Mic drop: The 2024 RIP thread for musicians

Mojo Nixon made A1, at least in San Diego


He was well-known on the local scene when I was down there (though I never went to see him). I was disappointed that the U-T story above didn't even mention "Don Henley Must Die." I read that a couple years after that song came out, Henley showed up unexpectedly at one of Mojo's gigs and came on stage to accompany him on a rendition of "DHMD." Mojo was so impressed by that, he promised he would change the title of the song to "Michael Bolton Must Die."

 

I've seen Dylan live 6-7 times (most recently 2004 I think). He's either brilliant or awful.

He goes through stages of believing that playing his songs in any recognizable form is an insult to either his audience or to him. He doesn't usually go for new arrangements or different instrumentation, he basically just rambles through the songs as loudly and fast as he can, doing his best to make the lyrics absolutely unintelligible. When he's in this mindset he's fucking horrible.

When he feels inclined to sing the songs in intelligible form, he can be great. But his voice has been going for years, he was already pretty husky 20 years ago, I can only imagine what he sounds like now.

 

WC Clark has died. He was a hell of a bluesman.

W.C. Clark, the Godfather of Austin Blues, Has Died

 

Jim Beard Dies: Steely Dan Keyboardist Was 63

https://deadline.com/2024/03/jim-beard-dead-1235847481/

 

Had the band Material Issue stuck in my head for some reason so decided to listen to their first album on Spotify. It was among the first CDs I ever bought (the 12-pack deal from Columbia House; Jesus Jones was among my prizes.)

Anyway, wondering whatever happened to them, did a little bit of Googling and discovered their front man killed himself nearly 30 years ago. Yikes! Great debut, bummer of an ending.

 

Yeah, terribly sad ending. They were a really fun band.

 

Sadly, two more today:

Karl Wallinger of the Waterboys/World Party
Eric Carmen of the Raspberries

 

Eric Carmen is a tough one.

 

Side3 is terrific album as is Live on Sunset Strip….the Raspberries at their best. The bonus DVD can be viewed on You Tube, haven’t got the link. Five powerful songs in length.
RIP Eric. I’m a Rocker at heart.

 

Great song. Terribly corny video.

Carmen had an odd career arc. "Go All The Way" was a huge hit for the Raspberries in 1972. He had a solo hit with the ballad "All By Myself" four years later. And then he disappeared until the mid-1980s with "Hungry Eyes" and "Make Me Lose Control."

 

Just a perfect summer song. Whomever dropped that into the summer of '88 is a genius (of course, that was months after the Hungry Eyes comeback, so they would have been foolish to wait). But I still wonder why Eric (or the director) hated Scott Shannon so much. RIP to Eric, a master of power pop.