Soul Singer Levi Stubbs died October 17, 2008 in His Detroit home after an illness following a stroke. He leaves a wife of 58 years, five children, and eleven grandchildren; he was 72 years old.
Levi was born in Detroit on June 6, 1936 to a musical family. His first group in 1954 was the Four Aims. After two years the Aims signed a recording contract and became the Four Tops. Their tight harmonies soon drew the attention of Berry Gordy, and he approached them for his foundling record label, Motown, in 1961. It was two years before they signed on, and they would stay until 1972.
As one of the original Motown talents, Levi's dynamic voice was the lead in the Four Tops--rare for a baritone. The group sold millions of records, and in just four years during the 1960s had twelve Top 20 hits on the American charts. They survived four decades without a change in personnel, until Lawrence Payton died in 1997. Obie Benson passed in 2005. Levi had retired in 2000 due to health problems. We will miss him.
July 1, 2008
Alton Kelley
On June 3, 2008, an artist died. Not many people would recognize his name, but his work was seen by almost everyone who survived the 60s. He was Alton Kelley.
Along with his business partner, Stanley Miller, with whom he worked from 1965, he was the master of psychedelic posters, album covers, and art. Among their most famous was the skull and roses poster created for a Grateful Dead show.
The two of them also had a store in Haight-Ashbury called Pacific Ocean Trading Company (POT Co.), which was one of the first “head shops” of the area.
Kelley would have been sixty-eight on his birthday, June 17th. He leaves a wife, Marguerite, three children, two grandchildren, a sister, and his mother.
July 2, 2008
Bo Diddley-A Legend Is Lost
Ellas Otha (Bates) McDaniel is, and always will be, a musical rarity. Born In Mississippi on the 30th of December, 1928, he moved to Chicago at age seven with his mother’s cousin, Gussie McDaniel, who had adopted and raised him.
Seeing John Lee Hooker in action gave Ellas the drive to play guitar. When he began to play in a Chicago club as a regular, he took as his stage name ‘Bo Diddley’--southern slang for “nothing at all.”
Bo developed his own unique style and edge that helped push blues into the rock and roll arena. He designed his own guitar in 1958, a rectangular Gretsch that allowed him to move more easily on stage. He also played violin, drums, percussion, piano, and synthesizer, and wrote many of his own vocals. Considered to be one of the fathers of rock and roll, he was a pioneer in his writing and his approach to the music business, and influenced many of the greatest of rock and roll and blues musicians over several generations. He received almost every award the music world could endow, but still remained a helper of the needy--a generous and friendly man.
Bo Diddley died June 2, 2008 and was buried in Gainesville, Florida. His life was celebrated by friends and family with music and dance. The world is a better place for his 79 years of life.
January 3, 2007
The Hardest Working Man in Music
A Tribute to the Late, Great, James Brown
We here at the planet regret that our tribute to the magnificent James Joseph Brown, Jr. is post-humous. The world has lost an unusual talent and a man who strived to become a better person with each year of life. Growing up in poverty and adverse conditions did contribute to problems in Mr. Brown's personal life, but were probably also the catalyst for his refusal to completely give in to those parts of his character. The Godfather of Soul came into the world on May 3, 1933, in South Carolina, but at an early age moved to Augusta, Georgia. One source has him growing up in a brothel and being raised by an aunt. At any rate, he worked at legitimate jobs and committed petty crimes, progressing to armed robbery at the age of sixteen which got him sent to reform school. Here he met Bobby Byrd, a man who influenced and helped him in a positive way for most of his adult life. Byrd and Brown performed gospel music, but evolved their group into ryhthm and blues and called themselves 'The Famous Flames.' They hit the R&B charts with "Please, Please, Please" in 1956. Because Brown wrote or co-authored most of the music, he became the band leader and his already unusual rhythms and vocals became stronger. In 1959 their first hit "Try Me" established Brown as a music industry leader in the south, but it took his own financing of a live album at the Apollo to send him and The Flames to national attention. Live At The Apollo in 1962 reached #2 on the album charts, and finally grabbed the attention of the white audience. The mid-60s saw "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You," among other hits, reach the Top 10 as well as the R&B charts. And "Papa" earned Brown a Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording in 1966. Some music historians call Brown's 1967 hit "Cold Sweat" the first real 'funk' tune ever recorded. It had one chord change and a stand-out electric guitar that was different from his previous releases. His music had become as much shouting as actual words, but his incredible physical performances with spins, drops, and jumps captured his audiences. He incorporated--in his music and in his life--political activism, usually for the cause of African-Americans and poor people. He had a keen business sense that helped him advance financially, but that same desire to control had negative influences in his personal life. He was married four times and fathered six children. Although his popularity faded somewhat in the 70s, he was back in the 80s. He was in several films, and his "Livin' In America" soundtrack from Rocky IV in 1985 won the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. But the other side of him sneaked in again, and in 1988, with accusations of spousal abuse and drug problems, he was involved in a high-speed chase in Augusta that netted him another prison sentence. When paroled a few years later, he released a new album called Long Overdue that contained the single "Move On." The 1990s and early 2000s found Brown continuing to perform. The four-CD box set Star Tme includes his works from four decades. Several other albums were released and more television appearances kept him in the public eye, as did several more arrests for domestic abuse and drugs. Still, he received awards and recognition. In 1993 Augusta renamed a street for him and in 2005 the city honored him with a seven-foot bronze statue. 1992 saw him presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th Grammys and the same award a year later at the R&B Foundation Pioneer Awards. In November of 2006 he was inducted into the United Kingdom's Music Hall of Fame where he also performed at the age of 73. In this same year he was all over the world with his "Seven Decades of Funk" tour. James Brown was never able to read music and was dependent on his band members to "put the music together." Never the less, he went from severe poverty to owning his own jet, from prison to life-time achievement awards. He routinely recovered from personal tragedy and set-backs to continue his music and work to help the common people. His last public appearance was at this annual Christmas toy give away three days prior to his death. He had totaled 114 hits on the R&B single charts, 94 on the Hot 100 charts, and had seventeen #1 hits. His Star Time box set is probably the best overview of his career for anyone not familiar with his decades of music. On December 25, 2006, after being quoted as saying "I'm going away tonight," the world lost a timeless icon. Soul Brother #1 died of heart failure in Atlanta, Georgia. The planet will miss him.
