Music

a look a Men At Works Down Under

2009-08-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

The opening couplet borders, on first listen, on the incomprehensible - but it sets the tone if you decode the language.

"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi," it begins, "on a hippy trail, head full of zombie." Huh?

"Kombi" might be an unfamiliar word, but the Kombinationskraftwagen - aka the trusty old VW camper van - is a familiar symbol of easy-going hippiedom. The "hippy trail" is the path trod by many a dropout in the 1960s and 70s, taking free-wheeling Aussies and others on variants of the route between Istanbul and Kathmandu.

And "zombie"? David Dale at the Sydney Morning Herald says this is a "drug reference" - zombie apparently being a potent strain of marijuana (on occasion laced with angel dust).

So two lines in, and we're on a trip, other stops including Brussels and some kind of "den in Bombay" where, for whatever reason, the narrator is left "with a slack jaw and not much to say".

The Dame Edna connection

The treat that most listeners remember, though, is the Vegemite sandwich - this is a gift from a threatening-looking Belgian baker who turns out to be a fellow friendly Aussie far from home. (It's a true story - the sandwich-gifter was from Brunswick, Melbourne, according to the song's writer and lead vocalist, Colin Hay.)

And this, rather than the zombie, is what the verses are really all about - being abroad, disoriented, and then getting a warm greeting as an Australian. Hay likened the Aussie's instinct for exploring the world to "a strange breed of bird that travels north".

The inspiration for this tale of good cheer turns out to be Barry Humphries, the man who dresses up as Dame Edna Everage. Hay was a big fan and described, to the Queensland Sunday Mail, the narrator of the song as "an Aussie Barry McKenzie-type character", Barry being Dame Edna's beer-swilling back-packing nephew.

...and men chunder

So far, so merry. Why then, does the chorus foretell thunder - "You'd better run, you'd better take cover"?

Hay intended a warning to his countrymen that they might lose their identity.

"I wrote it at a time when there was a lot of overdevelopment in this country," he told the told the Herald Sun paper, "and we were in danger of becoming Americanised."

If this message is a little obscure, the video tried to underline it by having the band trek across a desert with a coffin.

Of the two choruses (one rhymes "under" with "plunder"; the other with "chunder"), it's the one about sweat ("where women glow"), beer and vomiting that sticks in the mind. ("Chunder", meaning "vomit", was a piece of surfer slang also popularised by Humphries, who believes it started as a nautical warning - "watch under" - from those on the upper decks to their shipmates below.)

Accidental patriotism

Barring the odd reunion, Men At Work are no more - it was legal unpleasantness that troubled them back in 1984, too. Hay now performs Down Under solo, in a "darker" unplugged version, but it's the 1981 Police-like reggae recording that endures.
As with Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA, it seems destined to be an accidental patriotic tune, despite its creator's intentions. The Age calls it an "unofficial national anthem"; it was the soundtrack to Australia's 1983 Americas Cup victory as well as the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics and currently features in a Qantas ad and soundtracks many a movie's Antipodean location.

Hay (who was born in Ayrshire and describes himself as "both Australian and Scottish") is sanguine.

"It's that song that has allowed me to make my new album," he said in one interview; in another: "I am fortunate because I did make enough shekels that I can continue to do this and not be a waiter or have to empty people's septic tanks."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNT7uZf7lew

Cocksucker Blues

2009-07-05T04:30:00.000-07:00

The Rolling Stones were all done with Decca records in 1970, but owed the company one more single. This resulted in THE classic Rolling Stones obscurity, created specifically to screw with their old record label. Decca refused to release the song, but it was apparently actually commercially released and then dropped four weeks later on a 1983 German Stones compilation.

Besides the not inconsiderable distinction of being the most wicked and unmentionable Rolling Stones song ever, it also turns out to be exceptionally good music. The recording is just Mick and Keef on an acoustic guitar. For one thing, I'd say that this was the closest these rich English boys ever got to the true dark helpless existential despair of the vintage American blues originals such as Robert Johnson.

Cocksucker Blues
(aka Schoolboy Blues)
(Jagger/Richards)

Well, I'm a lonesome schoolboy
And I just came into town
Yeah, I'm a lonesome schoolboy
And I just came into town
Well, I heard so much about London
I decided to check it out

Well, I wait in Leicester Square
With a come-hither look in my eye
Yeah, I'm leaning on Nelsons Column
But all I do is talk to the lions

Oh where can I get my cock sucked?
Where can I get my ass fucked?
I may have no money,
But I know where to put it every time

Well, I asked a young policeman
If he'd only lock me up for the night
Well, I've had pigs in the farmyard,
Some of them, some of them, they're alright
Well, he fucked me with his truncheon
And his helmet was way too tight

Oh where can I get my cock sucked?
Where can I get my ass fucked?
I ain't got no money,
But I know where to put it every time

I'm a lonesome schoolboy in your town
I'm a lonesome schoolboy

Michael Jackson

2009-06-25T20:22:00.001-07:00

Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29, 1958) is an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 and began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. Referred to as the "King of Pop" in subsequent years, five of his solo studio albums have become some of the world's best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).
In the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music and the first African-American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. The popularity of his music videos airing on MTV, such as "Beat It", "Billie Jean" and Thriller—credited for transforming the music video into an art form and a promotional tool—helped bring the relatively new channel to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made Jackson an enduring staple on MTV in the 1990s. With stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced hip hop, pop and contemporary R&B artists.
Jackson has donated and raised millions of dollars for beneficial causes through his foundation, charity singles and support of 39 charities. Other aspects of his personal life, including his changing appearance and behavior, generated significant controversy, damaging his public image. Though he was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993, the criminal investigation was closed due to lack of evidence and Jackson was not charged. The singer has experienced health concerns since the early 1990s and conflicting reports regarding the state of his finances since the late 1990s. Jackson married twice and fathered three children, all of which caused further controversy. In 2005, Jackson was tried and acquitted of further sexual abuse allegations and several other charges.
One of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records—including one for "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time"—13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and the sales of over 750 million albums worldwide. Cited as one of the world's most famous men, Jackson's highly publicized personal life, coupled with his successful career, has made him a part of popular culture for almost four decades.

Joseph Walter "Joe" and Katherine Esther (née Scruse), he is the seventh of nine children. His siblings are Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Randy and Janet. Joseph Jackson was a steel mill employee who often performed in an R&B band called The Falcons with his brother Luther. Jackson was raised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses by his devout mother.
From a young age Jackson was physically and mentally abused by his father, enduring incessant rehearsals, whippings and name-calling. Jackson's abuse as a child affected him throughout his grown life. In one altercation—later recalled by Marlon Jackson—Joseph held Michael upside down by one leg and "pummeled him over and over again with his hand, hitting him on his back and buttocks". Joseph would often trip up, or push the male children into walls. One night while Jackson was asleep, Joseph climbed into his room through the bedroom window. Wearing a fright mask, he entered the room screaming and shouting. Joseph said he wanted to teach his children not to leave the window open when they went to sleep. For years afterward, Jackson suffered nightmares about being kidnapped from his bedroom.
Jackson first spoke openly about his childhood abuse in a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey. He said that during his childhood he often cried from loneliness and would sometimes get sick or start to regurgitate upon seeing his father. In Jackson's other high profile interview, Living with Michael Jackson (2003), the singer covered his face with his hand and began crying when talking about his childhood abuse. Jackson recalled that Joseph sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as he and his siblings rehearsed and that "if you didn't do it the right way, he would tear you up, really get you."
Jackson showed musical talent early in his life, performing in front of classmates and others during a Christmas recital at the age of five. In 1964, Jackson and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers—a band formed by brothers Jackie, Tito and Jermaine—as backup musicians playing congas and tambourine, respectively. Jackson later began performing backup vocals and dancing; at the age of eight, he and Jermaine assumed lead vocals, and the group's name was changed to The Jackson 5. The band toured the Midwest extensively from 1966 to 1968. The band frequently performed at a string of black clubs and venues collectively known as the "chitlin' circuit", where they often opened for stripteases and other adult acts. In 1966, they won a major local talent show with renditions of Motown hits and James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)", led by Michael.
The Jackson 5 recorded several songs, including "Big Boy", for the local record label Steeltown in 1967 and signed with Motown Records in 1968. Rolling Stone magazine later described the young Michael as "a prodigy" with "overwhelming musical gifts", noting that Michael "quickly emerged as the main draw and lead singer" after he began to dance and sing with his brothers. Though Michael sang with a "child's piping voice, he danced like a grown-up hoofer and sang with the R&B/gospel inflections of Sam Cooke, James Brown, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder". The group set a chart record when its first four singles ("I Want You Back", "ABC", "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There") peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. During The Jackson 5's early years, Motown's public relations team claimed that Jackson was nine years old—two years younger than he actually was—to make him appear cuter and more accessible to the mainstream audience. Starting in 1972, Jackson released a total of four solo studio albums with Motown, among them Got to Be There and Ben. These were released as part of the Jackson 5 franchise, and produced successful singles such as "Got to Be There", "Ben" and a remake of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin". The group's sales began declining in 1973, and the band members chafed under Motown's strict refusal to allow them creative control or input. Although the group scored several top 40 hits, including the top 5 disco single "Dancing Machine" and the top 20 hit "I Am Love", the Jackson 5 left Motown in 1975.

Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana (an industrial suburb of Chicago, Illinois) to a working-class family on August 29, 1958. The son of The Jackson 5 signed a new contract with CBS Records in June 1975, joining the Philadelphia International Records division, later Epic Records. As a result of legal proceedings, the group was renamed The Jacksons. After the name change, the band continued to tour internationally, releasing six more albums between 1976 and 1984. From 1976 to 1984, Michael Jackson was the lead songwriter of the group, writing hits such as "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", "This Place Hotel" and "Can You Feel It".
In 1978, Jackson starred as Scarecrow in the film musical The Wiz. The musical scores were arranged by Quincy Jones, who formed a partnership with Jackson during the film's production and agreed to produce the singer's next solo album Off the Wall. In 1979, Jackson broke his nose during a complex dance routine. His subsequent rhinoplasty surgery was not a complete success; he complained of breathing difficulties that would affect his career. He was referred to Dr. Steven Hoefflin, who performed Jackson's second rhinoplasty and other subsequent operations.
Jones and Jackson jointly produced Off the Wall. Songwriters included Jackson, Heatwave's Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney. Released in 1979, it was the first album to generate four US top 10 hits, including the chart-topping singles "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock with You". Off the Wall reached number three on the Billboard 200 and has since been certified for 7 million shipments in the US and eventually sold over 20 million copies worldwide. In 1980, Jackson won three awards at the American Music Awards for his solo efforts: Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Single for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". That year, he also won Billboard Music Awards for Top Black Artist and Top Black Album and a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance (for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough"). Despite its commercial success, Jackson felt Off the Wall should have made a much bigger impact, and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release. In 1980, Jackson secured the highest royalty rate in the music industry: 37% of wholesale album profit.

In 1982, Jackson contributed the song "Someone In the Dark" to the storybook for the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial; the record won a Grammy for Best Album for Children. That year Jackson issued his second Epic album, Thriller. The album remained in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for 80 consecutive weeks and 37 of those weeks at the peak position. It was the first album to have seven Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles, including "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'". Thriller was certified for 28 million shipments by the RIAA, giving it Double Diamond status in the US. It is often cited as the best-selling album of all time, with worldwide sales between 47 million and 109 million copies.
Jackson's attorney John Branca noted that Jackson had the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point; approximately $2 for every album sold. He was also making record breaking profit from compact discs or the sale of The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller; a documentary produced by Jackson and John Landis. Funded by MTV, the documentary sold over 350,000 copies in a few months of sale. The era saw the arrival of novelties like dolls modeled after Michael Jackson, that appeared in stores in May 1984 at a price of $12. Thriller retains a position in American culture. Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli explains, "At some point, Thriller stopped selling like a leisure item—like a magazine, a toy, tickets to a hit movie—and started selling like a household staple."
Gil Friesen, president of A&M Records, said "the whole industry has a stake in this success". Thriller raised the importance of albums, but multiple hits also changed notions about the number of singles to release. Time magazine explained that "the fallout from Thriller has given the [music] business its best years since the heady days of 1978, when it had an estimated total domestic revenue of $4.1 billion". Time summed up Thriller's impact as a "restoration of confidence" for an industry bordering on "the ruins of punk and the chic regions of synthesizer pop". The publication described Jackson's influence at that point as "Star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste and style and color too". The New York Times called him a "musical phenomenon", saying that "in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else". According to the The Washington Post, Thriller paved the way for other acts such as Prince.
On March 25, 1983, Jackson performed live on the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television special, both with The Jackson 5 and on his own singing "Billie Jean". Debuting his signature dance move—the moonwalk—his performances during the event were seen by 47 million viewers during its initial airing, and drew comparisons to Elvis Presley's and the The Beatles' appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. The New York Times said, "The moonwalk that he made famous is an apt metaphor for his dance style. How does he do it? As a technician, he is a great illusionist, a genuine mime. His ability to keep one leg straight as he glides while the other bends and seems to walk requires perfect timing".

Jackson suffered a setback on January 27, 1984. While filming a Pepsi Cola commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Jackson suffered second degree burns to his scalp after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire. Happening in front of a full house of fans during a simulated concert, the incident was the subject of heavy media scrutiny and elicited an outpouring of sympathy. PepsiCo settled a lawsuit out of court, and Jackson gave his $1.5 million settlement to the "Michael Jackson Burn Center" which was a piece of new technology to help people with severe burns. Jackson had his third rhinoplasty shortly afterward and grew self conscious about his appearance.
On May 14, 1984, Jackson was invited to the White House to receive an award presented by American President Ronald Reagan. The award was given for Jackson's support of charities that helped people overcome alcohol and drug abuse. Jackson won eight awards during the 1984 Grammys. Unlike later albums, Thriller did not have an official tour to promote it, but the 1984 Victory Tour, headlined by The Jacksons, showcased much of Jackson's new solo material to more than two million Americans. He donated his $5 million share from the Victory Tour to charity.
Jackson co-wrote the charity single "We Are the World" with Lionel Richie, which was released worldwide to aid the poor in Africa and the US. He was one of 39 music celebrities who performed on the record. The single became one of the best-selling singles of all time, with nearly 20 million copies sold and millions of dollars donated to famine relief.
While working with Paul McCartney on the two hit singles "The Girl Is Mine" and "Say Say Say", the pair became friendly, occasionally visiting one another. In one discussion, McCartney told Jackson about the millions of dollars he had made from music catalogs; he was earning approximately $40 million a year from other people's songs. Jackson then began a business career buying, selling and distributing publishing rights to music from numerous artists. Shortly afterward, Northern Songs—a music catalog holding thousands of songs, including The Beatles' back catalog—was put up for sale.
Jackson took immediate interest in the catalog but was warned that he would face strong competition. Excited, he skipped around saying, "I don't care. I want those songs. Get me those songs Branca [his attorney]". Branca then contacted the attorney of McCartney, who clarified that his client was not interested in bidding; "It's too pricey". After Jackson had started negotiations, McCartney changed his mind and tried to persuade Yoko Ono to join him in a joint bid, she declined, so he pulled out. Jackson eventually beat the rest of the competition in negotiations that lasted 10 months, purchasing the catalog for $47.5 million. When McCartney found out he said, "I think it's dodgy to do things like that. To be someone's friend and then buy the rug they're standing on". Reacting to that statement, biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli observed that McCartney made millions of dollars from the music of other people. He had more money than Jackson at that point so could have made a substantial bid for his own music and would not have suffered financial difficulties from Jackson owning the catalog.

In 1986, the tabloid press ran a story claiming that Jackson slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to slow the aging process; he was pictured lying down in a glass box. Although the claim was untrue, Jackson disseminated the fabricated story himself. The singer was promoting his upcoming movie Captain EO and wanted to promote a science fiction image of himself. Jackson had a fourth rhinoplasty and, wanting masculine features, had a cleft put in his chin. Then he starred in the Francis Ford Coppola-directed 3-D film Captain EO. It was the most expensive film produced on a per-minute basis at the time, and was later hosted in Disney theme parks. Disneyland featured the film in its Tomorrowland area for nearly 11 years, while Walt Disney World screened the film in its Epcot theme park from 1986 to 1994.
Jackson bought and befriended a pet chimpanzee called Bubbles, an act which extended his eccentric persona. In 2003 the singer claimed that Bubbles shared his toilet, and cleaned his bedroom. Later it was reported that Jackson bought the bones of The Elephant Man. Although untrue, it was a story that Jackson again disseminated to the tabloid press. These stories inspired the pejorative nickname "Wacko Jacko", which Jackson acquired the following year. He would eventually come to despise the nickname. Realizing his mistake, he stopped leaking untruths to the press. However due to the profit being made, the media began making up their own stories.
Jackson's skin was a medium-brown color for the entire duration of his youth, but starting in the early 1980s, his skin gradually grew paler. This change gained widespread media coverage, including rumors that Jackson was bleaching his skin. In the mid-1980s, Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo and lupus; the latter is in remission in Jackson's case, and both illnesses make him sensitive to sunlight. The treatments he uses for his condition further lighten his skin tone, and, with the application of pancake makeup to even out blotches, he can appear very pale. The structure of his face has changed as well; several surgeons have speculated that Jackson had undergone multiple nasal surgeries, a forehead lift, thinned lips and a cheekbone surgery. Changes to his face were, in part, due to periods of significant weight loss. Jackson lost weight in the early 1980s because of a change in diet and a desire for "a dancer's body". Witnesses reported that Jackson was often dizzy and speculated that he was suffering from anorexia nervosa; periods of weight loss would become a recurring problem for the singer later in life. Some medical professionals have publicly stated their belief that the singer has body dysmorphic disorder, a psychological condition whereby the sufferer has no concept of how they are perceived by others.

Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, "I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight", people would say, "Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a damn word that comes out of his mouth".—Michael Jackson

With the industry expecting another major hit, Jackson's first album in five years, Bad (1987), was highly anticipated. Bad had lower sales than Thriller, but was still a substantial commercial success. In the US, it spawned seven hit singles, five of which ("I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror" and "Dirty Diana") reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, more than any other album. As of 2008, the album sold 30 million copies worldwide, including eight million shipments in the US.

The Bad World Tour began on September 12, 1987, and finished on January 14, 1989. In Japan alone, the tour had 14 sellouts and drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record of 200,000 in a single tour. Jackson broke a Guinness World Record when 504,000 people attended seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium. He performed a total of 123 concerts to a total audience of 4.4 million people, and gained a further Guinness World Record when the tour grossed him $125 million. During the trip he invited underprivileged children to watch for free and gave donations to hospitals, orphanages and other charities.
In 1988, Jackson released his first autobiography, Moon Walk, which took four years to complete. Jackson told of his childhood, his experience in The Jackson 5 and the abuse he suffered as a child. He also spoke of his plastic surgery, saying he had two rhinoplastic surgeries and the surgical creation of a cleft in his chin. In the book, he attributed the change in the structure of his face to puberty, weight loss, a strict vegetarian diet, a change in hair style and stage lighting. Moonwalk reached the top position on The New York Times best sellers' list. The musician then released a film called Moonwalker, which featured live footage, music videos, and a feature film that starred Jackson and Joe Pesci. Moonwalker debuted atop the Billboard Top Music Video Cassette chart, staying there for 22 weeks. It was eventually knocked off the top spot by Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues.
In March 1988, Jackson purchased land near Santa Ynez, California to build Neverland Ranch at a cost of $17 million. The 2,700-acre (11 km2) property had Ferris wheels, a menagerie, and a movie theater. A security staff of 40 patrolled the grounds. In 2003, the property was valued at approximately $100 million. In 1989, his annual earnings from album sales, endorsements, and concerts was estimated at $125 million for that year alone. Shortly afterward, Jackson became the first Westerner to appear in a television advert for Russia.
Jackson's success resulted in his being dubbed the "King of Pop", a nickname conceived by actress and friend Elizabeth Taylor when she presented Jackson with an "Artist of the Decade" award in 1989, proclaiming him "the true king of pop, rock and soul". President George H. W. Bush presented the singer with The White House's special "Artist of the Decade" award in recognition of Jackson's musical influence in the 1980s; Bush commended Jackson for acquiring a "tremendous following" among other achievements. From 1985 to 1990, Jackson donated $500,000 to the United Negro College Fund, and all of the profits from his single "Man in the Mirror" went to charity.
Jackson's live rendition of "You Were There" at Sammy Davis Jr. 60th birthday celebration received an Emmy nomination.

In March 1991, Jackson renewed his contract with Sony for $65 million; a record breaking deal at the time. Jackson released his eighth album Dangerous in 1991. As of 2008, Dangerous has shipped 7 million copies in the US and has sold 32 million copies worldwide; it is the most successful New Jack Swing album off all time. In the US, the album's first single "Black or White" was the album's biggest hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and remaining there for seven weeks, with similar chart performances worldwide. The album's second single "Remember the Time" spent eight weeks in the top five in the US, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. In 1993, Jackson performed the song at the Soul Train Awards in a wheelchair, saying he had suffered an injury in rehearsals. In the UK and other parts of Europe, "Heal the World" was the biggest hit from the album; it sold 450,000 copies in the UK and spent five weeks at two in 1992.
Jackson founded the "Heal the World Foundation" in 1992. The charity organization brought underprivileged children to Jackson's ranch, to go on theme park rides that Jackson had built on the property after he purchased it. The foundation also sent millions of dollars around the globe to help children threatened by war and disease. The Dangerous World Tour began on June 27, 1992, and finished on November 11, 1993. Jackson performed to 3.5 million people in 67 concerts. All profits from the concerts went to the "Heal the World Foundation", raising millions of dollars in relief. He sold the broadcast rights to his Dangerous world tour to HBO for $20 million, a record-breaking deal that still stands. Following the illness and death of Ryan White, Jackson helped draw public attention to HIV/AIDS, something that was still controversial at the time. He publicly pleaded with the Clinton Administration at Bill Clinton's Inaugural Gala to give more money to HIV/AIDS charities and research.
In a high-profile visit to Africa, Jackson visited several countries, among them Gabon and Egypt. His first stop to Gabon was greeted with a sizable reception of more than 100,000 people in "spiritual bedlam", some of them carrying signs that read, "Welcome Home Michael". In his trip to the Ivory Coast, Jackson was crowned "King Sani" by a tribal chief. He then thanked the dignitaries in French and English, signed official documents formalizing his kingship and sat on a golden throne while presiding over ceremonial dances.
One of Jackson's most acclaimed performances came during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXVII. As the performances began, Jackson was catapulted onto the stage as fireworks went off behind him. As he landed on the canvass, he maintained a motionless "clenched fist, standing statue stance", dressed in a gold and black military outfit and sunglasses; he remained completely motionless for several minutes while the crowd cheered. He then slowly removed his sunglasses, threw them away and began to sing and dance. His routine included four songs: "Jam", "Billie Jean", "Black or White" and "Heal the World". It was the first Super Bowl where the audience figures increased during the half-time show, and was viewed by 135 million Americans alone; Jackson's Dangerous album rose 90 places up the album chart.
Jackson was given the "Living Legend Award" at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. "Black or White" was Grammy nominated for best vocal performance. "Jam" gained two nominations: Best R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.

