Before we get started, a word for all you Substack loyalists. Long before there were Substacks, writers wrote things called blogs. This is one. Please feel free to explore this blog’s vast archive — more than 800 posts — as you would any museum.
It was 16 years ago this evening — Feb. 25, 2007 — that I sat down and wrote the first post here at AM, Then FM. I had two good eyes back then.
Because I’m recovering from eye surgery to repair a detached retina, typing is a bit of a hassle, so I’ll keep this short.
Though the audience grows smaller every year, thank you to all who have visited and read and commented and offered encouragement over the years.
In the third year of this blog’s existence, I went to see Chuck Berry at our local casino ballroom. Of that night, I wrote:
“He opened with a little ‘Roll Over Beethoven,’ then a little ‘’Round and ‘Round,’ then a little ‘Sweet Little Sixteen,’ all played only slightly faster than a shuffle pace … then announced: ‘If you guarantee at this moment that we are in tune, we would like to open our show.'”
It was indeed sweet. So, from a record I’ve had for almost 50 years …
Dig this, too. A lip-syncing but still swaggering Chuck is introduced by host Dick Clark and guest Johnny Carson on the second episode of the “The Dick Clark Show” on ABC. This is from Feb. 22, 1958, barely two months after “Sweet Little Sixteen” was recorded and just a month after the single was released.
Chuck may be gone, and Substacks may rule the day, but this old blog is gonna keep on keepin’ on.
Burt Bacharach, who composed the music that was the soundtrack to the lives of people all over the world for generations, is gone. He died yesterday at 94.
The beautiful thing about Burt Bacharach’s songs is that they were so widely heard yet made such intensely personal connections. Which is why, as I list my favorite Burt Bacharach songs and interpreters, someone else might have an entirely different short list of equally great Burt Bacharach songs and interpreters. You just can’t go wrong with his body of work.
My introduction to Burt Bacharach’s songs came on the TV variety shows of the ’60s. Those were regular viewing at our house. I may have known the singer before knowing the composer, but I knew the songs.
“Walk On By” — Dionne Warwick, 1964. Probably the first song by Bacharach (and lyricist Hal David) that I came to know. A year later, the Baja Marimba Band covered it on one of the last albums my dad ever bought. You may not be familiar with this instrumental or this group, but it’s seared into my head. We played the bejeezus out of that record when we were kids. Plus my dad and I heard Dionne Warwick sing it live 15 years ago.
“Walk On By,” the Baja Marimba Band, from “Baja Marimba Band Rides Again,” 1965.
“What’s New Pussycat?” — Tom Jones, 1965. We kids would have had to have heard this on those old TV variety shows. How else would we have learned to sing “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!” When we saw Tom Jones in Indianapolis last year, this was the fourth song in his set. He introduced it with a winding and good-natured retelling of the story of how he initially wasn’t impressed with the song, which Bacharach brought to him in 1965. “What’s New Pussycat?” became a sing-along, with Sir Tom directing the choir from his perch on the stage.
“What’s New Pussycat?” Tom Jones, from “What’s New Pussycat?” 1965.
“One Less Bell to Answer” — Keely Smith, 1967.Which is a perfectly fine version. But for me, the definitive version is by Marilyn McCoo with The 5th Dimension in 1970. It starts cool but turns into a scorcher of a torch song. I’d listen to Marilyn McCoo read the phone book. (Oh, yeah, dating myself there.) The 5th Dimension is one of the great (and underrated and underappreciated) singing groups of our time. Just watch them in “Summer of Soul,” the Questlove documentary on the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969.
“One Less Bell to Answer,” The 5th Dimension, from “Portrait,” 1970.
“What the World Needs Now Is Love” — Jackie DeShannon, 1965.That version is great, but the one that sticks with me is the one I heard so often on the radio in 1971 — “What the World Needs Now Is Love/Abraham, Martin and John” — a remix/mashup produced by Los Angeles DJ Tom Clay. Fierce social commentary and a contemporary American history lesson laid over/juxtaposed with Bacharach’s gentle, elegant classic. This version is sung by the Blackberries, the great West Coast trio best known as much-in-demand backup singers — Venetta Fields, Sherlie Matthews and Clydie King.
