FEATURE:
In Memoriam
IN THIS PHOTO: The iconic Scott Walker died on 22nd March, 2019/PHOTO CREDIT: Jake Walters/Contour by Getty Images
Musicians We Have Lost in 2019
___________
WHILST we acknowledge the best albums…
IN THIS PHOTO: Ranking Roger of The Beat - who died on 26th March, 2019 - at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London in 2017/PHOTO CREDIT: Lorne Thomson/Redferns
and artists of the year, there is also a sadness that needs to be recognised: the great artists we have said goodbye to. Every year, we lose someone dear to music and, whilst there has been a lot of positives and things to celebrate, the loss of some truly big names has really taken us aback. Apologies if I miss anyone significant out of the list – I am not including EVERY artist and person related to the music -, but it has been a year where a lot of important people have died. Sadly, we lost Peter Tork in February. Best known as the keyboardist and bass guitarist of The Monkees, his death at the age of seventy-seven was a big loss. There were a few tribute articles written about Tork, but I wanted to bring in some quotes from a piece in The New York Times:
“The Monkees were an unabashedly manufactured band, created by Hollywood producers in the 1960s to capitalize on the astounding popularity of the Beatles. The members — Mr. Tork (the oldest, at 24), Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith — were cast as the stars of an NBC sitcom, “The Monkees” (1966-68), in which they performed and dealt with comic situations with a childlike irreverence, much as the Beatles had in their hit films “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!”
Mr. Tork was positioned as the goofy one, the court jester. The director Bob Rafelson, one of the show’s creators, compared him to Harpo Marx.
Because they were created for television, did not write their own songs (that was left to professionals like Gerry Goffin, Carole King and others) and did not play their own instruments (they mimed playing on camera), the Monkees were disdained by many; if the Beatles were the Fab Four, the Monkees quickly earned the derisive nickname the Prefab Four.
Mr. Tork reunited with his fellow Monkees for a world tour in 2011 and with Mr. Dolenz and Mr. Nesmith in 2012 for a tour that included a tribute to Mr. Jones, who died that year. In recent years the surviving Monkees released two albums”.
In February, we also said goodbye to Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis. Talk Talk are a band I have been familiar with for a few years, but their work only truly hit me after the death of Hollis. That might sound a bit bad, but I neglected the brilliance of the band. Albums like The Colour of Spring and Spirit of Eden are absolute classics. The sheer sophistication of the music and the emotion in Hollis’ voice; the timelessness of Hollis’ songs and the incredible effect the songs have on you. Talk Talk are a band who might have passed by a lot of people my age (in their thirties), but I think a lot of people are discovering Talk Talk now. It is shame that we lost Hollis so young (aged sixty-four), but the music he helped create will live forever. There was great outpouring from so many people in the music world.
I know Elbow’s Guy Garvey is a particular fan, and he was especially affected by Hollis’ death. Here is what The Guardian wrote in their tribute feature:
“With Hollis as its singer and creative mastermind, the group made a name with 1980s hit singles such as It’s My Life, Today, Talk Talk and Life’s What You Make It. They progressed to albums like Spirit of Eden, which was hailed as a “masterpiece”, and Laughing Stock.
His cousin-in-law Anthony Costello tweeted on Monday: “RIP Mark Hollis. Cousin-in-law. Wonderful husband and father. Fascinating and principled man. Retired from the music business 20 years ago but an indefinable musical icon.”
Talk Talk’s bassist Paul Webb, aka Rustin Man, paid tribute to Hollis on Instagram. “I am very shocked and saddened to hear the news of the passing of Mark Hollis,” he wrote. “Musically he was a genius and it was a honour and a privilege to have been in a band with him. I have not seen Mark for many years, but like many musicians of our generation I have been profoundly influenced by his trailblazing musical ideas.”
Talk Talk: 'You should never listen to music as background music' – a classic interview from the vaults
In an interview with Q’s backpages at the time, later republished in the Guardian, Hollis expressed awareness that he could be “a difficult geezer” but that was because he refused to “play that game” that came with the role of musician in the spotlight.
