Forums → Popular Media → Deceased Music Artists "R.I.P." (General Discussion)
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Since a lot of music artists have died over the past time and no general thread was available to discuss these great artists (personal preferences set aside), I decided to start one to have a place to discuss them and what they achieved and gave to us to remember them by!
Feel free to add any artists that passed away recently, no need to add artists that are deceased long ago, since that would only fill this thread with unuseful information already known to the world. So... Recently deceased artists only!!
Rest In Peace...
To start the thread off, two wonderful artists have passed recently, one know by his hits and one known a bit less -unless you are a fan of the old school Rock Genre... first:
# Jimmy Ellis of The Trammps (74 y.o.a.)
Jimmy Ellis, frontman of the Trammps, has died at the age of 74. He passed away yesterday in Rock Hill, South Carolina from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
Ellis was best known as the singer of the band's 1976 song "Disco Inferno", which became a smash hit in the United States in 1978 after it was included on the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever. The Trammps also scored hits on the R&B charts with their cover of Judy Garland's signature tune "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart", "Hold Back the Night" and "The Night the Lights Went Out", which was inspired by the New York City blackout of 1977.
(Source: www.rollingstone.com)
What he has left us to enjoy still...
* Disco Inferno
* Shout
* Hold Back The Night
* Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart
* The Night the Lights Went Out
Another (completely different) artist that has died recently...
# Ronnie Montrose (64 y.o.a.)
Ronnie Montrose, who is best known for his fiery guitar work as a member of the band Montrose, died Saturday. It is believed that the cause of death was prostate cancer, which he had been battling for the past few years.
"A few months ago, we held a surprise party for Ronnie Montrose's 64th birthday," a statement said on Montrose's official website. "He gave an impromptu speech, and told us that after a long life, filled with joy and hardship, he didn't take any of our love for granted. He passed today. He'd battled cancer, and staved off old age for long enough. And true to form, he chose his own exit the way he chose his own life. We miss him already, but we're glad to have shared with him while we could."
Born in Denver, Colorado, Montrose got his first break when he was invited to play on Van Morrison's 1971 album, Tupelo Honey. Additional appearances on recordings by Herbie Hancock, Boz Scaggs, and the Edgar Winter Group soon followed before he formed his own band, Montrose, in 1973. In addition to the guitarist, the band consisted of a then-unknown Sammy Hagar on vocals, as well as bassist Bill Church and drummer Denny Carmassi.
The quartet issued one of rock's all-time great debuts that year, their Zeppelin-esque album, Montrose, which spawned such soon-to-be hard rock standards as "Rock the Nation," "Bad Motor Scooter," "Space Station #5," "Rock Candy" and "Make It Last," all of which featured Montrose's tasty guitar playing. Hagar, however, would only remain with the band for one more release (1974's Paper Money) before exiting the group.
Still, the two Hagar/Montrose albums proved influential to subsequent bands, as evidenced by all the rock acts covering Montrose tunes, including Iron Maiden, who covered "I've Got the Fire" and "Space Station #5." Interestingly, Van Halen (the group Hagar would eventually front for two separate stints) would cover the songs "Rock Candy" and "Make It Last" during their early club days.
Montrose the group (with singer Bob James filling Hagar's spot) would soldier on for a few more releases in the Seventies before the guitarist issued an all-instrumental solo album, 1978's Open Fire. He went on to form Gamma, which issued three albums between 1980 and 1983. From the Eighties onward, Montrose would alternate between issuing additional recordings from Montrose, Gamma, and as a solo artist.
Ronnie Montrose and Sammy Hagar appeared to eventually bury the hatchet, as the original Montrose line-up appeared on the singer's 1997 solo effort, Marching to Mars, for the song "Leaving the Warmth of the Womb," and even played together again on stage several times afterwards. For the past few years, Montrose had played solo shows throughout the U.S.
(Source: www.rollingstone.com)
What he has left us to enjoy still...
* Bad Motor Scooter
* Rock Candy
* Space Station #5
* Rock The Nation
For the both of them... Rest In Peace... your contribution to the world of music will be missed!
- 51 Replies
kurt cobain
NOOOOOOOOOOO wait i change mine stevie ray vaughan or jimmi hendrix
@ fracell : It's not a competition thread you know...
LOL As for the rest of the posts... funny to see how everyone jumps the thread to write posts, the very minute I state that it was supposed to be about the recent passing away of music artists - but now allow older 'fame-deaths' to be included! *grins* =P
Anyway... to add my further two cents worth:
This legend and this band really deserve a place in this thread then! \\m//_ _\\m//
# Ronny James Dio - 'Godfather of Metal' (67 y.o.a.)
Ronald James Padavona (July 10, 1942 - May 16, 2010), better known as Ronnie James Dio, was an American heavy metal vocalist and songwriter.