“(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” — Lou Johnson, 1964. Don’t remember hearing this original soul version, (on which Cissy Houston, Dee Dee Warwick and Doris Troy sing backup) or British pop singer Sandie Shaw’s cover later in 1964, or even R.B. Greaves’ cover in 1970 (which I discovered almost 40 years later). No, I don’t think I came to know this one until it became an MTV-driven synth-pop smash for Naked Eyes in 1983, and that is my definitive version.
“Casino Royale” — Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, 1967. Late to the party on this one, too. Always knew it was a cool instrumental. Never connected the dots to Burt Bacharach, though.
Four, maybe five years ago, my friend Jeff bought my copy of the “Casino Royale” soundtrack. Instant seller’s remorse. Wasn’t too long before I bought it back from him.
Burt Bacharach was married four times, once memorably to Angie Dickinson. They were the super cool, super glamorous couple of their time, the late ’60s and throughout the ’70s. But now Burt is gone and the gorgeous Angie is 91.
Television, for 20-year-old me in 1977, was something I watched. A lot.
Television, for the same 20-year-old, was not something I heard. At all.
So here I am, standing off to the side again, feeling a bit left out, watching a parade of deeply felt and richly deserved tributes to Tom Verlaine stream past in my social feeds. It’s not the first time that’s happened.
Of course, I’ve long known of Tom Verlaine, and long known he played in Television, and long known he was highly regarded and highly influential among musicians.
I’d just never heard any of it.
None, until playing some YouTube cuts shared yesterday in friends’ and follows’ social posts. “Marquee Moon,” the much-loved title cut to Television’s debut LP? I heard it last night for the first time.
Television wasn’t played on the radio I heard in Wisconsin in 1977. Don’t know how or where else I would have heard them. Wausau and Eau Claire weren’t exactly cutting-edge outposts. None of my friends were into THAT KIND OF MUSIC.
Maybe Mike played it at Inner Sleeve Records in Wausau when it came out in early 1977. But these were the groups and artists whose records I was buying in 1977: Foreigner, Head East, J. Geils Band, Jackson Browne, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Yeah, I’m not seeing Tom Verlaine and Television crashing that party, either. Obviously, I don’t have any Television records.
(Photo credit: New York Rocker magazine covers found at this Flashbak post.)
I might have read about Tom Verlaine and Television in Rolling Stone in the late ’70s and into the ’80s. New York Rocker certainly wasn’t on any newsstand where I lived.
The old papers show Television played two shows at Bunky’s in Madison on Monday, June 19, 1978. That also would not have been on my radar.
I might have heard Tom Verlaine and Television when I listened to indie radio — WORT — while living in Madison for most of the ’80s, and again on streaming public and indie radio — WXPN, WFMU — in recent years.
But if any of that happened, it never registered in the sense of knowing the song — oh, yeah, that’s Tom Verlaine and Television! — or remembering the experience today.
Now I’ll try to tap into the love and appreciation expressed by my friends and follows and listen to their favorite songs, saying hello to Tom Verlaine as they say goodbye.
They go in threes. They always go in threes. 2022 was no different.
