The Cruelest and Saddest Deaths in Music History

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Tribute, Dec 13, 2018.

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  1. Alan1958

    Alan1958 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow , Scotland
    John Lennon
    .................................................................................................................................................................................. ... Everyone else
     
  2. rushed again

    rushed again Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    This. So miserable.
     
  3. In the summer of 1973 record producer Tommy Scott was on holiday in Rothesay...

    ...and he heard 9 year old Lena Zavaroni singing in a band with her father and uncle on the Scottish island of Bute.

    Scott contacted impresario Phil Solomon, which resulted in his partner Dorothy Solomon becoming Zavaroni's manager.

    ...in 1974 Lena Zavaroni won the UK TV talent show Opportunity Knocks (hosted by the execrable Hughie Green):-

    [​IMG]

    It wasn’t long before Lena was a sensation in America.

    ...Incredibly Lena even performed at the White House for US President Gerald Ford.

    ...sadly from the age of 13 Lena started suffering from Anorexia Nervosa.

    As Lena grew up she was never off British TV.

    Lena continued to have anorexia throughout the 1980s (and at one point her weight dropped to just 4 stone).

    Terry Wogan in a TV interview said to Lena:-

    “We’d all like to see you back to your more chunky self”

    ...well done Terry - that’s just the thing to say to someone suffering from Anorexia!

    In 1989 Lena married computer consultant Peter Wiltshire.

    The couple settled in North London and things seemed to be looking up for Zavaroni...

    ...but sadly the marriage only lasted 18 months.

    Also around this time Zavaroni's mother Hilda died of a tranquilliser overdose...

    ...and then a fire destroyed all of Lena’s show business memorabilia.

    Lena now moved to Hoddesdon (which is quite close to my home in Hertfordshire).

    [​IMG]

    Poor Lena was by now living on state benefits...

    ...even worse - in 1999 she was accused of stealing a 50p packet of jelly.

    For a long time Lena had been suffering from depression...

    A surgical operation was planned (that was falsely reported to be a lobotomy)...

    The operation seemed to go well...

    After a week Lena was making telephone calls, cheerful and engaging in conversation.

    Zavaroni even asked her doctor...

    ...if there was any chance that she would get back on stage and sing again.

    But tragically just three weeks after the operation...

    ...Lena's weight had dropped to less than five stone and she died from bronchial pneumonia on 1st October 1999 (she was 35 years old).

    Lena was buried at Hoddesdon Cemetery in Hertfordshire.

    Lena’s friend and fellow child star Bonnie Langford said:-

    "I went to Lena's funeral. It was a bit of a circus.

    As they brought her coffin down...

    ...this black butterfly flew off her coffin.

    ...and I said:-

    There she Goes"

    This was Lena's last TV appearance:-

     
  4. Alan1958

    Alan1958 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow , Scotland
    She had the talent to become huge, but as you've highlighted, it just never seemed to work out for her.
    The material didn't help, which was so common in that era of Engelbert etc .

    A BOND song would have given her the career she deserved.
    Always think of her when I'm near BUTE.
    Watching that clip, man, you just want to give her a hug
     
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  5. Flippikat

    Flippikat Forum Resident

    Having just discovered Cardiacs in the last year, it just amazed me how much Blur took after them - especially in the Britpop years.

    You could even argue that Blur were just Cardiacs with the rough-edges sanded-down.
     
  6. versionsound

    versionsound The six strings that drew blood

    Kemistry from Drum & Bass DJ duo Kemistry & Storm (my favorite D&B DJs, period, BTW) was killed in a traffic accident coming home from a gig. A cast iron cat’s eye from the road (apparently a road stud of some sort) was kicked up by another vehicle, smashed through the windshield, and killed her instantly. That was 1999, and it still deeply bums me out.
     
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  7. Eesfahanian

    Eesfahanian Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Boston
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  8. piston broke

    piston broke Forum Resident

    Terrific post.

    Oddly "the execrable Hughie Green" was Paula Yates' father (died young, drug overdose) - one time partner of Michael Hutchence (died young, in odd circumstances).
     
