The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (12 page)

Although tragedy eventually made them world famous, little is known about the personal lives of the young men who made up the funky soul six-piece that backed Redding through his winter 1967 tour. Put together by Booker T & The MGs’ Al Jackson in Memphis a year before the tragedy, they began as The Imperials. Becoming The Bar-Kays (apparently a slang term for Bacardi, their preferred brand of rum), Jimmie King (guitars), Ben Cauley (trumpet), Ronnie Caldwell (organ), Phalon Jones (saxophone), James Alexander (bass) and Carl Lee Cunningham (drums) enjoyed a sizeable hit with the catchy, upbeat ‘Soul Finger’ during the summer of 1967. Their promising outlook was fused when the man who had wowed all at the Monterey Festival selected them as his next touring band.

Redding was, at this point, staying on a houseboat off Sausalito, near San Francisco, while he performed at the Fillmore Auditorium. As he sat gazing into the waters, he was inspired to write the timeless ‘Dock of the Bay’, taking the song to MGs’ guitarist Steve Cropper, who assisted him in completing the haunting piece. On 6 December, the track was committed to tape: Redding, however, was never to hear the final mix, an unrecorded final verse replaced by the song’s now-distinctive whistle.

Otis Redding believed in wise investment and, now a performer of some means, he had recently put his money into a ranch and a twin-engine Beechcraft H18. After a television special and three evening shows in Cleveland, hopping by plane over to Madison, Wisconsin, for the next leg of the tour seemed a good idea. Conditions, however, were worsening, with freezing fog descending, and it was suggested to Redding that he rethink the journey; the super-conscientious performer would hear none of it and so, early in the afternoon, the Beechcraft took to the skies with eight on board. Just three miles south of Madison’s Municipal Airport the plane began to lose power, and pulled up to circle and make another approach. Then – tragedy: at 3.28 pm, the craft went into a tailspin and plummeted into the icy depths of Lake Monoma, where it broke apart. With all on board exposed to the freezing water, it was sadly only a matter of time before they perished from the impact, drowning or hypothermia. Apart from Redding, Caldwell, Cunningham and King, the musicians’ valet, Matthew Kelly, and pilot Richard Fraser (both twenty-six) were also killed in the accident. The lone survivor pulled from the waters was Ben Cauley, who, unable to do anything for his colleagues, later described the trauma of hearing their calls of distress as they tried to swim to safety. The body of Phalon Jones was not recovered for several days. Cauley – along with Alexander, who hadn’t been on the plane – returned with a new line-up of The Bar-Kays in 1968.

Otis Redding: He fell short of the dock

One week later, Otis Redding’s Macon City Auditorium memorial attracted 4,500 visitors; Joe Tex, Sam Moore, Johnnie Taylor, Don Covay, Joe Simon, Percy Sledge and Solomon Burke were the soul luminaries selected as pallbearers. Redding, who was buried in the grounds of the family’s estate, the Big O Ranch, was commemorated by a bronze statue erected in Macon. ‘Dock of the Bay’ – like its 4-millionselling parent album – made Redding the latest in a line of posthumous chart-toppers within four months. The record stalled just short of the UK summit, but there was love for Redding in Britain as well, where he replaced Elvis Presley as ‘World’s Best Singer’ in a
Melody Maker
poll just after his death.

Friday 22

Rockin’ Robin Roberts

(Lawrence Fewell Roberts - New York, 23 November 1940)

The Wailers

Dynamic singer and performer Robin Roberts’s main claim to rock ‘n’ roll fame was a brief moment of improvised inspiration on an early version of the song that would become a pop-music staple: ‘Louie Louie’.

The version in question was that of The Wailers, a Seattle band who could claim to be not only one of the first garage acts to gain attention, inspiring The Sonics and The Kingsmen (whose rendition of ‘Louie’ is better known), but also direct ancestors to the city’s grunge scene of the early nineties. Originally an instrumental combo, The Wailers chanced upon former Little Bill & The Blue Notes’ leader Rockin’ Robin Roberts as he performed a capella atop a bench to passing visitors at the 1959 Washington State Fair. An immediate hit as their new singer, Roberts recorded the seminal track in 1961, adding the now-familiar R & B whoops that turned the song around. A lack of commercial interest, however, curtailed his involvement with the group; he continued his studies in Oregon but, having failed to gain a degree, he retired from music and joined the Marine Reserves.

