Bring Out Your Dead! The celebrity death thread....

I missed the news of Keith Reid’s passing.

https://variety.com/2023/music/news/keith-reid-whiter-shade-of-pale-dead-1235567879/

Ah, the days when a band could afford a house lyricist. Wishing you good health, Peter Sinfield.

RIP to Ryuichi Sakamoto, electronic music pioneer whose work with the Yellow Magic Orchestra and solo inspired countless synth musicians from Thomas Dolby to Mantronix. One of the top three instrumental electronica artists IMO, alongside Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre.

Edited to add this:

Klaus Teuber, creator of Catan, has passed, aged 70 years. 
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/apr/05/klaus-teuber-creator-board-game-catan-dies

ridski said:

RIP to Ryuichi Sakamoto, electronic music pioneer whose work with the Yellow Magic Orchestra and solo inspired countless synth musicians from Thomas Dolby to Mantronix. One of the top three instrumental electronica artists IMO, alongside Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre.

Edited to add this:

NPR did a report on him and his music.  A lot of musicians collaborated with him.

yahooyahoo said:

NPR did a report on him and his music.  A lot of musicians collaborated with him.

I had the 12” vinyl of this collaboration with Thomas Dolby from 1985. Absolutely stunning stuff.

Michael Lerner, age 81.  Actor and Oscar nominee.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/09/entertainment/michael-lerner-death/index.html

yahooyahoo said:

Michael Lerner, age 81. Actor and Oscar nominee.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/09/entertainment/michael-lerner-death/index.html

Memorable, too, as Arnold Rothstein in Eight Men Out.

Still with us: Michael Learned, who turned 84 yesterday.

DaveSchmidt said:

yahooyahoo said:

Michael Lerner, age 81. Actor and Oscar nominee.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/09/entertainment/michael-lerner-death/index.html

Memorable, too, as Arnold Rothstein in Eight Men Out.

Still with us: Michael Learned, who turned 84 yesterday.

"So long, suckers."

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/11/al-jaffee-legendary-mad-magazine-cartoonist-dies-aged-102 

Amazing career, working until age 99. 

Rick Wolff, a book editor and son of legendary sportscaster Bob Wolff, who hosted a Sunday morning sports parenting show on WFAN died of brain cancer at 71. Years ago, SOM Baseball brought him in to talk to the coaches and he told this story:

Though his son and his friends were longtime baseball players, he was shocked to realize that they had no real concept of playing "unorganized" ball, just choosing up sides with no adult supervision and playing. So he told his son he'd reserve a field for four Sunday mornings in the fall and drive him over with some equipment, but then stand back and do and say nothing.

The first weekend, some kids went and many were lost. Some came over to him to ask permission along the lines of "Can I pitch?" or "Can I try hitting lefty?" He kept telling them, "It's YOUR game, do whatever you like." Apparently, word got around that this was fun, because several more kids came for week two. By week three, a few parents showed up to watch. In the fourth and final week, it started to resemble a Little League atmosphere as now a lot of parents were watching.

After the last day ended, a parent came over to Rick as they were leaving and said, "Thanks for setting this up. My son really loved it. Next year, we've got to get this organized!" 

https://nypost.com/2023/04/11/rick-wolff-wfan-host-dead-at-71-after-brain-cancer-battle/

I think Mary Quant and her ideas for women’s fashion affected all of our generations’ lives in one way or another. I certainly remember the shockwaves when my older sister first started wearing the new ‘length’ skirts, and when girls wanted our school uniforms to have more modern (‘less modest’) hemlines.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-13/fashion-designer-mary-quant-dies-age-93/102221248

Thank you, Mary Quant, for inspiring so many of us to learn to hem, and to recycle preloved clothes. 

I had no idea that author Anne Perry was originally a New Zealander, nor that she’d recently died:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65261971

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/12/anne-perry-killer-turned-writer-dies-84

I enjoyed reading her novels, and watching some that had been made into tv films or miniseries.  I hadn’t connected the dots about her youth. 