Jackson gave a 90-minute interview with Oprah Winfrey in February 1993, his first television interview since 1979. He grimaced when speaking of his childhood abuse at the hands of his father; he believed he had missed out on much of his childhood years, admitting that he often cried from loneliness. He denied previous tabloid rumors that he bought the bones of the Elephant Man or slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. The entertainer went on to dispel suggestions that he bleached his skin, admitting for the first time that he had vitiligo. The interview was watched by 90 million Americans, becoming the fourth most-viewed non-sport program in US history. It also started a public debate on the topic of vitiligo, a relatively unknown condition before then. Dangerous re-entered the album chart top 10, more than a year after its original release.
Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse by a 13-year-old child named Jordan Chandler and his father Evan Chandler. The friendship between Jackson and Evan Chandler broke down. Sometime afterward, Evan Chandler was tape-recorded saying amongst other things, "If I go through with this, I win big-time. There's no way I lose. I will get everything I want and they will be destroyed forever...Michael's career will be over". A year after they had met, under the influence of a controversial sedative, Jordan Chandler told his father that Jackson had touched his penis. Evan Chandler and Jackson, represented by their legal teams, then engaged in unsuccessful negotiations to resolve the issue in a financial settlement; the negotiations were initiated by Chandler but Jackson did make several counter offers. Jordan Chandler then told a psychiatrist and later police that he and Jackson had engaged in acts of kissing, masturbation and oral sex, as well as giving a detailed description of what he alleged were the singer's genitals.
An official investigation began, with Jordan Chandler's mother adamant that there was no wrongdoing on Jackson's part. Neverland Ranch was searched; multiple children and family members denied that he was a pedophile. Jackson's image took a further turn for the worse when his older sister La Toya Jackson accused him of being a pedophile, a statement she later retracted. Jackson agreed to a 25-minute strip search, conducted at his ranch. The search was required to see if a description provided by Jordan Chandler was accurate. Doctors concluded that there were some strong similarities, but it was not a definitive match. Jackson made an emotional public statement on the events; he proclaimed his innocence, criticized what he perceived as biased media coverage and told of his strip search.
Jackson began taking painkillers, Valium, Xanax and Ativan to deal with the stress of the allegations made against him. By the fall of 1993, Jackson was addicted to the drugs. His health deteriorated to the extent that he canceled the remainder of the Dangerous World Tour and went into drug rehabilitation for a few months. The stress of the allegations also caused Jackson to stop eating, losing a significant amount of weight. With his health in decline, Jackson's friends and legal advisers took over his defense and finances; they called on him to settle the allegations out of court, believing that he could not endure a lengthy trial.
Tabloid reaction to the allegations put Jackson in an unfavorable light. Complaints about the coverage and media included everything from bias against Jackson, accepting stories of alleged criminal activity for money to accepting confidential leaked material from the police investigation in return for money paid. On January 1, 1994, Jackson settled with the Chandler family and their legal team out of court, in a civil lawsuit for $22 million. After the settlement Jordan Chandler refused to continue with Police criminal proceedings. Jackson was never charged, and the state closed its criminal investigation, citing lack of evidence.

ater that year, Jackson married singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley. They had first met in 1975 during one of Jackson's family engagements at the MGM Grand, and were reconnected through a mutual friend in early 1993. They stayed in contact every day over the telephone. As child molestation accusations became public, Jackson became dependent on Lisa Marie for emotional support; she was concerned about his faltering health and addiction to drugs. Lisa Marie explained, "I believed he didn't do anything wrong and that he was wrongly accused and yes I started falling for him. I wanted to save him. I felt that I could do it." In a phone call he made to her, she described him as high, incoherent and delusional. Shortly afterward, she tried to persuade Jackson to settle the allegations out of court and go into rehabilitation to recover—he subsequently did both. Jackson proposed to Lisa Marie over the telephone towards the fall of 1993, saying, "If I asked you to marry me, would you do it?". Presley and Jackson married in the Dominican Republic in secrecy; the parties denied they had been married for nearly two months. The marriage was, in her words, "a married couple's life ... that was sexually active". At the time, the tabloid media speculated that the wedding was a ploy to prop up Jackson's public image in light of prior sexual abuse allegations. Jackson and Presley divorced less than two years later, remaining friendly.

LIn 1995, Jackson merged his Northern Songs catalog with Sony's publishing division creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Jackson retained half-ownership of the company, earned $95 million upfront as well as the rights to even more songs. He then released the double album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. The first disc, HIStory Begins, was a 15-track greatest hits album, and was later reissued as Greatest Hits — HIStory Vol. I in 2001, the second disc, HIStory Continues, contained 15 new songs. The album debuted at number one on the charts and has been certified for seven million shipments in the US. It is the best-selling multiple-disc album of all-time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide. HIStory received a Grammy nomination for best album.
The first single released from the album was the double A-side "Scream/Childhood". "Scream" was a duet, sung and performed with Jackson's youngest sister Janet. The single had the highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five, and received a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals". "You Are Not Alone" was the second single released from HIStory; it holds the Guinness World Record for the first song ever to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was seen as a major artistic and commercial success, receiving a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Vocal Performance". In late 1995, Jackson was rushed to a hospital after collapsing during rehearsals for a televised performance; the incident was caused by a stress related panic attack. "Earth Song" was the third single released from HIStory, and topped the UK singles chart for six weeks over Christmas 1995; it sold a million copies, making it Jackson's most successful single in the UK.
The HIStory World Tour began on September 7, 1996, and finished on October 15, 1997. Jackson performed 82 concerts in 58 cities to over 4.5 million fans. The show, which visited 5 continents and 35 countries, became Jackson's most successful in terms of audience figures; he has not toured the world since. During the Australian leg of the HIStory World Tour, Jackson married dermatologist nurse Deborah Jeanne Rowe, with whom he fathered a son, Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr. (also known as "Prince"), and a daughter, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson.The pair first met in the mid-1980s, when Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo. She spent many years treating his illness as well as providing emotional support. They built a strong friendship, then became romantically involved. Originally there were no plans to marry, but following Rowe's first pregnancy, Jackson's mother intervened and persuaded them to. The couple divorced in 1999, with Rowe giving full custody rights of the children to Jackson; they still remain friends.

In 1995, Jackson merged his Northern Songs catalog with Sony's publishing division creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Jackson retained half-ownership of the company, earned $95 million upfront as well as the rights to even more songs. He then released the double album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. The first disc, HIStory Begins, was a 15-track greatest hits album, and was later reissued as Greatest Hits — HIStory Vol. I in 2001, the second disc, HIStory Continues, contained 15 new songs. The album debuted at number one on the charts and has been certified for seven million shipments in the US. It is the best-selling multiple-disc album of all-time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide. HIStory received a Grammy nomination for best album.
The first single released from the album was the double A-side "Scream/Childhood". "Scream" was a duet, sung and performed with Jackson's youngest sister Janet. The single had the highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five, and received a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals". "You Are Not Alone" was the second single released from HIStory; it holds the Guinness World Record for the first song ever to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[64] It was seen as a major artistic and commercial success, receiving a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Vocal Performance". In late 1995, Jackson was rushed to a hospital after collapsing during rehearsals for a televised performance; the incident was caused by a stress related panic attack. "Earth Song" was the third single released from HIStory, and topped the UK singles chart for six weeks over Christmas 1995; it sold a million copies, making it Jackson's most successful single in the UK.
The HIStory World Tour began on September 7, 1996, and finished on October 15, 1997. Jackson performed 82 concerts in 58 cities to over 4.5 million fans. The show, which visited 5 continents and 35 countries, became Jackson's most successful in terms of audience figures; he has not toured the world since. During the Australian leg of the HIStory World Tour, Jackson married dermatologist nurse Deborah Jeanne Rowe, with whom he fathered a son, Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr. (also known as "Prince"), and a daughter, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. The pair first met in the mid-1980s, when Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo. She spent many years treating his illness as well as providing emotional support. They built a strong friendship, then became romantically involved. Originally there were no plans to marry, but following Rowe's first pregnancy, Jackson's mother intervened and persuaded them to. The couple divorced in 1999, with Rowe giving full custody rights of the children to Jackson; they still remain friends.
In 1997, Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which contained remixes of hit singles from HIStory and five new songs. Worldwide sales stand at 6 million copies as of 2007, making it one of the best selling remix albums ever released. It reached number one in the UK, as did the title track. In the US, the album was certified platinum, but only reached number 24. Forbes placed his annual income at $35 million in 1996 and $20 million in 1997.
Throughout June 1999, Jackson was involved in a number of charitable events. He joined Luciano Pavarotti for a benefit concert in Modena, Italy. The show was in support of the non-profit organization Warchild, and raised a million dollars for the refugees of Kosovo, as well as additional funds for the children of Guatemala. Later that month, Jackson organized a set of "Michael Jackson & Friends" benefit concerts in Germany and Korea. Other artists involved included Slash, The Scorpions, Boyz II Men, Luther Vandross, Mariah Carey, A. R. Rahman, Prabhu Deva Sundaram, Shobana Chandrakumar, Andrea Bocelli and Luciano Pavarotti. The proceeds went to the "Nelson Mandela Children's Fund", the Red Cross and UNESCO.

2003, Sony put out a compilation of Jackson's hits on CD and DVD. In the US, the album peaked at number 13 and was certified platinum by the RIAA, in the UK it was certified for shipments of at least 1.2 million units. In a Granada Television documentary titled Living with Michael Jackson, the singer was seen holding hands and discussing sleeping arrangements with Gavin Arvizo, who would later accuse him of child sexual abuse. In the same documentary Jackson was observed spending large amounts of money in an apparently frivolous manner, when he spent $6 million in a single store. Shortly after the documentary aired, Jackson was charged with seven counts of child sexual abuse and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent in order to commit that felony; all charges regarded the same boy, Gavin Arvizo, who was under 14 at the time of the alleged crime.

Jackson denied the sexual abuse allegations, saying that the sleepovers were in no way sexual in nature. Jackson's friend Elizabeth Taylor defended him on Larry King Live, saying that she had been there when they "were in the bed, watching television. There was nothing abnormal about it. There was no touchy-feely going on. We laughed like children and we watched a lot of Walt Disney. There was nothing odd about it." During the investigation, Jackson's profile was examined by a mental health professional called Dr. Stan Katz; the doctor spent several hours with the accuser too. The assessment made by Katz, was that Jackson had become a regressed 10-year-old and did not fit the profile of a pedophile.
The People v. Jackson trial began in Santa Maria, California, two years after Jackson was originally charged. During this period the singer became dependent on morphine and Demerol, a dependency which he subsequently overcame. He also suffered from stress-related illnesses and severe weight loss, that would alter his appearance. The trial lasted five months, until the end of May 2005, he was acquitted on all counts. Jackson then relocated to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain as a guest of Sheikh Abdullah.
Sony BMG released Visionary: The Video Singles to the European market: a series of 20 of his biggest hit singles of the 1980s and 1990s. Each single was issued weekly over a five-month period in DualDisc format (DVD video on one side, CD audio on the other), and the whole group of discs was made available as a boxed set afterward. The box set was released in the US on November 14, 2006.
Reports of financial problems for Jackson became frequent in 2006 after the closure of the main house on the Neverland Ranch as a cost-cutting measure. One prominent financial issue for him concerned a $270 million loan secured against his music publishing holdings. After delayed repayments on the loan, a refinancing package shifted the loans from Bank of America to debt specialists Fortress Investments. A new package proposed by Sony would have had Jackson borrow an additional $300 million and reduce the interest rate payable on the loan, while giving Sony the future option to buy half of Jackson's stake in their jointly owned publishing company (leaving Jackson with a 25% stake). Jackson agreed to a Sony-backed refinancing deal, although details were not made public. Despite these loans, according to Forbes, Jackson was still making as much as $75 million a year from his publishing partnership with Sony alone.
One of Jackson's first documented public appearances since his trial was in November 2006, when he visited the London office of the Guinness World Records. He received eight records, among them "First Entertainer to Earn More Than 100 Million Dollars in a Year" and "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time". Jackson was awarded the Diamond Award on November 15, 2006, for selling over 100 million albums, at the World Music Awards. Following the death of James Brown, Jackson returned to the US to pay his respects. He, along with more than 8,000 people, paid tribute during Brown's public funeral on December 30, 2006. In late 2006, Jackson agreed to share joint custody of his first two children with ex-wife Debbie Rowe. Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music LLC from Viacom in 2007. This deal gave him the rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira and Beck, among others.

I've been in the entertainment industry since I was six-years-old... As Charles Dickens says, "It's been the best of times, the worst of times." But I would not change my career... While some have made deliberate attempts to hurt me, I take it in stride because I have a loving family, a strong faith and wonderful friends and fans who have, and continue, to support me.
—Michael Jackson

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Thriller, Jackson issued Thriller 25, comprising of original material from the album, re-mixes, the previously unreleased song "For All Time" and a DVD. Two singles were released to moderate success: "The Girl Is Mine 2008" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' 2008". Thriller 25 was a commercial success, having done particularly well as a re-issue, peaking at number one in eight countries and Europe. It reached number two in the US, number three in the UK and top 10 on over 30 national charts. It was ineligible for the Billboard 200 chart as a re-release, but entered atop the Pop Catalog chart, where it stayed for 11 non-consecutive weeks and had the best sales on that chart since December 1996. In 12 weeks Thriller 25 sold over three million copies worldwide. As of November 2008, US sales of Thriller 25 stood at 688,000 copies, making it the best selling catalog album of 2008.
To celebrate Jackson's 50th birthday, Sony BMG released a compilation album called King of Pop in various countries. These albums included tracks from Jackson's group and solo career, all voted for by fans. The albums had different tracklists, according to how the fans of each nation voted. Although it was not released in the US, King of Pop did reach the top 10 in the vast majority of countries it was issued in. It also charted in other countries, albeit lower, from imported sales.
Fortress considered a foreclosure sale of Neverland Ranch to service a loan Jackson owed on the property, but ultimately sold the loan to Colony Capital LLC. In November, Jackson transferred the title of Neverland Ranch to Sycamore Valley Ranch Company LLC. Jackson still owns an unknown stake in the property—Sycamore Valley Ranch is a joint venture between Jackson and Colony Capital LLC—the loan Jackson owed was cleared, he acquired $35 million in the venture.
From July 13, 2009 to March 6, 2010, Jackson is scheduled to perform 50 sell out concerts to over one million people, at London's O2 arena. According to Jackson's website, tickets sales for the concerts broke several records. During a prior press conference, Jackson made suggestions of possible retirement. Randy Phillips, president and chief executive of AEG Live stated that the first 10 dates alone would earn the singer approximately £50 million.
On June 25, 2009, Jackson was hospitalized after suffering a cardiac arrest. Family members reported that he was in "really bad shape" and "not doing well."

teve Huey of Allmusic asserts that throughout his solo career, Jackson's versatility has allowed him to experiment with various themes and genres. As a musician, he has ranged from Motown's dance fare and ballads to techno-edged new jack swing to work that incorporates both funk rhythms and hard rock guitar. Unlike many artists, Jackson did not write his songs on paper. Instead he would dictate into a sound recorder; when recording he would sing from memory. Several critics observed Off the Wall was crafted from funk, disco-pop, soul, soft rock, jazz and pop ballads. Prominent examples include the ballad "She's out of My Life", and the two disco tunes "Workin' Day and Night" and "Get on the Floor".
According to Huey, Thriller refined the strengths of Off the Wall; the dance and rock tracks were more aggressive, while the pop tunes and ballads were softer and more soulful. Notable tracks included the ballads "The Lady in My Life", "Human Nature" and "The Girl Is Mine"; the funk pieces "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"; and the disco set "Baby Be Mine" and "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)". With Thriller, Christoper Connelly of Rolling Stone commented that Jackson developed his long association with the subliminal theme of paranoia and darker imagery. Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted this is evident on the songs "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'". In "Billie Jean", Jackson sings about an obsessive fan who alleges he has fathered a child of hers. In "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" he argues against gossip and the media. The anti-gang violence rock song "Beat It" became a homage to West Side Story, and was Jackson's first successful rock cross-over piece, according to Huey. He also observed that the title track "Thriller" began Jackson's interest with the theme of the supernatural, a topic he revisited in subsequent years. In 1985, Jackson wrote the charity anthem "We Are the World"; humanitarian themes later became a central component of his life and music.

SIn Bad, Jackson's concept of the predatory lover can be seen on the rock song "Dirty Diana". The lead single "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" was a traditional love ballad, while "Man in the Mirror", an anthemic ballad of confession and resolution, improved on his earlier "We Are the World". "Smooth Criminal" was an evocation of bloody assault, rape and likely murder. Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine states that Dangerous presents Jackson as a stark paradoxal individual. He comments the album is more diverse than his previous Bad, as it appeals to an urban audience while also attracting the middle class with anthems like "Heal the World". The first half of the record is dedicated to new jack swing, including songs like "Jam" and "Remember the Time". The album is Jackson's first where social ills become a primary theme; "Why You Wanna Trip on Me", for example, protests against world hunger, AIDS, homelessness and drugs. Dangerous contains sexually charged efforts like "In the Closet", a love song about desire and denial, risk and repression, solitude and connection, privacy and revelation. The title track continues the theme of the predatory lover and compulsive desire. The second half includes introspective, pop-gospel anthems such as "Will You Be There", "Heal the World" and "Keep the Faith"; these songs show Jackson finally opening up about various personal struggles and worries. In the ballad "Gone Too Soon", Jackson gives tribute to his friend Ryan White and the plight of those with AIDS.
HIStory creates an atmosphere of paranoia. Its content focuses on the hardships and public struggles Jackson went through just prior to its production. In the new jack swing-funk-rock efforts "Scream" and "Tabloid Junkie", along with the R&B ballad "You Are Not Alone", Jackson retaliates against the injustice and isolation he feels, and directs much of his anger at the media. In the introspective ballad "Stranger in Moscow", Jackson laments over his "fall from grace", while songs like "Earth Song", "Childhood", "Little Susie" and "Smile" are all operatic pop pieces. In the track "D.S.", Jackson launched a verbal attack against Tom Sneddon. He describes Sneddon as an antisocial, white supremacist who wanted to "get my ass, dead or alive". Of the song, Sneddon said, "I have not—shall we say—done him the honor of listening to it, but I’ve been told that it ends with the sound of a gunshot". Invincible found Jackson working heavily with producer Rodney Jerkins. It is a record made up of urban soul like "Cry" and "The Lost Children", ballads such as "Speechless", "Break of Dawn" and "Butterflies" and mixes hip hop, pop and rap in "2000 Watts", "Heartbreaker" and "Invincible".

Jackson has been singing since a child, and over time his voice and vocal style have notably changed, either through puberty or a personal preference to align his vocal interpretation to the themes and genres he chooses to express. Between 1971 and 1975, Jackson's voice "descended ever so slightly from boy soprano to his current androgynous high tenor". In the mid-1970s, the singer adopted a "vocal hiccup" as seen in "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)". The purpose of the hiccup—somewhat like a gulping for air or gasping—is to help promote a certain emotion, be it excitement, sadness or fear. With the arrival of Off the Wall in the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded; Allmusic described him as a "blindingly gifted vocalist". At the time, Rolling Stone compared his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that "Jackson's feathery-timbered tenor is extraordinary beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly". 1982 saw the release of Thriller, and Rolling Stone were of the opinion that Jackson was then singing in a "fully adult voice" that was "tinged by sadness".

The release of "Bad" in 1987 displayed gritty lead vocals on the verse and lighter tones employed on the chorus. A distinctive deliberate mispronunciation used frequently by Jackson, occasionally spelt "cha'mone" or "shamone", is also a staple in impressions and caricatures of him.The turn of the 1990s saw the release of the paradoxical, introspective album Dangerous, here Jackson used his vocals to intensify the split themes and genres described earlier. The New York Times noted that on some tracks, "he gulps for breath, his voice quivers with anxiety or drops to a desperate whisper, hissing through clenched teeth" and he had a "wretched tone". When singing of brotherhood or self-esteem the musician would return to "smooth" vocals. "In the Closet" contained heavy breathing and a loop of five scat-sung syllables, whereas in the album's title track, Jackson performs a spoken rap. When commenting on Invincible, Rolling Stone were of the opinion that—at the age of 43—Jackson still performed, "exquisitely voiced rhythm tracks and vibrating vocal harmonies". Nelson George summed by Jackson's vocals as, "The grace, the aggression, the growling, the natural boyishness, the falsetto, the smoothness—that combination of elements mark him as a major vocalist".

into an art form and a promotional tool through complex story lines, dance routines, special effects and famous cameo appearances; simultaneously breaking down racial barriers. According to director Vincent Paterson, who collaborated with the singer on several music videos, Jackson conceptualized many of the darker, bleak themes in his filmography.
Before Thriller, Jackson struggled to receive coverage on MTV because he was African American. Pressure from CBS Records persuaded MTV to start showing "Billie Jean" and later "Beat It", leading to a lengthy partnership with Jackson, also helping other black music artists gain recognition. The popularity of his videos on MTV helped to put the relatively young channel "on the map"; MTV's focus shifted in favor of pop and R&B. Short films like Thriller largely remained unique to Jackson, while the group dance sequence in "Beat It" has frequently been imitated. The choreography in Thriller has become a part of global pop culture, replicated everywhere from Bollywood to prisons in the Philippines. The Thriller short film marked an increase in scale for music videos, and has been named the most successful music video ever by the Guinness World Records.
In the 18-minute music video for "Bad"—directed by Martin Scorsese—Jackson began using sexual imagery and choreography not previously seen in his work. He occasionally grabbed or touched his chest, torso and crotch. While he has described this as "choreography," it garnered a mixed reception from both fans and critics; Time magazine described it as "infamous". The video also featured Wesley Snipes; Jackson's videos would often feature famous cameos roles in the future. or "Smooth Criminal", Jackson experimented with an innovative "anti-gravity lean" in his performances, for which he was granted US Patent No. 5,255,452. Although the music video for "Leave Me Alone" was not officially released in the US, in 1989, it was nominated for four Billboard Music Video Awards, winning three; the same year it won a Golden Lion Award for the quality of the special effects used in its production. In 1990, "Leave Me Alone" won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form.
The MTV Video Vanguard Artist of the Decade Award was given to Jackson to celebrate his accomplishments in the art form in the 1980s; the following year the award was renamed in his honor. "Black or White" was accompanied by a controversial music video, which, on November 14, 1991, simultaneously premiered in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million people, the largest viewing ever for a music video. It featured scenes construed as having a sexual nature as well as depictions of violence. The offending scenes in the final half of the 14-minute version were edited out to prevent the video from being banned, and Jackson apologized. Along with Jackson, it featured Macaulay Culkin, Peggy Lipton and George Wendt. It helped usher in morphing as an important technology in music videos.
"Remember the Time" was an elaborate production, and became one of his longest videos at over nine minutes. Set in ancient Egypt, it featured groundbreaking visual effects and appearances by Eddie Murphy, Iman and Magic Johnson, along with a distinct complex dance routine. The video for "In the Closet" was Jackson's most sexually provocative piece to date. It featured supermodel Naomi Campbell in a courtship dance with Jackson. The video was banned in South Africa because of its imagery.
Steve Huey of Allmusic observed how Jackson transformed the music video The music video for "Scream", directed by Mark Romanek and production designer Tom Foden, is one of Jackson's most critically acclaimed. In 1995, it gained 11 MTV Video Music Award Nominations—more than any other music video—and won "Best Dance Video", "Best Choreography", and "Best Art Direction". The song and its accompanying video are a response to the backlash Jackson received from the media after being accused of child molestation in 1993. A year later, it won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form; shortly afterward Guinness World Records listed it as the most expensive music video ever made at a cost of $7 million.
"Earth Song" was accompanied by an expensive and well-received music video that gained a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form in 1997. The video had an environmental theme, showing images of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution and war. Using special effects, time is reversed so that life returns, war ends and the forests re-grow. Released in 1997 and premiering at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, Ghosts was a short film written by Jackson and Stephen King and directed by Stan Winston. The video for Ghosts is over 38 minutes long and holds the Guinness World Record as the world's longest music video.
Inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984, Jackson has had a notable impact on music and culture throughout the world. He broke down racial barriers, transformed the art of the music video and paved the way for modern pop music in his own country. Jackson's work, distinctive musical sound and vocal style have influenced hip hop, pop and R&B artists, including Mariah Carey, Usher, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and R. Kelly. For much of his career, he had an "unparalleled" level of worldwide influence over the younger generation through his musical and humanitarian contributions.

