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R.I.P. Robbie Robertson

photo courtesy CBC

(Read more Musicians who died in 2023)

R.I.P. Robbie Robertson

His “weight” has now been lifted--

Guitarist and singer-songwriter Robbie Robertson, best known as front man of Americana pioneering group The Band whose songs included “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down,” “Up On Cripple Creek” and numerous others, died earlier today at the age of 80, confirmed to Variety by his management company.

Although no cause of death was specified, an extended illness had been previously disclosed and this may have been imminent, as the statement from his manager, Jared Levine reads in part: “Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas, and his children Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphine’s partner Kenny. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support the building of their new cultural center.”

Born Jaime Royal Robertson in Toronto, Canada on July 5th, 1943, to a Native American mother and Jewish father (who it would be revealed later, to really be someone else) who met at a local jewelry plating factory. The family moved frequently during his early years, but Robertson still managed to pick up a guitar early, entertaining his cousins and family, joining several bands in his teens and leaving high school before graduation in the process.

He notably joined Ronnie Hawkins’ rockabilly band (The Hawks) and would pick up his nickname, partially inspired by a band name taken from Robby the Robot of the sci-fi classic film, “Forbidden Planet.” While in Hawkins’ band, he would meet the remaining members of The Band (drummer Levon Helm, keyboardist Richard Manuel, organist Garth Hudson, bassist Rick Danko), forming their own group and eventually touring with Bob Dylan in 1965.

The next year following, they were also in the studio with Dylan, creating the classic Blonde on Blonde album and a series of home recordings eventually known as “The Basement Tapes.” As Dylan went his own way in 1968, the group humbly re-named themselves The Band and started work on their first album, Music From Big Pink, which was released that August.

The album, which contained the classic “The Weight”, would prove to have a major musical impact, both at the time and the future music it would go to inspire, influencing the biggest names in the business and resulting in numerous cover versions of the mostly Robertson-penned songs.

The rocket ride would continue but burn out after the course of eight years, with hits like “Up On Cripple Creek,” “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down,” and “The Shape I’m In” along the way- a successful set at Woodstock, the cover of Time magazine (a first for any North American band) seven studio albums during their tenure, and a massive 1974 stadium reunion tour with Dylan.

By 1976, Robertson was completely disillusioned about continuing to tour and Danko and Manuel had developed serious substance issues, so he made the decision to end the group. But would end things with a huge exclamation point, planning an all-star concert at The Winterland in San Francisco, featuring many of the group’s friends as musical guests and getting director Martin Scorsese to capture the event, resulting in one of the greatest concert films of all time.

Robertson and drummer Helm would feud over the film’s emphasis, royalties, songwriting credits, and other issues in a never-resolved rift that lasted past Helm’s death in 2012 (though Robertson would make an empathetic hospital visit to check in on his ill former bandmate).

The relationship between Robertson and Scorsese would grow as a result of the film The Last Waltz, resulting in a decades-long collaboration on several projects. Robertson also embarked on a solo career, though would forgo touring of any kind, despite releasing five solo albums, beginning with 1987’s acclaimed Robbie Robertson album, which featured appearances from the likes of U2, Peter Gabriel, and Lone Justice’s Maria McKee.

He would also continue producing and guesting on others’ albums, returning with 2011’s bluesy How to Become Clairvoyant, which featured Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Tom (Rage Against the Machine) Morello and Trent (Nine Inch Nails) Reznor, and 2019’s Sinematic, being his final solo release (two songs from which appeared in Scorsese’s “The Irishman” film). His music will be featured in Scorsese’s upcoming film, “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Robertson would come to embrace and become an activist and supporter for the Cayuga / Mohawk heritage of his mother’s side, and the many accolades bestowed upon him and/or the group include 1994 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (he would not attend though) and the Canadian Juno Hall of Fame; Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame; the Governor General's Performing Arts Award (Canada’s highest performing arts honor); and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Academy of Songwriters, the Grammy Awards, and the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, among numerous others.