Adventurers: Joseph Kittinger Jr. (set world record for parachute jump from edge of space), Lance Mackey (won Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race four times), Hilaree Nelson (first woman to summit Everest and Lhotse in a 24-hour period)
AFL mad bombers: Len Dawson, John Hadl, Daryle Lamonica
A league of their own: Maxine Kline, Katie Vonderau (pitcher and catcher, both All-American Girls Professional Baseball League stars), Roz Wyman (Los Angeles City Council member influential in bringing the Dodgers west)
All that jazz: Ramsey Lewis (piano), Pharoah Sanders (sax), Creed Taylor (producer)
Animated: Jules Bass (Rankin/Bass TV specials and films), Paul Coker Jr. (MAD magazine artist, Rankin/Bass character designer), Gerald Potterton (directed “Heavy Metal,” designed “Yellow Submarine” Liverpool sequence)
The Aristocrats: Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, Larry Storch
Author, author: Jack Higgins, David McCullough, P.J. O’Rourke
Ball coaches: Vince Dooley (Georgia), Gary Gaines (the real “Friday Night Lights” coach from Odessa, Texas), Mike Leach (Mississippi State)
Baseball Hall of Famers: Gaylord Perry (spitballer), Vin Scully (broadcaster), Bruce Sutter (reliever)
Baseball writers: Roger Angell (“The Summer Game,” “Five Seasons,” “Late Innings”), Joe Donnelly (Newsday), Ron Rabinovitz (Jackie Robinson’s young pen pal from Sheboygan)
Beatlemania: Ken Mansfield (Apple Records manager in the U.S., was at 1969 rooftop gig), Ed Rudy (covered Beatles’ first U.S. trip), Geoff Wonfor (directed “Anthology” documentary series)
Blaxploited in ‘The Mack’: Max Julien (also “Cleopatra Jones”), Roger E. Mosley (also “Sweet Jesus, Preacherman”), Carol Speed (also “Black Samson” and “Abby”)
Bluesmen: Danny Kalb (Blues Project guitarist), Sam Lay (Muddy Waters, Paul Butterfield Blues Band drummer), Jim Schwall (Siegel-Schwall Band guitarist)
Brewers, briefly: Chuck Carr (told to take a 2-0 pitch in the eighth inning against the Angels on May 16, 1997, he swung and popped out, then famously said: “That ain’t Chuckie’s game. Chuckie hacks on 2-0,” after which he was immediately released after refusing to be sent to the minors), Dick Ellsworth, Dick Schofield (both ended long MLB careers with the Brewers, 1971),
Buddy’s buddies: Jerry Allison (Crickets drummer, co-wrote “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue”), Larry Holley (one of Buddy Holly’s older brothers), Sonny West (co-wrote “Oh, Boy!” and “Rave On”)
By the time we got to Woodstock: Kal David (guitarist who left Poco, moved to Woodstock, formed the Fabulous Rhinestones), Michael Lang (festival co-creator), Arnold Skolnick (created 1969 poster)
Can’t keep us out: Authorine Lucy Foster (first Black student at University of Alabama), Jane Gross (first woman sportswriter to enter a pro basketball locker room), Robin Herman (one of first two women sportswriters to enter a pro sports locker room)
Cartoon voices: Pat Carroll (Ursula in “The Little Mermaid”), Kevin Conroy (Batman), Peter Robbins (Charlie Brown)
Celtics legends: Bill Fitch, Bill Russell, Paul Silas
Check the label: Mo Ostin (Verve, Reprise, Warner Bros.), Art Rupe (Specialty), Jim Stewart (Stax)
Child actors: Dwayne Hickman (many roles before Dobie Gillis), Jimmy Lydon (“Henry Aldrich” films), Mickey Kuhn (Beau Wilkes in “Gone with the Wind”)
Civil rights fighters: Rev. Calvin O. Butts (Harlem), Charles Sherrod (the Albany Movement), Daniel Smith (one of the last surviving children of a former American Black slave)
Citius, altius, fortius: James Forbes (one of the 1972 U.S. basketball players who never accepted silver medal), Luke Jackson (1964 U.S. basketball gold medalist), Jim Redmond (helped injured son Derek finish 400-meter race in 1992 Summer Olympics)
Comic book creators: Neal Adams (reimagined Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow), Kevin O’Neill (“League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”), Kazuki Takahashi (“Yu-Gi-Oh!”)