Throughout his career he received numerous honors and awards, including the World Music Awards' Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium, the American Music Award's Artist of the Century Award and the Bambi Pop Artist of the Millennium Award. He is a double-inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1997 and later as a solo artist in 2001. Jackson was also an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002. His awards include multiple Guinness World Records (eight in 2006 alone), 13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and the sale of over 750 million albums worldwide, making him the world's best selling male pop artist.

He is characterized as "an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the tools to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility and loads of sheer star power". In the mid-1980s, Time described Jackson as "the hottest single phenomenon since Elvis Presley". By 1990, Vanity Fair had already cited Jackson as the most popular artist in the history of show business. Daily Telegraph writer Tom Utley called him an "extremely important figure in the history of popular culture" and a "genius". His total lifetime earnings from royalties on his solo recordings and music videos, revenue from concerts and endorsements have been estimated at $500 million; some analysts have speculated that his music catalog holdings could be worth billions of dollars. Cited as one of the world's most famous men, Jackson's highly publicized personal life, coupled with his successful career, has made him a part of popular culture for almost four decades.

Thrill the World

2009-06-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

Thrill the World is an annual international dance event and world record breaking attempt, in which participants simultaneously emulate the zombie dance seen in the music video of Michael Jackson's "Thriller". The dancers perform in unison at locations throughout the world, and can range from teenagers to the elderly. The idea came to fruition after a group of 62 zombies set a Guinness World Records for Largest Thriller Dance in one location, at a community hall in Canada. This was followed up by another event—Thrill Toronto.

Following the two precursor dance events, Thrill the World was launched in 2007. 1,722 people in 80 cities from 17 different countries participated in the event. Donations were made during the Irvine, California dance to the American Red Cross, who used the money to aid victims of the October 2007 California wildfires. The year after, Thrill the World returned for its second event, in which 91 venues from 13 different countries participated. The event coincided with the 25th anniversary of Jackson's Thriller album.

The idea to create a international event, in which participants simultaneously emulate the zombie dance in the music video of Michael Jackson's "Thriller", came about in 2006. At the time, a group of 62 zombies set a Guinness World Record for Largest Thriller Dance in one location, at a community hall in Canada. The event garnered worldwide attention. The world record, however, was subsequently broken, when 1722 people from 52 cities on five different continents emulated Jackson's zombie dance. The event—part-charity fundraiser, part-world record attempt—evolved into Thrill the World, one of the world's largest simultaneous dance events. Ines Markeljevic, a dance instructor, aimed to unite the world in dance and followed this event up with Thrill Toronto. The popularity of the event spread, and it visited Croatia, Honduras, New Zealand, the Philippines and Sierra Leone. The majority of people discovered Thrill the World through their official website and YouTube, where Markeljevic posted instructional videos on the Thriller dance. Markeljevic stated that she chose Thriller because it has a special hold on people. "Regardless of where people are in the world, they love Thriller, they want to do the dance."

Thrill the World's official website expected the 2007 event to include 60 separate dancing events in 15 different countries. On the day of the performance, October 27, 2007, it was revealed that 1,722 people in 80 cities from 17 different countries had actually participated. The dancers in Irvine, California's event ranged from teenagers to women in their late 50s. One female participant danced to "Thriller" with her 4 ½-month daughter strapped to her waist. Another participant, 57 year old Valerie Cardinal, wore a lime-green wig and scary makeup. "This is more fun than ballet", she proclaimed. "It's life affirming, even though it's about death." The Irvine event was organized by resident Tom Nguyen and dance instructor Jeremy Heckman. The pair arranged rehearsals and the main show in two weeks, upon hearing that a Canadian dance instructor was aiming for the "Largest Simultaneous Thriller Dance" world record. During the event, Nguyen and Heckman collected donations for the American Red Cross, which would then be used to aid victims of the October 2007 California wildfires. One of the wildfire victims, 26 year old Kim Deans, participated in Irvine's "Thrill the World" event. At the time, Deans had been evacuated from her home and not allowed back. She later spoke of the escapism in performing at the event. "It's a break – a physical and mental break. It was either this or Disneyland."

91 venues from 13 different countries participated in the 2008 Thrill the World dance. Thrill the World 2008 featured Australia participating for the first time. Their Brisbane event was coordinated by Andrew Curnock, a Queensland University of Technology tutor and gaming software sound engineer. The tutor sought to have Australia join the dance event after watching a viral video of prison inmates dancing to "Thriller" "We basically came across that viral video that featured a bunch of (prison) inmates performing the Thriller dance", Curnock revealed. "One YouTube clip really just led to another and that's how we found out about Thrill the World and recognised the potential to get involved locally." Participants went through weeks of dance classes and costume preparation before the event, although Curnock added that those involved didn't have to be great dancers. "It's more about getting out there and getting involved." Curnock stated that he hoped Thrill the World wouldn't be a passing fad for Brisbane, but would be a permanent fixture on their social calendar.

The 2008 event, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of Thriller, also had Austin, Texas participate in their record break attempt. Texan artist Shawn Sides oversaw the rehearsals for the Austin dance. Some classes drew more than 200 people at a time. Sides became interested in the event after watching a commercial featuring lizards emulating the Thriller choreography. "I realized that Thriller is like the national choreography of the United States", Sides explained. "I'm so excited that there's this choreography in the world that our entire nation recognizes." Indiana Adams, who also helped with the Austin dance, remembered being so obsessed with Thriller as a child that she started to tell people her mother had been one of the zombies in the video. "It was just the most amazing choreography a 4-year-old had ever seen", Adams added.

Jimi Hendrix was murdered by his manager ?

2009-06-03T22:12:00.000-07:00

Jimi Hendrix was murdered by his manager as part of an insurance scam, according to the rock legend's former roadie.

Hendrix was 27 when he choked to death on his own vomit in a London hotel, but the exact circumstances of the tragedy have always been somewhat of a mystery.

But now roadie James 'Tappy' Wright has come forward alleging Hendrix's manager Michael Jeffery admitted to killing the rocker after he learned he was about to be fired by the star.

Jeffery went to Hendrix's hotel room and "stuffed" him with him drugs and alcohol in revenge, Wright alleges in a new tell-all, titled Rock Roadie.

He says, "I can still hear that conversation, see the man I'd known for so much of my life, his face pale, hand clutching at his glass in sudden rage."

He recalls Jeffery saying, "I had to do it, Tappy. You understand, don't you?"

Jeffrey allegedly made the drunken confession in 1971 - two years before he was killed in a plane crash.

Wright also claims Jeffery had taken out a life insurance policy on Hendrix, worth £1.2million, prior to his death - with the manager as beneficiary.

Wright quotes Jeffery as saying, "I was in London the night of Jimi's death and together with some old friends... we went round to (Hendrix's girlfriend) Monika's hotel room, got a handful of pills and stuffed them into his mouth... then poured a few bottles of red wine deep into his windpipe.

"I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive. That son of a b**ch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I'd lose everything."

Susan Boyle

2009-04-20T16:16:00.000-07:00

Susan Boyle (born 1961) is a Scottish amateur singer and church volunteer who came to global public attention on 11 April 2009, when she appeared as a contestant on the third series of Britain's Got Talent. Boyle leapt to almost immediate worldwide fame when she sang "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables in the competition's first round.

Before she sang, both the audience and the judges appeared to express scepticism based on her unpolished appearance and awkwardness. In contrast, her vocal performance was so well received that she has been dubbed "The Woman Who Shut Up Simon Cowell". She received a standing ovation from the live audience, garnering yes-votes from Cowell and Amanda Holden, and the "biggest yes I have ever given anybody" from Piers Morgan. The audition was recorded in January 2009 at the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow, Scotland.

The juxtaposition of the reception to her voice with the audience's first impression of her triggered global interest. Articles about her appeared in newspapers all over the world, while the numbers who watched her sing online set a record. Cowell is reported to be setting up a contract with Boyle with his Syco Music company label, a subsidiary of Sony Music.

Boyle was born in Blackburn, West Lothian to Patrick, a storeman at the British Leyland factory in Bathgate, and Bridget Boyle, a shorthand typist. The youngest of four brothers and six sisters, of whom only six survive, Boyle was born when her mother was 47. The Sunday Times writes that it was a difficult birth, during which Boyle was briefly deprived of oxygen. She was diagnosed as having learning difficulties, which led to bullying at school . She was labelled "Susie Simple" at school but quickly learnt to overcome those who derided her.

After leaving school with few qualifications, she was employed for the only time in her life as a trainee cook in the kitchen of West Lothian College for six months, and took part in government training schemes. She would visit the theatre from time to time to listen to professional singers, and performed at a number of local venues. In 1995, she auditioned for Michael Barrymore's My Kind of People, which was looking for contestants at the Braehead Shopping Centre in Glasgow, but she said she was too nervous to make a good impression. The Guardian reports that she attended Edinburgh Acting School, and has taken part in the Edinburgh Fringe. She took singing lessons from a voice coach, Fred O'Neil, and in 1999 she made her only previous recording, singing Cry Me a River for a charity CD funded by the local council to commemorate the Millennium. O'Neil has said Boyle abandoned an audition for The X Factor because she believed people were being chosen for their looks, and that she almost abandoned her plan to enter Britain's Got Talent. He told The Scotsman: "I remember a phone call late last year when she said she was too old and that it was a young person's game". O'Neil persuaded her to go to the audition.

Boyle's father died in the 1990s, and her siblings had left home, leaving Boyle to look after her ageing mother, who died in 2007 at the age of 91. Boyle still lives in the family home, a four-bedroom council house, with her ten-year-old cat, Pebbles. Her mother always encouraged her to enter local singing competitions, which she won several times, and tried to persuade her daughter to enter Britain's Got Talent, urging her to take the risk of singing in front of an audience larger than her parish church. Boyle has said she did not feel ready to do it until after her mother's death, saying that it was that event which propelled her to go on Britain's Got Talent and seek a musical career as her way of paying a tribute to her mother. Her performance on the show was the first time she had sung since then.

Boyle is currently unemployed, and active as a volunteer with Our Lady of Lourdes, a Roman Catholic church in Blackburn. She has never married; and during an interview just before she sang on the talent show, she said she had also "never been kissed" but later added "Oh, I was just joking around. It was just banter and it has been blown way out of proportion".

Boyle recorded a version of "Cry Me a River" for a charity CD entitled "Music for a Millennium Celebration, Sounds of West Lothian", which was produced in 1999 at a school in Whitburn, West Lothian. A reviewer for the West Lothian Herald & Post wrote at the time, "Susan Boyle’s heartbreaking rendition of ‘Cry Me a River’, which has been on repeat in my CD player ever since I got this CD..." This recording was released onto the web in the week after April 11, 2009, and gained immediate acclamation, with the New York Post writing that this showed that Boyle was not a "one trick pony" and that the rarity of the CD imprint, with only 1,000 produced, would make them valuable collector's items. Other media reaction was similarly positive, with Hello! magazine stating that the recording was a further illustration of the level of Boyle's talent, going on to write that the song "cements her status" as a singing star.

An early demonstration tape containing "Cry Me a River" and a version of "Killing Me Softly with His Song" that Boyle prepared to send record companies and to local and national TV and radio talent competitions has been uncovered. Boyle gave a few copies to close friends.

In August 2008, when Boyle became aware that Britain's Got Talent would be holding auditions, she applied and was accepted for the audition, which took place in Glasgow in January 2009 and was screened on television on 11 April 2009. Boyle performed a rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables in the first round of the third series of Britain's Got Talent, which was watched by an average of 10.3 million viewers. This performance was widely reported, and 35 million people viewed a video of her singing on YouTube. The strength of this reaction reportedly shocked and amazed Boyle.

Boyle is well aware that the audience on Britain's Got Talent was initially hostile to her because of her appearance, but she has refused to change her image:

“ I know what they were thinking, but why should it matter as long as I can sing? It’s not a beauty contest. ”
—Susan Boyle, The Sunday Times

Many British newspapers carried articles on Boyle's performance and subsequent Internet coverage. The Sun writer Colin Robertson gave her the nickname "Paula Potts" in reference to the contest's previous opera-singing winner Paul Potts. Many international news outlets also carried stories on her, including the USA's New York Times, New York Daily News and The Los Angeles Times, Australia's Herald Sun, Canada's Maclean's, Germany's Der Spiegel, China's Xinhua News Agency, Macau's The Macau Post Daily, Portugal's Correio da Manhã, Brazil's Zero Hora, South Korea's The Chosun Ilbo, Netherlands' De Telegraaf, Israel's Ynet, Belgium's Het Laatste Nieuws, ? the Arab World's Al-Arabiya, Japan's Asahi Shinbun, Vietnam's Tuoi Tre, and Argentinan's Clarín.

In the U.S., ABC News coverage suggested that Boyle may be "Britain's newest pop sensation", and the network's Entertainment section ran the headline The Woman Who Shut Up Simon Cowell. Several commentators have drawn parallels between Boyle's performance and that of Paul Potts, another unexpected singing talent who rose to fame on British reality television, with Forbes magazine predicting that Boyle could follow in Potts' footsteps and enjoy a long, successful and profitable career.

Following her performance on Britain's Got Talent, Boyle was a guest on STV's The Five Thirty Show. She was interviewed via satellite on CBS's Early Show, ABC's Good Morning America, and NBC's Today, and via a telephone interview on FOX's America's Newsroom. In an interview, Simon Cowell said Boyle had received an invitation to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show and predicted that if she did appear "there's every chance Susan Boyle will have the number one album in America".

She also appeared via satellite on CNN's Larry King Live opposite Piers Morgan, who apologized to Boyle for not giving her "anything like the respect" she deserved when she walked out on the stage before singing. Boyle went on to perform an a cappella verse of "My Heart Will Go On" on King's show about which Morgan remarked, "That was just absolutely stunning. To sing that with no musical backing is unbelievable." He then invited Boyle to have dinner with him in London, and she accepted.

Writing in The Guardian, Leigh Holmwood said that web technology such as YouTube and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been critical in facilitating Boyle's rapid rise to fame. The most popular YouTube video submission of her audition garnered nearly 2.5 million views in the first 72 hours. On the day following the performance, the YouTube video was the most popular article on Digg. The same video was also popular on Reddit, with enough clout to top the site's front page. Within a week, the audition performance had been viewed more than 66 million times, setting an online record, while on Wikipedia her biographical article attracted nearly half a million page views. A 100 million video views on 20 different websites was reached within nine days. The Los Angeles Times wrote that her popularity on YouTube may in part be due to the broad range of emotion packed into a short timeframe, noting that this makes it "perfect for the Internet, where short clips rule."

Susan Boyle's fame also spread by links posted on the Twitter website, including praise from celebrity couple Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. When told about this, Boyle was said not to have ever heard of Kutcher, but was familiar with the name "Demi Moore". Boyle knew little about her either but thanked them both for their support. When Boyle first appeared on Britain's Got Talent, she said that she aspires to become a musical theatre singer "as successful as" Elaine Paige. Since the appearance, Paige has expressed an interest in singing a duet with Boyle.

Boyle's sudden fame has drawn much commentary on why this story was so widely reported and what it implies, while others drew moral lessons from people's reactions to her performance. For instance, writing in The Herald, Collette Douglas-Home described Boyle's story as a modern parable and a rebuke to people's tendency to judge others based on their physical appearance. Similarly, Lisa Schwarzbaum, in an article in Entertainment Weekly, said that Boyle's performance was particularly moving as it was a victory for talent and artistry in a culture obsessed with physical attractiveness and presentation. Commenting on the audience's reactions before she started singing, Boyle said:

Modern society is too quick to judge people on their appearances. [...] There is not much you can do about it; it is the way they think; it is the way they are. But maybe this could teach them a lesson, or set an example.
—Susan Boyle, The Washington Post

In her success, we see a phoenix rising from the ashes of disappointment, sadness and heartbreak. We see prosperity after recession. We see good trumping evil, and we see a restoration, albeit ever so slightly, to the belief that dedication and perseverance can pay off in the end. ”
—Nick Barron, Societrends

After Boyle's performance, Holden said:

“ I am so thrilled because I know that everybody was against you. I honestly think that we were all being very cynical, and I think that's the biggest wake-up call ever. And I just want to say that it was a complete privilege listening to that. ”
—Amanda Holden, Britain's Got Talent

Cameron Mackintosh, the producer of the Les Misérables musical, also praised the performance, stating:

“ Just like the judges and audience, I was gob-smacked by the emotional powerhouse performance of Susan Boyle's show-stopping rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream". Vocally, it is one of the best versions of the song I've ever heard—touching, thrilling and uplifting. I do hope she gets to sing it for the Queen. ”
—Cameron Mackintosh

Echoing Amanda Holden's comments, Jeanne McManus wrote in The Washington Post that, in talent shows such as Britain's Got Talent, one of the main sources of drama is the collision between performers' sometimes exaggerated sense of self-worth and the opinions and reactions of their audience. In Boyle's case, McManus believed that her initial demeanour and homely appearance caused the judges and audience to be "waiting for her to squawk like a duck". Indeed, New York's Daily News said that it was this stark contrast between the audience's low expectations and the quality of her singing that made Boyle's performance such an engaging piece of television. This article also noted that the idea of an underdog being ridiculed or humiliated but then enjoying an unexpected triumph is a common trope in literature and that this is why, when this theme made its unscripted appearance in reality television, it created an enduring and powerful effect.

On the other hand, although this audience reaction was unscripted, it may have been anticipated. Writing in The Huffington Post, Mark Blankenship noted that the producers of the show would have been aware of the potential of this story arc, stating that the programme seemed to deliberately present Boyle in a manner that would enhance this initial reaction. He does note, however, that "as fabricated as it is, her on-camera arc is undeniably moving". The fact that Boyle is in her forties has also been cited as contributing to this strong emotional impact. In another Huffington Post article, Letty Cottin Pogrebin wrote that people may have been "weeping for the years of wasted talent", since most of Boyle's life has been spent in obscurity and those wasted years can never be recovered. All the same, Pogrebin still classed Boyle's performance as a triumph for what she called "women of a certain age", as she saw it as representing a victory over a youth culture that often dismisses middle-aged women.

Tanya Gold wrote in The Guardian that the difference between Boyle's hostile reception and the more neutral response to Paul Potts in his first audition reflected society's expectation that women be both good-looking and talented, with no such expectation existing for men. In a similar vein, Mary Elizabeth Williams wrote on Salon.com that Boyle's performance reminded people that "not all fortysomething women are sleek, Botoxed beauties", going on to say that Boyle's sudden fame came from her ability to remind her audience that, like them, she is a normal, flawed and vulnerable person, familiar with disappointment and mockery, but who nevertheless has the determination to fight for her dream.

Several media sources have commented that Boyle's success seemed to have particular resonance in the United States. Writing in The Scotsman, Craig Brown quoted a U.S. entertainment correspondent who compared Boyle's story to the American Dream, in that it represented talent overcoming adversity and poverty. The Associated Press described this as Boyle's "hardscrabble story", dwelling on her modest lifestyle and what they saw as urban deprivation in her home town. Similarly, The Independent New York correspondent David Usborne wrote that America is a country that will always respond to "the fairy tale where the apparently unprepossessing suddenly becomes pretty, from Shrek to My Fair Lady". Piers Morgan, one of the show's judges, also commented on the unusual power this story seemed to have in the US, noting that "Americans can be very moved by this sort of thing", and likening Boyle's rise to fame from poverty and obscurity to that of the fictional boxer Rocky Balboa.

Peg Leg Howell

2009-04-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

aka Joshua Barnes Howell was an blues singer and guitarist, who connected early country blues and the later 12-bar style. He had the strong delivery and ear-catching repertoire of the professional street-singer. He was born on a farm in Eatonton, Georgia, and taught himself guitar at the age of 21. Over time he became skilled in finger picking and slide guitar techniques. He continued working on the farm until he was shot in a fight, as a result of which he lost his right leg and began working full-time as a musician. In 1923 he moved to Atlanta, Georgia and began playing on street corners, but also served a period in prison for bootlegging liquor.

In 1926, he was heard playing on the streets of Atlanta and was recorded for the first time by Columbia Records. They released "New Prison Blues", written whilst in prison and one of the first country blues to be issued. Over the next three years Columbia recorded him on several occasions, often accompanied by a small group including Henry Williams guitar and Eddie Anthony (fiddle). His recorded repertoire covered ballads, ragtime and jazz, as well as blues. Anthony's vigorous dance playing gives us a rare view of the black string-band music that was almost obliterated by the craze for recording blues guitarists.

Howell continued to play around the Atlanta area for several years, but also began selling bootleg liquor again. After the mid 1930s he only performed occasionally and, in 1952, his left leg was removed as a result of diabetes, confining him to a wheelchair. Music was a thing of the past for Howell by now. In 1963 he was "rediscovered" in dire poverty in Atlanta by folklorist and field researcher (to be) George Mitchell and his high-school class-mate, Roger Brown, who recorded him at the age of 75 with the results issued on LP by Testament Records thirty-four years after his last commercial sessions. He died in Atlanta in 1966.

Bessie Smith

2009-04-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

was an American blues singer.

The most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s, Smith is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era, and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists.

For the 1900 census, Bessie Smith's mother, Laura Smith, reported that Bessie was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in July 1892. However, for the following census (1910), taken on April 16, her sister, Viola Smith, and the census taker agreed on or assigned her April 15, 1894, the day preceding the census; that date appears on all subsequent documents, and was the one observed by the entire Smith family. There also remains a census-based debate regarding the size of Bessie Smith's family. The 1870 and 1880 censuses report three older half-siblings, but these census reports are at odds with later interviews with her family and contemporaries.

She was the daughter of Laura (Owens) Smith and William Smith. William Smith was a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher (he was listed in the 1870 census as a minister of the gospel, in Moulton, Lawrence, Alabama) who died before his daughter could remember him. By the time she was nine, she had lost her mother as well, and her older sister Viola was left in charge of caring for her sisters and brothers.

As a way of earning money for their impoverished household, Smith and her brother Andrew began performing on the streets of Chattanooga as a duo, she singing and dancing, he accompanying on guitar; their preferred location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets in the heart of the city's African-American community.

In 1904, her oldest brother, Clarence, covertly left home by joining a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud. "That's why he left without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course, she was only a child."

In 1912, Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the Stokes troupe and arranged for its managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher, to give her an audition. She was hired as a dancer rather than a singer, because the company also included Ma Rainey.