“You put the load right on me, you put the load right on me” – Robbie Robertson “The Weight.”

1992 photo by Jorid Vidal - Redferns/Getty

John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

R.I.P. Sinead O' Connor

(courtesy BBC)

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Read More Sinéad O'Connor

R.I.P. Sinead O'Connor

Blessed with a uniquely powerful and unforgettable voice, Irish singer Sinead O’Connor has died at the young age of 56, confirmed to the BBC and Irish network RTE, by longtime friend and fellow musician Bob Geldof.

The statement reads in part, “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinead. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.” No other details provided, the cause of death is as of now, undetermined. 

O’ Connor was well-known, visually by her usually shaved head and wide eyes, and by incidents (some self-inflicted), and opinions outside of her music, that would also help define her career. She would release 10 studio albums, beginning with 1987’s Grammy-nominated breakout “The Lion and the Cobra” and sold millions of 1990’s World #1 single, the Prince-penned, “Nothing Compares 2 U,” which won a 1991 Grammy Award.

Her uncompromising controversies that embodied her true punk spirit, would make her an early victim of cancel culture, irrevocably antagonizing US audiences by famously ripping up a picture of the Pope, getting into a war of words with Frank Sinatra (and later a Miley Cyrus controversy) and boycotting the Grammy Award ceremonies in which she would win.

Sinead Marie Bernadette O’Connor was born on December 8, 1966, in Glenageary, a suburb of Dublin, to father, John, an engineer, and her mother, Johanna, was a dressmaker. She would speak in interviews and in her 2021 memoir, of a traumatic and abusive childhood, and early rebelliousness, which resulted in her being sent to reform schools.

When she was caught at 15 singing Barbra Streisand’s “Evergreen” at a wedding by In Tua Nua drummer Paul Byrne, she would leave boarding school to work as a waitress, performing singing “Kiss-o-grams” in costume on the side, and also was a vocalist in a local group, before being signed as a solo artist to Ensign Records.

After a collaboration with The Edge and duet with The The on “Kingdom of Rain” as well as her debut album, the worldwide breakthrough was her 1990 sophomore album which featured the song that would become her most successful, and the track she’s most associated with.

“Nothing Compares 2 U” was originally written for Prince’s side project, The Family, five years prior to O’Connor’s version, but was masterfully re-arranged by her and producer Nellee (Soul II Soul) Hooper, and the video of which was stark and simplistic, without props or backgrounds, focused on the singer herself to showcase the emotional impact of the song.

She would later accuse Prince of extreme jealousy (probably true) and some abuse and mistreatment when she visited him at his Paisley Park Studios (debatable). Prince would attempt to reclaim his song following, by working it into his own live repertoire, after O’Connor’s massive success.

O'Connor's later albums would explore different music styles including reggae, with 2014’s “I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss,” being her final studio release, though she had moved to London to finish a new album and initial worldwide touring plans for 2024-25 were in the making.

As her musical success decreased, erratic behavior, mental health issues, and newsworthy troubled incidents began to feature in headlines and detract from her musical artistry. She would marry four times and son Shane would tragically take his own life in 2022, at the age of 17.

She would also convert to Islam and started using the name Shuhada Sadaqat (among a couple others) in the constant search for her own truth, and is survived by her three remaining children, Jake, Yeshua, and daughter, Roisin and two brothers and a sister.

John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

R.I.P. Tony Bennett

(Read more Musicians who died in 2023)

R.I.P. Tony Bennett

Popular across numerous generations and a singer of the American Songbook for the ages, Tony Bennett died on Friday at his home in Manhattan at the age of 96, his publicist, Sylvia Weiner, confirmed.

Bennett was in declining health in recent years, learning he had Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, but continued to perform and record despite his illness; singing publicly live for a final time in August 2021, with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall for the concert special “One Last Time.”

Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born on Aug. 3, 1926, in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens. His parents’ marriage was arranged- father, Giovanni, had emigrated from Calabria, Italy, at 11, just before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in April 1906 and his mother, Anna, was born in NYC in 1899, having made the journey in her own mother’s womb.

“My father inspired my love for music,” Bennett wrote in his autobiography, but his father would die when Bennett was only ten. In addition to singing, he also gravitated toward art and painting at an early age, a second passion he would also pursue throughout his life.

Bennett attended the High School for Industrial Arts in Manhattan, but he never graduated, dropping out to work as a copy boy for the AP, in a laundry, and also as an elevator operator before being drafted in World War II to serve in Germany towards the end of the war.

He returned to New York in mid-1946 to begin a career as a musician, taking classes at the American Theater Wing via the GI Bill and sang in nightclubs in Manhattan and Queens under the early name of Joe Bari.

It was Bob Hope that gave him his famous stage name, catching Bari and Pearl Bailey, then asking him to open but under a different but also short name that would fit on a marquee,.

Signing to Columbia Records, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” was his first single in 1950 and audiences appreciated the warmth of his vocal delivery and related to his friendly, honest, and heartfelt stage demeanor.

Collaborations and hits followed in the 1960’s, winning his first two Grammy Awards in 1963, for his trademark song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” (his last Grammy win was just last year, for the album “Love for Sale,” with Lady Gaga). He would win twenty including a lifetime achievement award from the academy in 2001. and sold more than 60 million records including three Platinum albums, eight Gold, and 30 chart singles.

Musical trends would change during the 1970’s and 80’s but Bennett’s vision remained steadfast and unwavering to bend to trends of the day (other than a few covers of more contemporary songs), relying on his previous fan base to sustain his career through the rougher patches.

Leaving Columbia, he formed Improv Records, he recorded an acclaimed duet album with jazz pianist Bill Evans, but the label would soon fold and Bennett leaned more on his Vegas residencies for income. He returned to Columbia in the mid-80s as fans re-bought older albums on CD and was introduced to a newer generation by appearing on the 1993 MTV VMAs, which would lead to his MTV Unplugged special.

He would go on to collaborate on standards with the likes of kd lang, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse, Willie Nelson, and countless others, culminating in his most recent vocal partnership with Lady Gaga who paired on two studio albums and hit live performances.

Bennett is survived by wife Susan; sons Danny and Dae; daughters Johanna and Antonia Bennett; and nine grandchildren.

1960 photo by Don Hunstein

John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

R.I.P. Jane Birkin

Read More Serge Gainsbourg Gall, whose father penned songs for French greats Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour, rose to fame as a teenager with help from legendary singer and songwriter [Serge] Gainsbourg. ....

If you love French cinema and French music, you will know the name of the British/French actress and singer Jane Birkin. She recently passed away at the age of 76.

She first gained international fame for her musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. Her daughter with Serge, Charlotte Gainsbourg took on her parents’ interests of music (and acting) as she grew up.

Birkin/Gainsbourg first collaborated with their debut album in 1969. The two separated in 1980, and Birkin continued working as an actress and singer, appearing in various films and solo albums.

In addition to music and film, she also had her hands in fashion, lending her name to the Hermès Birkin handbag... although in 2015, she asked Hermes to take her name off the brand: “...Hermès's iconic and exorbitantly expensive Birkin Bag made its debut, and little about the tote has changed since. While the handbag's aspirational price point has increased over the years — now falling into the $10,500 to $150,000 range at retail — it may soon receive its most significant update yet, if only at the demand of its namesake, Jane Birkin. On Tuesday, PETA announced that the British-born actress and singer has asked Hermès to rename its crocodile bag after learning of the disturbing practices used in its production.”

Read more Musician Who Died in 2023.