Cover stories: James Bama (Aurora monster model boxes, Doc Savage book covers, pulp art), George Lois (Esquire, most memorably Sonny Liston as Santa Claus), Roland Young (LP covers)
Curtain calls: Robert Clary (last surviving “Hogan’s Heroes” cast member), Virginia Patton (last surviving “It’s a Wonderful Life” adult cast member), Betty Rowland (last surviving performer from the Golden Age of Burlesque)
Directors, American films: Peter Bogdanovich, Bob Rafelson, Ivan Reitman
Directors, foreign films: Jean-Luc Godard, Mike Hodges, Wolfgang Peterson
Doo woppers: Bobby Hendricks (Drifters), Fred Johnson (Marcels), Fred Parris (Five Satins)
Envisioning the future: Colin Cantwell (created Death Star and X-Wing fighters for “Star Wars”), William Stoney Jr. (NASA engineer developed early rockets), Douglas Trumbull (visual effects for “2001,” “Close Encounters,” first “Star Trek” film, “Blade Runner”)
Eye for art: Margaret Keane (big-eyed paintings), Claes Oldenburg (pop art), Philip Pearlstein (nudes)
Fashionistas: Manfred Thierry Mugler, Andre Leon Talley, Ivana Trump
Foodies: Ali Ahmed Aslam (created chicken tikka masala in Scotland), Gael Greene (critic), Sylvia Wu (introduced Los Angeles to authentic Chinese food)
Formidable feminists: Barbara Ehrenreich, Dorothy Pitman Hughes, Esther Cooper Jackson
Funny guys: Louie Anderson, Johnny Brown (“Laugh-In,” “Good Times”), Freddie Roman
Gear heads: Clayton Jacobson II (Jet Ski), Mark Littell (former baseball reliever invented Nutty Buddy, a better cup), Peter Moore (designed first Air Jordan shoe and Jumpman logo)
Gone, country: Bill Fries (C.W. McCall), Mickey Gilley, Patrick Haggerty (Lavender Country, first gay-themed country record, 1973)
Goodbye KISS: John Harte (bodyguard), Michael James Jackson (produced their ’80s albums), Ken Kelly (“Destroyer” and “Love Gun” cover designer)
Goodfellas: Ray Liotta, Tony Sirico, Paul Sorvino
Half the group: Inez Foxx (Inez and Charlie Foxx), Jim Seals (Seals and Crofts), Ian Tyson (Ian & Sylvia)
Hollywood heavies: Bo Hopkins, L.Q. Jones, Henry Silva
Hollywood royalty: Alan Ladd Jr., Angela Lansbury, Sidney Poitier
The icemen cometh: Mike Bossy, Guy Lafleur, Borje Salming
Inventive: Raymond Damadian (first MRI scanner), Nick Holonyak Jr., (LED lighting), Stephen Willhite (GIFs)
It’s complicated: Joseph Hazelwood (Exxon Valdez captain), Kenneth Starr (Bill Clinton investigator, Baylor chancellor), Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
John Wayne’s co-stars: James Caan (“El Dorado”), Clu Gulager (“McQ”), Nehemiah Persoff (“The Comancheros”)
Kid stuff: Emilio Delgado, Bob McGrath (both “Sesame Street”), George Newall (“Schoolhouse Rock” co-creator)
Last man standing: Bradford Freeman (last surviving member of World War II “Band of Brothers”), George “Johnny” Johnson (last surviving WWII “Dambuster”), Hershel “Woody” Williams (last surviving WWII Medal of Honor recipient)
LPGA legends: Joan Joyce (great all-around athlete best known as softball pitcher who struck out Ted Williams), Shirley Spork (Tour co-founder), Kathy Whitworth
Mad men (and women): Ann Turner Cook (original Gerber Baby), Don West (late-night TV pitchman), Dan Wieden (created “Just do it” tagline for Nike)
Milwaukee basketball legends: Bob Lanier (Bucks), George Thompson, Bernard Toone (both Marquette)
Motown songwriters: Lamont Dozier, Ivy Jo Hunter, R. Dean Taylor
Musical curtain calls: Robert Morse (“How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”), James Rado (“Hair” co-creator), Bobby Rydell (“Bye Bye Birdie”)
Music as art: Cynthia Plaster Caster (created plaster casts of musicians’ erect penises), Pamela Ann “Jordan” Rooke, Vivienne Westwood (both English punk and fashion icons)
Musically inventive: Herbert Deutsch (Moog synthesizer), Klaus Schulze (electronic music), Dave Smith (MIDI)
Music’s first ladies: Naomi Judd, Loretta Lynn, Christine McVie
Nashville cats: Peter Cooper (journalist), Ralph Emery (DJ, radio/TV host), Paul Kwami (Fisk Jubilee Singers director)
