The Cruelest and Saddest Deaths in Music History

Yes that is why I called Hughie execrable. There is a rumour that Hughie Green drugged Paula's mother before impregnating her. This BBC drama is worth a watch:-

 

Brilliant 12-tone composer Anton Webern. Visiting his daughter and her new baby in Germany, he stepped outside at night to smoke a cigar so he wouldn't disturb the baby. He was shot dead by an American soldier who assumed that the fire from the match was a fire bomb. Filled with remorse, the American soldier sank into alcoholism, succumbing to it 10 years after Webern's death.

 

Another case in which a rumor was reported as fact. Cass Elliot did NOT die from choking on a ham sandwich. That was a sick joke that turned into a rumor.

 

Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues. She was in a car crash and her arm was almost severed from her body. From there, events have been debated, but an oft told story is that she was taken to a hospital nearby that would not treat African Americans, and bled to death while being transferred to a hospital farther away. (This account has been discredited.)

 

The last time I saw those cats here in Texas (Gene Clark 1988; Townes 1996) they played outstanding live shows.

 

Thank God he at least survived the Nazis. I’m going to have to give him a listen.

 

At least he was already 62 and left a body of work. One of my favorite composers.

 

Three of these have been mentioned, but they always get me--along with a fourth:

1 - Bobby Fuller, 1966. So much promise snuffed slowly (beaten/torture), and it's hard to forget a tidbit like gasoline found in the stomach as per the autopsy report. I always think of the old saying, "follow the money," as it relates to this case.
2 - Jessie Ed Davis, 1988. This talented guitarist's final moments in an L.A. apartment building's laundry room literally read like something out of a Cormac McCarthy or Hubert Selby novel.
3 - Mia Zapata, 1993. Brutally attacked and murdered on a deserted Seattle street by an itinerant with a long history of violence against women. Fortunately, Mia's Story has a (somewhat) happy ending: Seattle P.D.'s lab geeks preserved D.N.A./fluids found at the crime scene, and this cold case was forensically matched in 2003 to the scumbag responsible. Fun fact: per Rolling Stone (23 May 2021), Mia's murderer, Jesus Mezquia, "died in a hospital in Pierce Co., WA." Lesson to be garnered from Mia's Story: no matter where you might be, ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings--it's theorized she was attacked from behind while wearing headphones and listening to to her tunes, leaving her vulnerable, which is "golden opportunity" for predators.
4 - Al Jackson, Jr., 1975. Survives getting shot by an angry wife, only to return home to intruders who cut him down execution-style less than three months after the first incident. As with Bobby Fuller's unfortunate case, there's more under the surface here.

- siyt

 

Keith Whitley died of alcohol poisoning or an accidental overdose of alcohol

 

I thought David Ruffin was the one that was beating her.

 

I read a James Brown bio years ago that said he made the tour bus stop and took her outside and beat her in front of the entire busload

 

I actually have Lena's US album, which was actually released by Stax Records, which was nearing bankruptcy at the time & was desperate to have a hit.

 

Definitely a sad, drawn out end, but I’ve heard horror stories of how he abused his wives and children. Making his son sleep and eat in the dog house to “teach him a lesson”, beating his kids & wives. Ripping off his bands, taking credit for their compositions and parts as his own, breaking their spirits…I’m guessing the people fighting over his estate felt he owed them and had more concern for the money than burying him with dignity. Sad end to a cruel and selfish life lived.

 

More significantly, you could consider us actually "coming in at the middle of the story", if there are scarred descendants acting out in the world, we're all beneficiaries of that as well.

My wife is currently assisting/taking care of /seeing to the care of a little old lady, who apparently scarred her own daughter to the point she's a holy terror as well...and the granddaughter, while appearing stable, seems to have some issues as well. The little old lady my wife is being a saint about being an advocate for...has now left two other generations of PITA's on our doorstep, that we most likely won't be rid of in our lives for some years...and, it probably won't stop once the little old lady meets her eventual conclusion.

 

I can’t understand why her husband let her be filmed like this. It never should have been public. So sad

 

I STILL hadn’t heard this! I need to look it up now. I always heard the story of him driving fast and recklessly and dying for it. Thanks for pointing this out.

 

Nick Drake?

 

The other driver was cited for cutting him off., But they think they might have BOTH been going about 65 in a 55.. A little over but hardly the “Wreckless” dude they made him out to be.. When Detroit steel (1950 Ford Custom) meets a tin can (55’ Porsche), there can only be one outcome

 

Sam Cooke

Tammi Terrell

Marvin Gaye

Nat "King" Cole

 

Have we mentioned Donny Hathaway?

 

Maybe in some cases but I don't think you can just right off all addicts as a waste of time. Plenty of them can overcome addiction with the right mentality and support.

 

I’m 65 years old and was born and raised 30 miles from where it happened. No, she wasn’t turned away from a white hospital, because in those days it would of never entered anyone’s mind to even attempt to take her to a white hospital. If they would had there is little doubt she would of been turned away.

 

Poor Bill Rieflin
cancer came back , in unspeakable pain while on the road with king Crimson , tumour so big it cracks his rib cage in Tokyo
wife diagnosed with terminal cancer,
he nurses her and watches her die then his father dies then Bill died

 

Sorry, maybe my sarcasm wasn’t very clear, i meant “you’re wasting your time with someone who believes there’s nothing sad about addiction and that it’s all self inflicted” or words to that affect. Really angers me that someone can think in this way ( in this day and age and on a music forum of all places ) but didn’t want to flag them up and start an argument, hence the not very clear sarcasm