Here are some recent musician deaths:

[16 Jul 2023] Jane Birkin (English-French singer and actress), 76 Singer and actress Jane Birkin has just died at the age of 76. The interpreter of "Je t'aime moi non plus", eternal muse of Gainsbourg, had experienced several health concerns in recent years. … via bfmtv

[16 Jul 2023] Walino (Italian rapper), 42 Bari mourns Nico 'Walino' Antonacci, a 42-year-old rapper who for years has narrated the city and the Baresità through his songs. The artist died after a battle with an incurable disease. … via baritoday

[12 Jul 2023] André Watts (American pianist and academic), 77, cancer The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is deeply saddened to announce the death of André Watts, distinguished professor of piano and the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music, on Wednesday, July 12, at age 77. … via indiana

[12 Jul 2023] Ryuchell (Japanese model and singer), 27, suicide On the 12th, it was revealed that media personality Ryuchell passed away. He was 27 years old. Around 5:30 pm on the 12th, he was found dead at his office in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo. … via indiana

[11 Jul 2023] Toni Carbone (Italian bass guitarist for Denovo), 62, heart attack Goodbye to Toni Carbone bassist of Denovo He was 62 years old, the condolences of Mario Venuti and Luca Madonia … via ilmattino

[11 Jul 2023] Sam Cutler (English tour manager for The Rolling Stones), 80, cancer Sam Cutler, the one-time stage manager for The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Eric Clapton, has died in Queensland at age 80. … via noise11

[11 Jul 2023] Yuzo Toyama (Japanese composer), 92 Yuzo Toyama, a conductor who has led the Japanese classical music world and is also known as the composer of "Rhapsody for Orchestra" based on Japanese folk songs, died of chronic kidney disease on the 11th. He passed away at his home in Nagano Prefecture. he was 92 years old. … via asahi

[10 Jul 2023] Bob Segarini (American-Canadian radio presenter and musician for The Wackers), 77 Bob Segarini lived life on his own terms…and he left life the same way. Bob died in his sleep on Monday night July 10th at Etobicoke General Hospital where he’d been for the past several months. … via fyimusicnews

[10 Jul 2023] Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky (German jazz musician), 89 The jazz musician Ernst-Ludwig "Luten" Petrowsky died this morning, as we learned from his wife Uschi Brüning. Last year he was honored with the German Jazz Prize for his life's work. The saxophonist, composer and author Ernst-Ludwig "Luten" Petrowsky significantly shaped the jazz scene in the GDR, but also had an international impact. … via rbb-online

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

R.I.P. George Winston

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R.I.P. George Winston

The rural folk/New Age instrumental pianist and principal performer on the Windham Hill Records label George Winston passed away on Sunday in Williamsport at the age of 74 of cancer, according to his publicist Jesse Cutler.

Winston lived in Santa Cruz, CA and had dealt with several forms of cancer for years while continuing to create and perform his music which required among other forms of care, a bone marrow transplant a decade ago.

George Winston III was born on Feb. 11, 1949, in Hart, MI to George (a geologist) and Mary (a secretary) Winston, growing in Mississippi, Florida and especially Montana, which triggered an early love for nature that would be reflected in his recordings.

He took piano lessons as a child, soon losing interest but upon hearing The Doors’ debut album with opening track “‘Break On Through (to the Other Side),” his musical re-awakening was quickly in full bloom.

Inspired by that band’s Ray Manzarek, Winston took up the organ, but soon switched to piano after discovering vintage Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson recordings and remained principally self-taught.

His first album, 1972’s “Piano Solos” (aka Ballads and Blues, on Takoma Records), was mostly ignored and after negotiating with producer William Ackerman, found himself on the fledgling Windham Hill Records label, breaking through on 1980’s “Autumn,” a series of seven piano solo tracks all inspired by nature.

Winston continued the calendar theme with two 1982 albums, the holiday-themed “December” (which went more than 3x Platinum) and “Winter Into Spring,” and again with 1991’s “Summer.” In 1994, “Forest,” won a Grammy Award for Best New Age album and he would be nominated four other times.

