Strangest/Saddest stories in Rock history...

What just happened to Kieth Emerson is beyond sad. Totally. Mental illness is practically synonymous with creative genius. Depression is the cruelest of all masters.

 

Not sure if anybody's mentioned this but Yngwie went through an absolute ****storm in the late '80s, especially in 1987. First he crashed his car (the one in the "You Never Remember, I'll Never Forget" video) and almost died and in fact collapsed into a week long coma. He also lost feeling in one of his hands to the point he couldn't grasp a guitar pick. Soon after, both his mother and brother passed away, and if that wasn't enough an 5.9 earthquake practically leveled his Los Angeles mansion. Believe it or not, even that wasn't the end of it. His manager was also discovered to have been stealing money from Yngwie for a good while up to that point, with him having believed that it was because of his previous album's disappointing sales. All this, with record company execs breathing down his neck, waiting for the next album.

 

From this to this

 

I don't know how I missed this news, though I've been going through a rough patch of my own, but I am absolutely floored. This was one of the best modern day keyboardists I've ever heard. Damn, this is truly depressing to hear. Rest in Peace, Keith.

 

I've always been creeped out that Marc Bolan carried Eddie Cochran's guitars at age 12. He developed his fear of cars when Cochran died in the crash... then he himself was killed in a crash 17 years later.

 

lee mavers!

 

Add the use of his music to sell cars.

 

Including the deaths of four of the Bar-Kays with him; I kinda hate hearing "Soulfinger" now as a result, and it was such a goofy kinda song!

 

After reading Paul Trynka's biography of Brian, it would seem he wasn't murdered after all. Still, a terribly tragic loss; I always thought the soul of the Stones went with him.

 

They weren't---they used a standard guitar template. I'm sure the stonemason(s) had never heard Hendrix and wouldn't have known he played left-handed. I lived in the Seattle area back then; it seems so odd, but Jimi really wasn't considered a hometown boy til' much later in the 70's. You'd think the radio stations would've played his records nonstop upon his death, the mayor make a speech, etc. but they didn't. Come to think of it, it's almost like they were embarrassed by him!

 

Not really rock, but as tragic as Patsy Cline's death was, it was perhaps even more tragic that Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins (who both died in the same crash) are rarely even mentioned.

 

Jim Croce (according to his widow Ingrid's book I Got A Name: The Jim Croce Story), after struggling to make it in music for years before his "overnight success", made millions with his hit records, album sales, and concerts, but was screwed out of most of it by Cashman and West and other label execs so they could line their own pockets with Jim's earnings. Jim was placed on a $200.00 a week allowance and died broke, age 30.

 

Sad the way he was sacked in such a cowardly fashion, and he went through a long period of depression, but he was able to rise above the adversity and get on with his life. His royalties from the Beatles Anthology tracks on which he appeared made him very wealthy and he now tours and records with the Pete Best Band who made a wonderful album called Hayman's Green. Atleast some sad stories have happy endings.

 

Just read the Wikipedia entry on Syd Barrett's 'Stars' band and was almost moved to tears.

 

He's probably not considered a hometown guy because he kept moving around. Same way Sam Cooke isn't really considered synonymous with Chicago.

 

Part of it was doubtless the fact that he was never part of the Seattle music scene, and did not work professionally as a musician until years after he'd left town. And there likely was some judgmentality towards him from the older generation, regarding his cause of death. Remember that even as late as the 80s, there were people arguing that Elvis should not be on a postage stamp because he'd died due to a drug overdose.

 

Jimmy Ellis aka Orion.

 

Bobby Fuller. Outrageous and tragic.

 

The reason I looked through the thread has already been mentioned but I will mention her again! Selena Quintanilla-Perez. Shot dead by her fan club manager in the prime of her life.

Off genre (dance music) Louise Dean. Vocalist of Shiva. Their debut single was a top 40 hit here in the UK then soon after Louise was killed by a drunk driver on June 18th 1995. This was in a town called Huddersfield. I live 20 or so miles away in Leeds. Her death was on the news and caught my eye, the tragic circumstances etc. Got a massive shock a couple of years later when I visited my grandparents grave and saw Louises' grave just a few plots away.

Another tragic story is that of the London Boys. A German based, English disco pop duo. Had success at the end of the 80s. Both were killed in a car crash in the Alps in 1996.

 

Again, not rock but still both sad and strange: Western swing fiddler/bandleader Spade Cooley brutally murdered his wife (in the presence of their 14-year-old daughter), accusing her of having an affair with Roy Rogers, and was sentenced to life in prison (convicted largely on the eyewitness testimony of their daughter). After serving only 8 years of his sentence, he was given a 3-day furlough to play a fundraiser concert in his home state of Oklahoma. He played the first set and got a standing ovation. He went backstage to take a break and died of a heart attack before he had a chance to play the 2nd set.

 

The docs you should stay away if you don't want to cry: Derailroaded on Wild Man Fischer (intensely sad ending), Nothing Can Hurt Me on Big Star/Chris Bell story and The Devil and Daniel Johnston (heartbreaking parts with his parents). Three sad stories, all involving mental illness.

 

I think that "Jaco", the doc about Jaco Pastorius (which is on Netflix now) belongs with this group. Sad, sad story about a guy who was truly one of the greats, and mental illness (that was sped up due to drugs and alcohol) destroyed his life.

 

The way he died was awful. He's probably the last real game changer on jazz music and died on a bar fight while already being a homeless man. Very tragic!

 

A friend of mine from Miami, a bass player, knew Jaco a bit and said he was a very strange guy. In addition to his mental health problems, towards the end of his life Jaco was drinking a lot and getting into a lot of fights at bars. My friend says, this policy of drinking too much and getting into fights escalated its tangent into a very sad conclusion. He told me the last fight wound up in a park across the street from the club. Terrible end to a really sad story about a guy who was incredibly talented.

 

I get the feeling that it wasn't so much as a "fight" as it was the bouncer pretty much beat Jaco to death. His bi-polar would cause him to be confrontational, and it was a bar that he had already been kicked out of. The bouncer had had enough of him, I guess. Nobody should get a beating like that.