He performed with, amongst others, Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, and his own band Dio. Other musical projects include the collective fundraiser Hear 'n Aid. He was widely hailed as one of the most powerful singers in heavy metal, renowned for his consistently powerful voice. He often ranks as one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time in various online polls and lists. He is credited with popularizing the "metal horns" hand gesture in metal culture.
Prior to his death, he was collaborating on a project with former Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Vinny Appice, under the moniker Heaven & Hell, whose only studio album, The Devil You Know, was released on April 28, 2009.
Dio died of stomach cancer on May 16, 2010. One of the last songs he recorded was titled "Metal Will Never Die".
(source: en.wikipedia.org)
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# Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines of 'Lynyrd Skynyrd' (resp. 29, 28 and 29 y.o.a.)
On October 20, 1977, just three days after the release of Street Survivors, and five shows into their most successful headlining tour to date, Lynyrd Skynyrd's chartered Convair CV-300 ran out of fuel near the end of their flight from Greenville, South Carolina, where they had just performed at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium, to LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Though the pilots attempted an emergency landing on a small airstrip, the plane crashed in a forest in Gillsburg, Mississippi. Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray were killed on impact; the other band members (Collins, Rossington, Wilkeson, Powell, Pyle, and Hawkins) and road crew suffered serious injuries.
Following the crash and the ensuing press, Street Survivors became the band's second platinum album and reached #5 on the U.S. album chart. The single "What's Your Name" reached #13 on the single airplay charts in January 1978.
The original cover sleeve for Street Survivors had featured a photograph of the band, particularly Steve Gaines, engulfed in flames. Out of respect for the deceased (and at the request of Teresa Gaines, Steve's widow), MCA Records withdrew the original cover and replaced it with a similar image of the band against a simple black background. Thirty years later, for the deluxe CD version of Street Survivors, the original "flames" cover was restored.
Lynyrd Skynyrd disbanded after the tragedy, reuniting just once to perform an instrumental version of "Free Bird" at Charlie Daniels' Volunteer Jam V in January 1979.
They are currently reunited and frequently tour with a new linup, in tribute to the deceased band members.
(source: en.wikipedia.org)
There... several legends added! =)
Sadly... it's time to revive this thread... several more people have died during the past days... =/
# Greg Ham from Men at Work (58 y.o.a.)
Men at Work member Greg Ham, best known for playing the iconic flute solo on the Australian group's 1982 hit "Down Under", was found dead in his Melbourne home on Thursday (April 19) at the age of 58.
According to the Associated Press, in keeping with local customs, Victoria state police would not confirm any details of the death or whether the musician died of suspicious circumstances. His body was discovered after two friends who had not heard from Ham for a while went to check on him.
Though Men at Work enjoyed global success in the early 1980s with their #1 album Business As Usual, which contained the hits "Who Can It Be Now" and "Down Under," they came under scrutiny in 2009 when a publishing company claimed that keyboardist/saxophonist/flutist Ham's solo was lifted from a beloved children's campfire song, "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree." The company sued, and in 2010, a judge ruled that the band had copied the melody⨠and that it should pay 5 percent of past profits.
The song was written by Men at Work singer Colin Hay in 1978, a year before Ham joined the band and added the solo, which court documents said he'd suggested in order to give the tune some "Australian flavor." CNN reported that Ham testified that he'd head the song while growing up in the 1950s and was "retty sure" the Kookaburra tune was in his school's songbook. Though Hay said he wasn't aware of the original until much later, the AP reported that the controversy had weighed heavily on Ham, who was worried it would mar his musical legacy.
"It has destroyed so much of my song," he told an Australian paper after the 2010 ruling. "It will be the way the song is remembered, and I hate that. I'm terribly disappointed that that's the way I'm going to be remembered â" for copying something."
Despite his fears, "Down Under" remains the unofficial anthem for Australia and came in fourth in a 2001 music-industry survey of the best Australian songs. Men at Work broke up in 1985, and Ham had been working as a guitar teacher in recent years.
(Source : www.MTV.com)
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# Levon Helm from The Band (71 y.o.a.)
Levon Helm, singer and drummer for the Band, died on April 19th in New York of throat cancer. He was 71. 
"He passed away peacefully at 1:30 this afternoon surrounded by his friends and bandmates," Helm's longtime guitarist Larry Campbell tells Rolling Stone. "All his friends were there, and it seemed like Levon was waiting for them. Ten minutes after they left we sat there and he just faded away. He did it with dignity. It was even two days ago they thought it would happen within hours, but he held on. It seems like he was Levon up to the end, doing it the way he wanted to do it. He loved us, we loved him."
