The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (92 page)

Clarence E Quick
(US bass/founder of interracial vocal group The Del(I)-Vikings, also writer of their 1957 US Top Five hit ‘Come Go with Me’; born New York, 2/2/1937; heart attack, 5/5)

Stan Rogers
(Canadian folk baritone and songwriter; born Hamilton, Ontario, 29/11/1949; he died from smoke inhalation while attempting to rescue others from a burning DC-9 at Cincinnati airport, 2/6)

Ray Tunia
(US pianist/arranger with The Ink Spots; born 10/5/1916; unknown, 16/8)

Annelle Zingarelli
(US punk vocalist with the oh-so-shocking NBJ; heroin overdose, 23/10 - two other band members, bassist Stain Farrington and drummer Mark Wills, have also died)

1984

JANUARY

Sunday 1

Alexis Korner

(Paris, France, 19 April 1928)

CCS

Blues Incorporated

Alexis Korner’s Blues Band

(Various acts)

One of the most significant names in the foundation of British blues, Alexis Korner arrived in the UK via France, Switzerland and North Africa – just in time for the London Blitz. He drowned out the swooping doodlebugs with a mix of American blues, learning to play along on piano and guitar. Preferring acoustic to the electric variant beginning to emerge, Korner joined Chris Barber’s band at twenty-one and Ken Colyer’s three years later, before playing London’s circuit as a duo with harmonica-playing Cyril Davies. (By this time, Korner had accepted electric blues and was fast becoming one of its most respected white practitioners.)

The breakthrough came with the formation of the legendary Blues Incorporated, which also featured Ken Scott (piano), Dick Heckstall-Smith (saxophone) and a series of vocalists including John Baldry and Art Wood – the latter was the older brother of later Rolling Stone/Face Ron Wood, and members of both bands were frequently at Blues Inc’s concerts. Ironically, the success of these blues-tinged rock bands, and others like The Animals, Yardbirds and Cream, was to deflect attention from the work of players like Korner. Nevertheless, he found a niche in broadcasting playing his favourite music until commercial success was finally forthcoming with CCS: the 25-strong mega-band enjoyed a series of hit singles between 1970 and 1972, among them a version of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and popular pub singalong ‘Tap Turns on the Water’. Korner also took a speaking role on Hot Chocolate’s ‘Brother Louie’ (1973). Korner’s last supergroup, in the early eighties, was Rocket 88 – which at one time featured Jack Bruce on bass, Ian Stewart on piano and Charlie Watts on the drums. By 1982, though, his health was in serious decline and – a chain smoker most of his life – the ‘father of British blues’ died of lung cancer on New Year’s Day 1984.

See also
Ian Stewart (
December 1985); LongJohn Baldry (
July 2005). Dick Heckstall-Smith died just months before Baldry (2004). Danish guitarist and longtime Korner cohort Peter Thorup died in August 2007.

Thursday 12

Stephen ‘Tebes’ Douglass

(Columbus, Ohio, 11 August 1950)

McGuffey Lane

McGuffey Lane’s first hit was ‘Making a Living’s Been Killing Me’ – a pertinent title, given their later history. Although their name might be forgotten now, this country-rock band seemed destined for major success at the start of the eighties, only to have their hopes dashed by a mixture of bad luck and tragedy. The band was formed by guitarist Terry Efaw and bassist Steve Reis, whose Athens, Ohio, address gave the act its unusual name. The group was swelled by Bobby Gene McNelly (vocals/guitar), John Schwab (guitar), Dick Smith (drums) and finally Stephen Douglass (keyboards/harmonica). Shifting 40,000 copies of their debut album (on their own label), McGuffey Lane were picked up by Atco, and – with tours alongside The Allman Brothers and The Charlie Daniels Band lined up – success seemed a fraction away. Radio hits such as ‘Long Time Lovin’ You’ (1980) and ‘Start It All Over’ (1981) only strengthened this belief, though the band made it clear they had a specific audience in mind by shifting allegiance to Atlantic American Records, a chiefly country label.

With the 1984 album
Day By Day
poised for release, Douglass died in a freak car accident returning from a gig. The record was subsequently dedicated to his memory, though McNelly was unable to continue, moving into songwriting before his own death in shocking circumstances almost exactly three years later (
January 1987).

McGuffey Lane drummer Dick Smith died
in 2007.

Friday 20

Jackie Wilson

(Jack Leroy Wilson - Highland Park, Michigan, 9 June 1934)

(Billy Ward & The Dominoes)

For many decades his rich falsetto-tenor has been regarded as one of the greatest soul voices of all time, and his stage dynamism cited as an influence by singers as diverse as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Levi Stubbs – yet behind Jackie Wilson’s huge success lies a tale of unrelenting poverty, disloyalty, promiscuity and continued personal upset.

Wilson was not given the greatest start in life: his father was seldom employed, generally broke and had been an alcoholic since before his only child was born. This inevitably had an effect on the boy, who himself began drinking at the age of nine. And despite singing gospel with The Ever Ready Singers, Wilson – who lived in Detroit’s problem North End district – was frequently in trouble and constantly skipped classes to hang with his ‘Shakers’ gang stooges. At sixteen he was placed in a correctional institute, where he lied about his age to join a boxing club – though after becoming a Golden Gloves welterweight champion, Wilson heeded his mother’s wishes and gave up the sport to concentrate on singing.

Ubiquitous talentshow lurker Johnny Otis picked out ‘Sonny’ Wilson as having real potential – the singer was already displaying signs of the dynamic stage presence he was to become in time. After a couple of false starts, Wilson took a deserved place in Billy Ward’s Dominoes, replacing Drifters-bound lead/tenor Clyde McPhatter in the process. With The Dominoes, Wilson experienced his first pop crossover success with ‘St Therese of the Roses’ (1956). The million-selling solo hit ‘Lonely Teardrops’ (1958) put the singer high into the US Top Ten, but the first hiccup in his career was the death of his manager, Al Green (no relation), with a deal with Brunswick on the table: this opened the door for the far less scrupulous Nat Tarnopol. This Greek businessman – rumoured to have mob connections – took Wilson to Decca instead, and saw fit to ditch his blossoming songwriting team, Berry Gordy and Roquel ‘Billy’ Davis, over a payment disagreement. Wilson trusted the man implicitly and foolishly handed over power of attorney to him. The hit records continued, but it was clear to most that intrusive arrangements were giving Wilson little space in which to express himself fully. Tarnopol misguidedly believed that rock ‘n’ roll was a mere fad and encouraged Wilson to spurn his own instincts and lean towards a more sterile supper-club audience.