The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (360 page)

It was several years before Wills could boast a genuine hit, however. This finally arrived in Britain, where her light, sprightly version of the Patience & Prudence hit ‘Gonna Get Along Without You Now’ (1979) reached the Top Ten at the start of the Hi-NRG craze. A danced-up rendition of ‘Stormy Weather’ (1982) then gave Wills a club smash in the US, with ‘Dare to Dream’ (1986) returning her to the UK listings. Nevertheless, consistency was still to prove elusive to a singer now rather inaccurately filed under the label of ‘disco diva’. Fearing bankruptcy once more, Wills returned to the US to study music therapy.

Living in Brighton, England during the nineties, Wills found sanctuary in her music, touring her ‘jazzspel’ shows and workshops to the many who had remained interested in her and her spirituality. The singer also remained prolific in the studio, a final dance-flavoured maxi-single in the shape of ‘What Now My Love?’ (HRG, 2006) emerging after her return once more to America. Viola Wills died on 6 May 2009 at her home in Phoenix: she was surrounded by her children, some of whom had performed as her backing singers many decades before.

See also
Barry White (
July 2003)

Sunday 10

Clive Scott

(Coventry, England, 24 February 1945)

Jigsaw

(Various acts)

Although he was never the most prolific hitmaker, Clive Scott could at least boast an international million-seller in his oeuvre. It took its time arriving, however. Scott – a keyboardist and singer/songwriter who had previously fronted The Antarctics (yes, really) – joined the original line-up of Warwickshire-based Jigsaw, a band founded by guitarist Tony Campbell in 1966. By 1968, the group’s roster comprised Scott and Campbell, plus experienced musicians Barrie Bernard (bass), Tony Britnell and Kevin Mahon (saxes) and co-songwriter Des Dyer (drums/vocals).

Although heavily influenced by The Beatles, there was little room for Jigsaw within the pop explosion of the late-sixties, which led the group to consider other stylistic options. Most of the band opted to support R & B/soul singer Arthur Conley during his 1970 European tour – though within a year or two, the group were embracing glam showmanship with onstage pyrotechnics and the like.

All of which will seem a far cry from the straight-ahead pop unit that scored globally with the 1975 hit ‘Sky High’. This song – originally penned for the George Lazenby martial-arts picture
The Man From Hong Kong
– finally gave the group a Top Ten hit in Britain. Jigsaw – now a four-piece – then earned a gold disc in the US, where this catchy, melodramatic production climbed to Billboard number three. (‘Sky High’ also topped the charts in Japan – twice – the record shifting a further halfmillion copies.) The band struggled to revisit such a high-water mark with following singles, though they did reach the Top Forty with ‘Love Fire’ (US, 1976) and ‘If I Have to Go Away’ (UK, 1977). ‘Sky High’ notwithstanding, this wasn’t considered much of a return for some fifteen singles, and so Jigsaw ‘broke up’ in 1983.

Scott and Dyer, however, had already seen their ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ become a transatlantic hit for Candlewick Green (UK) and Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods (US) in 1974, and they used this as a springboard for further songwriting success. During the nineties, the partnership saw their songs become hits for Boyzone, Nikki French and St Etienne, among others. (Scott went on to co-produce other UK pop acts such as Billie Piper and Blue, also working with US diva Gloria Gaynor.)

At the end of April 2009, Clive Scott was involved in a domestic accident in which he fell from a ladder, causing him to suffer a stroke. The former singer died after undergoing brain surgery.

Monday 18

Dolla

(Roderick Anthony Burton II - Chicago, Illinois, 25 November 1987)

(Da Razkalz Cru)

Life was never going to be easy for Rod Burton. At five years old, he and his younger sister witnessed their father’s suicide by gunshot first-hand; unfortunately, the trauma of this did not prevent the young man from encountering lethal weapons in his later years.

Having moved from Illinois to Georgia, Burton became ‘Bucklyte’, at just twelve years old, signing with Elektra Records alongside his posse, Da Razkalz Cru. The rapper was clearly the focal point of his crew, which, in the event, lasted for just one single, 2003’s ‘So Fly’. Burton, however, was shortly spotted by heavyweight P Diddy, the latter of whom saw the young star’s slender good looks as ideal for modelling his Sean John clothing range in an upcoming national billboard campaign. Also interested was Akon, who signed the newly renamed Dolla to his Konvikt Muzik label. By 2007, all was looking peachy in the world of Dolla – and this seemed set to continue with a first single under the new guise, ‘Who the Fuck is That?’ (2008 – the word ‘heck’ was inserted for radio play). This cut scored well on the Hot Rap charts, also making the Billboard Hot 100 and – remarkably – becoming a Top Twenty hit in New Zealand. Further singles emerged that year in ‘I’m Fucked Up’ (‘tore’, for radio) and the Hot Rap Top Twenty entry, ‘Make a Toast’, as Dolla’s increasing fanbase anticipated a debut album.