“It’s certainly a reaction to the music that’s around at the moment, ‘cos most of that is shit,” Hollis also said of Spirit of Eden. “It’s only radical in the modern context. It’s not radical compared to what was happening 20 years ago. If we’d have delivered this album to the record company 20 years ago they wouldn’t have batted an eyelid”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Keith Flint
On 4th March, the legendary Keith Flint of The Prodigy died. This was an especially big loss to me, as I grew up listening to music from The Prodigy. Although Flint only sang on a few of the band’s songs, his incredible energy and personality helped score some of their biggest anthems. Whilst Flint projected this wild image on stage, off of the stage we found a very different man – one of the sweetest and most accessible people you could meet. After Flint was found hanged at his home, many people went online to raise awareness of mental-health issues and the importance of talking to someone if you need help – although the coroner found insufficient evidence to suggest Flint’s death was a suicide. Such a tragic and premature death shocked us all and it is very odd to think we will never see Flint take to the stage with The Prodigy. I was a teen when Breathe and Firestarter were unleashed on the world. Taken from 1997’s The Fat of the Land, it was clear there was nobody out there who could sing like Keith Flint. Maybe it was his delivery and accent or something else; he was a crucial ingredient in The Prodigy’s success. Here, the XL label boss Richard Russell remembers a true original:
“When The Fat of the Land [the Prodigy’s 1997 album, which included Firestarter] got to No 1 in America, Keith was in the frontline, presenting something new, something powerful and completely undiluted. What the Prodigy were doing was so strong the mainstream had to understand it, and had to bend towards it.
After Firestarter, the Prodigy became huge and they’ve kept playing at that level ever since [every Prodigy album except their debut, up to and including 2018’s No Tourists became a UK No 1]. It didn’t faze Keith. He’d hang around backstage and be nice to people, and just pour this different character out on stage. He’d go home between tours and take care of his animals. He lived in the countryside in Essex, and he loved being there. He knew the value of things.
Keith lived life full-on, and he gave himself to everything he did. He got involved in motorcycle racing, which he’d always been a fan of, and became incredible at it [in 2014 he set up his own team, Team Traction Control, which won two races at the Isle of Man TT, two years running]. He kept very fit. But it’s important to recognise that living life to the max then dying the way he did is not really something to celebrate. Keith’s death was awful. It’s impossible to be philosophical about what happened. It shouldn’t have happened. We were all so shocked”.
On 16th March, Surf icon Dick Dale passed away. If many of us associate Dale with Miserlou and Pulp Fiction, his legacy and importance is much wider and deeper than that. Just listen to the way he played guitar; he opened up the instrument to others and pushed it beyond natural limits. Dale was a true innovator and introduced a style that will inspire musicians for years to come. If The Beach Boys were providing lyrics to surf scenes, Dick Dale brought the music; this rumbling, evocative sound that was a true revelation. Rolling Stone paid tribute to Dick Dale following his death:
“As the progenitor of the surf rock genre and an innovator who helped stretch the possibilities of the electric guitar, Dale inspired musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Ry Cooder and the Beach Boys. Dale’s “Miserlou” also notably featured in the opening credits sequence of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
Dale defined surf music as “that rumbling and all that stuff like that they associated the heavy Dick Dale staccato… it sounded like the barrel of a goddamn wave” in an interview with Surfer.
Dale was also recruited by the Fender company to test drive and help improve their instruments and amps; thanks to its association with Dale, the Fender Stratocaster became the go-to guitar for surf rock, with Dale’s signature golden Stratocaster dubbed “the Beast” a gift from Leo Fender, who custom-made the guitar for maximum volume.
Jimi Hendrix, like Dale, would play his Stratocaster left-handed. Eddie Van Halen would later cite Dale and surf music as one of his prime inspirations, with the Van Halen guitarist modeling his method on Dale’s quick-picking. Stevie Ray Vaughan, another disciple, would team with Dale on a cover of the Chantays’ surf classic “Pipeline” in 1986; the rendition would be nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1987 Grammys.
In addition to influencing a generation of guitar gods, Dale enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the Nineties thanks to the placement of “Miserlou” in Pulp Fiction”.