Native voices: Clyde Bellecourt (American Indian Movement co-founder), Tim Giago (Indian Country Today journalist), Kevin Locke (Native American flute player, hoop dancer)
The New Yorkers: Jean-Jacques Sempe (cover illustrator), Lee Lorenz (editor and cartoonist), George Booth (cartoonist)
New York, New York: Thomas Carney (bartender at Elaine’s), Mark Fleischman (Studio 44 owner), Regine Zylberberg (Regine’s owner, created discos in the ’50s)
Not dead yet: Tony Dow, Anne Heche (both reported as dead before they died), Paul Vance (songwriter reported as dead 16 years before he died)
Notorious: Sonny Barger (Hell’s Angels), Sacheen Littlefeather (declined Marlon Brando’s Oscar for him, questionable claim of Indigenous ancestry), Kitten Natividad (actress and exotic dancer)
Oscar winners: Louise Fletcher, William Hurt, Julia Reichert (documentaries)
Packers: Gary Knafelc (player turned longtime Lambeau Field PA announcer), Alden Roche (’70s defensive star), Veryl Switzer (their first Black No. 1 draft pick, 1954)
Photographers: Ron Galella (paparazzo), William Klein (Vogue, street photography), Tim Page (Vietnam War, then Rolling Stone)
Power of the press: Nikki Finke (Hollywood journalist), Walter R. Mears (AP political writer, one of “The Boys on the Bus”), Grant Wahl (soccer writer)
Radio, radio: Jim Bohannon (late-night talk shows), Larry Josephson (New York FM free-form pioneer), Art Laboe (Los Angeles DJ)
Record diggers: Bob Keller a/k/a Red Kelly (soul/R&B music blogger, researcher and champion), Joel Whitburn (record chart researcher and author), Jim Young (above, from whom I bought many used records)
Remember the Holocaust: Greta Ferusic (only person to survive Auschwitz and the siege of Sarajevo), Mimi Reinhardt (secretary who typed Oskar Schindler’s list of Jewish workers), Jozef Walaszczyk (sheltered and supported Polish Jews)
Research breakthroughs: Samuel Katz (measles vaccine), Arthur Riggs (synthetic insulin), Luc Montagnier (HIV)
The Resistance: Anne Beaumanoir (French, aided Jews fleeing Nazi occupation), Andree Geulen (Belgian, rescued more than 1,000 Jewish children), Monique Hanotte (Belgian, rescued 135 downed Allied airmen)
The right stuff: James McDivitt (Gemini 4, Apollo 9 astronaut), Eugene Parker (physicist theorized existence of solar wind, NASA Parker Solar Probe named for him), Fred Ward (astronaut Gus Grissom in “The Right Stuff”)
Reggae royalty: Tyrone Downie (Bob Marley and The Wailers keyboards), Donald “Tabby” Shaw, Fitzroy “Bunny” Simpson (both the Mighty Diamonds)
Rockabillies: Robert Gordon, Ronnie Hawkins, Jerry Lee Lewis
Royalty: Queen Elizabeth II, Abigail Kawananakoa (last surviving Hawaiian princess), Pele
Session men: Howard Grimes (Hi Rhythm Section drummer), Joe Messina (Funk Brothers guitarist), Bill Pitman (Wrecking Crew guitarist)
Sidekicks: Howard Hesseman (“WKRP in Cincinnati”), Leslie Jordan (“Will & Grace”), Stuart Margolin (“The Rockford Files”)
Signing off ‘Seinfeld’: Philip Baker Hall (Mr. Bookman), Estelle Harris (George’s mom), Liz Sheridan (Jerry’s mom)
Sister acts: Deborah McCrary (McCrary Sisters gospel group), Anita Pointer (Pointer Sisters), Lucy Simon (Simon Sisters with Carly Simon)
Six degrees of Hank Aaron: Ike Delock (gave up Aaron’s first home run in a major-league uniform, spring training 1954), Don Dillard (played in same Milwaukee Braves outfield, 1963), Wayland Moore (designed Atlanta Braves’ classic 1972-74 uniform)
Sky pilots: John Billings (flew Allied spies behind enemy lines for OSS), Gail Halvorson (showered kids with candy during Berlin Airlift), Charles McGee (Tuskegee Airman who fought in three wars)
Solitary men: Joseph Kromelis (Chicago’s homeless Walking Man for decades), Mehran Karimi Nasseri (lived in departure lounge of Paris airport terminal for 18 years), Albert Woodfox (Angola 3 prison activist in solitary confinement in Louisiana for 42 years)