He broadened his interests, recording for children on 1984’s “The Velveteen Rabbit” (with Meryl Streep as narrator) and returned to his early inspiration on 2002’s “Night Divides the Day: The Music of the Doors”, but perhaps was better known for his interpretations of the music of Vince Guaraldi, the jazz pianist who composed the familiar themes for the animated “Peanuts” television episodes.

In later years, he even did an album of harmonica solos, and formed a label to record a niche genre he admired, Hawaiian slack-key guitar. He would perform and compose minimalist pieces while recovering from cancer, in the medical center’s auditorium, and released a 2014 benefit album which would donate its proceeds to Los Angeles’ City of Hope.

2019’s “Restless Wind” paid tribute to influences Sam Cooke, Stephen Stills, George and Ira Gershwin, Country Joe McDonald, and others, and his 20^th studio album “Night” was just released last month, featuring originals and interpretations of Leonard Cohen, Laura Nyro, Alan Toussaint songs, and more. George Winston is survived by his sister.

John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

R.I.P. Astrud Gilberto

(Read more Musicians who died in 2023)

R.I.P. Astrud Gilberto

read more! Bebel Gilberto Brazilian Bebel Gilberto is touring the US, starting in Washington on November 23rd. Her latest album is called All in One and I just read is mostly in Portuguese…

Seemingly an ageless wonder, “The Girl from Ipanema” has passed on,

Astrud Gilberto, whose vocal performance on the first song she ever recorded, “The Girl From Ipanema,” helped bring the lasting wave of Brazilian bossa nova into the 1960’s mainstream, died on Monday at the age of 83.

Gilberto’s son Marcelo confirmed she had died and asked their family friend and musician Paul Ricci to post the news on Facebook.

Gilberto recorded that famous song while married to the father of Brazilian bossa nova, singer/guitarist João Gilberto in 1963. While rehearsing in NYC with jazz performer Stan Getz during the recording for the classic Getz/Gilberto album, she recorded the version of the song that would make her famous for the rest of her life, hitting #5 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, winning the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and the album winning three Grammys, including Album of the Year.

Astrud Weinert was born on March 29, 1940, in Bahia, Brazil, to a German father, Fritz Weinert and Brazilian mother, Evangelina Weinert, both educators. Her parents would move the family to Rio and she became interested in music, meeting João Gilberto at age 19 and marrying him several months later.

Fellow musician Vinicius de Moraes actually wrote the original lyrics for “The Girl from Ipanema,” named after a beachside neighborhood in Rio where he and Antônio Carlos Jobim both watched a beautiful woman regularly walk by.

Gilberto would have increasing tensions within her marriage, resulting in an affair with Getz and an eventual divorce; but musically, she would sign as a solo performer with Verve Records with her first solo album from 1965, earning her a Grammy Award nomination. She would continue to record, ever popular in the US, but never as equally regarded with Brazilian critics.

Gilberto recorded eighteen studio albums, numerous compilations, and collaborations with the likes of Gil Evans, the James Last Orchestra, and a duet with George Michael on “Desafinado” for the AIDS-related benefit album, “Red Hot Rio”, effectively retiring after 2002’s final album, “Jungle”.

Astrud Gilberto is survived by her musician sons Marcelo Gilberto and Gregory Lasorsa, and two granddaughters.

 

Related, one of João Gilberto’s daughters from a following marriage, Bebel Gilberto, is a longtime bossa nova/jazz musician in her own right and plays the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis this August (though usually stops at the Dakota Jazz Club downtown).

John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

R.I.P. Tina Turner

Read more Musicians who died in 2023

R.I.P. TINA TURNER

The world lost a bonafide musical legend and singing icon as it was announced that Tina Turner had died on Wednesday at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, near Zurich, at the age of 83, confirmed by her publicist Bernard Doherty.

Though no cause of death was disclosed, Turner was in declining heath in recent years, recovering from a stroke and known to be struggling with a kidney disease, among other late life maladies.

