For the number of actors who have donned the cape to become increasingly more dark Dark Knights in recent decades, the most iconic Batman was the one on TV in the 1960s. Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the start of my favorite “Batman,” which succeeded in part because of the charm and good [...]
The death of Gregg Allman at 69 Saturday brings to four the number of original members of the Allman Brothers Band now gone. From the earliest recordings in 1970, his big brother Duane Allman (who died in 1971) might have been the star guitarist of the band, but it was Gregg who handled the craggy [...]
Other than Elvis, the number of rock ’n’ roll pioneers that have been still among us all these years is pretty impressive, with Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino still drawing breath. That ended Saturday for the man to whom rock ’n’ roll is closest linked when Chuck Berry, died at 90. The [...]
The sad march of death of influential rock ’n’ roll figures continues with the death of Leon Russell on Sunday at 74. Most prominent in the spectacular “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” tour of Joe Cocker and musical director at George Harrison’s Bangladesh benefit concert, his roots stretch back to pop songs in the 60s, when [...]
The year took another musician Friday as Candye Kane, the big blues singer died at 50, following a long bout with pancreatic cancer. The singer, who released dozens of albums and racked up a number of Blues Music Award nominations over the years, first announced her cancer in 2008 and was thought to have beaten [...]
The pillars of popular music continue to fall with shocking crashes this year. In a death-filled year that began with Bowie, now comes word of the death of Prince at only 57. Like Bowie and very few others who came to the fore in the last three decades, Prince was an influential force in music [...]
Merle Haggard died on his 79th birthday Wednesday and his familiar voice isn’t making me feel much better on the stereo, as he sings “Are The Good Times Really Over?” Haggard’s long career netted dozens of country hits and lots of appreciation from fans. It also kept him on the road for years and years [...]
My indelible image of Paul Kantner, the bespectacled, bookish co-pilot behind rock’s psychedelic Jefferson Airplane, who died Thursday at 74, was not in the footage from Woodstock or Altamont or even the great playing on the 1968 live album “Bless Its Pointed Little Head.” It was at a restaurant lounge in suburban Avon, Connecticut in [...]
David Bowie has been such a vital figure in the culture for so long, it was impossible for a moment to believe that he had actually died Sunday at 69 of cancer. Only Friday, his 69th birthday, he had released his 27th album, a hailed, complex work that was heralded with its title track a [...]
Natalie Cole, who died New Year’s Eve at 65, had a solid R&B career going before she decided to get into the kind of standards popularized by her famous father, Nat “King” Cole. It was an album of such songs that included a made-in-the-studio duet that made her a superstar. “I had been doing `Unforgettable’ [...]