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.

The band Hotlegs was a kind of precursor to 10cc. The trio who recorded this (Eric Stewart, Lol Crème and Kevin Godley) all went on to be in that group as did Graham Gouldman who was a member of Hotlegs but unable to play on this for contractual reasons.

Hotlegs: Neanderthal Man

In looking the above video up I came across this recording of the song for one of those compilation albums of knock-off versions of recent hits. The singer here?

A guy who went on to become Elton John.

Elton John: Neanderthal Man

Just because it provided the title for the David Keenan book I reviewed earlier this week.

Como really did have a mellifluous voice.

Surprisingly this wasn’t a hit for him in the US. Maybe it wasn’t a single there. It made no 7 in the UK in 1973, though.

Perry Como: For the Good Times

Last week, David Crosby of The Byrds, Crosby Stills and Nash, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young plus various solo offerings died.

Another to add to the long list of 60s and 70s rock greats who have left us recently.

Crosby first came to attention in the UK as a member of US group The Byrds, pioneers of folk rock and a distinctive jangly guitar style

This video features a US TV appearance with a song which is a contender for the first psychedelic recording.

The Byrds: Eight Miles High

In 1968 he teamed up with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash to form one of the best close harmony groups of their time. One of my favourites of theirs is Suite: Judy Blue Eyes which I posted here.

That group became even more potent with the addition of Neil Young a year later. I featured CSNY’s great protest song Ohio in 2010.

This though is from that first eponymous CSN album; a slower, acoustic piece which Crosby wrote.

Crosby, Stills and Nash: Guinnevere

David Van Cortlandt Crosby: 14/8/1941 – 18/1/2023. So it goes.

The Stranglers, whose original drummer, Jet Black, died earlier this month rode the punk wave but were never part of it – possibly because of his jazz background.

Here’s the band in its heyday but taking a 1977 Top of the Pops appearance not entirely seriously.

The Stranglers: No More Heroes

Brian John Duffy (Jet Black): 26/8/1938 – 6/12/2022. So it goes.

Another sad loss. This time the songwriter known as Christine McVie.

She first came to my attention as the singer in the band Chicken Shack who had a hit with a cover of I’d Rather Go Blind in 1969. See below.

She later joined Fleetwood Mac whose bass player, John McVie, she had married in 1968. The band’s most successful incarnation coincided with her membership. Many of their most well-known songs were written or co-written by her. From that era of her life I have chosen to feature Songbird as it’s essentially a solo performance.

Chicken Shack: I’d Rather Go Blind

Fleetwood Mac: Songbird

I will refer to her below by her birth name as it is the Scottish tradition for a woman to revert to that on her death. It’s perfect.

Christine Anne Perfect; 12/7/1943 – 30/11/22. So it goes.