    Theadmans likes this.
  9. Orthogonian Blues

    Orthogonian Blues A man with a fork in a world full of soup.

    Location:
    London, UK
    Yes. Cliff had so much more to give.

    The actual way in which the bus crash which took his life happened made it even worse.
     
  10. VinylPhool

    VinylPhool Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY
    One of the best posts so far.. Schubert, Schumann, Gershwin AND the great Booker Little in the same post.
     
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  11. VinylPhool

    VinylPhool Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY
    I have read that Roberta Flack, who certainly knew him well, believes he was pushed out that hotel window.
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2021
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  12. Stone Turntable

    Stone Turntable Independent Head

    Location:
    New Mexico USA
    “Why merely make a study of rock deaths when one could rank them?” — Greil Marcus, 1979

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  13. bad_penny

    bad_penny Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn
    I'm sure some of these may have been mentioned. I've just skimmed the thread.

    Jacob Miller - killed in an automobile accident at 27.
    Kak Channthy - killed at 38 when a car hit her rickshaw.
    Ros Sereysothea and Sinn Sisamouth both killed by Khmer Rouge.
    Ofra Haza - Died from AIDS related illness at 42.
    Mark Sandman - Died on stage at 46 from a heart attack.
    Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Died at 47 from cancer.
    Ari Up - Died at 48 from cancer.
    Poly Styrene - Died at 53 from cancer.
    Karen Dalton - Died at 55 from AIDS related illness.
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2021
  14. mishima's dog

    mishima's dog Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow, Scotland
    Whenever I hear about Sam Cooke’s death I always remember the late great DJ Charlie Gillett saying that the real tragedy was how someone like him could find himself in that situation in the first place. Then he played this
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2021
  15. mike sullivan

    mike sullivan Blues Boy

    Location:
    hong kong
    Roy Buchanan
     
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  16. KCLizard

    KCLizard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montréal
    VinylPhool likes this.
  17. KCLizard

    KCLizard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montréal
    I am surprised that no one have mentioned Dolores O'Riordan of The Cranberries. She died at 46 of drowning in her hotel bathtub after drinking too much.

    When you learn more about her life, you realised that there was a lot of suffering going on.

    So Sad.

    Dolores O'Riordan - Wikipedia

    [​IMG]
     
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  18. Don Amos

    Don Amos Just passing through

    Location:
    England
    I Think you might be wasting your time :rolleyes:
     
  19. cypert2

    cypert2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cypert, AR
    Probably already mentioned, but Bessie Smith’s death was about as cruel and sad as they come.
     
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  20. VinylPhool

    VinylPhool Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY
    Amen to that. My musical life - especially deeper explorations in to jazz and classical - has been enriched immeasurably by @Tribute.
     
  21. miinsane

    miinsane Forum Resident

    Location:
    Waco, TX
    This is the best answer to this question.
     
  22. prudence2001

    prudence2001 Forum Resident

    She's probably been mentioned in the previous 51 pages, but cellist Jacqueline du Pré dying of multiple sclerosis was particularly cruel. She had to retire from performing at only 28.
     
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  23. VinylPhool

    VinylPhool Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY
    I have one. Emmanuel Feuermann - now probably only known to scholars and possibly cellists, was fast on his way to becoming the greatest cellist of his time and maybe of all time. Dying in 1942 at age 39 from a botched tonsillectomy, what there is that has survived of his recordings certainly gives credence to this statement. Don’t believe me? Just ask Toscanini who was inconsolable at the funeral and kept yelling MURDER! Artur Rubinstein and Jascha Heifetz both thought he was among the greatest…Heifetz said he was a once in a century talent. Rubinstein said he was better than Casals. Check out the Brahms Double Concerto in A - with Heifetz.

     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2021
  24. VinylPhool

    VinylPhool Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY
    Another that really should be mentioned here is John Coltrane who was only 40 when he died.
     
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  25. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    I agree, but you do know the story about her being turned away from a white hospital is apocryphal, right?
     
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