Absent Friends


Freddie Hubbard, Cold Turkey.
The Four Tops, Bernadette.
Miriam Makeba, Mbube.
Bob and Earl, Harlem Shuffle.
Nappy Brown, Don't Be Angry.
Mikey Dread, Saturday Night Style.
Jody Reynolds, Endless Sleep.
Bo Diddley, She's Alright.
Bobby Lee Trammell, If You Ever Get It Once.
Dee Dee Warwick, Foolish Fool.
Johnny Adams, I Wish It Would Rain.
Nathaniel Mayer and His Fabulous Twilights, Village of Love.
Eddy Arnold, The Cattle Call.
Eartha Kitt, The Blues.
Alton Ellis, Girl I've Got a Date.
The Dixie Hummingbirds, Christian's Automobile.
Charlie Walker, Pick Me Up On Your Way Down.
Isaac Hayes, Don't Let Go.
Jerry Reed, Guitar Man.
The Tuff Darts, Slash.
The Count Five, Psychotic Reaction.
The Dubliners, Whiskey in the Jar.
The Esquires, Reach Out.
Jimi Hendrix Experience, Crosstown Traffic.
Fats Domino, Hey La Bas Boogie.
Jo Stafford and Tommy Dorsey, Manhattan Serenade.



Freddie Hubbard, 1938-2008. On Red Clay.

Levi Stubbs, 1936-2008, and Miriam Makeba, 1932-2008. Bow your head, royalty has left us. "Bernadette," paranoid, majestic Baroque soul, is on Anthology and Makeba is here.

Earl Lee Nelson, 1928-2008. On Sand in My Shoes.

Napoleon "Nappy" Brown, 1929-2008. On Blowing the Fuse.

Mikey Dread, 1954-2008. On The Prime of Mikey Dread.

Jody Reynolds, 1932-2008. He finally went into the sea: it was waiting for him. On Happy Days.

Bo Diddley, 1928-2008.

Bobby Lee Trammell, 1934-2008. Rocker, state legislator. On Arkansas Twist.

Dee Dee Warwick, 1945-2008. On Collection.

Norman Whitfield, 1940-2008. Co-composer of "I Wish It Would Rain," one of hundreds of marvels. Adams' 1972 version is out of print, I think.

Nathaniel Meyer, 1944-2008. R&B journeyman. On the out-of-print I Want Love and Affection.

Eddy Arnold, 1918-2008. This is the original version of "Cattle Call," from 1945--he re-cut it in the '60s for this LP.

Eartha Kitt, 1927-2008. On Purr-Fect.

Alton Ellis, 1938-2008. On Let's Do Rocksteady.

Ira Tucker, 1925-2008. Lead singer of the Dixie Hummingbirds:

You've gotta check on your brakes
and stop your wicked ways:
a man is born of a woman,
is only of a few days.



Charlie Walker, 1926-2008. On Honky Tonk Heroes.

Isaac Hayes, 1942-2008. On Ultimate Collection.

Jerry Reed, 1937-2008. On The Essential.

Jeff Salen, Tuff Darts guitarist, 1953-2008. On Live at CBGB's--1976.

John Byrne, 1947-2008. Lead singer of the Count Five. On Nuggets.

Ronnie Drew, 1934-2008. Lead singer of the Dubliners. On Whiskey in the Jar.

Gilbert Moorer, 1941-2008. Lead singer of The Esquires, whose "Reach Out" is from 1969 (thanks to Office Naps for first posting this some time ago).

Give the drummers some: Mitch Mitchell, 1946-2008 (Electric Ladyland) and Earl Palmer, 1924-2008. One of Palmer's first gigs was backing Fats Domino in New Orleans--hear it all here.

Jim Jones, guitarist for Pere Ubu, 1951-2008. On The Modern Dance.

and Jo Stafford, 1917-2008. The voice of the home front, the sound of the absence of war. On Yes Indeed.



Ave atque vale: Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Wo Weihan, Clive Barnes, Bobby Fischer, Madelyn "Toot" Dunham (who cast her vote for her grandson before she died), Major Andrew Olmsted, Studs Terkel, Manny Farber, Harold Pinter, Jessica Jacobs, Rudy Ray Moore, Richard Sudhalter, Thomas M. Disch, Arthur C. Clarke, Albert Hoffman, Mauricio Kagel, David Foster Wallace, Gregory McDonald, Sir Edmund Hillary, Deep Throat, Robert Rauschenberg, Del Martin, Majel Barrett, and Odetta.

More tributes at Star Maker Machine all week.

Coming in the new year: the 1910s! brace yourself.