GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN

[RocDoc]

that is some very very freaky shit...he just couldn't get out of the (cyclic and temporary) pit of his depression coming at just the absolutely wrong moment, when people close to him were living their lives, figuring there was nowhere near that level of danger for him.
ouch.
the fuckin' alcohol right then didn't help either...a confluence of shitty circumstances and he's gone.
especially painful after everyone saying his cancer treatment had gone so well...

[Ayinger]

[maarts]

Dammit.

[Ayinger]

Like Montrose, another takes the gun....dammit.

BOB WELCH, Ex-Fleetwood Mac Guitarist, Dead in Apparent Suicide

Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Bob Welch was found dead in his home in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday, a police official told ABC News Radio. He was 66.

Welch was discovered dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound Thursday afternoon, the police official said.

Welch had recently been dealing with health issues, the source added. A suicide note was left at the scene.

abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/06/bob-welch-ex-fleetwood-mac-guitarist-dead-in-apparent-suicide-police-say/

[skvorecky]

Bill Doss of Olivia Tremor Control

[RocDoc]

the great great Michael Burks - July 30, 1957 – May 6, 2012

a complete surprise which i'd heard nothing about til i ran into a statement about his 'demise' on a blues site i hadn't been to for awhile.
i was like 'what? c'mon, no.'
heart attack at 54, shit.

great player with a style, to my ears, blending albert collins with luther allison.
a 'can't miss' excitement he had and that's gone now.
shit.

~~

Von Freeman - October 3, 1923 – August 11, 2012

a chicago institution with a worldwide rep.
hell, much of his family. chico, george...
...the only time i saw him play was an incredible duo show at the chicago cultural center with fantastic NYC pianist jason moran which completely blew my doors off.
moran played more 'straight' jazz with 'vonski' than anything i've been able to find by him since, but my god, how beautifully they played off of one another...

[skvorecky]

Tony Scott

[skvorecky]

....and Phyllis Diller

[RocDoc]

diller at a ripe ol' 95, but tony scott at 66?

witness said he parked his prius, climbed a ten foot fence and all in one motion, got his wings, to paraphrase aerosmith.

~

Scott McKenzie dies; his 'San Francisco' caught flower-power wave


By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times

11:26 a.m. CDT, August 20, 2012
Scott McKenzie, whose 1967 hit single "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" captured the spirit of the '60s flower-power movement and became a generational touchstone, has died. He was 73.

McKenzie died Saturday at his home in Silver Lake, said Matt Pook, a longtime friend and neighbor.. A statement on his website said he had been ill with Guillain Barre Syndrome, a disease affecting the nervous system.

"If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair," McKenzie gently sang in his biggest hit, written by his longtime friend, John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas.

Phillips was inspired to write the song by the large influx of young people to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district and by the "gentleness and the love that he felt in the hippie movement," said Lou Adler, whose Ode Records released "San Francisco."

"That's where the line 'gentle people' comes from," Adler, who co-produced "San Francisco" with Phillips, told The Times on Sunday. "John Phillips was a poet, and he was able to depict in a lyric a visual of the times. He found the voice in Scott McKenzie that was perfect for it, so smooth and beautiful.

"Scott sang like an angel. He had one of the most beautiful voices that ever had a rock 'n' roll hit."

"San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)," which was released in May 1967, rose to No. 4 on the Billboard chart and became a No. 1 hit in the United Kingdom and most of Europe.

The song was released a month before the landmark Monterey International Pop Festival, which Phillips and Adler produced.

McKenzie sang "San Francisco" during the Mamas & the Papas' set, and the song was used over the opening visuals of the ensuing "Monterey Pop" documentary.

But having "San Francisco" described as a "flower-power anthem" or a "generational touchstone" made McKenzie uncomfortable, said Adler.

"Scott was a singer; he loved to sing, and the hits were ancillary to that," Adler said. "He was comfortable with the success of the record, but not what it made him, sort of iconic to that movement."