By the early 1920s, Smith had starred with Sidney Bechet in How Come?, a musical that made its way to Broadway, and spent several years working out of Atlanta, Georgia's 81 Theater, performing in black theaters along the East Coast. Following a run-in with the producer of How Come?, she was replaced by Alberta Hunter and returned to Philadelphia, where she had taken up residence. There, she met and fell in love with Jack Gee, a security guard whom she married on June 7, 1923, just as her first recordings were being released by Columbia Records. The marriage was a stormy one, with infidelity on both sides. During the marriage, Smith became the biggest headliner on the black Theater Owners Booking Association ( T.O.B.A.) circuit, running a show that sometimes featured as many as 40 troupers and made her the highest-paid black entertainer of her day. Gee was impressed by the money, but never adjusted to show business life, and especially not Smith's bisexuality. In 1929, when Smith learned of Gee's affair with another performer, Gertrude Saunders, she ended the marriage, but never sought a legal divorce. Smith eventually found a common-law husband in an old friend, Richard Morgan, who was Lionel Hampton's uncle and the antithesis of her husband. She stayed with him until her death.
All contemporary accounts indicate that Rainey did not teach Smith to sing, but she probably helped her develop a stage presence. Smith began forming her own act around 1913, at Atlanta's "81" Theatre. By 1920 she had established a reputation in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard.

In 1920, sales figures for "Crazy Blues," an Okeh recording by singer Mamie Smith (no relation) pointed to a new market. The recording industry had never aimed its product at blacks, but now the door had been opened and the search for female blues singers was on. Smith was signed by Columbia Records in 1923 when the label decided to establish a "race records" series.

She scored a big hit with her first release, a coupling of "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Downhearted Blues," which its composer, Alberta Hunter had already turned into a hit on the Paramount label. Smith became a headliner on the black T.O.B.A. circuit and rose to become its top attraction in the 1920s. Working a heavy theater schedule during the winter months and doing tent tours the rest of the year (eventually traveling in her own railroad car), Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day. Columbia nicknamed her "Queen of the Blues", but a PR-minded press soon upgraded her title to "Empress".

She made some 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, most notably Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, Charlie Green, and Fletcher Henderson.

Smith's career was cut short by a combination of the Great Depression (which all but put the recording industry out of business) and the advent of "talkies", which spelled the end for vaudeville. She never stopped performing, however. While the days of elaborate vaudeville shows were over, Smith continued touring and occasionally singing in clubs. In 1929, she appeared in a Broadway flop called Pansy, a musical in which, the top critics agreed, she was the only asset.

In 1929, Smith made her only film appearance, starring in a two-reeler titled St. Louis Blues, based on W. C. Handy's song of the same name. In the film, directed by Dudley Murphy and shot in Astoria, she sings the title song accompanied by members of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, pianist James P. Johnson, and a string section — a musical environment radically different from any found on her recordings.

In 1933, John Hammond saw Smith perform in a small Philadelphia club and asked her to record four sides for the Okeh label (which had been acquired by Columbia).

These performances, for which Hammond paid her a non-royalty fee of $37.50 each, were recorded on November 24, 1933. They constitute Smith's final recordings and are of particular interest because Smith was in the process of translating her blues artistry into something more apropos to the Swing Era.

The accompanying band included such Swing Era musicians as trombonist Jack Teagarden, trumpeter Frankie Newton, tenor saxophonist Chu Berry, pianist Buck Washington, guitarist Bobby Johnson, and bassist Billy Taylor. Benny Goodman, who happened to be recording with Ethel Waters in the adjoining studio, dropped by for an almost inaudible guest visit. Hammond was not pleased with the result, preferring to have Smith back in her old blues groove, but "Take Me For A Buggy Ride" and "Gimme a Pigfoot" (in which Goodman is part of the ensemble) remain among her most popular recordings.

On September 26, 1937, Smith was severely injured in a car accident while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee and Clarksdale, Mississippi with her lover (and Lionel Hampton's uncle), Richard Morgan, at the wheel. She was taken to Clarksdale's Afro-American Hospital where her right arm was amputated. She did not regain consciousness, dying that morning.

Smith's funeral was held in Philadelphia on October 4, 1937. It was attended by about seven thousand people, according to contemporary newspaper reports. Far fewer mourners attended the burial at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania. Gee thwarted all efforts to purchase a stone, once or twice even pocketing money raised for that purpose. The grave remained unmarked until August 7, 1970, when a new tombstone was placed, paid for by singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who, as a child, had done housework for Smith.

The Afro-American Hospital, now the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, was the site of the dedication of the fourth historic marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail

Phil Spector

2009-03-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

Harvey Phillip Spector (born December 26, 1940) is an American record producer and songwriter.

The originator of the "Wall of Sound" production technique, Spector was a pioneer of the 1960s' girl group sound and clocked in over twenty-five Top 40 hits between 1960 and 1965. In later years he worked with such artists as Ike and Tina Turner, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ramones with similar success, including production work on the Academy Award winning Let It Be and Grammy Award winning Concert for Bangladesh soundtracks. In 1989, Spector was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer.

The 1965 song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", produced and co-written by Spector for the The Righteous Brothers, is listed by BMI as the song with the most U.S. air play in the 20th century.

In later years, Spector has become increasingly known for his eccentricity, reclusive temperament and obsessive behavior. The shooting death of a woman guest in his home led to him being charged with murder in the second degree. His first trial ended in a mistrial. As of March 2009, his retrial was in progress.

Spector was born on December 26, 1940 to a lower middle class Jewish family in the Bronx in New York City. His grandfather emigrated from Russia. Spector changed his last name from 'Spektor' to 'Spector'. Spector's parents were first cousins. As a child, Spector faced constant schoolyard bullying.

Following his father's death by suicide in 1949, Spector and his mother and sister moved to Los Angeles, California in 1953, where he became involved with music, learning the guitar. At 16, he performed Lonnie Donegan's "Rock Island Line", at a talent show at Fairfax High School. While there at Fairfax, he joined a loosely knit community of young aspirants, including Lou Adler, Bruce Johnston, Steve Douglas, and Sandy Nelson, the last of whom played drums on Spector's first record release, "To Know Him Is To Love Him."

With three friends from high school, Marshall Lieb, Harvey Goldstein, and singer Annette Kleinbard, Spector formed a group, The Teddy Bears. During this period, Spector also began visiting local recording studios, and he eventually managed to win the confidence of record producer Stan Ross, co-owner of Gold Star Studios in Hollywood, who began to tutor the young man in record production and who exerted a major influence on Spector's production style.

By the spring of 1958, Spector and his bandmates had raised enough money to buy two hours of recording time at Gold Star. With Spector producing, the Teddy Bears recorded the Spector-penned "Don't You Worry My Little Pet," which helped them secure a deal with Era Records. At their next session, they recorded another song Spector had written — this one inspired by the epitaph on Spector's father's tombstone. Released on Era's subsidiary label, Dore Records, "To Know Him Is to Love Him" went to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart, selling over a million copies by year's end.

Following the success of their debut, the group signed with Imperial Records, but their next single, "I Don't Need You Anymore," only reached #91. While several more recordings were released, including an album The Teddy Bears Sing!, the group never again charted in the Hot 100. The Teddy Bears went their separate ways in 1959.

After the split, Spector's career quickly moved from performing and songwriting to production. While recording the Teddy Bears' album, Spector had met Lester Sill, a former promotion man who was a mentor to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. His next project, the Spectors Three, was undertaken under the aegis of Sill and his partner, Lee Hazlewood. In 1960, Sill arranged for Spector to work as an apprentice to Leiber and Stoller in New York.

Spector quickly learned how to use a studio. He co-wrote the Ben E. King Top 10 hit "Spanish Harlem", with Jerry Leiber and also worked as a session musician, most notably playing the guitar solo on the The Drifters' song, "On Broadway". His own productions during this time, while less conspicuous, included releases by LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, and Billy Storm, as well as The Top Notes' original version of "Twist and Shout".

Leiber and Stoller recommended Spector to produce Ray Peterson's "Corrina, Corrina," which reached #9 in January 1961. Later, he produced another major hit for Curtis Lee, "Pretty Little Angel Eyes," which made it to #7.

Returning to Hollywood, Spector agreed to produce one of Lester Sill's acts. After both Liberty Records and Capitol Records turned down the master of "Be My Boy" by The Paris Sisters, Sill formed a new label, Gregmark Records, with Lee Hazlewood and released it. It only managed to reach #56, but the follow-up, "I Love How You Love Me", was a smash, reaching #5.

In the fall of 1961, Spector formed a new record company with Lester Sill, who by this time had ended his business partnership with Hazlewood. Philles Records combined the names of its two founders. Through Hill and Range Publishers, Spector found three groups he wanted to produce: The Ducanes, The Creations, and The Crystals. The first two signed with other companies, but Spector managed to secure The Crystals for his new label. Their first single, "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" was a success, hitting #20. Their next release, "Uptown", did even better, making it to #13.

Spector continued to work freelance with other artists. In 1962, he produced "Second Hand Love" by Connie Francis, which reached #7. In the early '60s, he briefly worked with Atlantic Records' R&B artists Ruth Brown and LaVerne Baker. Ahmet Ertegün of Atlantic paired Spector with Broadway star Jean DuShon for "Talk to Me", the b-side of which was "Tired of Trying", written by DuShon.

Spector briefly took a job as head of A&R for Liberty Records. It was while working at Liberty that he heard a song written by Gene Pitney, for whom he had produced a #41 hit, "Every Breath I Take", a year earlier. "He's a Rebel" was due to be released on Liberty by Vicki Carr, but Spector rushed into Gold Star Studios and recorded a cover version using Darlene Love on lead vocals. The record was released on Philles, attributed to The Crystals, and quickly rose to the top of the charts.

By the time "He's a Rebel" went to #1, Lester Sill was out of the company, and Spector had Philles all to himself. He created a new act, Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, featuring Darlene Love and Bobby Sheen, a singer he had worked with at Liberty. The group had hits with "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" (#8), "Why Do Lovers Break Each Other’s Hearts?" (#38), and "Not Too Young To Get Married" (#63). Spector also released solo material by Darlene Love in 1963. In the same year, he released "Be My Baby" by The Ronettes, which went to #2.

Although predominantly a singles-based label, Philles did release a few albums, one of which was the perennial seller A Christmas Gift for You in 1963.

Spector's trademark during that era was the so-called Wall of Sound, a production technique yielding a dense, layered effect that reproduced well on AM radio and jukeboxes. To attain this signature sound, Spector gathered large groups of musicians (playing some instruments not generally used for ensemble playing, such as electric and acoustic guitars) playing orchestrated parts — often doubling and tripling many instruments playing in unison — for a fuller sound. Spector himself called his technique "a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids".

While Spector directed the overall sound of his recordings, he took a relatively hands-off approach to working with the musicians themselves (usually a core group that became known as The Wrecking Crew, including session players such as Hal Blaine, Steve Douglas, Carol Kaye, Roy Caton, Glen Campbell, and Leon Russell), delegating arrangement duties to Jack Nitzsche and having Sonny Bono oversee the performances, viewing these two as his "lieutenants".

Spector frequently used songs from songwriters employed at the Brill Building (Trio Music) and at 1650 Broadway (Aldon Music), such as the teams of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Spector often worked with the songwriters, receiving co-credit for compositions.

Spector was already known as a temperamental and quirky personality with strong, often unconventional ideas about musical and recording techniques. Despite the trend towards multi-channel recording, Spector was vehemently opposed to stereo releases, claiming that it took control of the record's sound away from the producer in favor of the listener. Spector also greatly preferred singles to albums, describing LPs as, "two hits and ten pieces of junk".

The first time Spector put the same amount of effort into an LP as he did into 45s was when he utilized the full Philles roster and the Wrecking Crew to make what he felt would become a hit for the 1963 Christmas season. A Christmas Gift for You arrived in stores the day of the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The somber mood of the country may have contributed to the album being a flop in its initial release. Despite its initially poor reception, selections from the album are now Yuletide mainstays on radio stations, and the album has since been a regular seller during the holiday season.

In 1964, The Ronettes appeared at the Cow Palace, near San Francisco. Also on the bill were The Righteous Brothers. Spector, who was conducting the band for all the acts, was so impressed with Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield that he bought their contract from Moonglow Records and signed them to Philles. In early 1965, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", became the label's second #1 single. Three more major hits with the group followed: "Just Once in My Life" (#9), "Unchained Melody" (originally the B side of "Hung On You") (#4) and "Ebb Tide" (#5). Despite having hits, Spector lost interest in producing The Righteous Brothers, and sold their contract and all their master recordings to Verve Records. However, the sound of The Righteous Brothers' singles was so distinctive that the act chose to replicate it after leaving Spector, notching a second #1 hit in 1966 with the Bill Medley-produced, "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration".

The Spector-produced recording of "Unchained Melody" had a second wave of popularity 25 years after its initial release, when it was featured prominently in the 1990 hit movie, Ghost. A re-release of the single re-charted on the Billboard Hot 100, and went to number one on the Adult Contemporary charts. This also put Spector (as a producer) back on the U.S. Top 40 charts for the first time since his last appearance in 1971 with John Lennon's "Imagine", although he did have U.K. top 40 hits between this time with bands like The Ramones.

Spector's final signing to Philles was the husband-and-wife team of Ike and Tina Turner in 1966. Spector considered their recording of "River Deep - Mountain High", to be his best work, but it failed to go any higher than #88 in the United States. The single, which was essentially a solo Tina Turner record, was more successful in Britain, reaching #3.

Spector subsequently lost enthusiasm for his label and the recording industry. Already something of a recluse, he withdrew temporarily from the public eye, marrying Veronica "Ronnie" Bennett, lead singer of the Ronettes, in 1968. Spector emerged briefly for a cameo as a drug dealer in the film Easy Rider, in 1969. He also appeared as himself in an episode of I Dream of Jeannie in 1967.

In 1969, Spector made a brief return to the music business by signing a production deal with A&M Records. A Ronettes single, "You Came, You Saw, You Conquered" flopped, but Spector returned to the Hot 100 with "Black Pearl", by Sonny Charles and the Checkmates, Ltd. The record reached #13.

In 1970, Allen Klein, manager of The Beatles, brought Spector to England. While producing John Lennon's hit solo single "Instant Karma!", which went to #3, Spector was invited by Lennon and George Harrison to take on the task of turning the Beatles abandoned "Get Back" recording sessions into a usable album. Spector went to work using many of his production techniques, making significant changes to the arrangements and sound of some songs. The resulting album, Let It Be, was a massive commercial success and topped the US and UK charts. The album also yielded the #1 single, "The Long and Winding Road". Although viewed as a major creative comeback for Spector, it may also have contributed to the contentious Beatles breakup, as Spector added what some[citation needed] considered inappropriate choir and orchestral arrangements to Lennon's "Across the Universe", and Harrison's "I Me Mine". His overdubbing of "The Long and Winding Road" infuriated its composer, Paul McCartney, especially since the work was allegedly completed without his knowledge and without any opportunity for him to assess the results. In 2003, McCartney spearheaded the release of Let It Be... Naked, which stripped the songs of Spector's input. Spector later stated that McCartney's complaints were "bullshit" and did not stop McCartney from accepting the "Best Musical Score" award at the 1971 Academy Awards for the Let It Be soundtrack.

However, both John Lennon and George Harrison were satisfied with the results, and Let It Be led to Spector co-producing albums with both ex-Beatles. For George Harrison's multi-platinum album All Things Must Pass (#1, 1970), Spector provided a cathedral-like sonic ambiance, complete with ornate orchestrations and gospel-like choirs. The LP yielded two major hits: "My Sweet Lord" (#1) and "What Is Life" (#10). That same year, Spector co-produced John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band (#6) album, which featured a very different, sparse and raw sound.

In 1971, Spector was named director of A&R for Apple Records. He held the post for only a year, but during that time he co-produced the single "Power to the People" with John Lennon (#11), as well as Lennon's chart-topping Imagine album. The album's title track, which hit #3 upon its release and #1 after Lennon's murder in 1980, is frequently considered to be one of the greatest pop songs of all time. With George Harrison, Spector co-produced Harrison's "Bangla-Desh" (a #23 hit) and wife Ronnie Spector's "Try Some, Buy Some" (which made it to #77). Also that year, Spector recorded the music for the #1 triple album The Concert For Bangla Desh. The album later won the "Album of the Year" award at the 1972 Grammys. Despite being recorded live, Spector used up to 44 microphones simultaneously while recording to create his trademark Wall of Sound.

Lennon retained Spector for the 1971 Christmas single "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and the poorly-reviewed 1972 album Some Time In New York City (#48). Similar to the unusual pattern of success that Spector's A Christmas Gift For You experienced, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" also stalled in sales upon its initial release, only later to become a fixture on radio station playlists during the holiday season. In 1973, Spector participated in the recording sessions for what would be Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll album (#6). It was during these sessions that Spector's relationship with Lennon ended; some versions claim that the producer suffered a breakdown in the studio, brandishing a gun and disappearing with the Rock 'n' Roll tapes, although Spector biographer Dave Thompson places most of the blame on the out-of-control behavior of Lennon and his entourage. After several months, Lennon retrieved the tapes and finished the album himself.

As the seventies progressed, Spector became increasingly reclusive. The most probable and significant reason for his withdrawal, recently revealed by biographer Dave Thompson, was that Spector was seriously injured when he was thrown through the windshield of his car in a crash in Hollywood. According to a contemporary report published in the New Musical Express, Spector was almost killed, and it was only because the attending police officer detected a faint pulse that Spector was not declared dead at the scene. He was admitted to the UCLA Medical Center on the night of March 31, 1974, suffering serious head injuries which necessitated several hours of surgery with over 300 stitches to his face, and more than 400 stitches to the back of his head. His head injuries, Thompson suggests, were the reason that Spector began his habit of wearing outlandish wigs in later years.

The 1974 accident took place shortly after Spector had established the Warner-Spector label, which undertook new recordings with Dion, Cher, Harry Nilsson and others, as well as several reissues. A similar relationship with Britain's Polydor Records led to the formation of the Phil Spector International label in 1975.

After a pair of failed dirge-like singles with Cher, Spector produced Dion’s "Born To Be With You." A set of slow and mid-tempo songs recorded against a darker Wall of Sound, drenched in sinister portent, the release was initially panned and released only in the UK, but has since grown in stature.

The majority of Spector's classic Philles recordings had been out of print in the U.S. since the original label's demise, although Spector had released several Philles Records compilations in Britain. Finally, he released an American compilation of his Philles recordings in 1977 which put most of the better known Spector hits back into circulation after many years.

Spector began to re-emerge in the late 1970s, producing and co-writing a controversial 1977 album by Leonard Cohen, entitled Death of a Ladies' Man. The album angered many devout Cohen fans who were used to his stark acoustic sound versus the orchestral and choral wall of sound the album contains. Despite initial negative critiques, the album is now considered one of Cohen's best. The recording of the album was fraught with difficulty; Spector reportedly mixed the album in secret studio sessions and Cohen said Spector once threatened him with a crossbow. Cohen has remarked that the end result is "grotesque", but also "semi-virtuous". Cohen, however, still includes a re-worked version of the track "Memories" in live concerts. Bob Dylan also participated in the recording of "Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On," which is the second time Spector indirectly produced Dylan - the first being Dylan's live recordings on The Concert For Bangladesh.

Spector also produced the much-publicized Ramones album, End of the Century in 1980. Similar to his work with Leonard Cohen, End of the Century received negative backlash from Ramones fans who were angered over the radio-friendly sound the album adopted. However, End of the Century contains some of the most well known and successful Ramones singles such as Rock 'n' Roll High School, Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio? and their cover of a previously released Spector song for the Ronettes, Baby, I Love You. He also worked with Yoko Ono in 1981, and co-produced Season of Glass, her first work after her husband's death.

Spector remained inactive throughout most of the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. He attempted to work with Céline Dion on her album Falling Into You, but that fell through. His most recent released project has been "Silence Is Easy" by Starsailor, released in 2003. He was originally supposed to produce the entire album, but was fired owing to personal and creative differences — however, one of the two Spector-produced songs on the album was a U.K. top 10 single. Plans to work with The Vines were halted because of his murder trial.

The latest song to be produced by Spector is a track by singer-songwriter, Hargo. The track, "Crying For John Lennon", originally appears on Hargo's 2006 album In Your Eyes, but on a visit to Spector's mansion for an interview for the John Lennon tribute movie, Strawberry Fields, Hargo played Spector the song and asked him to produce it. Spector and former Paul McCartney drummer Graham Ward produced it in the classic wall of sound style on nights after his murder trial.

In December 2007, the song B Boy Baby by Mutya Buena and Amy Winehouse featured melodic and lyrical passages heavily influenced from the Ronettes song "Be My Baby". As a result, Spector was given a songwriting credit on the single. Contrary to popular belief, the sections from "Be My Baby" are sung by Winehouse, not directly sampled from the mono single. Winehouse has made reference to her admiration of Spector's work with 1960s girl groups. She is known to cover Spector's first hit, "To Know Him Is To Love Him".

Also in December 2007, Spector attended the funeral for Ike Turner whom he previously produced in the mid-late 1960s with his then-wife Tina Turner. While delivering a eulogy, Spector lashed out at Tina Turner and stated that "Ike made Tina the jewel she was. When I went to see Ike play at the Cinegrill in the 90s…there were at least five Tina Turners on the stage performing that night, any one of them could have been Tina Turner." Spector then lashed out at Oprah Winfrey for promoting Tina Turner's autobiography that "demonized and vilified Ike."

In mid-April 2008, BBC 2 broadcast a special entitled, Phil Spector: The Agony and The Ecstasy. It consists of Spector's first screen interview -- breaking a long period of media silence. In it Spector is interviewed, whilst images from the murder court case are juxtaposed with live appearances of his tracks on television programs from the 1960s and 1970s, along with subtitles giving critical interpretation of some of his song production values. Whilst he doesn't directly try to clear his name, the court case proceedings shown try to give further explanation of the facts surrounding the murder charges that were leveled against him. He also speaks about the musical instincts that led him to create some of his most enduring hit records, from "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" to "River Deep, Mountain High", as well as The Beatles' album Let It Be, along with criticisms he feels he has had to deal with throughout his life.

Many producers have tried to emulate the Wall of Sound, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys—a fellow adherent of mono recording—considered Spector his main competition as a studio artist. Bruce Springsteen emulated the Wall of Sound technique in his recording of "Born to Run". Shoegazing, a British musical movement in the late 1980s and mid 1990s, was heavily influenced by the Wall of Sound. Les Fradkin has a production style that has been influenced by and favorably compared to Spector- most significantly with Fradkin's "Spirit of Christmas" CD released in 2006.

For his contributions to the music industry, Spector was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #63 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Spector's early musical influences included Latin music in general, and Latin percussion in particular. This is is keenly perceptible in many, if not all, of Spector's recordings from the percussion in many of his hit songs: shakers, guiros (gourds) and maracas in "Be My Baby," and the son montuno in "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," heard clearly in the song's bridge played by session bassist Carol Kaye while the same repeating refrain is played on harpsichord by keyboardist Larry Knechtel. Phil would visit Spanish Harlem clubs and schools to hone his listening and practical skills. He would ask his pre-teen coffee boy from "El Barrio," Roberto Tirado, to borrow his parents' best Puerto Rican recordings in order to listen to these at odd times. Unknowingly, Phil instilled some of his musical influence on little Roberto as he also became enmeshed in the music field later as an adult.