Songwriters: Marilyn Bergman (films), Bettye Crutcher (Stax), Beverly Ross (Brill Building)
Soul brothers: Sam Gooden (Impressions), Syl Johnson, Timmy Thomas
Soul sisters: Betty Davis, Mable John, Ronnie Spector
The sound of Philadelphia: Thom Bell, William “Poogie” Hart (Delfonics), Joe Tarsia (Sigma Sound Studios)
Star Trekkers: Sally Kellerman (Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, first season), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Nyota Uhura), Maggie Thrett (Ruth, one of Mudd’s women, first season)
There’s a theme here: Angelo Badalamenti (“Twin Peaks”), Monty Norman (James Bond films), Vangelis (“Chariots of Fire”)
This was CNN: Drew Griffin, Fred Hickman, Bernard Shaw
Trailblazers: Marlin Briscoe (first Black starting quarterback in pro football), Johnny Grier (first Black NFL referee), Adam Wade (first Black game show host, “Musical Chairs”)
TV news legends: Bill Plante (CBS), Al Primo (created Eyewitness News concept, 1965), Barbara Walters (NBC, ABC)
Twin Peakers: Julee Cruise, Lenny Von Dohlen, David Warner
Unsung women: Joyce Bryant (’50s singer known as “The Bronze Blond Bombshell” and “The Black Marilyn Monroe”), Janis Gaye (singer who was Marvin Gaye’s second wife and muse), Louise Tobin (singer who discovered Frank Sinatra in 1939),
Vietnam’s truths: William Hammond (Army historian dispelled notion that media coverage eroded support), George Herring (historian wrote four books on Vietnam), Don Luce (activist exposed prison horrors)
War’s children: Vera Gissing (rescued from Czechoslovakia on eve of World War II), Dr. Randall McNally (Chicago plastic surgeon who treated Phan Thi Kim Phuc, the “Napalm Girl,” in Saigon), Hannah Pick-Goslar (Anne Frank’s close friend)
Watching Watergate: Alfred Baldwin (burglars’ lookout), Earl Silbert (first prosecutor), Barry Sussman (supervised Washington Post coverage)
Wisconsin ballplayers: Bill Burbach (Dickeyville), Ken Frailing (Marion), Fred Lasher (Janesville/Merrillan/Altoona)
Women’s basketball stars: Lusia Harris (’70s pioneer, only woman drafted by an NBA team), Tiffany Jackson (WNBA), Billie Moore (UCLA, U.S. Olympic coach)
World leaders: Madeleine Albright, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jiang Zemin
World music: Gal Costa (Brazilian tropicalia), Francisco Gonzalez (Mexican and Chicano music, Los Lobos founding member, left before debut LP), Elza Soares (Brazilian samba)
World stage: Robbie Coltrane, Irene Papas, Monica Vitti
Gone in Threes, the band
Front men: Terry Hall (The Specials), Dan McCafferty (Nazareth), Jimy Sohns (Shadows of Knight)
Guitar: Manny Charlton (Nazareth), Kim Simmonds (Savoy Brown), Don Wilson (Ventures)
Bass: Rick Anderson (Tubes), Gregg Philbin (REO Speedwagon), Alec John Such (Bon Jovi)
Drums: Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters), Sandy Nelson (solo instrumentals) Alan White (Yes, Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon)
Keyboards: Gary Brooker (Procol Harum), Andy Fletcher (Depeche Mode), Sidney Kirk (Isaac Hayes Movement)
Winds: Dick Halligan (Blood, Sweat & Tears trombone), Ian McDonald (King Crimson, Foreigner sax, flute), Andrew Woolfolk (Earth, Wind & Fire sax)
Backup singers, the fellas: David Tyson (Manhattans), Calvin Simon (Parliament, Funkadelic), Charles McCormick (Bloodstone)
Backup singers, the ladies: Rosa Lee Hawkins (Dixie Cups), Susan Jacks (Poppy Family), Rachel Nagy (Detroit Cobras)
The last word
Some memorable farewells, all from Wisconsin. That’s how we roll.
Harold L. Anderson, 93: “I AM DEAD! Reports of my death are not greatly exaggerated. They are not exaggerated at all. So, please get on with your life but know this about me …”
Jim Krummel, 80: “James Frank Krummel (aka Jim, Sir) died … in the house that he built, fulfilling his lifelong wish of having someone haul his dead body out of the house. … He was married to the woman who put up with his curmudgeonly personality (who according to him ‘didn’t sweat much for a fat woman’) for 42 years.”