In the late Nineties, Helm â" whose singing anchored Band classics like "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Up on Cripple Creek," "Rag Mama Rag," and "The Weight" â" was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent 28 radiation treatments, eventually recovering his voice. In recent weeks, however, Helm had canceled a number of shows, including one at the New Orleans Jazz Fest on April 27th and another in Montclair, New Jersey. A note posted to his website on Tuesday from his daughter Amy and wife Sandy said that Helm was in the "final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey. Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration...he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage."
(Source : www.rollingstone.com)
Sadly... there's more to follow... =/
Somehow I seemed to have missed a legend that passed away in April a few weeks ago... =/
The legend I'm talking about is the one man indirectly responsible for the love of playing a guitar by 3 of the Beatles, Tommy Iommi and several others! Namely...
# Bert Weedon (91 y.o.a.)
Known as 'Mr. Guitar', Bert Weedon was indirectly responsible for the guitar playing of three of the Beatles, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Tony Iommi and Brian May. The British guitarist published 'Play in a Day' in 1957. The book went on to be listed as an inspiration to a generation of classic rockers.
As a player, he backed stars like Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland and enjoyed a successful solo career that included the 'Guitar Boogie Shuffle' record. Weedon died at his home in Beaconsfield, England on April 20, succumbing to an illness he had been battling for quite some time. He was 91 years old...
(Source : www.ultimateclassicrock.com)
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And the list is still not finished as there has been another death I seemed to have failed to post in this thread...
# **** Clark (82 y.o.a.)
'America's oldest teenager', **** Clark passed away on April 18. He was 82 years young. **** Clark began his nearly 60-year career in show business at age 17 as a radio announcer for Utica's WRUN. He went on to become the host of 'American Bandstand' from 1956 to 1989. The program had a massive impact on pop culture, and provided the first national television exposure for the first few generations of rockers.
Whether it was 'Where The Action Is', 'New Year's Rockin' Eve', or the '$25,000 Pyramid' (to name a few), Clark always had his eye on the prize and his hand in the business. In 1993 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Clark suffered a stroke in 2004 and never fully recovered. He is fondly remembered by countless musicians and fans around the world.
(Source : www.ultimateclassicrock.com)
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And more...
# Richard Teeter from "The Dictators" (61 y.o.a.)
Former Dictators drummer Richard Teeter passed away this April at age 61. Teeter joined the legendary NYC rockers just after the release of their classic 1975 debut album 'The Dictators Go Girl Crazy'. He would stay with the band for two more albums until their first break up in 1979.
The Dictators have often been called the missing link between the late 60's rebels like the Stooges and MC5 and the later punk era.
No other information has been made available, just a simple post on the Dictators website saying "Sad news to report on the passing of the former Dictators drummer. Rest in peace, brother. More to come ..."
(Source : www.ultimateclassicrock.com)
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And last in this post, but certainly NOT least is one of the people responsible for your ear-full of Rock music at any given time or any given place... and as loud as you want it!
# Jim Marshall (88 y.o.a.)
The inventor of the amplifier that bore his name, Jim Marshall, passed away at age 88 on April 5th after battling cancer and suffering several strokes. The sound of rock music would be very different were it not for Marshall establishing the now legendary British company in 1962.
Volume, power, versatility? Marshall's equipment delivered it all and quickly became the most in demand method of on-stage and in-studio amplification, especially for those who love it loud. (YEAH!)
Jim Marshall, we thank you! And bow with dignity...
(Source : www.ultimateclassicrock.com)
That's that for now... =/
Adam Nathaniel Yauch; (August 5, 1964 â" May 4, 2012[1][2]) was an American rapper and songwriter best known as the founding member of hip hop trio the Beastie Boys. He was frequently known by his stage name, MCA.
Gary Moore, died last year, on 6th of February 2011.
He sang the Blues and played the Rock, he had a decent voice and was great at the guitar. He had a successful solo career but also played with a lot of bands and had acts with many other musicians, like Thin Lizzy or B.B. King.
Just listen to Out in the Fields to have an impression of his guitar playing.
Sadly it's only a few month after I first heard about him that he died. I really love some of his rock songs like 'Over The Hills And Far Away'.
Funny enough, the first song I linked was covered by Sonata Arctica and the second by Nightwish
Long live Ireland and it's music and musicians!
-Nujabes was a Japanese hip hop producer, he was born in 1974 and died in 2010 ( in a car accident ).
Here some of his songs :
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- Kurt Cobain was an singer and guitarist of the band Nirvana, he was born in 1967, and died in 1994 in his home (he commited suicide).
He was a legend of of the grunge music.
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I think everybody know him.
Jimmy Hendrix was a legend of rock, he died when he was 27, in 1970, he was considered like the best guitarist in music history ( like the guitarist Slash of the band Guns and Roses).