She had a long life. I hope she felt it was a good one. Her books brought delight and companionship to millions of readers around the world. That’s quite an achievement. 

joanne said:

I had no idea that author Anne Perry was originally a New Zealander, nor that she’d recently died:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65261971

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/12/anne-perry-killer-turned-writer-dies-84

I enjoyed reading her novels, and watching some that had been made into tv films or miniseries.  I hadn’t connected the dots about her youth. 

She had a long life. I hope she felt it was a good one. Her books brought delight and companionship to millions of readers around the world. That’s quite an achievement. 

This is a pretty good movie.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Creatures

yahooyahoo said:

This is a pretty good movie.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Creatures

Pre-fame Peter Jackson, Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey. 

Good morning from your future, 25 April. Today is ANZAC Day on which we remember the fallen at Gallipoli in Türkiye, in WW1.  These days we remember the fallen of all forces, especially as thousands visit visit the battle site each year for dawn commemorative services.  ANZAC Day is a bit like your Veterans’ Day, honouring all military veterans since WW1, even though it’s named for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. 
We all wear rosemary and poppies to remember the fallen:  wild rosemary grew everywhere at Gallipoli, and poppies on other battlefields. 

What a remarkable souvenir from the original ANZACs:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/25/message-from-cairo-unique-audio-of-original-anzac-recorded-during-first-world-war-speaks-across-the-years

Play the recording, and appreciate the youthful enthusiasm of the young man reassuring his loved ones. 
RIP. 

Harry Belafonte, age 96, died this morning in his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/25/entertainment/harry-belafonte-death/index.html

Rest easy Harry, together again.

Jerry Springer 

Broderick Smith. 
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-01/broderick-smith-musician-and-dingoes-frontman-dies-aged-75/102286968 

Way Out West, Faded Roses, and soooo much more with that incomparable harmonica

Gordon Lightfoot, at the age of 84.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/02/gordon-lightfoot-canadian-singer-songwriter-dies-aged-84

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/gordon-lightfoot-best-songs-1234716384/

So many songs that penetrated to the heart.

marksierra said:

Gordon Lightfoot, at the age of 84.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/02/gordon-lightfoot-canadian-singer-songwriter-dies-aged-84

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/gordon-lightfoot-best-songs-1234716384/

So many songs that penetrated to the heart.

Sad. I’m a huge fan. 

joanne said:

Broderick Smith. 
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-01/broderick-smith-musician-and-dingoes-frontman-dies-aged-75/102286968 

Way Out West, Faded Roses, and soooo much more with that incomparable harmonica

I saw Dingoes warm up a college campus show many decades ago.  Can't even remember for sure what the lead band was.  I jut recall thinking they were the loudest act I'd ever seen.  My ears are still ringing.

We don’t seem to do ‘quiet rock’ or ‘quiet bush ballads’ here; it must be all the unsettled land between pubs and gig venues 

bub said:

I saw Dingoes warm up a college campus show many decades ago.  Can't even remember for sure what the lead band was.  I jut recall thinking they were the loudest act I'd ever seen.  My ears are still ringing.

For some reason, I’ve been listening to a fair bit of Gordon Lightfoot over the past couple of weeks, while doing housework, cat-sitting etc.  Such a shock to hear the news today. I’ve loved his guitar playing, and his word pictures since I was a young teenager; his albums were among the first I bought, and treasured for decades. 

I loved his hit The Morning After Blues, and the way he sang “Every hiiiii-way,” for years and years.

DaveSchmidt said:

I loved his hit The Morning After Blues, and the way he sang “Every hiiiii-way,” for years and years.

I think the song and lyric is "Carefree Highway" but yeah, great.   "If You Could Read My Mind," I think his first big hit, never wears on me either.

bub said:

I think the song and lyric is "Carefree Highway" but yeah, great. "If You Could Read My Mind," I think his first big hit, never wears on me either.

Since learning the song’s real title, and the actual lyric, I’ve loved it for even more years and years.

I think Canada has punched above its weight in the folk/folk rock songbook - The Band, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen and more.

I guess it was 2019. I spent a couple of days in Montreal. There was a mural of Leonard Cohen on the side of a building, facing down to the waterfront. Wonderful tribute.

Jerry Jerry Jerry