Adler recalled going on a world tour with McKenzie and the Mamas & the Papas when "San Francisco" was "number one in the world, and Scott was dressed in robes and the look of the love generation."

Large crowds greeted their plane at each stop. But when everyone else got off the plane when it landed in Amsterdam, McKenzie stayed behind.

"It took him awhile, and when he got off he was dressed as a cowboy," said Adler. "He was never willing to accept the role as the leader of that [flower-power] movement. He was a very gentle soul."

McKenzie had a minor hit with "Like an Old Time Movie." But, according to the Scott McKenzie website, he "dropped out" in the late 1960s and moved to Joshua Tree in 1970 and later moved to Virginia Beach, Va.

Born Philip Blondheim on Jan. 10, 1939 in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., McKenzie developed an interest in singing and playing guitar as a teenager in the mid-1950s. He was singing in a vocal group when he met Phillips in Alexandria, Va.

They formed a quartet called the Abstracts, which became the Smoothies in 1959. After recording a few pop singles, McKenzie and Phillips formed a folk trio with Dick Weissman called the Journeymen, which recorded for Capitol Records in the early '60s. McKenzie reportedly turned down an opportunity to join the Mamas and the Papas in the 1960s, preferring to attempt a solo career.

But in the late '80s, when original Mamas and the Papas member Denny Doherty left the new version of the group he and Phillips had formed, McKenzie replaced Doherty.

"I actually picked him up four years ago to play guitar in our backup band," Phillips told The Times in 1990. "He was doing yardwork in Virginia Beach, riding his bicycle, as healthy as a hummingbird, and then I came along and ruined his life once again.

"When Denny quit, it was only natural to move [McKenzie] up to the front line. I remember the night we told him, he almost collapsed on the spot. Denny had to go up and say, 'You can do it' — he never had any confidence in himself."

McKenzie co-wrote the Beach Boys'1988 No. 1 hit "Kokomo" with Phillips, Mike Love and Terry Melcher. The song was used in the Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail."

When Phillips left the Mamas & the Papas for health reasons in the early 1990s, Doherty returned to the group and McKenzie took over for Phillips. Phillips died in 2001.

McKenzie, according to the McKenzie website, toured with the Mamas & the Papas through much of the '90s and thereafter performed occasionally.

McKenzie had no immediate surviving family members.

[e-mail]

Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times

~

i absolutely LOVED that song (and mackenzie's perfect voice) and clearly remember it being all over the AM radio just at the moment that me and a whole bunch of lith boy scouts were boarding busses for a LONG ride to camp rakas in ludington michigan.
2 weeks in tents, oh boy.
i went for a good 5 summers in a row.

i forgot papa john phillps' pal, phil blondheim of the journeymen became hippy-dippy scott mckenzie, wow.

geez, those days' heroes continue to drop like flies.

[Ayinger]

Burks? damn, didn't know that either. Funny thing about blues guys, even young ones, they don't get the major press some of the times.

[RocDoc]

morgan freeman from a damned aneurysm?
oooo that sucks!

fantastic actor, and immensely likeable anywhere i've ever seen him.

rest in peace.

[Ayinger]

nope nope nope (as you probably know by now)

Seems to have been a rash of fake celeb deaths within the past few days. Michael Phelps was said to have been eaten by a shark,,,,,,

[RocDoc]

seriously?
well that's great news then!

i just saw one blurb about freeman on FB - and i though it had a link to like the NY times even, not that i followed it down...but i DID find it weird that i didn't hear anyone make a big deal over it anywhere else.

thanks don!

[Ayinger]

Yeah, the one of Phelps becoming fish bait was put up on Facebook too by a guy I know. Went to several news pages and there was nada on it. A couple more names were tossed out over the weekend...just can't recall who they were as it was quickly denied. Just wonder why they all popped up in the space of a matter of days.

[JACkory]

Never forgotten. Timeless even.