The Beach Boys paid tribute to Spector in the lyrics of their song "Mona":

"Come on/Listen to "Da Doo Ron Ron," now/Listen to "Be My Baby"/I know you're gonna love Phil Spector"
The character of Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, a 1970 Russ Meyer film, is based upon Spector, though neither Meyer nor screenwriter Roger Ebert had met him.

Spector has had many conflicts, sometimes bizarre, with the artists, songwriters and promoters he has worked with. Describing the dissolution of their Philles Records partnership, Lester Sill said, "I sold out for a pittance. It was shit, ridiculous, around $60,000. I didn't want to but I had to. Let me tell you, I couldn't live with Phillip . . . I just wanted the fuck out of there. If I wouldn't have, I would have killed him. It wasn't worth the aggravation."

As a peevish farewell gesture, shortly after Lester Sill's departure from Philles Records, Spector wrote, and had The Crystals record, a single entitled "(Let's Dance) The Screw". Six minutes long and completely lacking Spector's customary Wall of Sound production techniques, "The Screw" was neither releasable (by 1963 music industry standards) nor intended for general release. Indeed, only a handful of copies of the single were pressed, one of which Spector had delivered to Sill as a parting shot at his former partner. (Legend has it that the recording of "The Screw" served a second purpose: to cheat Sill out of royalties due him from sales of the next Philles recording. However, this claim is considered unlikely.) It has also been said that Spector brought one of his own lawyers into the recording studio to yell out the chorus of the song ( "—do the screw!" ). Both Ronnie Spector and Darlene Love have included stories of poor treatment towards his artists in their autobiographies.

Spector's domineering attitude toward Ronnie Spector led to the dissolution of their marriage. Ronnie Spector has claimed that Spector showed her a gold coffin with a glass top in his basement, promising to kill and display her should she ever choose to leave him; he had earlier forbidden her from speaking to the Rolling Stones or touring with the Beatles, for fear of infidelity. During Spector's reclusive period in the late 1960s, he reportedly kept his wife locked inside their mansion. She claimed he also hid her shoes to dissuade her from walking outside, and kept the house dark because he didn't want anyone to see his balding head. Spector's son later claimed that he was kept locked inside his room, with a pot in the corner to be used as a toilet. Ronnie Spector did leave the producer and filed for divorce in 1972. She wrote a book about her experiences, and said years later, "I can only say that when I left in the early '70s, I knew that if I didn't leave at that time, I was going to die there." In 1998, Ronnie Spector and the other Ronettes sued Phil Spector for allegedly cheating them of royalties and licensing fees, winning a $3 million judgment; however, an appeals court later reversed the decision, upholding the terms of the group's 1963 contract as binding. In 2007, Ronnie Spector discussed her Ronettes' much-delayed entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "He wrote the Hall of Fame to tell them not to put me in. He did everything he could to stop me. He's bitter that I left him. He wants everyone to think he's the mastermind. He thought everything was because of him."

Stories of Phil Spector's gunplay mounted over the years, including his discharging a firearm while in the studio with John Lennon during the recording of his cover album Rock 'n' Roll, either placing a loaded pistol at Leonard Cohen's head or threatening him with a crossbow during the sessions for Death of a Ladies' Man, and forcing Dee Dee Ramone to play bass guitar to Spector's specifications at gunpoint. Cohen told Rolling Stone magazine in 1978 that, "Phil couldn't resist annihilating me. I don't think he can tolerate any other shadows in his darkness."

The Ramones reportedly had to play the opening chord to the song, "Rock 'n' Roll High School", for eight hours straight; years later, Johnny Ramone described Spector as "a little man with lifts in his shoes, the wig on top of his head and four guns". But he also described the session philosophically: "It was a positive learning experience. And that chord does sound really good." Marky Ramone said, "A lot of these things were overblown, and a lot of these things were alcohol-induced."

On February 3, 2003, Spector was arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of 40-year-old nightclub hostess and actress Lana Clarkson of Los Angeles was found at his mansion, Pyrenees Castle, in Alhambra, California. Police responded to a 9-1-1 phone call from Spector's driver and discovered Clarkson, who had been shot. She was pronounced dead at the scene. On November 20, 2003, Spector was indicted for Clarkson's murder. In September 2004 he was ordered to stand trial in Los Angeles.

Spector has stated that Clarkson's death was an "accidental suicide". However, on October 28, 2005, a judge ruled that potentially damning statements Spector allegedly made to police could be used against him at trial. Spector's lawyers had sought to suppress an apparent statement made by Spector after Clarkson was found dead. Spector allegedly said, "I think I killed somebody." His lawyer argued that comments attributed to the music producer should be thrown out because he was suffering from prescription-drug withdrawal symptoms at the time. Two months before the night of the crime in question, Spector had stated in an interview with the British Daily Telegraph that he had bipolar disorder and that he considered himself "relatively insane". The judge has also ruled that transcripts from a deposition Spector made several months before Clarkson's death could also be introduced by the prosecution at trial.

Prior to and during the trial itself, Spector went through at least three sets of attorneys. Defense attorney Robert Shapiro, an original O.J. Simpson "dream team" member, was first to represent Spector at his arraignment and early pre-trial hearings. Shapiro also arranged for his release on $1 million bail. Spector eventually fired and entered into a civil suit against Shapiro in order to re-claim a $1 million retainer paid to the defense attorney. In December 2005, Spector dropped all claims against Shapiro. Shapiro was replaced by Leslie Abramson and Marcia Morrissey. They, in turn, were later replaced by Bruce Cutler, the former long-time lawyer of New York City mafia boss John Gotti. Cutler left Spector's defense on August 27, 2007 claiming "a difference of opinion between Mr. Spector and me on strategy." Attorney Linda Kenney Baden then became lead lawyer for closing arguments.

Spector remained free on $1 million bail while awaiting trial, which had been scheduled to begin on April 24, 2006, but had been postponed several times since then, first to January 16, 2007, then to March 5 and finally to March 19. On February 16, 2007, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler stated that he would allow Spector's trial to be televised, though he also indicated that he would reverse course should the media abuse this access.

Jury selection began Monday, March 19, 2007 at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles. Three hundred prospective jurors were screened over two days. Those not granted hardship exemptions by Fidler completed 18-page questionnaires including queries as to whether celebrities are entitled to act as they please, and whether police treat celebrities with greater leniency. Voir dire began April 16, 2007. A jury of nine men and three women (along with four male and three female alternate jurors) were sworn in on April 19, 2007. A list of possible witnesses shown to prospective jurors included long-time Spector studio associates Hal Blaine and Nino Tempo, limo driver Adriano de Souza and writer Anne Beatts. Opening statements in the trial began April 25, 2007 in Los Angeles.

Since the beginning of the trial, controversy had surrounded it. Famed forensic expert Henry Lee (who provided key evidence in the O. J. Simpson trial) was accused of hiding crucial evidence that the District Attorney's office claimed could prove Spector's guilt. Furthermore, a coroner who examined Clarkson's body concluded that bruising on her tongue indicated that the gun was shoved in her mouth. Despite these setbacks, Spector's defense team had a breakthrough on June 12, 2007 when the Los Angeles Sheriff's criminalist DNA expert stated that only Clarkson's DNA was found on the handgun, which aided Spector's defense that she shot herself. The DNA expert also found none of Spector's DNA on Clarkson's fingernails, which hurt the prosecution's argument that Clarkson struggled with Spector.

On September 18, 2007, the jury reported that they had "reached an impasse" and judge Fidler adjourned the case for attorneys to review the position. The jury was split 7-5; however, no indication was given as to which side was which. Fidler stated he would consider whether or not the charge of involuntary manslaughter would fit the profile of the case. At the urging of the defense, Fidler, however, decided against the addition of the lesser included charge as he considered it tantamount to an instruction to convict. On September 20, 2007, the jury resumed deliberations. Prior to the deliberation, Fidler removed "Special Instruction 3", which he characterized as a misstatement of the law.

The charge in the case against Spector was second-degree murder. Spector could have received a 15-year-to-life sentence (with another ten years added automatically since the crime involved a gun) if convicted.

On September 26, 2007 at 1:45pm PST, the jury stated that it could not reach a verdict. The jurors announced a deadlock of ten for guilty and two for not guilty. Judge Fidler then declared a mistrial in the murder case against Phil Spector.

The judge and lawyers met on October 3, 2007, to discuss future proceedings. Sandi Gibbons, the spokeperson for the District Attorney's office, confirmed that preparations were being made to retry Spector immediately.

In early December 2007, it was announced that San Francisco lawyer Doron Weinberg had agreed to serve as Spector's attorney and had proposed that the retrial begin in September 2008. The only remaining member of Spector's defense team is Christopher Plourd, who Weinberg told Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler will not be available to resume the case until the autumn of 2008. All of the remaining members of Spector's previous defense team have either resigned or were dismissed after the mistrial. Also, in the same month, Spector decided to once again sue former attorney Robert Shapiro for a one million dollar retainer paid before the first trial. Spector also claimed that Shapiro inadequately prepared the trial and may have been responsible for the prosecution filing charges in the first place.

On April 11, 2008, Spector lost another battle in his bid to disqualify the judge presiding at his murder retrial. Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler, who presided over Spector's 2007 mistrial, has been accused by the defense as showing a bias against Spector. A state appellate panel refused to order the appointment of a neutral judge to determine whether Judge Fidler should be removed from the retrial of the case. Fidler previously refused to remove himself from the retrial.

Jury selection in the murder retrial began on October 20, 2008, with Judge Fidler again presiding. On February 19, 2009, the trial visited Spector's home for an hour, where the jury inspected the scene and submitted 9 questions to the judge.

The case went the jury March 27, 2009.

Dimebag Darrell

2009-03-21T03:53:00.000-07:00

Darrell Lance Abbott, also known as "Diamond" Darrell, "Dimebag" Darrell, or simply "Dime" was an American guitarist. Best known as a founding member of the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan, he also performed in the country music band Rebel Meets Rebel. Abbott frequently appeared in guitar magazines and in readers' polls, where he was often included in the top ten metal guitarist spots. In addition, he wrote a long-running Guitar World magazine column, which has been compiled in the book Riffer Madness. Remembered for his amiable nature and rapport with fans, critic Greg Prato describes Abbott as "one of the most influential stylists in modern metal." On December 8, 2004, Abbott was murdered onstage by Nathan Gale during a Damageplan performance at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio.

Darrell was born to Carolyn and Jerry Abbott, a country musician and producer. He took up guitar when he was 13, winning a series of local guitar competitions, where in one he was awarded his first Dean (later known as the ML styled guitar.) Coincidentally, his father had bought him a cherryburst finish Dean (ML) standard the morning before the competition, so he only had a few hours of playing time on it. These and another contest prize, his first Randall Amplifier,

Abbott formed Pantera in 1981 with his brother Vinnie Paul on drums. The band began in a glam metal style, but by the late '80s showed a greater influence from thrash metal acts such as Exodus, Megadeth, Exhorder and Metallica, as well as traditional metal bands such as Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. Pantera subsequently became a key formulator of the post-thrash subgenre of "groove" metal. It would not be until nine years after forming that Pantera saw its first piece of commercial success in its 1990 major label debut, Cowboys from Hell. Pantera's "groove" style came to fruition in its breakthrough album Vulgar Display of Power, released on February 25, 1992, which saw the replacement of the power metal falsetto vocals with a hardcore-influenced shouted delivery and heavier guitar sound. In 1992, Abbott dropped the nickname "Diamond Darrell" and assumed the nickname "Dimebag Darrell". Pantera began to suffer from mounting tensions between band members in the mid-1990s, largely due to Phil Anselmo's rampant drug abuse; in 2003, the group broke up. Anselmo left the band for other projects, such as Superjoint Ritual and Down.

After a year, brothers Vinnie and "Dimebag" formed Damageplan, a Heavy metal band which also used the Pantera-style groove metal sound. The Abbott brothers recruited former Halford guitarist Pat Lachman on vocals, and Bob Zilla on bass. Damageplan released its debut album New Found Power in the United States on February 10, 2004, which debuted at number 38 on the Billboard 200, selling 44,676 copies in its first week. When writing music for the new group, "Dimebag" said that "we wanted to stretch out and expand our capabilities to their fullest."

Shortly before singer Phil Anselmo joined Pantera, Abbott was invited to join Dave Mustaine's thrash band Megadeth. Abbott was willing to join, but on the condition that Mustaine also hired his brother Vinnie on drums. As Mustaine had already hired drummer Nick Menza, Abbott stayed with Pantera. In 1992 Pantera teamed up with Rob Halford (of Judas Priest) for a track called 'Light Comes Out of Black'. Abbott played all the guitar parts, Rex Brown played bass, Vinnie Paul played drums, Rob Halford sang lead vocals while Philip Anselmo sang backing vocals. This song was released on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer soundtrack on July 28, 1992. In 1996 Abbott contributed the Ace Frehley song 'Fractured Mirror' to the Ace tribute album Spacewalk: A Salute To Ace Frehley. Then in 1997 a new Ace Frehley tribute album called Return Of The Comet: A Tribute To Ace Frehley was released. The two Abbott brothers covered Ace's song 'Snowblind' on track 7. On and off between 1996 and the formation of Damageplan, the Abbott brothers and Pantera bassist Rex Brown teamed up with country singer David Allan Coe for a project called Rebel Meets Rebel in 2000. The album was released May 2, 2006 on Vinnie's "Big Vin Records" label.

Abbott played guest guitar solos on several Anthrax songs from their John Bush era: "King Size" & "Riding Shotgun" from Stomp 442, "Inside Out" & "Born Again Idiot" from Volume 8: The Threat Is Real, "Strap It On" and "Cadillac Rock Box" (with a voice intro from Dimebag as well) from We've Come for You All. In a recent interview Anthrax bassist Frank Bello said "Darrell was basically the sixth member of Anthrax". Abbott also performed a solo on the titular track from King Diamond's Voodoo album. A sample from a guitar solo by Abbott was used in the Nickelback song "Side of a Bullet" and also played guitar on Nickelback's cover of Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting along with Kid Rock. In 1999, Pantera recorded a theme tune for their favourite ice hockey team, The Dallas Stars, called 'Puck-Off'. The song was eventually released in 2003 on the album 'Dallas Stars: Greatest Hits'. In 2000 Abbott played the guitar solo on Believer for the new Randy Rhoads Tribute album (not the Ozzy Osbourne album). Vocals were by Sebastian Bach, Rhythm Guitars were by Kane Roberts, Drums were by Michael Cartellone and the Bass was by Mike Bringardello. This was the only track that Abbott contributed to on this album.

Shortly before Abbott's death, he went into the studio with a band named Premenishen to do a guest solo on a track titled "Eyes of the South." He was also confirmed as one of the original guitar player choices for Liquid Tension Experiment by Mike Portnoy. Abbott's musical roots were in Country Western music; he supported the local music scene in Dallas and would sometimes record with local musicians. He played in a country band called Rebel Meets Rebel with country performer David Allan Coe. Three of Abbott's solos from Pantera songs ranked among Guitar World magazine's top 100 of all-time: "Walk" (#57), "Cemetery Gates" (#35), and "Floods" (#15). In December 2006 a rare track of one of his collaborations was discovered. Abbott sat in on a recording session with local Dallas musician "Throbbin Donnie" Rodd and recorded "Country Western Transvestite Whore". It features Dimebag on lead guitar and lead vocals. Abbott and his brother Vinnie Paul along with Rex (during the Pantera Era) and Bob Zilla (Damageplan Era) performed at their New Years party every year under the name "Gasoline", which was originally and previously a project involving Dimebag and Vinnie plus Thurber T. Mingus of Pumpjack. Stroker of Pumpjack also played with Gasoline on several occasions. Dimebag, Vinnie and Rex also recorded a cover of the ZZ Top song "Heard It on the X" under the band name "Tres Diablos" for ECW wrestling's "Extreme Music" soundtrack.

On December 8, 2004, while performing with Damageplan at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Abbott was shot onstage by a mentally ill former US Marine named Nathan Gale. Abbott was shot 5 times in the back of the head, killing him instantly. Damageplan's drum technician, John "Kat" Brooks, and tour manager, Chris Paluska, were injured. Gale fired a total of fifteen shots, taking the time to reload once, and remaining silent throughout the shooting. To avoid being injured or killed himself, Vinnie hid in the kitchen in the back of the club. He then called Rita Haney to let her know about what was going on.

Brooks was scuffling with Gale onstage but was overpowered and taken hostage in a headlock position. Brooks was shot several times (once in the right hand, his right leg, and his right side) while attempting to get the gun away from Gale. Five officers came in the front entrance led by officer Rick Crum, and moved toward the stage. Officer James D. Niggemeyer came in through the back door, behind the stage. Gale only saw the officers in front of the stage; he never saw Officer Niggemeyer. When the hostage moved his head, Officer Niggemeyer killed Gale by shooting him in the face with a police-issued Remington 870 shotgun. Gale was found to have 35 rounds of ammunition remaining. Nurse and audience member Mindy Reece, 28, went to the aid of Abbott. She and another fan administered CPR until paramedics arrived, but were unable to revive him.

In May 2005, Officer Niggemeyer testified before the Franklin County grand jury, which is routine procedure in Franklin County after a police shooting. The grand jury did not indict Niggemeyer, finding that his actions were justified. Niggemeyer received a commendation from the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission for his outstanding police work in time of crisis as well as The National Rifle Association award as 2005 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. The five other officers that were first on the scene received Ohio distinguished law enforcement medals for their efforts. In 2006 James Niggemeyer penned the foreword to A Vulgar Display Of Power: Courage and Carnage at the Alrosa Villa.

Early theories of motive suggested that Gale may have turned to violence in response to the breakup of Pantera, or the public dispute between Abbott and Pantera singer Phil Anselmo, but these were later ruled out by investigators. Another theory was that Gale believed Abbott had stolen a song Gale wrote. In the A Vulgar Display Of Power book, several of Gale's personal writings, given to the author by Gale's mother, suggest that the gunman was not angry about Pantera's breakup or about a belief that Pantera had "stolen songs"; instead, the documents suggest that Gale's paranoid schizophrenia caused delusions that the band could read his mind, and that they were "stealing" his thoughts and laughing at him.

Dimebag's grave is located at the Moore Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Texas. He is buried alongside his mother.

Tributes
Papa Roach's song "Life is a bullet" was dedicated to Dimebag
Hellyeah's song "Thank You" is dedicated to Dimebag
True Metal Conspiracy's (TMC) song "Live Fast Die Young"
Hatebreed's "Last Breath"
Avenged Sevenfold's song "Betrayed"
Nickelback's "Side of a Bullet" (featuring a solo played by Abbott taken from a demo tape)
Cross Canadian Ragweed's "Dimebag"
Black Label Society's "In This River"
Kiuas' "Bleeding Strings"
In Flames played part of Fucking Hostile which lead straight into Behind Space on their 2004 tour at Sticky Fingers
Type O Negative's "Halloween in Heaven"
Machine Head's "Aesthetics of Hate"
2Cents' "A Song For Darrell Abbott" is about or dedicated to Dimebag
Shinedown and Seether have both dedicated their respective songs "Simple Man" and "Fine Again" to Abbott in concert while Seether has also included the intro, first verse and chorus of the Pantera hit "Cowboys From Hell" in place of the bridge of their song "Because of Me".
Trivium's album, The Crusade, says at the bottom of the final page, "Rest in peace Dimebag Darrell Abbott (1966-2004)"
Disturbed in their 2005 release Ten Thousand Fists stated: "We would like to dedicate this record to the memory of our late fallen brother, Dimebag Darrell, one of the greatest guitar players to ever walk the face of this Earth"
In a Limp Bizkit song "The Priest" in 2005 you hear in the lyrics "I see someone in rage killing Dimebag on stage, what the fuck is this...".
Guitarist Buckethead wrote "Dime", a song paying tribute to Abbott, which was available for free download shortly after Abbott's death. The song later made it onto Buckethead's album Kaleidoscalp, entitled "The Android of Notre Dame".
Brian Head Welch performed "Letter to Dimebag" at 2006.
On some occasions Fear Factory, Disturbed, Godsmack, Sinergy, Avenged Sevenfold, and country artist Eric Church have played Pantera’s "Walk" as a tribute.
Lamb Of God and Children Of Bodom while touring together, both band went out on stage and played 5 Minutes Alone in tribute.
GWAR played a concert the night of dimes passing with out their costumes on.
Bullet For My Valentine also did a cover of the Pantera song "Domination".
Phil Anselmo's current band Down has also dedicated the song "Lifer" to Dime on their most recent tour.
Chambers of Insanity's "Blacktooth Grin" by is dedicated to the life of Dimebag ("Blacktooth" Grin was Dimebag's favorite alcoholic beverage).
At one show during Gigantour 2005 in Dallas, Texas, Dream Theater performed a cover of "Cemetery Gates" along with Russell Allen of Symphony X, Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory, and Dave Mustaine of Megadeth as a tribute to Dimebag.
He Came to Rock is a DVD/book tribute to Abbott released in November 2008. Darrell's brother Vinnie Paul and father Jerry toured to promote the book's release.
On August 20th, 2007 Randy Blythe dedicated Lamb of God's Ozzfest set to "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott in memory of what would have been his 41st birthday. The show occurred at the Tweeter Center (now known as the Comcast Center for the Performing Arts) in Mansfield, MA.
Metallica dedicated the song "Fade to Black" to Dimebag whilst perfoming on the Ozzfest bill in October 2008 in Dallas, Texas
Abbott frequently appeared in guitar magazines, both in advertisements for equipment he endorsed and in readers' polls, where he was often included in the top ten metal guitarist spots. In addition, he wrote a long-running Guitar World magazine column, which has been compiled in the book Riffer Madness (ISBN 0-7692-9101-5). Total Guitar frequently featured him and wrote about him in the months leading up to his death. One year after his death, they also made a tribute issue. The January 2008 issue of Metal Hammer was also dedicated to him. In the March 2008 issue of Guitar World Abbott was featured on the cover story "Dimebag, The Untold Story," and interviews with his then-guitar tech's Grady Champion and Rita Haney, and Vinnie Paul Abbott. As well, he was voted into the Guitar World Hall of Fame.

Abbott once said in a Guitar World interview that if there was no Ace Frehley, there would have been no "Dimebag" Darrell - he even had a tattoo of the "KISS" guitarist on his chest (in an interview asking why he chose to become a guitar player Abbott said that when he was young his father asked him if he wanted a BMX bike or a guitar for his birthday and he chose the BMX but after listening to a Black Sabbath album for the first time he went to his father to try and trade the bike for the guitar). Ace signed the tattoo in pen ink upon meeting him, at Dimebag's request, and then the autograph was painstakingly tattooed over soon after, so as never to be washed off.

Abbott was also an avid consumer of alcoholic beverages, as exemplified by his invention of a cocktail. The drink consists of one shot of "Crown Royal" whiskey, with a splash of just enough Coca-Cola to darken the whiskey's color known as the "Black Tooth Grin".

In the late 1980s, around the time of Power Metal, Abbott often covered songs by guitarist Joe Satriani, such as "Crushing Day". He also incorporated elements of Satriani songs like "Echo" into his live solos as well. Abbott stated, in various interviews, that his riffs were largely influenced by Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. Tony also influenced Dimebag's tunings, which often went down to C# or lower. Pantera covered Black Sabbath songs "Planet Caravan", "Paranoid", "Hole In the Sky" and "Electric Funeral."

