The Cruelest and Saddest Deaths in Music History

Paul McCartney, tragically killed in an automobile crash, and heartlessly replaced with a look-a-like, sound-a-like to keep the Beatles going. To this day no public info is available on original Paul's services or unmarked burial location. The mastermind of this Dark Secret, Brian, took the story with him when he in turn passed by his own hand. Or did he?....

After 27 pages, some levity, eh?

 

Someone tried that earlier and it was unfunny then too.

 

Well I guess that puts the final nail in the coffin.

 

Of course, that couldn't have happened, because it was Buddy's idea to charter the plane for himself and his band in the first place. Both members of his band were talked into giving their seats up, but I don't see how Buddy could have been deterred - and if he had given up his seat, it wouldn't be to one of the guys he'd intended to have on the plane with him in the first place.

 

Yikes!

 

I think you're thinking of Kristy McNichol.

Kirsty MacColl was actually the daughter of the legendary singer/songwriter Ewan MacColl (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Dirty Old Town.)

 

Who Would've Stayed Cool Had They Not Died Before Their Time

 

I was a member of a jazz ensemble in college in 2016 and 2017. The ensemble leader was a massive Holdsworth fan and met him numerous times. The 2017 set included two songs Holdsworth played on - one was "Nostalgia" by Jean-Luc Ponty, and I'm blanking on the other one - and it was a real shock when I woke up on the morning of one of our last rehearsals to discover that Holdsworth had died. It really shook me. I'm a pretty lousy guitar player and I can't improvise worth a damn, but I asked to take a solo (this is about three rehearsals before the concert, mind you) and composed my own part for it as a tribute. I'd never even listened to any of his stuff beyond the five or so songs of his that we did over the three ensembles I was in - that's how much his death shook me.

Of course, with my abominable luck, my tribute didn't really work; while I was quite proud of the solo I composed, midway through playing it in the actual concert, the battery in my Micro Amp pedal (only pedal I was using, just to switch between rhythm and lead) mysteriously died, forcing me to abandon my tribute and frantically swap the cables. 'Twas the universe reminding me that my musical role is to support the others, not step into the spotlight myself. Also that I suck. I would still like to think that Holdsworth would have appreciated the intention, though.

 

You got some of the facts wrong. He was NOT replaced by a look-a-like, at least not directly. He was replaced by a slightly genetically engineered Basset Hound.

 

This list is very close to the one I was about to make. I'd add Christophe Bertrand (suicide, 29), Bernd Alois Zimmermannn (suicide, 52), Julius Reubke (tuberculosis, 24) and Anton Webern (accidentally shot, 61). Also, it's a shame that Mahler and especially Berg died young.

 

Yikes, I thought that was Robin Gibb.

 

Levity is in my blood, as I spent a few of my early years in Levittown.

On a semi-serious note, that mania in the fall of 1969 about Paul being dead , though virtually everyone played along as being a satire and farce, had a foreboding element. Little did everyone know that at that very moment, The Beatles were tearing themselves apart.

 

It was to me. Dying at the relatively young age of 60, from pancreatic cancer, mostly alone in that...house. Sad.

 

Yes, but we are half a century past the fact. I do appreciate the genuine feelings on display in this thread, I myself have written in the past from the heart about John Lennon, Joe Strummer and Buddy Holly. But honestly we do this over and over again every couple of months. 'Tis the season, some eggnog with the gruel wouldn't be horrible.
A suggestion for the Gorts - perhaps an In Memoriam continuing thread might be in order to combine these into.

 

Who'd have thought that photoshopping Buddy Holly's face onto Dave Davies' head and body would conjour up Robin Gibb!

 

My recollection, though I no longer visit that thread, is that it was primarily about recent deaths. This is one for everyone from Palestrina and Mozart to the 1940's and 1950's right up to today, and especially for those that affected you the most, not this week's news. I still think a second thread is not bad. The more discussion, the more participation, the better.

 

We've also heard all the Spinal Tap drummer jokes, thanks.

 

If I recall, your avatar (Perry Como) was from your hometown. Anyone you know ever meet him?

Now some musicians lived a very long and rewarding life, like Perry Como, and cannot be justified for this thread. But the sad thing is that most of Perry's records are out of print!

 

I've always thought Marvin Gaye's murder, and by his own Father, was about as tragic as it gets. I think we've learned much about Dementia and Alzheimer's since then and perhaps the whole thing could have been avoided with what we now know.

 

I saw Holdsworth on, I think the "Road Games" tour. He had Chad Wackerman and Jeff Berlin with him and Paul Williams vocalist/road manager. The show had been moved the night before from Ann Arbor to St. Andrews Hall in Detroit. The only reason we were aware of it was that they were putting up a poster on the front door as we were leaving a Adrian Belew show.

We get down there and there are a couple of hundred folding chairs set up, with maybe 30 or so people sitting in them. They were still setting up Holdsworth's back line and by the time they were done and the show started, there was 60 or so people, still a lot of empty chairs. As they were playing, it looked like Alan was listening to something the rest of us were not hearing. At the end of the first song as the applause ended there was the fuzzy sound coming off of one of the monitors and then a taxi radio call burped up. They played around with his equipment a little, but it kept popping up through the first 4 songs, culminating as Chad Wackerman was doing a quiet cymbal part and a radio call stepped on the end of it. Holdsworth's head dropped to his chest in frustration. They ended up shutting down about half of his rig and the show went on pretty well after that. During this whole time more and more people kept coming in so at the end of the show there was maybe a hundred. The move of the show from Ann Arbor to Detroit was not announced very well and most only became aware when they got to the venue and saw the poster.

After the show the band hung out in the lobby and had their dressing room open. Alan seemed a little bugged by the whole thing, but was very nice and talked to everyone that approached him. They'd only found out about the venue change a few hours before arriving and were not aware of the possible radio issues. There was also a police station about a 1/2 mile away. When I saw him on one of the tours when he was using the Synthaxe pretty much exclusively some thing similar happened, but it was fixed pretty quickly.

So your experience is something Alan knew a little bit about.

 

I haven’t seen anyone mention Whitney Houston yet. She touched a lot of people and her decline and death was a damn shame. Her daughter died even younger under similar circumstances.

 

I was overcome when Tim Hardin died just after his 39th birthday in 1980.

I had spent some time with him a decade earlier and will always have the letter that he wrote to me in the margins of pages torn from a magazine as he sat on a plane, needing to reach out. Though he was in great spirits at what was his homecoming concert, it turned out to also be his farewell concert.

I believe Tim was a terribly lonely spirit. This image, taken around the time we met, is also the image burned in my memory from our very first encounter. He had his face buried in his hands, and took them away as he heard me passing by and looked at me just as he does here.



But Tim was a happy person at his last concert just a short while before his death.

 

Absolutely. Whitney Houston's death caused millions to weep.

 

Booker Little - Wikipedia just 23

 

He struck me as a truly humble, down-to-earth man, and in the world of musical virtuosos, that is a true rarity. His style of music is one I've never been a particular fan of (technical proficiency normally bores me - a kid whose first "favorite band" was the Replacements), but his style brought quite a bit of emotion and innovation to what I've always found to be a soulless medium. And he just seemed like such a great guy.

I found out about his death through Twitter's stupid "trending" sidebar, which is one of the more depressing things that's happened in my life. If anything I like is trending on Twitter, it means the rest of my day is going to be miserable.

I'm trying to remember, did Holdsworth play on any Zappa albums?