The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (117 page)

See also
Maurice Gibb (
January 2003). Robin Gibb died in May 2012.

Andy Gibb
(right)
with brother Barry: Blood is thicker than water?

APRIL

Saturday 9

David Prater

(Ocilla, Georgia, 9 May 1937)

Sam & Dave

David Prater came by his musical partner and soulmate in an unusual way – he served Melionaires’ singer Sam Moore breakfast for several months before the pair finally met properly at a talent show at Miami’s King of Hearts Club in 1961. The club owner – feeling Prater’s gruff baritone would work well with Moore’s higher tones – eventually put them together. Sam & Dave were instantly popular on the R & B circuit, though it took the duo much longer to hit with the record-buying public. Spells at Roulette and then major label Atlantic were diluted by the act being ‘leased’ to Stax – a move that nonetheless proved pivotal. The Stax house band (ie, Isaac Hayes and various members of the MGs and the Memphis Horns) was the perfect backdrop to the singers’ duelling voices and prompted a slew of hits, most notably ‘Hold On! I’m a-Comin’ (1966) and the millionselling ‘Soul Man’ (1967) – two of many songs penned by Hayes and Dave Porter.

With their higher profile, though, came glitches between the pair. Prater’s penchant for drugs made him a highly volatile character and put the duo’s relationship on hold for several years after 1970. (Attempts to reconvene in the early eighties were scuppered when Prater was exposed selling crack to an undercover cop.) Prater’s launch of a ‘fresh’ Sam & Dave – featuring new partner Sam Daniels – was also thwarted when Moore understandably threatened legal action. Finally, David Prater was killed when his car crashed in Sycamore, Georgia, as he drove to his mother’s house in Ocilla. A passenger survived with serious wounds, but Prater was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene.

Brook Benton

(Benjamin Franklin Peay - Camden, South Carolina, 19 September 1931)

(The Sandmen)

Later the same evening, R & B lost another legend in the shape of silky baritone Brook Benton. Eventually a prolific hitmaker in the secular world, Benton began as a gospel vocalist, encouraged by his Methodist minister father. His CV included spells with notable gospel units The Golden Gate Quartet and The Camden Jubilee Singers, giants in worship music. Benton left non-secular music after moving to New York and working as a truck driver while singing with The Sandmen before a winning partnership was forged with noted songwriters Clyde Otis and Belford Hendricks. Benton was in his late twenties before the hits arrived - but arrive they did: US R & B chart-topper ‘It’s Just a Matter of Time’ lived up to its title and took the singer into the Billboard Top Three in March 1959, and was followed by a run of hits – six of which were further R & B number ones. The biggest-selling hit was ‘Boll Weevil Song’ (1962), while duets with Dinah Washington also fared well (although the pair’s personal relationship was reportedly occasionally hostile). Benton also managed to co-write major hits for Nat ‘King’ Cole, Clyde McPhatter and The Diamonds. His career in full sway, the casually good-looking pipe-smoker was also very much a pin-up of the day.

The inevitable lull came around 1964 (after the prophetic single, ‘Going Going Gone’), although live work was still a highly lucrative outlet for the performer. Benton nonetheless managed another million-seller with ‘Rainy Night in Georgia’ (1970), before he returned to preaching by the end of the decade. Attempts to record again during the eighties were largely stymied by a legal wrangle with MGM over unpaid royalties. The case was settled in favour of Benton’s estate just after his death. With many fans unaware he was suffering from spinal meningitis, the singer yielded to pneumonia while receiving treatment in New York for his condition.

See also
Dinah Washington (
pre-1965)

Friday 22

Sandi Robison

(Barbara Jeanne Moyer - Las Vegas, Nevada, 14 October 1945)

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy (The Crosswinds)

After losing her mother at a young age, Barbara Jeanne Moyer was brought up by her grandparents in Marin County, San Francisco – an ideal location for someone with folk-music ambitions. On graduating from high school in 1963, the would-be singer came into contact with local faces like David Crosby, Robbie Robison (briefly her husband) and Dino Valenti. Spotted singing with her spouse in coffee houses, Robison was soon invited to join The South City Singers (later The Crosswinds), for whom she cut her first record in 1965. Robison moved to Los Angeles – acquiring her new first name after borrowing an ID card to gain entry to a club – where, after the birth of her son, Scott, the singer formed psychedelic rock band The Peanut Butter Conspiracy – with John Merrill (guitar), Jim Cherniss (guitar), Alan Bracket (bass) and Spencer Dryden (drums). A single for CBS, ‘It’s a Happening Thing’ (1967), made the Hot 100 and the band slotted comfortably into the flower-power movement.

Their fame turned out to be very much a local phenomenon, however, and when PBC was discontinued in 1969, Robison took a lead role in the stage musical
Hair,
by far her highestprofile work. Around this time, she also luckily survived an auto smash-up on Ventura Highway. Playing the clubs for the rest of her life, Robison became ill and was admitted to hospital in early April 1988, after a concert in Montana; she died unexpectedly of toxic-shock poisoning just two weeks later.

See also
Spencer Dryden (
January 2005)

JUNE

Thursday 16

Kim Milford

(Richard Kim Milford - Glen Ridge, New Jersey, 7 February 1951)

Moon

(The Jeff Beck Group)