The Wailers were a distant memory by 22 December 1967. Roberts – a passenger in a car travelling the wrong way on a San Mateo County freeway – was killed at 1.50 am when the vehicle collided with opposing traffic.

Five other members of The Wailers have since passed on. They are: Ron Gardner (sax, 1992), Rich Dangel (guitar, 2002), John Greek (guitar, 2006), Mark Marush (tenor sax, 2007) and Kent Morrill (keys, 2011).

Lest We Forget

Other notable deaths that occurred sometime during 1967:

Laverne Andrews
(US pop/boogie-woogie singer with the popular Andrews Sisters; born Minnesota, 6/7/1915; cancer, 8/5)

Alan Avick
(US guitarist who played alongside a pre-Blondie Chris Stein in psychedelic garage band First Crow to the Moon; leukaemia)

Bert Berns
(revered US singer, songwriter and early Drifters producer who also founded Bang Records; born New York, 8/11/1929; sick during childhood, he died of heart failure in a New York hotel, 30/12)

Charles ‘Ty’ Brian
(UK guitarist with Merseybeat act Rory Storm & The Hurricanes; born Liverpool, 1941; following an appendectomy, he was taken ill during a gig and died in hospital from complications)

John Coltrane
(US avantgarde jazz legend; born North Carolina, 23/9/1926; cancer, 17/7)

Ida Cox
(US unofficial Queen of the Blues; born Georgia, 25/2/1896; cancer, 11/10)

Manuel Fernandez
(Spanish pop/freakbeat founding organist with ‘Black is Black’ hitmakers Los Bravos; born Seville, Andalucia, 29 September 1943; suicide -he was depressed about the recent death of his wife, 20/5)

J B Lenoir
(US blues guitarist/harmonicaplayer; born Mississippi, 5/3/1929; heart attack following a car accident in Illinois, 29/4)

Jayne Mansfield
(popular US actress who recorded with Jimi Hendrix (!); born Vera Jayne Palmer, Pennsylvania, 19/4/1933; she died in a car crash, but was not decapitated as is widely believed, 29/6)

Moon Mullican
(US country/hillbilly pianist, who influenced Jerry Lee Lewis among others; born Aubrey Mullican, Texas, 27/3/1909; heart attack, 1/1)

Robert Nighthawk
(revered US blues slide-guitarist who influenced many early rock performers; born Robert McCollum, Arkansas, 30/11/1909; heart failure, 5/11)

1968

Frankie Lymon
(second right)
with Negroni, Santiago, Merchant and Garnes: A teenager’s life?

FEBRUARY

Tuesday 27

Frankie Lymon

(Washington Heights, New York, 30 September 1942)

Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers

The Premiers – Bronx singers Jimmy Merchant, Sherman Garnes, Herman Santiago and Joey Negroni – were a band without real focus. Then, one afternoon, they chanced upon a 12-year-old would-be vocalist named Frankie Lymon, who worked at the grocery store below producer Richard Barrett’s flat; his cash-strapped family lived in cramped surroundings, prompting the streetwise, shrewd youngster to seek employment.

Encouraged by manager George Goldner (who signed the act to his Gee label), Lymon’s pre-pubescent soprano took centre stage, replacing Santiago’s deeper tones. Further change occurred: the group’s name became The Teenagers at the behest of studio sax-man Jimmy Wright, and, perhaps most significantly, Lymon himself suggested changing the words and melody to the group’s best number, ‘Why Do Birds Sing So Gay?’, which henceforth became ‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love?’ – though his input has been greatly disputed since. No matter, in February 1956, the recorded version of this song soared into the US Top Ten, shifting a million copies; in the UK, it went to number one. With Johnny Ace dead
(
Pre-1965),
Lymon became the top black teen pin-up, dropped out of his schooling and toured with the band, scoring further US hits with ‘I Want You to be My Girl’ (1956) and ‘Goody Goody’ (1957), while ‘Baby Baby’ and ‘(I’m Not a) Juvenile Delinquent’ (both 1957) continued their success in Britain. The latter title, though, was to prove depressingly ironic …