Entertainment For Lively Minds
The most tragic band?
I never really had much time for Lynyrd Skynyrd, sure, "Sweet Home Alabama" was OK, as was "Free Bird", but they didn't ignite the spark to make me seek out more. However...
...I recently watched a performance of the latter song on one of the Old Grey Whistle Test DVDs
(terrible, badly edited YouTube version- it's missing about 5 minutes of intro, verse and solo and sounds a bit off key as the speed is out, but you'll get the idea.)
...Fuck me, they played a blinder. Nonchalant Allmanesque slide, with nochalant cheeky cigarette - check. Birdsong impersonations - check. Absolutely *blinding* 2-3 guitar solo that had the hairs on my heirs standing up, hell yes.
Now I know that there was a plane crash, but further research indicates that this band was a dead man walking Greek tragedy. Less that a year after this performance, the lead singer, the guy playing the Black Les Paul and one of the female backing singers (and sister of the guitarist) were dead, along with management, roadies and crew.
Backing vocalist Leslie Hawkins was so badly injured that she never made a full recovery and remains "largely retired"
Gary Rossington, playing the SG, broke both arms, both legs, both wrists, both ankles and pelvis, and developed a serious drug addiction to the prescribed medications. Five years later, his wife died.
In 1986, Allen Collins, the guy in the red loon pants with screaming Gibson Firebird killed his girlfriend and paralysed himself after driving drunk. Complications and pneumonia did for him less than three years later.
In 2001, bass player Leon Wilkeson didn't wake up - natural causes as a result of chronic liver and lung disease
In 2009, keyboard player Billy Powell also died - complaining of shortness of breath, paramedics found him dead with the phone still in his hand
I have real dissonance reconciling the sheer joie de vivre shown in this film with the knowledge of what fate has in store for most of the band.
Steve Gaines died aged 28, Cassie Gaines at 29, the same age as Ronnie Van Zandt. Allen Collins died at 37, Leon Wilkeson at 49, and Billy Powell at 56. Gary Rossington and Artemis Pyle (currently on the sex offenders register for sexual battery against his children) are still alive.
Incidentally, two members who joined the post-crash band have also died - Ean Evans at 48, of cancer, and Hughie Thomasson - heart attack at 55.
I can't think of any other band that's suffered such attrition - the Grateful Dead, perhaps?
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The Ramones
As they were originally a 3 piece, it wouldn't take as much to wipe them out but they're all gone now, Johnny managed to get to 55. The only remainng band members are the succession of drummers.
Theyre like...
...the anti-Spinal Tap
Great footage
I like the bit at about 4'40" where Ronnie Van Zandt beckons the bass player to join the guitarists at the front. He rushes down, only to pull up when he realises his lead's not long enough.
Stunts.
I remember their Knebworth set well. They certainly stirred the place up, but their show was upstaged by an aerobatic display by a mad pilot who seemed to be skimming the crowd's heads. He got his plane to almost stand still and I think at one point fall backwards towards the ground. The crowd love it. I think it may have been during "Freebird" but not sure.
10cc
The penultimate band, that year before The Stones at Knebworth, was 10cc – can’t remember a single thing about their show, apart from they were very late. Rumours spread they were going to record the show for a live alburm.
I was there as well...
... and I heard that either the sound system broke down or was sabotaged before 10cc came on. Didn't help that they then started their set with a slow number. I do recall Skynyrd playing a blinder though.
Badfinger
I can hardly type that name without shedding a tear.
One word
Badfinger
Yes, Badfinger
Saddest thing ever.
London Boys?
*sniffs*
Or how about the Bhundu Boys?
David Mankaba - died of AIDS
Shepherd Munyama - died of AIDS
Shakespeare Kangwena - died of AIDS
Biggie Tembo - hanged himself in a psychiatric hospital
Doesn't exactly make cheery reading, does it?
Pedant alert...
Allen Collins is playing a Gibson Explorer. It's quite similar to a Firebird, but has a much more angular/pointy body.
Dammit!
Explorer was my first guess, but I went with Firebird based on skimming a wikipedia article
They are quite similar
Firebird
Explorer
Other than Garcia, the keyboard seat in the Dead
is the dangerous one:
Pigpen: Died 1973
Tom Constanten: Still alive but doubtless having regular check-ups :-)
Keith Godchaux: Died 1980
Brent Mydland: Died 1990
Vince Welnick: Died 2006
Bruce Hornsby played as pianist with the band for a couple of years in the early '90s but (perhaps on medical advice) didn't join as a full member.
No deaths...
...but spare a thought for the early Fleetwood Mac.
In 1969 they spent more time in the UK charts than the Beatles (the first time anyone had done that since 1963), but within a couple of years they had lost their entire three-guitar front line to:
Acid (Peter Green)
Religion (Jeremy Spencer)
Booze (Danny Kirwin)
Pretenders
Not the most tragic but two guitarists in the space of less than a year smacks (sorry) of carelessness:
James Honeyman-Scott (heart failure as a result of intolerance for cocaine)- 16 June 1982 - two days after the firing of Pete Farndon who subsequently drowned in his bathtub on 14 April 1983.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The classic line up. Criminally underrated...
I implore anyone who enjoys that Whistle Test clip to seek out the live album "One More From the Road".
Live from Atlanta's Fox Theater - possibly the greatest ever live album.
Best Live Album Ever - Don't think so!!
Oh come on, don't be silly! Best Live album ever is, of course, Live & Dangerous by The Lizzy boys. The fact that hardly any of it is actually "live" doesn't really matter!
Rock on!
I do! It's terrific...
All the onstage banter left in....RvZ cajoling his band like a conductor...it's all brilliant.
Only Dr Feelgood's "Stupidity" can hold a candle!
Patto
Mike Patto - lymphatic cancer
Ollie Halsall - heroin overdose
John Halsey (aka Barry Wom) - car crash, knackered one of his legs
Clive Griffiths - same car crash, lost his memory, apparently can't remember ever being in the band
Another Lynyrd Skynyrd death..
Leonard Skinner, the basketball coach the band took their name from, has just died.
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-09-20/story/leonard-skinner-lyny...
Now, was this thread responsible?
Best live album?
Sorry.. it's Rory Gallagher's Live In Europe.
I thought it was...
...Live At The Fillmore East by the Allman Brothers Band?