Anna Mae Bullock was born on Nov. 26, 1939, in Brownsville, Tenn., near Memphis, spending her beginning years on the Poindexter farm in Nutbush, and singing in the choir of the Spring Hill Baptist Church. Her father, Floyd, oversaw the farm’s sharecroppers and was mentioned as having a "difficult" relationship with his wife, Zelma.

Young Anna would live with her grandmother after World War II and her parents separating, eventually re-locating to St. Louis to live with her mother and attend local public high school. While also still a teen, she first saw a young Ike Turner and his band perform at the local Manhattan Club, eventually gaining up the nerve to ask him if she could try singing during a performance intermission.

She eventually became a backup singer and was involved romantically with Ike, who christened her with a new stage name, inspired in part by character Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. The Ike Turner Revue would score a Billboard #2 on the R&B charts with 1958’s “A Fool in Love”.

Ike and Tina would eventually marry in 1962, marking more musical success for the pair and band, but also a tumultuous and often violent fourteen-year period, before Tina would finally leave. Their fame increased with hits along the way, notably their version of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary”- a song in her canon so much made her own definitive version, many people still don’t realize it is a cover. Ike Turner would have diminished musical and personal success post-Tina, eventually passing away in 2007 from a cocaine overdose.

The 1993 award-winning theatrical film (based on the book of the same name), "What’s Love Got to Do With It" chronicled much of that life and career-tipping period of time. The later 60s and into the 1970’s proved more challenging for Turner, whose 1966 Phil Spector-produced single “River Deep, Mountain High” was a musical milestone, but failed to sustain her popularity, more so in the U.S. than in the UK and overseas.

Meeting manager Roger Davies (who also managed Olivia Newton John) in the late 70s would eventually spark a return to her musical/stage essence and rejuvenate her career path to even bigger heights. Covers of “Ball of Confusion” and Al Green’’s “Let’s Stay Together", would pave the path for her May 1984 breakthrough album, Private Dancer which would go on to sell over 10 million copies, and win three main categories at the following year’s Grammy Awards.

She would set a Guinness World Records for attendance at a futbol stadium concert in Brazil and by 2000, would sell more concert tickets than any other solo performer in history. We were lucky enough to see her live at Sandstone (now Azura) Amphitheater in Bonner Springs KS in 1997 for a memorable show that featured a towering staircase she and her backups would first appear on, sing from, and dramatically leave from. Her 2008 World Tour (which would be her last) was launched that October in Kansas City, with two dates at the (then) Sprint Center.

In theaters, she would appear as The Acid Queen in The Who’s film, “Tommy” and Aunty Entity in 1985’s “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” providing the theme song for the film’s soundtrack, which would become yet another mega-hit.

Among her numerous accolades, she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along with Ike in 1991, and again as a solo artist in 2021, received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2005, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award in 2018.

Related, there was a recent critically acclaimed documentary on HBO simply called “Tina” and “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” the 12-time Tony Award-nominated stage musical based on her life opened in London in 2018, on Broadway in 2019. The show is currently touring, having recently run in Minneapolis in March and is scheduled in Kansas City for December 8, 2023.

She would eventually retire to Switzerland (also becoming a Swiss citizen) with her husband, German producer and music executive Erwin Bach, who survives her.

John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Remembering Andy Rourke

The Smiths: Stop Me if You Think You’ve Heard This One Before (signed by Andy Rourke, Mike Joyce, and Johnny Marr) Official Statement ANDREW MICHAEL ROURKE “ANDY ROURKE” Passed away at age 59 January 17, 1964 - May 19, 2023 MAY 19, 2023 (New York, NY) -- It is with deep sadness that we announce that Andy Rourke has passed away in the early hours today at age 59 in New York City at Memorial Sloan Kettering after a lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer. Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans. We request privacy at this sad time. Read More Andy Rourke First, this is indie dance club was celebrating its 14 Year Anniversary, and, second, guest DJ, Andy Rourke is the bassist of one of my favorite 80s band, The Smiths…. The Smiths Sad news earlier today as the world found out that Andy Rourke, former bassist for The Smiths, passed away at age 59 after a battle with pancreatic cancer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Center in New York. .…

The news of Andy Rourke’s death came to me suddenly on Friday. I had no idea the former The Smiths bassist was dying… but on retrospect, I should have seen it coming. Especially since I wrote about how Rourke and Johnny Marr came together to produce “Strong Forever” in Jan 2023. The two were friends since the age of 13, before joining The Smiths, and it was likely a dying man’s last request.