On 22nd March, the sensational Scott Walker died. He rose to fame in the mid-1960s as part of The Walker Brothers, and he embarked on a solo career with 1967’s Scott. His music became more baroque towards the late-1960s and, although his solo work did not sell overly-well, Walker has inspired so many artists – including David Bowie, Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) and Jarvis Cocker. Like all true originals, there is really nobody like Scott Walker. One can hear little shades of his voice in artists like Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) and Thom Yorke of Radiohead, but no-one can truly capture the essence and incredible power of Scott Walker.
The New York Times published a beautiful tribute to a true icon:
“Mr. Walker left the group in 1967 to start a solo career that became a rejection of his rock-star phase. In one iteration he recorded songs by the Belgian singer and songwriter Jacques Brel. But his most critical period was a retreat into the studio to create avant-garde music that was hard to categorize: ominous and clangorous, existential and electronic, with big blocks of sound, his baritone voice now used to almost operatic effect. For many years, he did not appear in concert.
Reviewing a recording on which Mr. Walker collaborated with the metal band Sunn O))) in 2014, Ben Ratliff of The New York Times described his music as “intricate puzzles of shock, indiscretion, non-resolution, theatrical uses of text and extended technique, often with a 40-piece orchestra.” He added that Mr. Walker was always looking for a “whoops factor”— “a moment of incomprehension from the listener.”
Although the best-known songs of his Walker Brothers period did not portend how radical his music would become, Mr. Walker began to demonstrate a willingness to free himself from the conventions of pop and rock as early as 1967, when he began releasing a series of solo albums — “Scott,” “Scott 2,” Scott 3” and “Scott 4.” He did so again on “Nite Flights” (1978), an album made during a brief reunion of the Walker Brothers.
Along the way, he found an admirer in David Bowie. Mr. Bowie, a transcendent musical experimenter, was in a relationship with a woman who had dated Mr. Walker and kept his albums. Mr. Bowie listened to the music and became so enamored that he later took the role of executive producer of “Scott Walker: 30 Century Man” (2007), a documentary directed by Stephen Kijak.
“I like the way he can paint a picture with what he says,” Mr. Bowie said in the film. “I had no idea what he was singing about. And I didn’t care”.
Ranking Rodger died in March at the age of fifty-six. The singer of the two-tone band The Beat, Rodger’s passing has left a huge hole in the music industry. Like Talk Talk, The Beat were a band that I familiarised myself with more after Rodger’s death. The influence and impact of The Beat extended beyond Ska and Two-Tone. Roger was a massive figure, and he was responsible for some of Ska and Two-Tone’s most iconic songs:
“The Beat (or, as they're known in the U.S., the English Beat), came up as part of the second wave ska movement in the U.K. in the late '70s and early '80s. They experienced big commercial success, and their songs endured because they were more than just a genre band. The Beat combined ska elements (like a horn section) with soul, reggae, punk, and pop hooks to make some of the era's most indelible standards, particularly "Save it for Later" and "Mirror in the Bathroom." Leading the band's musical direction with a soulful, emotive voice was singer Roger Charlery, or, as he was known on stage, Ranking Roger”.
It is always especially tragic when a group or artist on the cusp of mainstream acceptance and success departs. Liverpool duo Her’s were making waves and turning heads with their incredible chemistry and stunning songwriting. I know they were being tipped as an act to watch and were building up a passionate and solid fanbase. Her’s members were killed in a car crash on their way to a gig – as this NME article reports:
“The duo, comprised of Stephen Fitzpatrick and Audun Laading, were travelling from Arizona to a gig in Santa Ana, California earlier this week (March 27) when they were involved in a road accident. Both members and their tour manager, Trevor Engelbrektson, died in the incident.
In a statement posted on Facebook, the band’s label Heist Or Hit wrote: “We are all heartbroken.
“Their energy, vibrancy and talent came to define our label. As humans, they were warm, gentle and hilarious. Each time they stopped by the office made for an uplifting experience. To say they were close would be an underestimation of a friendship that was genuinely beautiful to witness; they loved one another like brothers.
