – "Absolute Live!!"

Fier played and recorded on the John Zorn-led album Locus Solus in 1983. They recorded a live album for Zorn's 50th birthday celebration: 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 3 of the 50th birthday series on Tzadik Records.

In 1984 he played on Laurie Anderson's Mister Heartbreak.

Fier also produced several albums, such as the 1988 album of Drivin' N Cryin', Whisper Tames The Lion[4], a 2009 album by guitar virtuoso Jim Campilongo titled Orange,[5] and Lianne Smith's Two Sides of a River, on which Fier also played drums.[6]

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Joe Bussard, a record collector who helped preserve and celebrate early American blues, country, gospel, and folk music, has died. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October 2019. Bussard’s family announced the news in a Facebook post, writing that he had died “peacefully at home” on September 26. He was 86 years old.

Through his collecting, Bussard developed one of the biggest, most rarefied stockpiles of music that otherwise would have been lost to history. Reports estimated his collection to be between 15,000 and 25,000 records, which are notably more fragile than their vinyl counterparts due to their interior makeup and shellac resin exterior. He maintained a focus on old-time music: material recorded and released before World War II.

Bussard picked up his collecting habit after hearing a tune by early country star Jimmie Rodgers on the radio and deciding he needed to get every Jimmie Rodgers record he could find. He grew up and spent his life in the area of Frederick, Maryland, and after dropping out of high school, he picked up odd jobs and served in the National Guard while keeping up his collection habit. During the 1950s and 1960s, he traveled the United States in search of more and more rare 78s, searching estate sales, sometimes buying from dealers, and working on word-of-mouth tips.

In 1956, Bussard founded the Fonotone Records label to issue new recordings by artists making old-time music, often recording the work himself. Fonotone released titles by a young John Fahey and dozens more during its run. The label was the last one releasing old-time music, and Bussard ended its operations in 1969.

Throughout the 20th century and into the new millennium, Bussard’s collection became an awe-inspiring archive to other old-time devotees, among them Jack White and Elvis Costello. Bussard worked with the label Dust to Digital on several projects, including a Fonotone retrospective and a collection of songs from the Civil War. He also hosted two weekly radio programs in Knoxville, Tennessee and Mount Airy, North Carolina.

Bussard’s enthusiasm for old-time music was registered in the 2003 documentary Desperate Man Blues, as well as a chapter of Pitchfork contributor Amanda Petrusich’s 2014 book Do Not Sell at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World's Rarest 78rpm Records. He maintained a dislike for almost all music made after the mid-1950s.

In June, Bussard told The Washington Post that he did not have any plans arranged for the stewardship of his collection after his death. He bristled at the suggestion that the records should go to a university or the Library of Congress, saying that the records would be lost to those who love them. He told The Post, “I like to say I’ll enjoy them until I croak. Then whatever they do with them is fine.”

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He was a cranky old cuss -- he called rock & roll "musical cancer" -- but he performed a valuable service finding these old records and making them accessible.

A must-watch, if you can find it:



Here's a shorter doc from a couple of years later that's on YT:

Joe Bussard: King of Record Collectors