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.
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.
I posted Cockney Rebel’s first single Sebastian here, their biggest hit Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) – a storming no. 1 – here, and a later cover of George Harrison’s song Here Comes the Sunhere.
This song was the first of Cockney Rebel’s (and therefore Steve’s) songs I ever heard. A no. 5 in 1974.
Cockney Rebel: Judy Teen
Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice (Steve Harley) 27/2/1951 – 17/3/2024. So it goes.
And this week Aston Barret, known as Aston “Family Man” Barrett, bassist with Bob Marley’s band the Wailers, and instrumental in popularising reggae, has died.
His bass playing is prominent on this famous track.
Bob Marley and the Wailers: No Woman, No Cry
Aston Francis Barrett: 22/11/1946 – 3/2/2024. So it goes.