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.

Melanie Safka has also gone.

She first came to notice in the UK with her 1970 cover of the Rolling Stones song Ruby Tuesday, which I featured here.

Her biggest UK hit was Brand New Key, parodied by The Wurzels as The Combine Harvester.

I’ve chosen her second UK hit (no 39 in 1970) What Have They Done to My Song Ma (aka Look What They’ve Done to My Song Ma) partly for the verse in French but also since I always wanted to write a parody of it entitled Look What They’ve Done to My Team Ma. (By ‘team’ I meant the mighty Sons of the Rock.) I never got round to that of course.

Melanie: What Have They Done to My Song Ma

Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk (Melanie):  3/2/1947 – January 23/1/2024. So it goes.

Pedant’s corner:- Both of the song’s titles surely ought to have a comma after ‘Song’ and the ‘what’ one, a question mark at its end.

Fox’s last UK hit. Noosha Fox (Susan Traynor) certainly had a distinctive – if perhaps weak – voice.

Fox: S-S-Single Bed

Another week, another sad death. This time Robbie Robertson, singer, songwriter and guitarist for The Band. Coming to fame as Bob Dylan’s backing band they found success on their own after releasing their first LP Music Fom Big Pink.

For me Robertson’s masterpiece will always be The Weight which I posted about here and have already featured their UK hits Up on Cripple Creek and Rag Mama Rag. In retrospect surprisingly, these were their only UK hits.

This is another of Robbie’s compositions for The Band. (From 1971.)

The Band:The Shape I’m In

Jaime Royal (Robbie) Robertson: 5/7/1943 – 9/8/2023. So it goes.

And now Randy Meisner has left us.  He is of course best known as a founder member of US band The Eagles but had previously been in Poco whose Rose of Cimarron I featured here.

This is a live version of the Eagles song most associated with him.

The Eagles: Take It to the Limit

Randall Herman (Randy) Meisner March 8/3/1946 –26/7/2023. So it goes.

I Feel Free was the first Cream song I ever heard. I was immediately impressed. Like quite a few of Cream’s early songs its lyric was written by Pete Brown who died recently.

Cream: I Feel Free

I remember Brown more though for his perhaps unforgettably named band Pete Brown and Piblokto! who were responsible for one of the longest album titles in pop history, their first, Things May Come and Things May Go but the Art School Dance Goes on Forever  (though it wasn’t quite as long as this one.)

This is the B-side of Piblokto!’s second single.

Pete Brown and Piblokto!: Broken Magic

Peter Ronald (Pete) Brown: 25/12/1940 – 19/5/2023. So it goes.

It was just about impossible to miss Tina Turner – either in her performances or in the outpouring of regret and appreciation when she died.

As an example of someone transcending her life circumstances to come out triumphant she will be just about impossible to top.

This is a slice of vintage Tina. She also wrote the song.

Ike and Tina Turner: Nutbush City Limits.

Anna Mae Bullock (Tina Turner) 26/11/1939 – 24/5/2023. So it goes.

And so now Gordon Lightfoot has gone.

I noted his song If you Could Read My Mind here.

His first single was Me and Bobby McGee which subsequently had a substantial after life. The many artists to have recorded it include its writer Kris Kristofferson, Roger Miller, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, Janis Joplin, Charley Pride and Jerry Lee Lewis. Janis Joplin’s version has had over 1,000,000 sales/streams.

Gordon Lightfoot: Me and Bobby McGee

Janis Joplin: Me and Bobbie McGee

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot:17/11/1938 – May 1/5/2023. So it goes.

I suppose I really should have featured this long ago. It’s just so perfect.

Simon and Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Water

The prompt to post it now was that a few weeks ago I discovered another of those budget priced cover version compilations featuring Elton John. Not that it suits his voice at all.

Elton John: Bridge Over Troubled Water

I note the last surviving member of US rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd has died. Guitarist Gary Rossington’s finest moment probably came with his slide guitar playing on Free Bird voted by viewers of the Old Grey Whistle Test as their favourite track to have been played on the show.

So here it is. (There’s what sounds like some mellotron on this. Even better.)

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Free Bird

Gary Robert Rossington: 4/12/1951 –5/3/2023. So it goes.