I’ve met Rourke before, at the first The Smiths Convention in Los Angeles in 1997. I have photos of Rourke and I, but this was before digital cameras, so the photos are in a photo album somewhere in my storage. I’ll have to dig for them at a later time and digitalize them for easier access.

What I can tell you is that they were nice when we met as fans, getting our albums and singles signed by them. I had them sign my “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before”, one of the last official releases in the UK and Japan (The Smiths’ singles were rarely released in America). I would later meet Johnny Marr and had them sign the same single. One day I hope to see Morrissey and have him sign the sleeve…

So, here’s a trivia, Rourke continued to work with Morrissey after the Smiths broke up. He wrote two of my favorite B-Sides, “Get Off the Stage” and “Girl Least Likely To”… but he also wrote my least favorite Morrissey song, “Yes I Am Blind” (and deaf too apparently after hearing that song). You can’t blame Rourke entirely, as with these collaborations, he would compose the music and then Morrissey would then add his lyrics to it.

The two biggest “bass” songs in The Smiths library are “This Charming Man” (New York Mix) and “Barbarism Begins At Home” (especially hearing a live version). The former is a rare remix. You see, DJ François Kevorkian remixed the song in 1983 for the nightclubbers and was pressed for NY club DJs. Morrissey hated the song, and had the song pulled out of circulation, according to the Peepholism book by Jo Slee.

The remix, which featured really heavy emphasis on Andy Rourke’s bassline, was lost to obscurity. I actually didn’t discover the remix until the 1992 re-issue of “This Charming Man” single… and it was a song unlike any Smiths song! Again, it’s a very bass-y mix, and it was almost laughable that it’s the bassist’s song of choice when he DJed, live in person, at the 14th Anniversary of Transmission in 2015.

It’s sad to see that with Rourke’s death, there will never, truly be a Smiths reunion. Everyone knew it would never happen, but now with one of the band member dead, perhaps it’s time for the remaining three to bury the hatchet.

In the meantime, we’ll always have The Smiths’ music… and go ahead and put on that New York remix of “This Charming Man”, in honor of the great Andy Rourke.

Note: Tomorrow, May 22, is Morrissey’s birthday... “I've come to wish you an unhappy birthday.”

Mike Joyce’s statement:

I don’t think Andy realised just how good a bass player he was. I don’t think Andy ever really embraced just how momentous his contribution towards music is. I don’t think he ever grasped that and realised that. He was such a self-effacing character, he never saw himself as a great bass player because it was so effortless for him and so easy for him. He just put the bass on and magic would happen.

Johnny Marr’s statement:

Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans.

Morrissey’s statement:

Sometimes one of the most radical things you can do is to speak clearly. When someone dies, out come the usual blandishments … as if their death is there to be used. I’m not prepared to do this with Andy. I just hope … wherever Andy has gone … that he’s OK. He will never die as long as his music is heard. He didn’t ever know his own power, and nothing that he played had been played by someone else. His distinction was so terrific and unconventional and he proved it could be done. He was also very, very funny and very happy, and post-Smiths, he kept a steady identity - never any manufactured moves. I suppose, at the end of it all, we hope to feel that we were valued. Andy need not worry about that.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

R.I.P. Andy Rourke (The Smiths bassist)

Read more Musicians who died in 2023

R.I.P. ANDY ROURKE

Sad news earlier today as the world found out that Andy Rourke, former bassist for The Smiths, passed away at age 59 after a battle with pancreatic cancer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Center in New York.