“Musically, Her’s were astonishing,” the statement continues. “An aptitude for melody, fun, and entertainment combined with a complexity that was as sophisticated as it was stylish. They were in America playing to thousands of adoring fans. Fans they made a point of meeting and spending time with, such was their passion and humbleness. The world was at their feet”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Dr. John
On 6th June, the wonderful and cherished Dr. John died. Another legend of the scene, his death sent shockwaves around the world. Dr. John was active as a session musician from the late-1960s until his death, but he gained widespread popularity after the release of his album, Gris-Gris, and his appearance at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music. His live shows were the stuff of legends that brought together Mardi Gras, voodoo ceremonies and strange theatrics. Dr. John (Malcolm John Rebennack Jr.) recorded thirty studio albums during his lifetime and contributed to countless other recordings. He was remembered by Rolling Stone:
“God bless Dr. John,” Ringo Starr wrote on Twitter. “Peace and love to all his family. I love the doctor.”
“There was no other performer like Dr. John, and there never will be,” Louisiana native Ellen DeGeneres wrote. “Tonight my heart is in New Orleans.”
Although best known for his Seventies solo work and radio hits like “Right Place, Wrong Time,” Rebennack had a career that spanned pop history. He was a key part of the “Wrecking Crew” stable of ace Los Angeles session musicians in the Sixties. He played on recordings by Cher, Aretha Franklin, Canned Heat, Frank Zappa and countless others, fusing funk with R&B and boogie woogie.
Rebennack began putting out his own records in 1968 with the release of his debut album Gris-Gris. It was the beginning of his larger-than-life Dr. John Creaux the Night Tripper character, with Rebennack incorporating elements of voodoo into his outrageous stage show. He quickly grew a large following, introducing much of America to New Orleans music.
Signing with Atlantic, by way of legendary producer Jerry Wexler, Dr. John found his groove and his voice, starting with Gumbo, the landmark 1972 album that featured his renditions of “Iko Iko,” “Let the Good Times Roll” and other New Orleans classics. The next year, he hit his commercial peak, when his funky stomp “Right Place, Wrong Time” hit the Top 10. Those albums showcased not only his loose growl and rhythmic sense but his piano playing, which incorporated boogie and swinging syncopation.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 1973, Rebennack discussed his internal battle over making “commercial” music. “The only thing that makes a record commercial is if people buy it,” he said. “Originally, I felt to go commercial would prostitute myself and bastardize the music. On reflecting, I thought that if without messin’ up the music and keeping the roots and elements of what I want to do musically, I could still make a commercial record I would not feel ashamed from, I’m proud of, and still have a feel for, then it’s not a bad thing but it even serve a good purpose.”
He was popular enough by 1976 to be invited to perform at The Band’s Last Waltz alongside Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters and other greats of the era, but his commercial fortunes waned in the Eighties and an addiction to heroin hobbled his career for years. He kicked the drug in 1989, around the time that Ringo Starr helped revive his career by bringing him on the road for his inaugural All Starr Band Tour. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
IN THIS PHOTO: Daniel Johnston
Daniel Johnston was a cult musician whose music was often cited as being child-like in tone. Not only did he find a fan in Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain; Johnson’s influenced has stretched far and wide. One listens to his music and there is this lo-fi, D.I.Y. sound that makes his songs sound utterly direct and personal. Johnston recorded at home to cassette and I just love that sort of ethos and approach. Johnson was also an accomplished visual artist and had his illustrations exhibited at galleries around the world. Johnson lived with mental illness for much of his life and was the subject of the documentary, The Devil and Daniel Johnston. The Independent remembered him in this feature from September:
“Daniel Johnston established his reputation as a near-mythical figure in indie rock through a vast canon of humorous, bittersweet songs, many recorded at home on cheap cassette, but his career was marked by struggles with mental health issues.
