Absent Friends



Jim Carroll, People Who Died.
John Martyn, Over The Hill.
Jim Dickinson and the New Beale Street Sheiks, You'll Do It All the Time.
Eddie Bo, Check Your Bucket.
The Seeds, Pushin' Too Hard.
Buck Griffin, Bawlin' and Squallin'.
The Ronettes, Baby, I Love You.
Billy Lee Riley, Red Hot.
The Cramps, Human Fly.
Hank Locklin, Please Help Me I'm Falling.
Blossom Dearie, Tea For Two.
Les Paul and Mary Ford, In The Good Old Summertime.
The Stooges, Not Right.
Pylon, Crazy.
Jack Rose, White Mule.
The Alan Parsons Project, Time.
Wilco, When You Wake Up Feeling Old.
Vic Chesnutt, New Town.
Maryanne Amacher, The Music Rooms.
The Revolutionary Ensemble, New York.
George Russell, Concerto For Billy The Kid.
Peter and Gordon, Nobody I Know.
Willy DeVille, Just To Walk That Little Girl Home.
Paul Revere and the Raiders, Him or Me (What's It Gonna Be).
Carl Perkins, Glad All Over.
The Delfonics, (Didn't I) Blow Your Mind This Time.
The Three Degrees, Collage.
Louisa Mark, Keep It Like It Is.
Michael Jackson, Ain't No Sunshine.



Jim Carroll, 1949-2009. On Catholic Boy.

John Martyn, 1948-2009. On Solid Air.

Jim Dickinson, 1941-2009. World boogie came for him at last. "You'll Do It All the Time," from 1964, is on It Came From Memphis Vol. 2.

Eddie Bo, 1930-2009. What if James Brown had come from New Orleans? "Check Your Bucket," from 1970, is on New Orleans Funk.

Sky Saxon, 1937-2009. "Pushin' Too Hard" is on The Seeds.

Buck Griffin, 1923-2009. A weathervane who turned in any direction he could: country, rockabilly, blues. "Ballin' and Squallin'," from 1955, is on Let's Elope Baby.

Estelle Bennett, the forgotten Ronette (1941-2009), and a bard of postwar teenage America, Ellie Greenwich (1940-2009). Greenwich co-wrote "Baby I Love You" and Bennett helped bring it to life; on Wall of Sound.

Billy Lee Riley, 1933-2009. "Red Hot," from 1957, is the title of the best Riley compilation.

Lux Interior, 1946-2009. He is survived by the Rev. Tom Frost. The Cramps' "Human Fly" is on Off The Bone.

Blossom Dearie, 1924-2009. Quintessence of charm. Her "Tea for Two," from 1958, is on Once Upon a Summertime.

Hank Locklin, 1918-2009. On RCA Country Legends.



Guitar men: Les Paul, 1915-2009 (on Best of the Capitol Masters), Ron Asheton (1948-2009), on The Stooges; Pylon's Randy Bewley, 1955-2009 (their 1981 single "Crazy" is collected on Chomp) and Jack Rose, 1971-2009, on Red Horse, White Mule.

Eric Woolfson, 1945-2009, singer/lyricist for The Alan Parsons Project. "Time" is on Best Of.

Jay Bennett, 1963-2009. On Wilco's 1999 Summerteeth.

Vic Chesnutt, 1964-2009. "New Town" is on 1996's (out of print) About To Choke.

Maryanne Amacher, 1938-2009.

Sirone (Norris Jones), 1940-2009. Bassist and co-founder of The Revolutionary Ensemble, later a member of James Blood Ulmer's Phalanx. On the magnificent 1975 LP The People's Republic, which has never been released on CD.

George Russell, 1923-2009. His "Concerto For Billy The Kid," from 1956, is one of the first spotlights for Bill Evans. On Complete Bluebird Recordings.

Gordon Waller, 1945-2009. Peter and Gordon's 1964 "Nobody I Know" (a Lennon/McCartney discard) is on Ultimate Peter and Gordon.

Drake Levin, 1946-2009. Guitarist for Paul Revere and the Raiders. On Greatest Hits.

Willy DeVille, 1950-2009. On his best record, 1980's Le Chat Bleu.

Aaron Schroeder, 1926-2009. Songwriter ("It's Now or Never," "I Got Stung," the Scooby-Doo theme), producer (Gene Pitney), talent spotter (Jimi Hendrix), magus (The Banana Splits). In 1957 he co-wrote "Glad All Over" for Carl Perkins (with Sid Tepper and Roy Bennett): it should've been a hit. On Sun Singles.

Randy Cain, 1945-2009. Singer and co-founder of The Delfonics. "Didn't I Blow Your Mind" is on La-La Means I Love You.

Louisa Mark, 1960-2009. The belle of lovers' rock. "Keep It Like It Is," from 1977, is on Breakout.

Fayette Pinkney, 1948-2009. Original member of The Three Degrees, Prince Charles' favorite band. "Collage" is on 1970's Maybe.

Michael Jackson, 1958-2009. A line that Chrissie Hynde wrote at the peak of Jackson's fame serves as his epitaph: "the wretched life of a lonely heart." On 1971's Got To Be There, collected on Music & Me.



Ave atque vale: Alicia de Laroccha, J.G. Ballard, Patrick McGoohan, John Updike, Barry Letts, Robin Wood, Elisabeth Söderström, John Hughes, Millvina Dean (the last survivor of the Titanic), Taylor Mitchell, Allen Klein, Wayman Tisdale (baller, bassist), Dame Paddy Ridsdale (the original Miss Moneypenny), Mary Travers, Philip Jose Farmer, Andrew Wyeth, Lucy Vodden, Irving Penn, Mr. Percival, Brittany Murphy (the latest incarnation of Mary C. Brown), Jody Powell, Captain Lou Albano, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Mark "Bird" Fidrych, Dick Katz and Larry Knechtel, master session man (The Doors, The Beach Boys), whose piano on "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was the compass for Garfunkel's flight.