Dutch football legend Johan Neeskens has died. He was part of that magnificent Dutch side of the 1970s which reached the World Cup final twice in a row but unfortunately did not manage to win the trophy.
Neeskens also had a secondary assist on the superb goal – aided by a sublime pass from Johan Cruyff – he scored against Brazil in the 1974 World Cup .
Johannes Jacobus Neeskens: 15/9/1951 – 6/10/202. So it goes.
Kris Kristofferson, who died last week, was a man of many parts (literally as an actor but also a Rhodes Scholar, a soldier, helicopter pilot, singer and songwriter.)
It is for his songwriting and acting he will most likely be remembered for. Classic songs like Me and Bobby McGhee, For the Good Times and this one.
Kris Kristofferson: Help Me Make It Through the Night
Perhaps his most distinctive performance was his double bass line for Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side but that could be matched by the innovation on David Essex’s Rock On.
Lou Reed: Walk on the Wild Side
David Essex: Rock On
Brian Keith (Herbie) Flowers: 19/5/1938 – 5/9/2024. So it goes.
Stealers Wheel weren’t just Gerry Rafferty’s backing band. Joe Egan, who has died, was his fellow front man and wrote many of their songs himself as well as co-writing their most famous hit Stuck in the Middle With You with Rafferty.
Just before I went away came the news that songwriter Richard Sherman had died. He and his brother Robert wrote some of the most well-known songs from the mid to late twentieth century in their work for Disney and others.
Consider the beautifully constructed Feed the Birds from Mary Poppins.
Julie Andrews: Feed the Birds
For me though their masterpiece is I Wan’na Be Like You (The Monkey Song) from The Jungle Book.
The best bit is of course when Baloo the bear comes in with his scat singing, starting at “Da zap dan roani” with the crowning glory of the whole sequence his ecstatic cry of, “Take me home , Daddy.”
Louis Prima, Phil Harris: I Wan’na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)
Richard Morton Sherman: 12/6/1928 – 25/5/2024. So it goes.
He was a mainstay of The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) being Jeff Lynne’s right hand man in the group.
I note that the lyrics scrolling along the bottom of this video misrepresent the last vocoded words (which apparently Tandy voiced.) They are not “Mr Blue Sky” but instead “Please turn me over.” Mr Blue Sky was the last track on side three of the album Out of the Blue.