Johnston, who has died of a suspected heart attack aged 58, suffered with manic depression and schizophrenia and faced increasing health problems in recent years, notably diabetes and hydrocephalus, a build-up of fluid in the brain. Although he said he hoped to continue performing, he embarked in 2017 on what was billed as his final tour, joined by a backing band that included members of Wilco, Fugazi and Built to Spill – a roster of indie rock all-stars that spoke to his reputation as a master lyricist and intimate, uninhibited singer.
With a high-pitched voice and mild lisp, Johnston bared his soul in folksy songs about unrequited love, existential dread, his affection for The Beatles and the thrills of a speeding motorcycle.
Emerging from Austin’s underground music scene in the mid-1980s, he used a $59 Sanyo boombox to record himself on acoustic guitar, organ and piano, and released cassette tapes decorated with his own ink and marker artwork.
His music was unabashedly simple and straightforward but drew a cult following, notably after Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was photographed in a T-shirt bearing the cover of Johnston’s album Hi, How Are You (1983). His songs – “recorded so intimately, it almost feels like an invasion to listen to them”, according to Pitchfork – were covered by, among others, Tom Waits, Beck and Lana Del Rey.
Johnston also found some success as an artist, inking cartoon-like drawings of an “alien frog” with eyes like lollipops, a boxer with a hollow head like an empty bowl, and Casper the Friendly Ghost. More than a dozen of his pictures were exhibited at the 2006 Whitney Biennial in Manhattan, after he had previously used his drawings to barter for comic books in Austin, or simply given them away.
IN THIS PHOTO: Ric Ocasek/PHOTO CREDIT: Astrid Stawiarz via Getty Images
The last five names I want to mention cover are very different moccasins. On 15th September, The Cars’ Ric Ocasek died at the age of seventy-five. I really love the music of The Cars, so it was a real shock to hear of Ocasek’s death. He was one of those songwriters whose work we all knew and could relate to. I think Ocasek is one of the best songwriters of all-time and does not get the full credit he deserves. As part of the New Wave band, The Cars’ Ocasek was a true visionary. Here is how The New York Times remembered him:
“The Cars grew out of a friendship forged in the late 1960s in Ohio between Mr. Ocasek and Benjamin Orr, who died in 2000. They worked together in multiple bands before moving to Boston and forming the Cars in the late 1970s with Elliot Easton on lead guitar, Greg Hawkes on keyboards and David Robinson on drums. It was the beginning of the punk era, but the Cars made their first albums with Queen’s producer, Roy Thomas Baker, creating songs that were terse and moody but impeccably polished.
Mr. Ocasek’s lead vocals mixed a gawky, yelping deadpan with hints of suppressed emotion, while his songs drew hooks from basic three-chord rockabilly and punk, from surf-rock, from emerging synth-pop, from echoes of the Beatles and glam-rock, and from hints of the 1970s art-rock avant-garde.
Each of the five albums the Cars released from 1978 to 1984 sold a million copies in the United States alone, with ubiquitous radio singles like “Just What I Needed” in 1978, “Shake It Up” in 1981, “You Might Think” in 1984 and “Drive” in 1984. Although Mr. Ocasek wrote them, “Just What I Needed” and “Drive” had lead vocals by Mr. Orr.
Mr. Ocasek’s songs were invariably terse and catchy, spiked with Mr. Easton’s twangy guitar lines and Mr. Hawkes’s pithy keyboard hooks. But they were also elaborately filled out by multitracked instruments and vocals. Lyrics that might initially seem like pop love songs were, more often, calmly ambivalent.
The Cars disbanded in 1988 as Mr. Ocasek and Mr. Orr grew apart. Mr. Ocasek had begun making music on his own while still in the group and would eventually release seven solo albums from 1982 through 2005, though none achieved the popularity of his Cars catalog.
While he said he didn’t want people prying into his personal life, “I feel that my song lyrics are kind of an open book.” he told The Chicago Tribune in 1986. “I feel that writing songs for my solo albums is kind of like spilling my guts, telling people how I really feel subconsciously. When I’m writing, it’s like I’m not really in control”.