He also cited thrash giants Anthrax, Metallica and, despite a sometimes vicious feud, Megadeth as primary influences. He was also a great fan of Slayer and a good friend of Kerry King. Dimebag mentioned in an interview with Guitar World that the clean chord passages in the intro to Cemetery Gates were influenced by the clean chordal passages found in much of Ty Tabor's (King's X) playing.[citation needed] As with Gibbons, Abbott frequently made use of pentatonic scales and slide guitar in both his leads and rhythms. Both guitarists employ blues scales, start / stop dynamics and pedal tones, as in Dimebag's southern style riff in "The Great Southern Trendkill", and the main riff to ZZ Top's "Tush". Randy Rhoads' style chord arpeggios can be heard in much of Dimebag's playing as well, noted examples being "Floods", "Shedding Skin", "The Sleep", and "This Love". He also stated that "Eddie Van Halen was heavy rock and roll, but Randy was heavy metal".

Eddie Van Halen, whom Abbott had recently befriended, placed his original black with yellow stripes guitar (commonly called "bumblebee") into the Kiss Kasket. Abbott had mentioned to Ed that he liked that color combination the best of Ed's guitars (this guitar appears on the back sleeve of Van Halen's second album "Van Halen II"), and Eddie was going to paint one that way for him. Darrell also credited Vito Rulez of Chauncy for convincing him to try Bill Lawrence pickups. According to an interview with Dino Cazares then of Fear Factory Abbott told him that during the recording of Reinventing the Steel he A/B'd his guitar tone with Dino's (incidentally during the making of Fear Factory's Demanufacture Cazares A/B'd his guitar tone against that of Vulgar Display of Power). Abbott co-designed a guitar with Dean just months before his death. Called the Razorback, it was a modified version of the ML. It is more pointed and has extra barbs on the wings. This design spawned variations, such as a 24-fret version, different paint jobs including a flamed maple top with natural finish, EMG pickups, and also helped with the design of the V-shaped version, the Razorback V (lacking the neck-pointing front wing).

Pete Willis of Def Leppard was also seen another major influence for Darrell. On his Guitar World magazine tribute issue, Abbott was quoted as saying, "Man, that first Leppard album really jams, and their original guitarist, Pete Willis, was a great player. I was inspired by him because I was a small young dude and he was a small young dude, too—and he was out there kickin’ ass. He made me want to get out there and play. Def Leppard used the two-guitar thing much more back then than they do now."

Dean issued a tribute guitar to honor his death, featuring the tribute logo on the neck, a razor inlay on the 12th fret, and hand-painted "rusty-metal"-style graphics. The pickups include a Dimebucker at the Bridge and a DiMarzio Super Distortion at the neck, the tremolo is a Floyd Rose double-locking, and the knobs are the Dimebag Traction knobs. They use all-black hardware, and almost all of them have 22 frets, a Floyd Rose tremolo, Seymour Duncan pickups (including the SH-13 Dimebucker), and set-neck construction.

Abbott performed on Anthrax albums, including Stomp 442 (1995); Volume 8: The Threat Is Real (1998); the Inside Out EP (1998) and We've Come for You All (2003). With Damageplan, Abbott played on the Devastation Sampler (2003) and on the album New Found Power (2004). With Pantera, Abbott recorded a number of albums, EPs, singles, and videos, including Power Metal (1988); Cowboys from Hell (1990); Vulgar Display of Power (1992); and Hostile Moments (1994). He also recorded albums under his own name, including Country Western Transvestite Whore and Supercop Soundtrack (1996) and he recorded a country music album entitled Rebel Meets Rebel (2004).

David "Stringbean" Akeman "Murder of a Hee Haw Star"

2009-03-21T01:14:00.001-07:00

David "Stringbean" Akeman was an American country music banjo player and comedy musician best known for his role on the hit television show, Hee Haw. Born in Annville, Jackson County, Kentucky, he came from a musical family and was taught to play banjo by his father. He acquired his first real banjo when he was 12 years old by trading it for a pair of prize bantam chickens. He began playing local dances and developing a reputation on the instrument, but could not earn a living as a musician. Instead, Akeman worked for the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, building roads and planting trees.

Later he entered a talent contest that was being judged by singer-guitarist-musical saw player Asa Martin, and won. Afterward, he was invited to join Martin's band. During one performance, Martin forgot Akeman's name and introduced him to the crowd as "String Beans." With his tall, thin build, the nickname stuck and he eventually was known by that single moniker.

At first, Akeman only played banjo in the group, but when another performer failed to turn up for a show, he was pressed into service as a singer and comic, and the act caught on. From that day forward, Akeman divided his time between comedy and music. He also broadcast on WLAP out of Lexington, KY, and played with various groups during the late '30s.

During this time, Akeman also played semi-professional baseball. It was as a ballplayer that he first came to the attention of bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe, who fielded a private semipro team. Monroe eventually learned of Akeman's other talents and from 1943 until 1945, Akeman played as banjoist for Monroe's band, playing on such recordings as "Goodbye Old Pal." Akeman also spent some of his time during this period teamed with Willie Egbert Westbrook as "String Beans and Cousin Wilbur," a comedy duo who often worked on the same bill with Monroe's outfit. Akeman left Monroe in 1945 and was replaced by Earl Scruggs, a banjoist with a radically different technique.

In 1945, Akeman married Estelle Stanfill. That same year, he teamed up with Lew Childre to form a comedy duet, and the two were successful enough to be invited to perform on the Grand Ole Opry. During 1946, Akeman also began working with Grandpa Jones (Louis Marshall Jones), a fellow old-time banjoist and comedian. Jones and Akeman continued to work together on the Grand Ole Opry and later on the Hee Haw television series. They also became neighbors near Ridgetop, Tennessee. Akeman also became a protégé of Uncle Dave Macon, one of the biggest stars of the Grand Ole Opry. Macon, who died in 1952, was, like Stringbean and Grandpa Jones, a banjo-player/comic and one of the Opry's best loved performers. Toward the end of his life, Macon gave Akeman one of his own banjos.

Akeman, known by this time only as Stringbean, was one of the Opry's top stars throughout the 1950s. During this period, Akeman adopted a stage costume that comically accentuated his height, consisting of a shirt with an exceptionally long waist and tail, tucked into a pair of short child-sized blue jeans (from Little Jimmy Dickens) belted around his knees. The costume made him look like a very tall man with very short legs and helped contribute to the illusion of Akeman towering over his fellow performers. This kind of costume had many antecedents, including Slim Miller, a onetime stage comedian who was said to be Akeman's direct inspiration. The costume became synonymous with the Stringbean persona known to his audience.

Stringbean did not begin recording as a solo artist until the early 1960s, when he signed to the Starday label. By that time, Earl Scruggs, Akeman's replacement in the Bill Monroe band, had emerged as the premier figure in banjo playing, especially among younger listeners, and Scruggs-style playing became the predominant style for county and bluegrass banjoists. Akeman and Jones remained as two of the most celebrated performers of "old-time" banjo playing, also called "clawhammer" or "frailing". Akeman's musicianship is still much admired by aficionados of the old-time style. Akeman is listed along with Uncle Dave Macon, Grandpa Jones, and Ralph Stanley, as among the great old-time style banjoists.

Akeman still found an audience for his older style of playing and his mixture of cornball comedy and song. He had country-chart hits with "Chewing Gum" and "I Wonder Where Wanda Went." He recorded seven albums between 1961 and 1972. The first of those albums, "Old Time Pickin' & Grinnin' with Stringbean" (1961), was representative of his milieu, containing folk songs (especially humorous animal songs), tall stories, and jokes.

Akeman remained a star of the Grand Ole Opry for the rest of his life. In 1969, Akeman, along with Jones, became founding members of the cast of the television show "Hee Haw." One of his regular routines was to read a "letter from Home" to his friends (similar in style to American comedian "Charley Weaver"). When asked about the latest letter, "Stringbean" would reach for it, stating that he carried it right next to "his Heart" (his upper overalls pocket). Not finding it there, he would proceed to quickly check all his other pockets, saying "Heart" on each check until he found the letter, usually in his hip pocket. He was also known for being the "Scarecrow" in the cornfield, who would shoot off one liners before being shouted down by the "Crow" on his shoulder.

A modest and unassuming person, Akeman enjoyed the simple life of hunting and fishing. Accustomed to hard times during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Akeman and his wife, Estelle, lived frugally in a tiny cabin near Ridgetop, Tennessee—their only indulgence a Cadillac automobile. Depression-era bank failures also inspired Akeman, like many others of his generation, to not trust banks with their money. It was general gossip around Nashville that Akeman usually kept significant amounts of cash on hand, despite not being terribly wealthy by entertainment industry standards.

On a Saturday night in November 1973, the Akemans returned home after performing a show at the Grand Ole Opry, and were shot dead upon their arrival. Thieves had lain in wait for hours. The Akemans' bodies were discovered the following morning by neighbor and fellow performer Grandpa Jones (Louis Marshall Jones).

A police investigation into the double homicide resulted in the conviction of cousins John A. Brown and Marvin Douglas Brown, both of whom were 23 years old at the time of the murders. At trial, it was revealed that the two had ransacked the cabin and then killed "Stringbean." Estelle shrieked when she saw "Stringbean" hit with the bullets. A few moments later, after begging for her life, she was gunned down as well. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals described the scene, "Upon their return, Mr. Akeman spotted the intruders in his home and evidently offered some resistance. One of the Brown cousins fatally shot Mr. Akeman, then pursued, shot and killed Mrs. Akeman. At their trial, each defendant blamed the other for the homicides." Brown v. State, unpublished decision at 1991 WL 242928.

The thieves left with nothing more than a chain saw and some guns. In 1996, twenty-three years after their murders, $20,000 in cash was discovered behind a brick in the chimney of the Akemans' home. The paper money had rotted to such an extent that it was not usable. (To place this amount in context, the United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicates that the purchasing power of $20,000 in 1973 would be equivalent to the purchasing power of some $98,565 in 2008.) The A&E cable television network profiled the Stringbean murder case on a 2003 episode of its popular City Confidential series.

Marvin Douglas Brown fought his convictions in the Tennessee appellate courts. On September 28, 1982, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial judge's order denying a new trial. State v. Brown, 644 S.W.2d 418 (Tenn.Crim.App. 1992). On November 21, 1991, the same court denied his motion for post conviction relief. State v. Brown, unpublished decision available at 1991 WL 24298. Marvin Brown ultimately granted an exclusive interview to Larry Brinton of the Nashville Banner. In the interview, he admitted his participation in the burglary and murders, but contended that John Brown fired the fatal shots.

Marvin Brown died of natural causes on January 8, 2003, at the Brushy Mountain Prison, in Petros, Tennessee. He is buried in the prison cemetery. John A. Brown remains incarcerated in a Tennessee Special Needs Facility. In July 2008, the Tennessee Parole Board deferred parole for 36 months. He is next eligible for parole in July of 2011.

David and Estelle Akeman are buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. During the run of Hee Haw, after Stringbean's death, the scarecrow was left as a memorial.

Blind Melon

2009-03-18T01:23:00.000-07:00

Blind Melon is an American rock band that originally existed from 1989 to 1995, and ceased with the death of lead vocalist Shannon Hoon shortly after the release of the band's second album. The band reformed with the new lead vocalist Travis Warren in 2006. However, Warren announced his departure from the band on November 6, 2008.

Blind Melon formed in California in 1989, with members from Indiana, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania. The band signed to Capitol Records in 1991 and recorded an unreleased demo. The band's initial popularity is partially attributed to vocalist Hoon's association with Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose, and Hoon's backing vocals on several Guns N' Roses tracks on 1991's Use Your Illusion album.

The band's self-titled debut album, produced by Rick Parashar (Pearl Jam), contained thirteen songs and sold poorly until the "No Rain" single was released in November 1993. The single, promoted by a music video featuring the "Bee Girl" (played by Heather DeLoach), helped launch the commercial success of the band, eventually leading the album to quadruple-platinum status.

In 1994, the band began recording their second album, Soup, in New Orleans with producer Andy Wallace. The album was released in 1995, and predominantly featured shorter songs with a less conventional alternative rock approach. The lyrics to "St. Andrew's Fall" referenced a suicide jump, while "New Life" discussed the forthcoming birth of Hoon's child. "Mouthful of Cavities" featured backing vocals from Jena Kraus, who subsequently recorded a solo record with Christopher Thorn and Brad Smith. Possibly because of the more experimental sound (the album begins and ends with New Orleans style jazz and has a hodgepodge of instrumentation throughout), the album failed to meet sales expectations.

In 1995, Blind Melon contributed a version of the song "Out on the Tiles" to the Encomium tribute album to Led Zeppelin, as well as a promotional CD with a cover of the Schoolhouse Rock! song "Three Is a Magic Number".

Against the advice of Hoon's drug counselor, Blind Melon went on tour in support of Soup. Hoon was found dead on the band's tour bus of a cocaine overdose on October 21, 1995 in New Orleans. The remaining members released Nico (named for Hoon's daughter, only thirteen weeks old when her father died) in 1996, with the profits going to a program that helps musicians with drug and alcohol addiction. Nico contained unreleased songs from the Soup recording sessions, as well as other songs often recorded with only partial instrumentation. The closing track, "Letters from a Porcupine", was recorded as a telephone message left by Hoon on Thorn's answering machine. Nico included covers of Steppenwolf and John Lennon songs.

Blind Melon officially disbanded on March 4, 1999 and the various members went on to other projects.

In 2002, Capitol Records released a Classic Masters CD showcasing twelve Blind Melon songs. Thanks to stronger-than-expected sales, the band released The Best of Blind Melon in 2005, a CD+DVD package that features Blind Melon performing live from a September 1995 concert in Chicago. On December 15, 2006, a tribute album to Blind Melon was released by Yakmusic in New Zealand featuring bands from all over the world. In April 2006, Capitol Records released the Live at the Palace CD that was re-released October 17, 2006 with a new package.

On September 15, 2006, it was announced that Blind Melon had reunited, with the addition of new lead singer Travis Warren (formerly of Rain Fur Rent). On November 9, 2006 three new Blind Melon songs were released: "Make a Difference", "For My Friends" and "Harmful Belly". On October 7, 2007 Blind Melon performed their first show in twelve years in Providence, Rhode Island.

On April 22, 2008, the band released For My Friends on Adrenaline Records. The first single, "Wishing Well", was released on March 4, 2008. A U.S. tour in support of the album began February 28. Around this time, Billboard confirmed that a book about the Hoon era of the band is forthcoming.. Then, on September 17, 2008, the book "A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and Blind Melon" by Greg Prato was published.

In September, 2008, Blind Melon played a number of European tour dates, with Travis Warren as lead vocalist. On November 6, 2008, the band announced the departure of Travis Warren. The reasons behind his departure are disputed: Warren states that he was ejected from the band after having lost his voice due to extensive touring, while the band cites unresponsiveness and lack of communication and that Warren chose to leave the band on his own. This led the band to announce Chris Shinn as lead vocalist for the remainder of their tour, which was then cancelled. Warren would return to perform with the band on December 31, 2008 in Dearborn, Michigan, which the band later announced would be the last show with Warren.

Ozark Music Festival

2009-03-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

The Ozark Music Festival was held on the Missouri State Fairgrounds, in July 1974 in Sedalia, Missouri. While the Woodstock Festival from 1969 is the most well-known rock festival, the Ozark Music Festival was one of the largest music festivals ever held, while at the same time, it was also one of the least remembered festivals. "No Hassles Guaranteed" was the motto of the festival.

Some estimates have put the crowd count at 350,000 people which would make this one of the largest music events (Rock festivals) in history.

A company called Musical Productions Inc. (MPI) from Kansas City promoted the festival, and assured officials from the Missouri Department of Agriculture (the State agency which oversaw the State Fair) and the Sedalia Chamber of Commerce that the three-day weekend event would be a blue-grass and “pop rock” festival with no more than 50,000 tickets sold.

Even though the Festival was not scheduled to start until Friday, thousands had arrived by Thursday night and there was a steady line of cars, trucks, vans, hitchhikers and even an occasional hippie camper slowly winding towards Sedalia and the fairgrounds.

Posters for the festival announced that some of the best bands in country and southern rock would be performing, including:

Bachman Turner Overdrive
Jefferson Starship
The Eagles
America
Marshall Tucker Band
The Mahavishnu Orchestra (Scheduled but did not appear)
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Boz Scaggs
Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes
David Bromberg
Leo Kottke
Cactus
The Earl Scruggs Revue
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Electric Flag
Bruce Springsteen (Scheduled but did not appear)
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
Other bands not listed on Ozark Music Festival posters but rumored to have attended the concert include:

Joe Walsh and Barnstorm
The Souther Hillman Furay Band
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Charlie Daniels Band
Triphammer
Bill Quakerman
Fresh Start
Babe Ruth
Locomotiv GT
Aerosmith
Puzzle

On Friday morning, many Sedalians woke up with sleeping hippies, bikers and groupies sprawled across their lawns, and a long line of bumper-to bumper traffic clogging the roads into town. Some residents were not able to get to work, and for many, their fears of impending chaos at the Fairgrounds were realized in the days to come.

Midnight Special MC, Wolfman Jack hosted the event, and was on stage nightly to introduce the groups and to encourage people to stay cool and “clear the light towers of people before they fall."

The stage was a huge double sided affair, with one band performing and a second band ready to go with just the turning on and off of spotlights.

The roar of the crowd was defining when The Eagles dedicated “Already Gone” to Nixon and his impending impeachment. Barnstorm sang “ Rocky Mountainway” as “bases are loaded and Nixon’s at bat;" yet another politically charged moment that brought thousands to their feet cheering.

By Saturday morning the Festival was going full force and the town was in gridlock. The festival had grown to around 184,000 attendees, and all of the bands had to be shuttled in and out by helicopter. Many of the fans were seen walking around the fair grounds naked throughout the festival trying to keep cool and find water, because the heat was significant, leading to an outbreak of Dehydration throughout the grounds. There were long lines at the few water fountains or spigots that worked, even though the water itself was warm.

It is believed that the entire concert was filmed by NBC for future release, but the footage was confiscated by the courts due to the amount of damage done to the city and fairgrounds. This would explain Wolfman Jack's presence and nightly MCing of the concerts. While this may be rumored, as a person setting up and taking the bands down, I never witnessed NBC filming anything back stage.

Wolfman Jack would be in one of the numerous RV's parked behind the stage nightly to make announcements as needed. One time when the crowd was climbing on the towers, I personally went to get him. It was a "pot-smoke" filled trailer with plently of girls.

The "No Hassles Guaranteed" advertisement was supposedly meant to be a clear indication that the festival would be a wide open drug event and that the community would soon be invaded by tens of thousands of drug culture groupies.

Drugs were bought and sold openly, and some people reported an entire roll of “drug” vendors set up with signs and sample products. People were observed carrying milk cartons filled with marijuana for sale, and many even wore hand-made signs around their necks advertising 'Hash for sale'.

The PA system in the campgrounds interspersed messages of lost people with cautionary advice to avoid overdosing. Couples were observed openly engaging in sexual activity.

If you attended and felt safe during the Festival it was because The Hells Angels biker club acted as the law on the fairgrounds. And it has been reported that several brothels were set up in buses on the fairgrounds under the supervision of these guardians.

Hourly helicopters flights by the Missouri National Guard flew over the two main stages, carrying drug overdoses away from the festival.

There were only about three liquor stores open at the time and by Saturday they were all totally sold out. No more could be ordered because the traffic was so thick you couldn't bring any trucks in. The only place to buy beer was the local grocery store and people report waiting in line three hours to get it.

By Monday, July 22, the festival crowd had left, leaving a field of garbage behind. Damage estimates of $100,000 were reported, and with the Missouri State Fair only a few weeks away the fairgrounds had to be cleaned up quickly. Damage and garbage remained, along with a lingering few waiting around for their friends who had been sent to medical facilities for treatment for dehydration.

After the festival the city of Sedalia only had a few weeks to clean the whole mess up for the Missouri State fair, so helicopters were used for spraying lime over the fairgrounds as a precaution against the possible outbreak of disease.

On the ground, Bulldozers scraped up the topsoil, which was (reportedly) littered with discarded drug paraphernalia and gnawed cobs of corn from a neighboring field along with Mountains of contaminated dirt and garbage which were hauled to the county landfills.

The Missouri Senate met in October 1974 and discussed the events of the music festival in the committee report. The report states that, "The Ozark Music Festival can only be described as a disaster. It became a haven for drug pushers who were attracted from throughout the United States. The scene made the degradation of Sodom and Gomorrah appear mild. Natural and unnatural sex acts became a spectator sport ... Frequently, nude women promoted drugs with advertisements on their bodies." But most people there had an incredible time; the people setting up the event failed to prepare properly for the large crowds (the government had to step in to help).

Per Yngve Ohlin

2009-02-28T02:47:00.001-08:00

Per Yngve Ohlin, better known by his stage name Dead, was a Swedish black metal vocalist best known for his work with Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. He also performed as vocalist of the Swedish death metal band Morbid on their demo December Moon.

In interviews, fellow musicians often described Ohlin as a strange and introverted person. Fellow bandmember Hellhammer described Ohlin as "a very strange personality ... depressed, melancholic, and dark." Likewise, Mayhem guitarist Euronymous once stated "I honestly think Dead is mentally insane. Which other way can you describe a guy who does not eat in order to get starving wounds? Or who has a t-shirt with funeral announcements on it?"

According to Emperor drummer Bård "Faust" Eithun:

"He (Dead) wasn't a guy you could know very well. I think even the other guys in Mayhem didn't know him very well. He was hard to get close to. I met him two weeks before he died. I'd met him maybe six to eight times, in all. He had lots of weird ideas. I remember Aarseth was talking about him and said he did not have any humour. He did, but it was very obscure. Honestly, I don't think he was enjoying living in this world."
For concerts, Ohlin went to great lengths to achieve the image and atmosphere he desired. From the beginning of his career he was known to wear "corpse paint", which involved covering his face with black and white makeup. According to Necrobutcher, "It wasn't anything to do with the way Kiss and Alice Cooper used makeup. Dead actually wanted to look like a corpse. He didn't do it to look cool." Additionally, Hellhammer claimed that Ohlin "was the first black metal musician to use corpse paint."

In order to complete his corpse-like image, Ohlin would bury his clothes before a concert and dig them up again to wear on the night of the event. According to Hellhammer:

Before the shows, Dead used to bury his clothes into the ground so that they could start to rot and get that "grave" scent. He was a "corpse" on a stage. Once he even asked us to bury him in the ground - he wanted his skin to become pale.

Whilst singing on stage, Ohlin would often cut himself with hunting knives and broken glass. He claimed to be fascinated by people's reactions to this. During one concert in Sarpsborg during February 1990, Ohlin cut himself so badly that he had to be taken to hospital due to blood loss.

During one tour with Mayhem he found a dead crow, which he collected and stored in a jar. He often carried it around with him and would smell the bird before performing, in order to sing "with the stench of death in his nostrils."
At some point in 1990, the members of Mayhem moved to "an old house in the forest" near Oslo. Hellhammer claimed that Ohlin "just sat in his room and became more and more depressed" and that there was a lot of arguing between Ohlin and Aarseth.

On 8 April 1991, Ohlin committed suicide in the house owned by the band. He was found by Aarseth with slit wrists and a shotgun round to the head. The shotgun was allegedly owned by Aarseth. Ohlin's suicide note read "Excuse all the blood" and included an apology for firing the weapon indoors. Instead of calling the police, Aarseth went to a nearby store and bought a disposable camera to photograph the corpse, after re-arranging some items. Necrobutcher claimed that "I think Øystein was shocked by Dead's suicide, and taking the photographs was the only way he could cope with it." One of these photographs was later stolen and used as the cover of a bootleg live album entitled Dawn of the Black Hearts.