Ted Kaminski, 75: Saving the best for last. One of the all-time great obits.
“Ted enjoyed hunting, fishing, playing cards, Polka music and coffee, but most of all he loved talking with people and bullshitting. … He always had some sort of BS that could get you either questioning your own logic or be laughing so hard you had to walk away. Not only was he a member of the Hatley Chapter of the Bullshitters Club, he was also President. … Upon his quest for spreading BS, He ventured east to Elderon where he thought BS lacked, that is until he met Steve and the Falstad Boys, whom ultimately would prove that not only they had the attributes for being good bullshitters but also being great friends. … Ted was so lucky to be able to spend his last few hours surrounded by family and friends laughing, joking, and bullshitting to the very end.”
The stunners
There always is one death that takes your breath away. But in 2022, they came in waves, all hitting home.
The new year was just four days old when our sister-in-law Debbie died unexpectedly in Arkansas. Then, not unexpected at all, one of my best friends lost his wife Jayma in July. Then, not a month after we all went to a late-summer ballgame together, my best friend of 50 years unexpectedly lost his wife Donna.
Then, in a span of just four days in the week leading up to Christmas, a friend lost an unforgettable acquaintance he’d just been with at a Memphis music festival (“Earth suddenly isn’t as cool as it was,” he said), a co-worker unexpectedly lost his 14-year-old daughter and still another friend lost his mother.
Sigh.
Noteworthy
This is not intended to be an inclusive list of all who died in 2022. This is my highly subjective list. Yours will be different.
The credits
Each year, I use these sources for this list.
We start with Wikipedia’s month-by-month lists of prominent deaths. Then we check with our friend Gunther at Any Major Dude, who compiles lists of notable music deaths each month. Each of those is more thorough than this roundup. Highly recommended. Then we go through a year of Mojo magazines, whose “Real Gone” and “They Also Served” features are wonderful. Other solid sources include my friend Len O’Kelly’s year-end post at his 45 Ruminations Per Megabyte blog, News from ME (the blog by comics and animation writer Mark Evanier) and the Washington Post.
(If you wonder why this always lags the new year by a few days, it’s because some deaths aren’t announced immediately. But I can’t wait too long. For example, this new year is but 23 days old and already we’re going forward without David Crosby, Gina Lollabrigida, Lisa Marie Presley and Jeff Beck.)
In 1965, Charles Schulz started drawing Snoopy as a World War I flying ace battling the Red Baron. But “it reached a point where war just didn’t seem funny,” he told biographer Rheta Grimsley Johnson. Even so, Snoopy and the Red Baron inspired this novelty Christmas song with explosions, gunfire and a message of hope that came as the Vietnam War escalated.
The second Christmas wish
Someday all our dreams will come to be Someday in a world where men are free Maybe not in time for you and me But someday at Christmastime
My friend Derek reminded me of this one on Christmas Eve morning a couple of years ago. When Stevie sings of “men” throughout this one, songwriter Ron Miller clearly means everyone, of any age.
I have this cut on “A Motown Christmas” from 1973, a comp I’ve had since I was in college in the late ’70s.
The third Christmas wish
A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
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About the music
These are mp3s from my collection, taken from vinyl whenever possible. Enjoy. All music presented here is shared under the premise of fair use. This blog is solely intended for the purpose of education, a place for me to tell stories and write about music and cultural history. If you are a rights holder to any of the music presented and wish for it to be removed, please email me directly and it will be taken down.
About the words
The text is copyright 2007-2023, Jeff Ash. Text from other sources, when excerpted, is credited.
“Ted enjoyed hunting, fishing, playing cards, Polka music and coffee, but most of all he loved talking with people and bullshitting. … He always had some sort of BS that could get you either questioning your own logic or be laughing so hard you had to walk away. Not only was he a member of the Hatley Chapter of the Bullshitters Club, he was also President. … Upon his quest for spreading BS, He ventured east to Elderon where he thought BS lacked, that is until he met Steve and the Falstad Boys, whom ultimately would prove that not only they had the attributes for being good bullshitters but also being great friends. … Ted was so lucky to be able to spend his last few hours surrounded by family and friends laughing, joking, and bullshitting to the very end.”
AM, Then FM 