With a painful inevitability, it all came to an abrupt end in May 2009 when the rapper ‘chanced’ upon an enemy. Dolla was in Los Angeles to complete the recording of the debut; also in the city was archnemesis Aubrey Berry, a man who’d claimed that a gang (including Dolla) had attacked him at an Atlanta nightclub two weeks previously. Despite this information, it was stated to have been Dolla – and two of his posse, Scrapp Deleon and DJ Shabazz – that confronted Berry at a Beverly Center restaurant in Los Angeles; Berry responded by producing a firearm and shooting the rapper four times, one bullet piercing his heart. Roderick ‘Dolla’ Burton was pronounced dead on arrival to the hospital. He was subsequently buried in a Moslem ‘Janazzah’-style funeral.

Despite having been charged with Dolla’s murder, Berry cooperated with authorities and was remarkably acquitted on all charges (including gun possession), his actions considered as self-defence. In his trial, it emerged that Dolla had Crips-affiliations and had himself been arrested on weapons charges the previous fall. One detail that seemed to remain overlooked was the eerie echoing of the rapper’s own past: like his father, he died by gunshot – and, tragically, in front of his newborn daughter, Chyna.

25-year-old Tega (Ortega Henderson) of rap act Da Camp was shot and slain on the same day in St Louis, Missouri.

Sunday 24

Jay Bennett

(Rolling Meadows, Illinois, 15 November 1963)

Wilco

(Titanic Love Affair)

(Various acts)

Jay Bennett was a respected multi-instrumentalist and producer whose impressive career in altrock began with Champaign County’s Titanic Love Affair, a band signed to Charisma in 1989. With the Replacements-influenced TLA, Bennett recorded three decent albums in
Titanic Love Affair
(1991),
No Charisma
(1992 – by which time they’d left the label) and
Their Titanic Majesties Request
(1996). Around this time, Bennett was also working with the bands Steve Pride & His Blood Kin and Gator Alley.

Bennett’s time with Wilco began in 1994, as TLA were winding down: indeed, singer/guitarist Jeff Tweedy had to track him down at the VCR repair shop in which he was working in order to recruit Bennett. Wilco – formed from the ashes of the influential Uncle Tupelo – had been a going concern for a year or so already, but the musician was in place for their second album
Being There
(1995), contributing organ, guitar, harmonica, piano, accordion, drums, steel guitar and backing vocals. The group’s next project was to be a collaboration with singer/songwriter Billy Bragg, the Englishman needing a sympathetic band to help him record
Mermaid Avenue
(1998), a collection of unreleased Woody Guthrie songs. While the recordings went well, Bragg was unhappy with Bennett, who now wished to spend time a lot of time producing as well as playing. While the record was generally very well-received, Bennett’s radical remixes caused a falling-out with Bragg, a scenario that was to repeat during the making of Wilco’s next regular release, the breakthrough album
Summerteeth
(1999). The ever-enthusiastic – and extremely able – Bennett once more chose to record most of the instrumentation himself, which upset bassist John Stirratt and drummer Ken Coomer, the latter also letting slip that workaholics Bennett and Tweedy might be becoming dependent upon prescription medication. (Nevertheless,
Summerteeth
made the Top 100 of Billboard’s albums chart, also scoring Wilco their first Top Forty appearance in Britain.)

The relationship between Wilco’s two main protagonists, however, had soured considerably by
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
(2002), its recording a drawn-out affair that eventually caused Tweedy to draft in producer Jim O’Rourke to handle most of Bennett’s work – much of which was seen very publicly in the Sam Jones ‘rockumen-tary’
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.
Bennett was ultimately dismissed from the band following the release of what was to prove the band’s most successful and acclaimed piece to date.

Unfazed, Bennett went on to record five lower-profile but commended albums as a solo artist, beginning with
The Palace at 4am
(2002), a collaboration with musician Edward Burch, his old Champaign County friend from TLA-days. Bennett played on the recordings of artists such as Sheryl Crow and Blues Traveler, whose fine album
jBastardos!
(2005) he also produced.