Eventually, rumours surfaced that Aarseth made a stew with pieces of Ohlin's brain, and made necklaces with fragments of Ohlin's skull. The band later stated that the former rumour was false, but that the latter was true. Additionally, Aarseth claimed to have given these necklaces to musicians he deemed worthy. Necrobutcher noted that "people became more aware of the (black metal) scene after Dead had shot himself ... I think it was Dead's suicide that really changed the scene."

Boxcar Willie

2009-02-05T21:15:00.000-08:00

Boxcar Willie was an American "hobo music" singer.
Born Lecil Travis Martin near the town of Ovilla, Texas, Boxcar Willie was an American country music singer who sang in the "hobo music" style. In 1949, he joined the United States Air Force, became a pilot and flight engineer for the B-29 Super Fortress during the Korean War in the early 1950s.
In Lincoln, Nebraska, Martin was once sitting at a railroad crossing and a fellow that closely resembled his chief boom operator, Willie Wilson, passed by sitting in a boxcar. He said, "There goes Willie." He pulled over and wrote a song entitled "Boxcar Willie." It eventually stuck and became Martin's nickname.
In 1962, Martin met his future wife, Lloene, in Boise, Idaho. They would later have four children: Paula Kay, twins Larry Brown & Lorry Gene, and the baby of the family Tammy Lee. Paula Kay has two children, Janea and Christian; Larry has two children, Tiffay and Christopher; Lorry Gene has two children, Gabrielle and Gavin; and Tammy Lee has two children, Amanda Lloene and William Travis.
In San Jose, California, Martin attended a talent show as "Boxcar Willie" and performed under the nickname for the first time. He won first place, a $150 prize and a nickname that he would forever go by. That was his part-time vocation, however; he was still in the Air Force and had been flying daily missions.
In 1976, Martin left the Air Force and became a full-time performer. He entered American mainstream pop culture consciousness due to a series of hyperbole-laced television commercials for record compilations of artists who were obscure in the United States, yet had large international followings, such as Slim Whitman and Zamfir. He went on to become a star in country music, selling more than 10 million records, tapes and CDs world-wide. In 1981, Martin achieved a professional landmark by being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry as its 60th member.
In 1985, Martin moved to Branson, Missouri and purchased a theater on Highway 76, or 76 Country Music Boulevard. In addition to the Boxcar Willie Theater, he opened a museum and eventually had two motels, both bearing his name. Boxcar Willie was one of the first big stars to open a show in Branson, paving the way for the other nationally-known names that followed. He performed at his theater in Branson until he died.
On Halloween in 1996, Martin was diagnosed with leukemia. On April 12, 1999, Martin died in Branson of leukemia at age 67.
The overpass at Interstate 35E and Farm to Market Road 664 in Red Oak, Texas (also known as Ovilla Road, approximately four miles east of Ovilla) was renamed "Boxcar Willie Memorial Overpass" after a major reconstruction project.

Sideshow note:
Boxcar is a first cousin of Tommy Lee Jones.

The Big Bopper

2009-02-02T18:57:00.000-08:00

Pilot of the plane that crashed killing Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, in an event that has been subsequently called "the day the music died." Born and raised in Alta, Iowa, the oldest son of four children to Arthur and Pearl Peter, he had earned his private pilot's license in October 1955 following his graduation from the local high school. Three years later, he earned his commercial pilot's license, and was hired for Dwyer Flying Service in nearby Mason City, Iowa. On September 14, 1958, Peterson married his high school sweetheart, Deanne Lenz, and they set up residence in Clear Lake, Iowa, a short drive to Mason City, where both worked. In January 1959, Peterson received his certification as a limited Flight Instructor, although he was still working on his Instrument Flight Rating, and was not certified for nighttime flying. On the evening of February 2, 1959, Peterson was contacted by the manager of the Surf Ballroom in nearby Clear Lake, to charter a flight from Mason City to Fargo, North Dakota. A tour group was doing a Winter Dance Party in several cities, and one of the performers, Buddy Holly, wanted to fly ahead of the group that was traveling by bus. When the performers arrived at the airport, Peterson learned that in addition to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson had also joined the group. They took off in a light snow storm about 1:00 am, the morning of February 3, in a 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza, a four-seat aircraft, and several minutes later, crashed into a corn field about eight miles northwest of the airport. All four men aboard were killed instantly. The Civil Aeronautics Board investigation concluded that the most likely cause of the crash was pilot error, as Peterson was flying on instruments and was not certified in their use, nor was he familiar with or rated for night flying. Poor weather conditions were cited as a secondary cause of the crash. Peterson was buried on February 6, in the Buena Vista Memorial Cemetery, and his widow, Deanne, remarried about ten years later. They had no children. In June 1988, a granite memorial to the four men was dedicated outside the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, honoring their memory.

Ben E. King

2009-01-23T17:24:00.000-08:00

is an American soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me," a U.S. top 10 hit in both 1961 and 1987 and a #1 hit in the UK in 1987, and as one of the principal lead singers of the R&B vocal group, The Drifters.

Notorious B.I.G

2009-01-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

AKA Christopher Wallace He was large and imposing; at 6 ft 3 inches Christopher Wallace weighted close to three hundred pounds. He was born in Brooklyn to Jamaican parents growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area and raised by his mother Voletta Wallace a preschool teacher. He was singing and talking before he could walk. At 17, he was a high school dropout and soon in trouble with the law resulting in a nine month incarceration. He was a product of his seedy neighborhood where, crime, drugs and decadence prevailed. Christopher was known locally for his rapping abilities. Upon release, he made a rap recording which landed in the hands of a young producer Sean 'Puffy' Combs. Under his tutelage, Christopher first performed on albums with established artists then made his first solo album at the age of twenty one, 'Ready to Die' on Bad Boy Records. He rapped in a deep baritone voice about the usual gangster subjects and then unexpectedly changed to love and family responsibilities. The recording sold over 2 million copies. A year later 'Billboard' magazine selected him rap artist of the year. He became friends with fellow rapper Tupac Shakur but they became bitter enemies which culminated in both their deaths. Shakur was shot while sitting in his car in Los Vegas after attending a boxing match. Christopher was blamed. However, police exonerated him due to lack of evidence. The police have never found the killer. Six months later, in Los Angeles, Wallace himself was gunned down while sitting in his automobile after leaving a music industry party. As with the Shakur shooting, a car pulled up to the Wallace's vehicle and a barrage of gunshots found the mark and struck their target. An ambulance rushed him to nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was gone 45 minutes later at the age of 24. His killer has never been found. His body was flown home to New York and taken to the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on Madison Avenue for disposition. Christopher was placed in a an oversized African mahogany casket dressed in a white double breasted suit complete with a white 'playa' hat. A final audience was held for some three hundred invited guests including David Dinkins, Mayor of New York City. At the conclusion of the brief service, Christopher was placed in a funeral coach and along with a cortege of cars was taken by procession to a nearby crematorium. But first...they passed through the Brooklyn neighborhood where he was born and grew up. After cremation, his ashes were placed in two separate urns and remain today in the hands of family members. Postscript: After his death, his former wife and artist Faith Evans released her tribute to B.I.G; a recording entitled 'I'll be Missing You' which sold more than three hundred thousand copies and was number one on the 'Billboard' magazine 'Hot 100 Singles' chart.

Sideshow note:

Biggie is celebrated as one of the greatest rap artists and is described by Allmusic as "the savior of East Coast hip-hop". The Source and Blender named Biggie the greatest rapper of all time. In 2003, when XXL magazine asked several hip hop artists to list their five favorite MCs, Biggie's name appeared on more rappers' lists than anyone else. In 2006, he was ranked at #3 in MTV's The Greatest MC's of All Time.
Since his death, Biggie's lyrics have been sampled and quoted by a variety of hip hop, R&B and pop artists including Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Fat Joe, Nelly, Ja Rule, Lil Wayne, and Usher. On August 28, 2005, at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, Sean Combs (then using the rap alias "P. Diddy") and Snoop Dogg paid tribute to Biggie: an orchestra played while the vocals from "Juicy" and "Warning" played on the arena speakers. In September 2005, VH1 had its second annual "Hip Hop Honors", with a tribute to Biggie headlining the show.
Before his death, Biggie founded a hip hop supergroup called The Commission, which consisted of Jay-Z, Lil' Cease, Combs, Charli Baltimore and himself. The Commission was mentioned by Biggie in the lyrics of "What's Beef" on Life After Death and "Victory" from No Way Out but never completed an album. A song on Duets: The Final Chapter titled "Whatchu Want (The Commission)" featuring Jay-Z was based on the group.
Biggie had begun to promote a clothing line called Brooklyn Mint, which was to produce plus-sized clothing but fell dormant after he died. In 2004, his managers, Mark Pitts and Wayne Barrow, launched the clothing line, with help from Jay-Z, selling T-shirts with images of Biggie on them. A portion of the proceeds go to the Christopher Wallace Foundation and to Jay-Z's Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation. In 2005, Voletta Wallace hired branding and licensing agency Wicked Cow Entertainment to guide the Estate's licensing efforts. Biggie-branded products on the market include action figures, blankets, and cell phone content.
The Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation holds an annual black-tie dinner ("B.I.G. Night Out") to raise funds for children's school equipment and supplies and to honor the memory of the late rapper. For this particular event, because it is a children's schools' charity, "B.I.G." is also said to stand for "Books Instead of Guns"

Delaney Bramlett

2009-01-04T15:45:00.000-08:00

Musician, Songwriter. A rhythm guitarist and vocalist, he was half of the husband and wife music duo Delaney and Bonnie. They are best known for the hits "Never Ending Song of Love" (1971) and "Only You Know And I Know" (1971). In addition, they are remembered for the many artists with whom they performed and recorded with such as Eric Clapton, Rita Coolidge, Duane Allman, Dave Mason and George Harrison. One of the results from their association with such artists was the noteworthy album "Delaney and Bonnie and Friends On Tour With Eric Clapton" (1970). Born in Mississippi, Bramlett established himself as a topnotch songwriter during the 1960s. Among the hits he co-wrote are Eric Clapton's "Let It Rain" (1970) and The Carpenters' "Superstar" (1971), which has since been covered by many other artists. He died from complications after gallblader surgery.

Judas Priest Subliminal message trial

2008-12-24T03:36:00.000-08:00

In the summer of 1990, the band was involved in a civil action that alleged they were responsible for the suicide attempts in 1985 of 20-year old James Vance and 19-year old Ray Belknap in Reno, Nevada, USA. The trial lasted from July 16 to August 24. On December 23, 1985 Vance and Belknap got intoxicated then went to a playground at a Lutheran church in Reno. Belknap shot a 12 gauge shotgun under his chin, dying instantly, and Vance followed, but survived with a severely disfigured face. He died three years later after a suicidal overdose of painkillers.
The men's parents and their legal team alleged that a subliminal message of "do it" had been included in the Judas Priest song "Better By You, Better Than Me" from the Stained Class album (actually a cover of a Spooky Tooth number). They alleged the command in the song triggered the suicide attempt. The suit was eventually dismissed. One of the defense witnesses, Dr Timothy E. Moore, wrote an article for Skeptical Inquirer chronicling the trial.
The trial was covered in the 1991 documentary Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance Vs. Judas Priest. In the documentary Halford commented that, if they wanted to insert subliminal commands in their music, killing their fans would be counterproductive and they would prefer to insert the command "Buy more of our records". Regarding the plaintiff's assertions that the statement "do it" was a command to commit suicide, Halford pointed out "do it" had no direct message.

Van Halen’s “No brown M&M’s” tradition

2008-12-12T11:14:00.000-08:00

As most Van Halen fans are aware, Van Halen’s standard performance contract during their glory days in the late 70’s and early ’80s contained a provision calling for them to be provided with a bowl of M&Ms, but with all the brown candies removed. The presence of even a single brown M&M in that bowl was sufficient legal cause for Van Halen to peremptorily cancel a scheduled appearance without advance notice (and usually an excuse for them to go on a destructive rampage as well).
Naturally, David Lee Roth was the one that came up with that. As Roth explained in his autobiography, Crazy From The Heat:
More frequently than not, things are not what they seem. You may have heard of the brown M&M’s story of Van Halen. And it read like this in the contract rider: “There will be no brown M&M’s anywhere in the backstage area or immediate vicinity, upon pain of forfeiture of the show with immediate compensation.”
I would come in backstage, and if I saw brown M&M’s, I’d trash the dressing room and threaten to cancel the show, and the promoter would come backstage, all consternated. We pitched it as “Caruso forbade whistling backstage,” that it was bad luck. It’s a luck thing. It’s a charm. I made it seem like it was a complete act of self-indulgent extravagance - which I’ve always found very attractive as a performance. Or even a lifestyle. Hey, sign me up. Can she come too? Great.
Van Halen was the first band to take huge productions into tertiary, third-level markets. We’d pull up with nine eighteen-wheeler trucks, full of gear, where the standard was three trucks, max. And there were many, many technical errors — whether it was the girders couldn’t support the weight, or the flooring would sink in, or the doors weren’t big enough to move the gear through.
The contract rider read like a version of the Chinese Yellow Pages because there was so much equipment, and so many human beings to make it function. So just as a little test, in the technical aspect of the rider, it would say “Article 148: There will be fifteen amperage voltage sockets at twenty-foot spaces, evenly, providing nineteen amperes . . .” This kind of thing. And article number 126, in the middle of nowhere, was: “There will be no brown M&M’s in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation.”
So, when I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl . . . well, line-check the entire production. Guaranteed you’re going to arrive at a technical error. They didn’t read the contract. Guaranteed you’d run into a problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something like, literally, life-threatening. And I’ll give you an example.
The folks in Pueblo, Colorado, at the university, took the contract rather kinda casual. They had one of these new rubberized bouncy basketball floorings in their arena. They hadn’t read the contract, and weren’t sure, really, about the weight of this production; this thing weighed like the business end of a 747.
I came backstage. I found some brown M&M’s, I went into full Shakespearean “What is this before me?” . . . you know, with the skull in one hand . . . and promptly trashed the dressing room. Dumped the buffet, kicked a hole in the door, twelve thousand dollars’ worth of fun.
The staging sank through their floor. They didn’t bother to look at the weight requirements or anything, and this sank through their new flooring and did eighty thousand dollars’ worth of damage to the arena floor. The whole thing had to be replaced. It came out in the press that I discovered brown M&M’s and did eighty-five thousand dollars’ worth of damage to the backstage area.
Well, who am I to get in the way of a good rumor?
The legend continues …. an article posted today on MetroTimes.com reports that Van Halen was still demanding the M&M’s during their 2007-2008 tour. The Van Halen references are in purple:
No brown M & M’s!
Liz Butsicaris Jackson: Queen of the rock ‘n’ roll caterers
By Bill Holdship
It’s no urban myth. On their early tours, Van Halen demanded that all brown M&M’s be removed from backstage bowls at their concerts. The person in Detroit responsible for removing those candy-coated chocolates was Liz Butsicaris Jackson, owner of Queen of Cups Catering, the biggest caterer for rock and pop concerts in the area, with a territory that extends as far as Grand Rapids and Saginaw.
Jackson got into the business almost by accident. As a teen, she was friends with local promoter Gail Parenteau. “I liked boys in bands,” she admits,” “and because I knew Gail, I got to hang out backstage. And because I was shy, I’d bring cookies for the bands.” Before long, Parenteau was asking, “Can you bring sandwiches?” In no time, she graduated to deli trays.
Jackson’s late father, Jimmy, owned Lindell AC, the legendary downtown Detroit sports bar. “I was a rock ‘n’ roll hippie girl and wanted nothing to do with sports,” she recalls. But working at the bar taught her everything she needed to know about doing business. Before long, AC Lindell was a sports rock ‘n’ roll bar, catering to jocks and rockers alike; Patti Smith threw a party there during her first Detroit stop, as did Van Halen. And Jackson’s “sports” connection also landed her work as a sports reporter on the old WABX-FM. It was a job she’d maintain through the early ’80s, although at the same time, “I was cooking dinner for U2 at the Grand Circus Theatre and taking food to Roy Orbison out at Nitro.”
Queen Of Cups would evolve and grow out of those humble beginnings, and Jackson’s aim to this day is to create “a real vibe” backstage for her charges. “These folks are living on a bus,” she explains. “It’s not a very civilized way to live, and sitting down to eat is often the highlight of their day. When the crew gets off the bus in the morning, we have bacon cooking, homemade muffins ready, espresso brewing. We want them to feel comfortable and at home.
Jackson’s job is full-service, extending beyond food. Her rolodex is overflowing with numbers for anything a traveling band might desire — from “acupuncturists to swamis to S&M dungeons,” she laughs. “When Elton John needs three dozen apricot roses in his dressing room, they call me to find them.” (Jackson is also hoping to move into catering for the many films that are being shot here in Detroit; she recently helped out the catering company for Clint Eastwood’s new film when it was filming in Grosse Pointe.
She’s saving her really juicy stories for a book after she retires; she’s also working on a rock ‘n’ roll cookbook of her best recipes. She doesn’t have any real horror stories, though — even if Mötley Crüe once threw the requested roasted full turkey she’d painstakingly cooked and stuffed into the sand outside their trailer. (”Their wardrobe person told me not to be upset; they’d done the same thing every stop on the tour!”)
But generally, the stars are delighted to be treated so well. British acts are especially grateful that she brings in native U.K. treats; the members of Coldplay even went around to personally thank each member of her crew, several of whom have been “stolen” to go on tour with Dave Matthews and the Eagles, among others. N’Sync couldn’t have been more grateful when she went across the street from the Pontiac Silverdome to buy a griddle, Wonder bread, Velveeta and Campbell’s Tomato soup, cooking 300 grilled cheese sandwiches that they missed so much on the road. She’s also transformed their dressing room (locker room, actually) into a “boy’s paradise.” The Beastie Boys — who used to help Jackson’s daughter, Jane, with her homework backstage — even tried to hire her to go on the road with them.
As for those “strange” requests, like no brown M&M’s, Jackson says that artists put those in their riders just to make sure promoters actually read the contracts. She recalls a Jethro Tull rider from a few years back that had “a toothless prostitute” as one of the demands. “I went up to the band and said, ‘Honey, we’re in downtown Detroit. I can get one of those for you in five minutes if you’re really serious!’”
History even recently repeated itself during the Detroit Van Halen stop when Wolfgang Van Halen — son of Eddie, replacing original bassist Michael Anthony — requested “no brown M&M’s” in his dressing room as a tribute to his father. “We went through and took out all the brown ones for him,” she says. So what did she do with them after they were removed? “We placed them in a bowl and put them in Eddie’s dressing room!” she laughs.

Litefoot

2008-11-21T03:32:00.001-08:00

is an Native-American rapper and the founder of the Red Vinyl record label. Litefoot was born Gary Paul Davis in Upland, California. He was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, although of Chichimeca (northern Mexican indigenous) ancestry. He has lived in Seattle, Washington since 1997. He is married to Carmen Davis, who serves as president of the Reach The Rez effort and is of the Makah, Yakama, and Chippewa Cree tribes. They have one son, Quannah Litefoot is known to be the first Native American to perform rap music, calling his style of hip hop Tribalistic Funk. The term was a Litefoot brainstorm created to describe the type of music he created which was a hybrid mix of hip-hop influences from the Midwest and West Coast with a dash of Dirty South style. Litefoot's early recordings were quite ambitious while he searched to find that right mix of hip-hop and his own native culture. Litefoot along with Dallas, Texas producer, Willie Fressh (aka "Big Will"), concocted Tribalistic Funk simply based on the tribal origins of Native Americans along with African Americans in this country and the fact that there were so many parallels between Black street life and Native street life.
As the popularity of rap music has spread throughout American Indian reservations, Litefoot has become one of today's best known and respected Native American entertainers and leaders. He has won six Native American Music Awards, his most recent for Artist of The Year.
Litefoot has also appeared in Hollywood films, such as The Indian in the Cupboard (1995), Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), Kull the Conqueror (1997), and Adaptation (2002), and several independent films, including 29 Palms (2002); Song Of Hiawatha (1997) as the titular role; and The Pearl (2000). He has also appeared on the television programs: C.S.I.: Miami, Family Law, and Any Day Now.
Litefoot produces and hosts his own nationally distributed hip hop and R&B radio show called Reach The Rez Radio, which debuted in 2005. The program can be found at http://www.reachtherezradio.com/ and is aired weekly through Native Voice One Satellite Network. Litefoot has several very successful clothing lines which he produces. The most known being the brand, "Native Style."
Litefoot annually spends months of his time working on various reservations across the United States and Canada. His most recent music and speaking tour was the "Reach The Rez Tour." This annual project lasted one year, 54,000 miles, and 211 events across the United States. The Reach The Rez Tour will begin again in the Spring of 2007. Litefoot has released ten albums in the past twelve years. Litefoot's newest CD, Relentless Pursuit, is scheduled to be released in late 2007 and will be his first to enjoy nationwide distribution.

go to http://www.litefoot.com/

Enrico Caruso

2008-11-16T02:25:00.000-08:00

was an Italian opera singer. As has been stated repeatedly in print by reputable critics, biographers and musicologists, he was one of the greatest and most influential tenors in history. Caruso was also one of the most significant singers in any genre in the first two decades of the 20th Century and one of the most important pioneers of recorded music. Indeed, Caruso's popular recordings and his extraordinary voice, known for its youthful beauty, mature power and unequalled richness of tone, made him perhaps the best-known operatic star of his era. Such was his influence on singing style, virtually all subsequent Italian and Spanish tenors (and many non-Mediterranean tenors, too) have been his heirs to a greater or lesser extent.
Caruso remains famous despite his predating the publicity machine that would aid later stars of opera, although it should be noted that Caruso was a client of Edward Bernays (the father of public relations) during the latter's tenure as a press agent in the USA.

Sideshow note:

Nov 16 1906 he was charged with an indecent act committed in the monkey house of New York's Central Park Zoo. He pinched the bottom of a woman described as "pretty and plump", causing outrage amongst New York high society. Caruso claimed a monkey pinched the lady's bottom.