As one-fourth of one of the most influential bands of the 1980’s, his bass lines were often very recognizable and along with drummer Mike Joyce provided the vital musical backbone to so many memorable hit songs. “He didn’t ever know his own power, and nothing that he played had been played by someone else,” Morrissey has posted in tribute on his own site.

Andrew Rourke was born in Manchester, England on Jan. 17, 1964, to an English father and Irish mother and would receive an acoustic guitar from his parents at age 7, that would help define the rest of his life. He would meet future guitarist and band mate Johnny Marr in school at age 11 to begin a life-long friendship that would first pay dividends after The Smiths formed in 1982 and Marr suggested his childhood friend after other bassists weren’t working out for the group.

The Smiths’ first Top 10 hit in the UK would be “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” and a meteoric rise to success, would follow soon after. But, as quick as the rise was, so was the fall, as Morrissey fired Rourke (famously via postcard), due to continuing drug use, but Rourke would soon rejoin until the group’s permanent disbanding in 1987.

Never paid as equal partners, Rourke and Joyce would soon after sue their former bandmates for a more favorable share of profits, with Rourke eventually settling out of court, while Joyce’s suit proceeded. Any bad feelings soon must have become bygones, as Rourke would guest on Morrissey solo tracks such as 1989’s “Interesting Drug” and “Last of the Famous International Playboys” from 1990.

Rourke would continue playing bass on albums from others, even touring with Badly Drawn Boy and co-forming Jetlag, which became D.A.R.K.,even calling the late Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries as a one-time member. After O'Riordan’s death, Rourke formed Blitz Vega with guitarist/vocalist Kav Sandhu to release a batch of singles including Nov. 2022's "Strong Forever" which featured (you guessed it), Johnny Marr as guest guitarist. He would also start a second career as a club DJ, which is when we saw him spin back in 2015 at First Avenue in Minneapolis.

“Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans. We request privacy at this sad time.”, the issued statement regarding his death reads in part.

Andy Rourke with DJ Jake Rudh at First Avenue, Minneapolis MN 2015

John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

R.I.P. Gordon Lightfoot

Read more Musicians who died in 2023

R.I.P. GORDON LIGHTFOOT

Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian singer-songwriter whose many hits included “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “Sundown,” died Monday evening at the age of 84, of natural causes at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, spokesperson Victoria Lord said.

Just weeks ago, he had canceled all 2023 dates due to growing health concerns. In 2021, he postponed dates after suffering a fall at his home, which led to surgery, but was back a few months following, to re-open the renovated Massey Hall in Toronto. Prior to that, we caught him live in Minneapolis, shortly after returning to stages after a heart scare, so declining health had followed him for over the last decade.

Lightfoot was born in Orillia, Ontario on November 17, 1938, to parents who owned a local dry cleaning business. He first performed publicly in 4^th grade singing an Irish lullaby which was broadcast over his school's public address system. He would also sing in the choir of Orillia's St. Paul's United Church under the direction of choirmaster Ray Williams, who taught him how to sing with nuance and style and at the age of twelve, he won a singing competition and made his first of numerous appearances at Massey Hall.

His track and field and football skills as well as scholarly aptitude earned him scholarships at McGill's Schulich School of Music and the University of Toronto.

All the while, he pursued a musical career as well, eventually signing in the mid-60’s with Albert Grossman as a manager, who represented many name acts of the day, and would begin recording for United Artists.

Lightfoot would sign to Warner Bros/Reprise in 1970, which began his long string of hits, first breaking through with “If You Could Read My Mind” and going on to receive sixteen Juno Awards and nominated for five Grammy Awards, among numerous other accolades.

Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986, the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001, and in 2012, Lightfoot was inducted into the prestigious Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Lightfoot wed for a third time in 2014 and his last studio release was 2020’s Solo.

John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com