Many might not be familiar with Kim Shattuck but, as founder of The Muffs, you only need to listen for a few moments until her brilliance is obvious. In addition to her work with The Muffs, Shattuck was involved in other musical projects: She sang on a NOFX song, Lori Meyers on the album Punk in Drublic, and a Bowling for Soup song, I'll Always Remember You (That Way). She also collaborated with vocals for the Kepi Ghoulie song, This Friend of Mine, on the album, American Gothic.
Shattuck joined Pixies for their fall 2013 European tour, following the departure of original member Kim Deal. At the conclusion of the tour in late November 2013, she was fired by the band. This article nods to a truly great songwriter and artist:
“The 30-year-plus career of Kim Shattuck is also the history of the development of American alternative rock — and she played a big part in how that sound evolved. She got her start in the '80s with the Pandoras, an L.A. psychedelic garage rock band that got more of a hard edge as the decade wore on. In 1991, she left that group and with former bandmate Melanie Vammen, Shattuck soon formed the Muffs, a quintessential '90s alterna-pop band, blurring the lines between pop-rock and punk and anchoring it all with her signature raspy but bouncy vocals. The Muffs are probably best known for a cover of Kim Wilde's "Kids in America" for the soundtrack of Clueless, a song that pretty much defined that classic teen movie. Shattuck also guested on songs by bands clearly influenced by the Muffs' edgy/snarling/radio-friendly pop-punk, such as NOFX and Bowling for Soup. In 2013, she enjoyed a short but high-profile stint replacing Kim Deal in the Pixies, a gig that would last a mere five months”.
Perhaps the biggest loss we encountered this year was that of the legendary drummer Ginger Baker. There is no telling just how far his legacy extends. One can quibble and argue as to who the best drummer ever is; Ginger Baker had a talent that was almost supernatural! Although he had a reputation for being a bit difficult, there is no denying the incredible ability and importance of this incredible musician. Baker is probably best known as co-founder of Cream, but he collaborated with scores of musicians in his lifetime, spanning multiple genres and worlds.
PHOTO CREDIT: WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
Following his death at the age of eighty, so many fans, musicians and journalists were keen to pay their respects to one of music’s titans. This is what The Guardian had to say:
“Among those paying tribute were two Beatles. Fellow drummer Ringo Starr said: “God bless Ginger Baker, incredible musician wild and inventive drummer. Peace and love to his family.” Paul McCartney tweeted: “Great drummer, wild and lovely guy … Sad to hear that he died but the memories never will.”
The family of the late Jack Bruce, the band’s lead vocalist and bassist in one of Baker’s bands Cream, published a statement on Twitter saying: “Surviving a love-hate relationship, Ginger was like an older brother to Jack, their chemistry was truly spectacular. RIP Ginger, one of the greatest drummers of all time.”
Baker was born Peter Edward Baker in 1939 in Lewisham, south London, and grew up amid the blitz; his father was killed in action in 1943. He began drumming in his mid-teens, remembering in 2009: “I’d never sat behind a kit before, but I sat down – and I could play! One of the musicians turned round and said, ‘Bloody hell, we’ve got a drummer’, and I thought, ‘Bloody hell, I’m a drummer!’”
Cream sold more than 15m records worldwide and had hits including Sunshine of Your Love, Strange Brew and White Room; three of their four albums reached both the US and UK top five.
The band split in 1968, releasing a final album in 1969. A reunion in 2005 ended in animosity, with Baker and Bruce shouting at each other on stage in New York. In 1969, Baker and Clapton formed the short-lived band Blind Faith with Steve Winwood and Ric Grech, and the latter pair joined Baker in his next project, jazz-rock band Ginger Baker’s Air Force.
Winwood said yesterday that Baker’s death was “a very sad loss ... a loss also for his contribution to music. He was well-grounded in jazz from very early on and later managed to combine this with African and rock music to create his own inimitable style of playing.”
He added: “Beneath his somewhat abrasive exterior, there was a very sensitive human being with a heart of gold. He’ll be missed.”
Other famous names in music paying tribute yesterday included Brian Wilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys, who called him “a great drummer”, and the Rolling Stones singer Sir Mick Jagger, who called Baker “fiery but extremely talented and innovative”.
