Lots of people had stuff left to do: Clifford Brown Magic Sam (had just signed with Stax) Otis Redding Sam Cooke Hank Williams
We had the Double Fantasy LP for around a week and I had seen him on some late night tv show not so long before. Like news from another universe; so extremely pointless. Radio was jammed with people commenting in between records.
I already had the "Starting Over" 45 and later got the LP from my parents for Christmas. I was too devastated to play it for a while.
I had just turned 13. Years later a friend had some tapes off Vancouver FM radio from the day after and it was surprisingly emotional transferring them for him. John Bonham and Bon Scott announcements were in there too.
actually Argentina had a few major losses that really hurt ... i know Argentine rock never recovered from losing Luca Prodan, Federico Moura and Miguel Abuelo all about the same time within one year of each other (from December 22, 1987 to December 21, 1988)...just brutal...one can argue that Miguel Abuelo was on the downswing creatively but Moura and Prodan had so much to give! Then in mid 1989 the Argentine economy cratered and some of what was left simply left.. Andres Calamaro - who wasn't only an important singer songwriter musican but also was playing a critical role as a producer- moved to Spain and better economic vistas and wasn't seen back for about a decade...the space of all these losses could not be filled by a Charly Garcia on the precipitous downslope and Fito Paez who delivered in 1992 with El Amor Despues Del Amor but could not sustain it and after that Argentine rock was in a freefall and it never recovered.. It has to be remembered that in the late 1980s Argentine rock was the first truly "Latin Rock" with bands from Argentina such as Soda Stereo helping to create a common Latin American rock market with the critical mass necessary to turn the business end into a force...Argentine rock bands were the first to tour from Argentina to Mexico with their records being put out all over South America.. previously the market was very segmented into tiny national markets...
John Lennon. I grew up in a Beatle household. Plus the way he died; it was so unfair. More recently Lou, Bowie, Prince.
I heard about Victor Jara because of the film... almost unimaginable to me... The life and death of Victor Jara – a classic feature from the vaults
Either I'm blind or Dennis Wilson isn't in that opening picture. I see Carl, but no Denny. Help me Johnny!
For the most part, when someone dies I don't get that affected unless I personally knew them. But I was taken aback when Chrissy Amphlett died. One of my favorite voices, and I wish I could have somehow seen her live. She had MS for years but then got breast cancer as well and died at 53. Her death was hard to take because she had such a fierce persona and seemed indestructible.
I lived in Memphis the last 10 years of Elvis Presley's life. But the answer for me is still John Lennon.
I think the only rock star whose passing I really mourned was George Harrison. Which took me by complete surprise, since he's like my number three Beatle, and I often enough find myself irritated by the dour Beatle. Still, I was genuinely bummed out for some days at his death. I would have thought that any number of rock star deaths might have affected me more, but no, Georgie was the one. Lennon I was too young to feel very much. And all the others? Prince? Bowie? Lou Reed? Zappa? Beefheart? All of whom I would have thought I liked better as musical artists? No big deal to me for some reason. The other rock death that really disturbed me was Linda McCartney. But I had two other deaths close to me around that April and her death was the last straw in an existential crisis that was then snowballing in my life. Trying to make sense of it, for me it probably comes down less to my appreciation for the music than to my investment in a given life story: the Beatles story is one of the stories of my lifetime. The Prince story? The Bowie story? The Lou Reed story? The George Michael story? I guess in the end these aren't that important to me, much as I love their music and admire their talent. So, for similar reasons, although Lennon's death was sort of a distant thing to my 12 year old self, it has seemed quite affectingly tragic now and again in the long years since. And, with part of my mind on Lennon, handgun violence has been one of my political pet peeves in my adult years,
Just saw this thread. Without a doubt it was John Lennon. I'll never forget the circumstances. We were at a bar in Sparta N.J. playing shuffleboard when Howard Cosell announced that he had been shot during Monday Night Football. I was extremely angry. And I had to hear it from Howard Cosell? Some guy who we were playing shuffleboard with said something like "well we all have to go sometime" or something to that effect. That just made things worse. Terrible night. I'll tell you though..... when Jack Bruce passed away, that really hit me. I guess I was a bigger Cream fan than I thought. And "Songs For A Tailor" - wow what a record.
Oddly enough the tailor of Songs For A Tailor was Jeannie Franklyn, who died with Martin Lamble, drummer, in the Fairport Convention van crash of 1969. Jeannie Franklyn
Carl Wilson Dennis Wilson John Lennon George Harrison Elvis Frank Sinatra And not so much in that order but when Carl and Dennis were gone, so was the group as we knew it from early on. Both were sadly too young to leave us and we'll never know, like John and George, what we missed from them had they continued to live. Elvis, just because he was Elvis and was the first one I remember buying his records and following him in my little nine year old way. Frank's passing was monumental in that it marked the end of my parent's era and what an era it was. John's death was very difficult for me but Carl's hit me harder. The voice, and the nice guy was gone. Feel Flows. Phew...
Carl and Dennis Wilson's deaths were both particularly tragic. Maurice and Robin Gibb too. I remember coming back from weeks of fishing up island with my grandparents away from any tv or much radio, and my Aunt had some tabloid with Elvis' death all over it. I guess I was nine and the concept of someone that famous dying was quite unprocessable. I got his Moody Blue album around then as a present. I already had records for presents regularly like it was a thing with me. I never asked for any particular one that I can remember though.