Music News

2008-11-07T06:43:00.000-08:00

Tupac Shakur

2008-11-05T12:35:00.000-08:00

His career lasted a mere five years. Tupac Shakur managed to record five albums which sold in the millions, appear in five films and on a regular basis make numerous high profile guest appearances. He was the devil, or a hero, or maybe a martyr to many and has become a legend Tupac Shakur was born in Brooklyn, a few months after his mother Afeni Shakur (Alice Faye Williams) was released from incarceration after being found not guilty by trial where she acted as her own attorney. He grew up in Harlem a talented youngster showing promise in singing and dance. He was offered a record contract at the age of 13 but it was never accepted.. He attended 'The Baltimore School for the Performing Arts' studying dance and ballet.. A moved to Oakland, California with his family resulted in an opportunity toward fame and recognition after joining the rap group 'Digital Underground' as a back up dancer then as a rapper. Leaving the group, Tupac released his first solo album '2pacalypes Now' and he was on his way. He lived up to his wild reputation. He rapped of gunfights, rough sex, gang and gang rivalries. He was a quality rapper and a expert lyricist. He parlayed his music career into a successful film career beginning with the controversial film 'Juice' then with Janet Jackson in 'Poetic Justice' and where he displayed his multi-talents in a basketball movie 'Above the Rim.' Tupac was shot five times while in a recording studio in New York. The attack was classed as a robbery but he believed it to have been staged by fellow rapper Christopher Wallace who was before considered a friend. Tupac was constantly in trouble with his violent nature indulging in mindless acts of violence which netted his brilliant career nothing but legal problems with incarceration, a near miss shooting resulting in a painful period of convalescences and then a premature death. While leaving a Las Vegas Hotel after witnessing a prize fight, an automobile pulled up beside his departing auto and was sprayed with gunfire. Tupac was struck four times and his companion escaped with minor injuries. He was taken to the emergency room at University Medical Center. He lingered for 6 days in critical condition finally succumbing to his injuries on Friday the 13th at age 25. His body was cremated the next day. His mother, Afeni Shakur spread part of his ashes over a special place in Los Angeles and the remainder was taken to her residence at Stone Mountain, Georgia spreading them in her garden. Postscript: Many of his accomplishments and achievements were released in posthumous albums. He amassed a monumental amount of material to be released in the future perhaps with a premonition of an early demise. A few: 'R U Still Down, Remember Me, Still I Rise, Rose that Grew From Concrete, Until The End Of Time.' His mother after decades of poverty and now rich and living on royalties has endeavored to keep her famous son's music and memory alive. She has made a documentary about his life, 'Tupac: Resurrection' with a companion book. She has set up a foundation that funds a summer camp for the performing arts in Stone Mountain, Georgia which is located on her farm a former rallying spot for the Ku Klux Klan. A facility has been constructed which is called the 'Tupac Amaru Shakur Performing Arts and Culture Center.' It contains a museum, art gallery, rehearsal classrooms and a Performance Theater with facilities to accommodate budding artists during the summer camp.

27 Club

2008-11-01T23:16:00.000-07:00

The 27 Club, also occasionally known as the Forever 27 Club, is a popular culture name for a group of influential rock and blues musicians who all died at the age of 27, sometimes under mysterious circumstances.

There is some debate as to the criterion used to include musicians who died at the age of 27 in the "27 Club". The impetus for the Club's creation were the deaths of an unusual number of prominent 27 year old musicians within a two year period of time. Lists include Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison. All four of these musicians died between 1969 and 1971. Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison all died within a ten month period. Morrison and Jones died on the same date two years apart. Kurt Cobain, who died in 1994, was later included by some, probably due to his popularity and his death occurring at the pinnacle of his career. (According to the book Heavier Than Heaven, when Cobain died, his sister claimed that as a kid he would talk about how he wanted to join the 27 Club.)

Louis Chauvin March 26, 1908 Multiple sclerosis, probably symphlitic. Ragtime musician. Robert Johnson August 16, 1938 Unknown, but typically credited to strychnine poisoning. Possibly shot. Bluesman. Recorded very famous and influential set of 29 songs that influenced many famous musicians after him. Jesse Belvin February 6, 1960 Car wreck. R&B singer and songwriter Malcolm Hale October 31, 1968 Liver Failure. Original member of Spanky and Our Gang. Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson September 7, 1970 Barbiturate overdose, possible suicide. Leader, singer and primary composer of Canned Heat. Linda Jones March 14, 1972 Diabetic coma. R&B singer Les Harvey May 2, 1972 Electrocuted by a microphone. Guitarist of Stone the Crows. Ron "Pigpen" McKernan March 8, 1973 Gastrointestinal hemorrhage associated with alcoholism. Founding member and keyboardist of the Grateful Dead. Dave Alexander February 10, 1975 Pulmonary edema. Bassist for the Stooges. Pete Ham April 24, 1975 Suicide by hanging. Keyboardist and guitarist, leader of Badfinger. Gary Thain December 8, 1975 Drug overdose. Former bassist of Uriah Heep. Helmut Köllen May 3, 1977 Carbon monoxide poisoning. Bassist with 1970s German prog rock band Triumvirat. Chris Bell December 27, 1978 Car wreck; ran into a telephone pole. Singer-songwriter and guitarist of power pop band Big Star and solo. D. Boon December 22, 1985 Lying down in the back of a van when it veered off road, he was ejected from the vehicle and broke his neck. Guitarist, lead singer of punk band the Minutemen. Jean-Michel Basquiat August 12, 1988 Speedball overdose. Painter and graffiti artist; formed the band Gray. Pete de Freitas June 14, 1989 Motorcycle wreck on his way back from filming a music video. Drummer for Echo & the Bunnymen. Mia Zapata July 7, 1993 Murdered. Lead singer of the Gits. Kristen Pfaff June 16, 1994 Heroin overdose. Bass guitarist for Hole and Janitor Joe. Fat Pat February 3, 1998 Shot. Rapper and member of Screwed Up Click. Sean Patrick McCabe August 28, 2000 Asphyxiated on vomit after ingesting too much alcohol. Lead singer of Ink & Dagger. Jeremy Michael Ward May 25, 2003 Heroin overdose. The Mars Volta and De Facto sound manipulator. Bryan Ottoson April 19, 2005 Prescription drug overdose. Guitarist for American Head Charge. Levi Kereama October 4, 2008 Fell off high rise balcony (not yet ruled Suicide by jumping). Australian Idol contestant, and Lead singer for Lethbridge.
Brian Jones July 3, 1969 Drowned in swimming pool. Rolling Stones founder and guitarist / multi-instrumentalist. Jimi Hendrix September 18, 1970 Asphyxiated on vomit after overdose of sleeping pills. Pioneering electric guitarist, singer and songwriter for The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys. Janis Joplin October 4, 1970 Probable heroin overdose. Lead vocalist and songwriter for Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie Band. Jim Morrison July 3, 1971 Official cause of death listed as "heart failure" but, as no autopsy was performed, the actual cause remains mysterious. Probable heroin overdose. Poet, lead singer, songwriter and video director for The Doors. Kurt Cobain c.April 5, 1994 Although there is much speculation about the manner of his death, it was officially ruled as caused by a self inflicted shotgun wound to the head. Lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for Nirvana .

Another possible inclusion is Richey Edwards, lyricist and "guitarist" with Manic Street Preachers, who went missing on 1st February 1995 at the age of 27 and has not been seen since, now being presumed dead.

Buddy Holly

2008-10-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

Born in Lubbock, Texas, by junior high school he had turned his attention to the guitar, and formed a western duo with his friend Bob Montgomery. Gaining popularity in the Lubbock area, during the mid 1950s they opened for the likes of Bill Haley, Elvis, and Marty Robbins. In 1956 he signed a contract with Decca Records, and recorded a number of songs. Through 1957 and 1958 he released a number of records, and began to sing as well. It was then that he formed a band known as "The Crickets". The group toured extensively in both the United States and England, producing such hits as "Peggy Sue", "Oh Boy", and "Rave On". In late 1958 the group had a falling out with Buddy Holly and he went on tour by himself. On February 2, 1959, he joined entertainers Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. They had just finished an appearance at the Surf Ballroom in Clearlake. The doomed trio took off from Clear Lake Iowa, traveling to Fargo, North Dakota, as it was the nearest airport to their next concert location in Moorehead, Minnesota. The plane took off early on the morning of February 3rd in a snow storm and crashed minutes after take-off killing all on board.

The Ramones

2008-10-28T23:08:00.000-07:00

The Ramones were an American rock band often regarded as the first punk rock group. Formed in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, in 1974, all of the band members adopted stage names ending with "Ramone", though none of them were actually related. They performed 2,263 concerts, touring virtually nonstop for 22 years. In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played their final show and then disbanded. A little more than eight years after the breakup, the band's three founding members—lead singer Joey Ramone, guitarist Johnny Ramone, and bassist Dee Dee Ramone—were dead.
The Ramones were a major influence on the punk rock movement both in the United States and Great Britain, though they achieved only minor commercial success. Their only record with enough U.S. sales to be certified gold was the compilation album Ramones Mania. Recognition of the band's importance built over the years, and they are now regularly represented in many assessments of all-time great rock music, such as the Rolling Stone lists of the 50 Greatest Artists of All Time and 25 Greatest Live Albums of All Time, VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, and Mojo's 100 Greatest Albums. In 2002, the Ramones were voted the second greatest rock and roll band ever in Spin, trailing only The Beatles. On March 18, 2002, the Ramones—including the three founders and drummers Marky and Tommy Ramone—were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

http://www.ramones.com/

Porter Wagoner

2008-10-28T01:43:00.000-07:00

For over five decades, he was known as the image of country music for his showmanship and rhinestone suits. In 1952, he signed with RCA Records, released Hank Williams' "Settin' The Woods On Fire" and had his first top 10 hit in 1954, with "Company's Comin". He joined the "Grand Ole Opry" in 1957 and remained one of its most popular stars for his whole career. In 1960, he started the syndicated "Porter Wagoner Show" which aired for 21 years and was a key factor in popularizing country and gospel music across the United States. Through the 1960s, his hits, many he wrote or co-wrote, were "Carroll County Accident," "A Satisfied Mind," "Company's Comin'," "Skid Row Joe," "Misery Loves Company" and "Green Green Grass of Home." He helped launch the career of Dolly Parton by hiring her as his duet partner. They were the Country Music Association's duo of the year in 1970 and 1971, recording hit duets to include "The Last Thing on My Mind." In the 1980s, he continued to perform on the "Grand Ole Opry", toured and appeared in the movie "Honkytonk Man" with Clint Eastwood. With the new Nashville Network in the 1990s, Wagoner received more appearances on the Grand Ole Opry and exposure in the international television market. He has been awarded four Grammy awards, three for his work in gospel music. In later years, he remained highly successful recordings albums with a country-gospel flavor. His last album, "Gospel 2006" had the hit single, "The Dream (A True Story)". In 2002, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall.

Ginette Neveu

2008-10-27T06:20:00.000-07:00

She was considered one of the greatest virtuosas of her time, despite a career that was tragically cut short. Her repertoire ranged from the German classics to contemporary French music, and she was famed for her pure, powerful tone and the intensity of her live performances. Neveu was born in Paris. A child prodigy, she made her concert debut at age seven and studied at the Paris Conservatory under George Enesco and Nadia Boulanger. In 1934, when she was 15, Neveu gained worldwide celebrity when she won the Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition over 180 contestants, including future virtuoso David Oistrakh, who placed second. From then on she toured extensively, often accompanied by her brother, pianist Jean-Paul Neveu. During World War II she concentrated on recordings; some of her performances have also been captured on film. After the war Neveu resumed her globe-trotting concert schedule. On October 27, 1949, while on her way to the United States, her plane crashed into a mountain on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. All 48 passengers aboard that Air France flight were killed, including Neveu, her brother, and the famous French boxing champion Marcel Cerdan. At the time Cerdan's death overshadowed Neveu's in the news. It is said that Neveu's body was found still clutching her precious Stradivarius violin. She was 30.

Tiny Tim

2008-10-26T23:56:00.001-07:00

Born Herbert Buckingham Khaury to a Lebanese father and a Jewish mother he became famous for his ukulele playing and falsetto voiced singing. A native of New York City the high school dropout began singing in clubs and participating in talent shows hoping to be discovered. He used several stage names before deciding on "Tiny Tim" which was based on the character in Charles Dickens' "Christmas Carol". His big break came when he was asked to appear on the American variety show, "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In". The public was enthralled with his unique act and soon he appeared on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson as well as the "Ed Sullivan Show" and the " Jackie Gleason Show". In 1968 he released his first album, "God Bless Tiny Tim" which included is biggest hit "Tiptoe Through the Tulips". The following year he released two more albums including a popular children's album. 1969 was also the year he married his first wife, a seventeen year old known as "Miss Vickie. They were married on "The Tonight Show". The marriage ended in divorce but they did have a daughter together named Tulip. By the 1970s his popularity was declining. He did perform some in Las Vegas and even joined a circus for awhile but he never reached the popularity that he enjoyed in the 1960's. During the 1990s he was making a nostalgic comeback with appearances on the Conan O'Brien and Howard Stern shows. However, in 1996 he suffered a heart attack while performing at the Ukulele Hall of Fame. He continued to tour after that incident and suffered another heart attack a few months later that proved to be fatal. The eccentric entertainer was buried with a ukulele in his hand and a tulip.

G. G. Allin

2008-10-26T20:35:00.001-07:00

was a punk rock singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded with many groups during his career.
Allin is best remembered for his notorious live performances that typically featured wildly transgressive acts such as Allin defecating and urinating onstage, rolling in feces and often consuming excrement (coprophagia), committing self-injury, performing naked, engaging in bestiality, taunting people to perform fellatio on him and committing violent actions toward the audience—often doing many of these things more or less simultaneously. Although more notorious for his stage antics than for his wide body of music, he recorded prolifically, not only in the punk rock genre, but also in spoken word, country and Rolling Stones-influenced rock. Though he has a small, devoted cult following, Allin's music, often poorly recorded, has received mostly negative reviews from critics. Allin was born Jesus Christ Allin at Weeks' Memorial Hospital, in Lancaster, New Hampshire and grew up in East St. Johnsbury, VT. He was given this messianic name because his father, Merle Allin, Sr. (a religious and antisocial man), then 32 years old, had told his wife, Arleta Gunther, then 21 years old, that Jesus Christ Himself had visited him and told him that his newborn son would be a great man in the vein of the Messiah. As a young child, his older brother, Merle Allin, Jr., was unable to pronounce "Jesus" properly and kept calling him "Jeje", which became "GG". The family lived in a log cabin with no water or electricity. Allin's father, who forbade all conversation in the home after dark, was reportedly physically abusive and sexually abusive, though GG himself never used this as an excuse for any of his own eccentricities. Allin is also said to have contracted Lyme disease at the age of twelve and to have never fully recovered from the effects of having the disease at such a young age.
Shortly before Allin started school, his mother changed his legal name to Kevin Michael Allin (on March 2, 1962 by his birth certificate). Arleta had allowed his birth name to stand until this point. However, with her husband's deteriorating mental health, his mother changed his name in order to give Allin a chance at a normal, mockery-free childhood.
GG was considered a misfit from junior high school onwards, and he was placed in special ed classes and left back a year. He was known to rebel by showing up to school dressed in drag (his 11th grade school picture depicts him this way), which he said was inspired by the New York Dolls. When asked about his childhood, GG has been quoted as saying "Very chaotic. Full of chances and dangers. We sold drugs, stole, broke into houses, cars, etc. Did whatever we wanted to for the most part - including all the bands we played in. People even hated us back then."

Some of Allin's earliest recorded musical endeavors were as a drummer. During high school, he had a penchant for provocative theatrics early on. At one early gig (a high school dance), he pulled down the decorations and everyone cheered. Another early gig started a riot. He wrote two songs with the band Malpractice in 1977 and Harry Sanchez played drums on the single ("Galileo"/"Jesus Over New York") for the band Stripsearch in 1981. His first years as a frontman were with the Jabbers (1977 – April 1984). The Jabbers recorded a number of tracks for which Allin played drums and performed vocals. In 1980 came Allin's debut release, Always Was, Is and Always Shall Be. At the time, Allin was a standard punk rock frontman in the vein of Iggy Pop and Stiv Bators and his music was a catchy, even danceable, mix of power pop and hardcore punk. He was even managed at one point by industry veteran (and The Dead Boys producer) Genya Ravan. Tensions within The Jabbers began to mount as Allin became increasingly uncontrollable, vicious, and uncompromising. The Jabbers discontinued, and the members parted ways. Allin's drug use started during this period.
During the early to mid 1980s, Allin fronted many acts. These included early albums varying from The Cedar Street Sluts to The Scumfucs in 1982, and The Texas Nazis in 1985. However, Allin remained in the underground hardcore scene and was not yet a viable hardcore icon of the east coast hardcore scene.
On March 13, 1986, a daughter was born to Allin and Tracy Deneault. Little is known about the child, Nicoann Deneault. It has been speculated that the small picture in GG's left hand at his funeral may have been of Nicoann, though it is most likely a picture of a very young GG Allin. Tracey Deneault and GG never married. Tracey was a teenage girl Allin took up with when his wife, Sandra Farrow, his childhood sweetheart and a fashion model, divorced him. Allin retreated to a cabin in New Hampshire where he wrote what he considered to be his first masterpiece, Eat My Fuck.
Though still a marginal figure, Allin gained wider attention with the release by Reachout International Records (ROIR) of Hated in the Nation (1987), a cassette-only release at the time, which contained several tracks from Allin's then-out-of-print back catalogue with The Jabbers, The Scumfucs and Cedar Street Sluts. The tape also featured several new recordings, both in-studio and in-concert, with an all-star band assembled by producer, Maximum RocknRoll columnist, and early Allin patron Mykel Board. This band featured J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. on lead guitar, and Bongwater producer/musician Mark Kramer on bass.

By the mid to late 1980s, Allin was a heroin user, alcoholic and general abuser of any intoxicants provided to him. He was poorly groomed and rarely cleaned himself. At this point, Allin also began eating laxatives before performances - as defecation, including drinking and eating it, was becoming a regular stage act for him. Allin described himself as "the last true rock and roller." By this, he meant that rock and roll music itself had started as an embodiment of danger, anti-authoritarianism, rebelliousness but had become largely taken over by corporations and business concerns. Allin's music and performances were thus meant to return rock and roll to what he saw as its roots, reclaiming it from the corporate system.
Allin idolized country music legend Hank Williams, Sr, and saw himself as a kindred spirit. Both were relative loners and outsiders, both were habitual users of intoxicants, both lived with few, if any, possessions and both travelled the country relentlessly. GG Allin's acoustic output, documented particularly on the EP The Troubled Troubador, was heavily influenced by Williams. He recorded his own rewrites of Hank Williams, Jr.'s "Family Tradition" and David Allan Coe's "Longhaired Redneck", calling his own versions "Scumfuc Tradition" and "Outlaw Scumfuc" respectively. Later GG Allin also released another country album Carnival of Excess.

During this period, Allin collaborated with Bulge (aka Boston hardcore punk trio Psycho under a different name, on the album Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies), The Aids Brigade (the infamous 7" EP Expose Yourself To Kids) and The Holymen (You Give Love a Bad Name). Allin also began performing many spoken word pieces. Video footage of these are available but rare. It was during this period that Allin recorded his Murder Junkies album released by New Rose Records and featuring the band ANTiSEEN. This album contained 10 musical tracks and 10 spoken-word pieces. Other than Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies, Allin considered this album to be his most polished professionally recorded album that explored his persona and stated his philosophy on life. It was also during this period that Allin recorded the War In My Head - I'm Your Enemy album released on Awareness Records and featuring the band Shrinkwrap. This particular album consists of one 45 minute track that is a collage of spoken-word pieces which Shrinkwrap put to music.
Unwilling to seek steady employment, Allin supported himself by selling his own records. He also claimed to have committed criminal acts such as breaking and entering, robbery and mugging. Allin was also fascinated with serial killers. He wrote and visited John Wayne Gacy in prison a number of times and Gacy painted a portrait of Allin (see American Serial killer art).
By this point, Allin's performances, which often resulted in considerable damage to venues and sound equipment, were regularly stopped after only a few songs by police or venue owners. Allin was charged with assault and battery or indecent exposure a number of times. His constant touring was only stopped by jail time or by long hospital stays for broken bones, blood poisoning, and other physical trauma.
Another attraction to Allin performances was his continual threats of suicide. In 1988, Allin wrote to Maximum RocknRoll stating that he would commit suicide on stage on Halloween 1989. However, he was in jail when that day came. He continued his threat each following year but ended up imprisoned each following Halloween. When asked why he doesn't follow through with his threats, or sometimes his on-stage defecations, Allin stated, "With GG, you don't get what you expect—you get what you deserve." He also stated that suicide should only be done when one had reached their peak, meeting the afterlife at their strongest point and not at their weakest.
Meanwhile, Allin's growing notoriety led to appearances on Geraldo, The Jerry Springer Show and a memorable episode of The Jane Whitney Show.

Despite threats of an onstage suicide, Allin died of a heroin overdose in New York City on June 29, 1993, in the Manhattan apartment of John Handley Hurt and Dwanna Yount only six days after leaving prison (and three days after attending the premier of the documentary Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies). He was found lying in his apartment on the night of the 28th but he actually died over night in his sleep on the 29th. He was 36 years old. His last show was at a small club called The Gas Station in New York City. Video footage of the soundcheck, concert, and aftermath is appended to the DVD release of Hated. In his last show the power went out during the second song, after which he trashed the venue and walked the streets of New York naked and covered in blood and feces, surrounded by fans whom he openly embraced. On VH1's Freakiest Concert Moments, Allin's final show ranked at number four.
After arriving at his friend's apartment, some party-goers posed for photos with Allin, not knowing that he was already dead. The next morning, some noticed that Allin still lay motionless in the same place where they had left him, and called for an ambulance. Allin was pronounced dead at the scene.
At his funeral, Allin's bloated, discolored corpse was dressed in his black leather jacket and trademark jock strap. He had a bottle of Jim Beam beside him in his casket, as per his wishes (openly stated in his self-penned acoustic country ballad, "When I Die"). As part of his brother's request, the mortician was instructed not to wash the corpse (which smelled strongly of feces), or apply any makeup. The funeral became a wild party. Friends posed with the corpse, placing drugs and whiskey into its mouth. As the funeral ended, his brother put a pair of headphones on Allin. The headphones were plugged into a portable cassette player, in which was loaded a copy of The Suicide Sessions. The video of his funeral is widely available for purchase, and is an extra feature on the Hated DVD and some bootleg VHS tapes.
At the time of his death, Allin was making plans for a spoken-word album, and a somewhat unlikely European tour. Reports say he was enthusiastically talking about them to a friend in the hours before his death.
GG Allin was buried July 3, 1993 in the Saint Rose Cemetery in Littleton, New Hampshire.

thx 2 www.ggallin.com

Patsy Cline

2008-10-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville Sound in the early 1960s. Since her death at age 30 in a 1963 plane crash at the height of her career, she has been considered one of the most influential, successful, revered, and acclaimed female vocalists of the 20th century. The story of her life and career has been the subject of numerous books, movies, documentaries, articles and stage plays.
Cline was best known for her rich tone and emotionally expressive bold contralto voice, which, along with her role as a mover and shaker in the country music industry, has been cited and praised as an inspiration by many vocalists of various music genres.
Posthumously, millions of her albums have been sold over the past 45 years and she has been given numerous awards, which has given her an iconic status similar to that of music legends Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. Only ten years after her death, she became the first female solo artist inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2001, she was voted by artists and members of the Country Music industry as #1 on CMT's television special of the 40 Greatest Women of Country Music of all time, and in 1999 she was voted #11 on VH1's special The 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll of all time by members and artists of the rock industry. According to her 1973 Country Music Hall of Fame plaque, "Her heritage of timeless recordings is testimony to her artistic capacity." Among those hits are "Walkin' After Midnight", "I Fall to Pieces", "She's Got You", "Crazy", and "Sweet Dreams".

Ozzy Osbourne

2008-10-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

is a British singer. Osbourne's career has now spanned four decades. He rose to prominence as lead vocalist of pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and eventually achieved a multi-platinum, award-winning solo career. In the early 2000s, his career as a celebrity revived when he became a star in his own reality show, The Osbournes (alongside wife/manager Sharon and children Kelly and Jack). In August 2008, Osbourne stated in USA Today that he intends to retire from his music career after two more albums.