Two very recent deaths also need to be mentioned. Rapper Juice Wrld. Barely twenty-one, he died on 8th December very suddenly. Drugs and premature death are becoming synonymous with rappers. So many of Juice Wrld’s peers have died over the past few years; so many at a tragically young age. Like contemporaries such as Mac Miller (who died in 2018), Juice Wrld was preparing to embark on a long and successful career. He was starting to break through and few could have predicted that he would die at the age of twenty-one. This article reacts to the death of yet another Rap star-in-waiting:
“Every thoughtful piece I read about his life and work expressed despair at the wasted potential of an entire generation of rappers, particularly Soundcloud rappers, who are overdosing or being incarcerated at a rate that suggests far more needs to be done by those profiting from their music.
In his biggest hit, Lucid Dreams, he laid out his existential despair: “I take prescriptions to make me feel a-okay,” he sang. “You were my everything / thoughts of a wedding ring / now I’m just better off dead.” When writing his obituaries, many have noted that he seemed to have been writing his own.
The opioid crisis, prescription drugs, depression and mental healthcare are all factors, but the music industry is hardly known for taking its pastoral responsibilities seriously.
When Kurt Cobain, much loved by Soundcloud rappers, died at the age of 27, his mother Wendy was reported to have said, “He’s gone and joined that stupid club. I told him not to join that stupid club.”
On Legends, released at the start of the month, Juice WRLD sang, “What’s the 27 club? We ain’t making it past 21”.
It is a shame that this year has seen a couple of young artist leave the world. It is always especially heart-breaking when we have to lose someone who was just getting their career started. Marie Fredriksson’s death on 9th December was another big shock. The Roxette lead died as a result of a recurrence of a previous brain tumour, and she suffered ill health for a lot of her later life. Roxette were one of these acts that sort of divided people. The Swedes faced their share of ridicule and dismissal, but I think they created some of the most memorable and hook-heavy Pop of the 1980 and 1990s. I absolutely loved their music and grew up listening to them. Tracks like Joyride and The Look are instantly recognisable and put you in a better frame of mind. We do not really hear Pop and Rock music like this any longer – which is a real shame. This article salutes the wonderful Marie Fredriksson:
“Commanding female vocalists were never more popular than in the late 1980s, and for a time Marie Fredriksson, whose voice could blister paint or seduce a kitten, was one of the biggest. The singing half of the Swedish power-pop duo Roxette, she piloted them, with guitarist Per Gessle, to near ubiquity, and 75m record sales. Her widescreen delivery of their four biggest songs – It Must Have Been Love, Joyride, The Look, and Listen to Your Heart – helped to send each to No 1 in the US, a country rarely receptive to Swedish groups, even those singing in English. Britain and the rest of Europe also succumbed, and Fredriksson, who has died of cancer aged 61, was one of pop’s most recognisable frontwomen in Roxette’s 1989‑91 golden hour.
Even those who found the group’s music insubstantial – a view that has recently been undergoing reappraisal – agreed that Fredriksson could sell a song. They included the New York Times, which panned the duo’s first Manhattan concert in 1992 (“Roxette won’t be accused of too much originality … Hearing Roxette could make a listener long for Abba”), while praising Fredriksson: “[Their] main asset is Marie Fredriksson, a singer with a sob in her voice [and] a platinum-blond Billy Idol hairdo.” In fact, the hairdo was closer to Annie Lennox’s streamlined crop, and Fredriksson was as angular and statuesque as the Eurythmics singer. She and Gessle probably did not engineer their look to resemble Lennox and her musical partner Dave Stewart, but there was an undeniable similarity, adding to the perception that Roxette were lightweights. “We don’t care what they say,” Gessle maintained in 1990. “We’re used to people saying our music sounds like crap.”
Vocally, though, Fredriksson was her own woman, rippling through her three-octave range in a display of both emotion and mezzo-soprano technique. English was her default language for Roxette songs – a necessary commercial decision, but also one that shielded her from the “vulnerability” she said she felt when singing in Swedish. Nonetheless, seven of the eight solo albums she made between 1984 and 2013 were in her native language – all were substantial hits in her home country – and showed a gentler side”.
