The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (118 page)

By macabre coincidence, Kim Milford – another former cast member of
Hair
– died just weeks after Sandi Robison. Primarily an actor, he was born into a performing family (his sister was Oscar nominee Penelope Milford), of whom he was arguably the most widely talented. Apart from having singing and acting skills, Milford was also a composer, writer and dancer, making his way into
Hair
at just seventeen. He also performed in
Jesus Christ Superstar
and
The Rocky Horror Show,
among a host of other credits. Milford was a friend of Jeff Beck, fronting the legendary guitarist’s live band during 1972 (although he was fired shortly before the end of a US tour). He also recorded several albums under his own name – including the interestingly titled (for 1974)
Chain Your Lovers to the Bedpost,
and formed the band Moon.

Despite suffering a severe injury to his coccyx, Kim Milford continued to perform as a singer and actor – perhaps unwisely, as his recovery was very much impaired. Seldom healthy thereafter, Milford passed away from heart failure at just thirty-seven, following open heart surgery some weeks before.

Wednesday 22

Jesse ‘Ed’ Davis

(Norman, Oklahoma, 21 September 1944)

Taj Mahal

(Various acts)

One of the most respected session guitarists of all time, Jesse Davis – a Native American of the Kiowa tribe – was seemingly able to turn his hand to any modern style, be it blues, country or rock. Little was expected when Davis took a position, on graduating from the University of Oklahoma, as touring guitarist with Conway Twitty, but after a move to California, he became a fulltime bottleneck-player with Taj Mahal, recording three albums with the country/blues giant between 1967 and 1970. He even managed to release three albums of his own in the early seventies.

Davis’s later career matched him with a variety of different artists, and by the eighties he could boast stints with various ex-Beatles, Eric Clapton, Gene Clark, Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan, The Monkees, Leon Russell and Rod Stewart. Before his death, he began a project with poet and activist John Trudell. Unfortunately, Jesse Davis’s predilection for booze and heroin culminated in a suspected overdose in the laundry room of his Venice Beach apartment.

Saturday 25

Hillel Slovak

(Haifa, 13 April 1962)

The Red Hot Chili Peppers

(What Is This?)

(Anthym)

Israeli-born and of Czech descent, Hillel Slovak was nonetheless American, moving with his family to the US when he was just five. By the end of the seventies the young Kiss fan and budding guitarist had fallen into the company of drummer Jack Irons, and the pair emulated their heroes under the guises Anthym and later What Is This? A meeting at Fairfax High School with future bandmates Anthony Kiedis (vocals) and Flea (Michael Balzary, bass, who cites Slovak as the man who taught him to play) launched the band that today ranks as one of the world’s biggest. For Slovak, the encounter was, however, to leave a darker imprint.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ instantly recognizable meld of brash funk and thrash punk impressed fans at the LA bars and strip clubs in which they initially played. But, because of a contractual foul-up that left Slovak and Irons unable to play on the 1984 debut for EMI, session musicians were used alongside Kiedis and Flea – and the album suffered as a result. (Andy Gill of Manchester postpunks Gang of Four was the unlikely producer.) For the follow-up, The Chili Peppers headed for the vibe of Detroit and, with Slovak back in the mix and funk legend George Clinton at the desk,
Freaky Styley
(1986) was indeed something of a mini classic. This great record featured members of James Brown’s band on brass, while the RHCP added their own semi-clad sleaze when touring the disc: Kiedis threw himself about on stage while Slovak sweated in tight underpants behind. By the third album the band were living their own lyrical blueprint of casual sex, balls-out rock ‘n’ roll, hard drugs and more casual sex. In 1988, the world was exposed for the first time to RHCP’s ‘socks on cocks’ routine, for the
Abbey Road
EP, the band parodying The Beatles’ sleeve image in such a way that if one never saw it, one might well imagine it.

For Hillel Slovak, it was, sadly, an epitaph. As The Chili Peppers prepared their fourth long-player, the gifted guitarist died from an apparently accidental heroin overdose while enrolled in detox. His body lay undiscovered for two days. (The slight possibility that Slovak had committed suicide was considered when it emerged that he had spoken to his brother James the night before his death, pointedly saying, ‘I love you.’) The death proved too much for Irons, who left almost immediately, while panic-stricken user Kiedis (who, shortly before, had had to be talked out of sacking the guitarist) also checked himself into rehab in Mexico. Said the singer later, ‘Flea and I realized that we couldn’t stop because of the death of our best friend. It was going to be a permanent source of sadness in our lives, but we wanted to keep going because it had become our lives.’ And continue they did, returning after a year of inactivity with replacement guitarist John Frusciante, a gifted young man who also claimed to have learned everything he knew from watching and listening to Slovak. RHCP grew stronger (and more commercially viable) some time after, the band’s millionselling ‘Under the Bridge’ (1992) an ode to the substance that had cost them so dearly.

JULY

Saturday 16

Nico

(Christa Paffgen - Cologne, Germany, 16 October 1938)

The Velvet Underground

She possessed one of the most distinctive looks and voices of her generation, yet died an ignominious death in the unlikeliest of settings. Christa Paffgen was raised in Nazi-controlled Berlin during the Second World War; she lived with her mother and grandmother, barely knowing her father, who was away on service duty and died in an Allied camp. After the war, Päffgen left school to work as a seamstress and lingerie salesgirl at thirteen, but her extraordinary beauty saw her plucked out as a fashion model and actress the year after. After living for a while in Paris and London, the renamed Nico (she was so named by a photographer) settled in New York in 1960, where, having made several notable appearances in movies (Fellini’s
La Dolce Vita
among them) she joined Lee Strasberg’s Method School – a classmate of Marilyn Monroe. By now Nico had adopted her almost-permanent black-clothes-pale-face look.

Possessing such presence, Nico was a natural networker: her relationship with Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones landed her a record deal with Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate label, where she cut ‘I’m Not Sayin’’ (1964), penned by Gordon Lightfoot. The encouraging Bob Dylan also gave her a song – and introduced her to Andy Warhol. Nico gave up modelling to tour with the much-talked-about band he managed, The Velvet Underground. In this guise, she recorded her best-known songs, including Lou Reed’s ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ and
‘Femme Fatale’
(both 1967). Her voice was now a hypnotic, narcotic drawl. This sojourn was shortlived though, as trouble frequently broke out between her and Reed. Back on the solo route, Nico found her stride with some extraordinary performances. Often playing the harmonium herself, she was also accompanied by some formidable names: Tim Hardin, Tim Buckley and mainly Jackson Browne, with whom she lived for some time. Her recorded output, however, remained too leftfield to make any commercial impact. And Nico’s appearances in films were now likewise restricted to ‘artistic’ works with director Philippe Garrel.

Nico became something of an outsider during the latter half of the seventies, her physical appearance now extremely affected by her continued use of heroin: she became virtually down-and-out, living in basic accommodation in Prestwich, near Manchester. The limousines of the past were replaced – significantly – by a modest bicycle. Matters seemed to improve by 1985, with the John Cale-produced
Camera Obscura
bringing her back into the public eye. An apparently clean Nico toured the record and partially regained the fanbase that had deserted her over the past decade. For her final two years, Nico seemed content once more. Which made it all the more shocking when, in July 1988, she was found unconscious at the side of a road in Ibiza – her bicycle lying by her side. Having apparently suffered a massive head injury, Nico was rushed to Cannes Nisto Hospital, where she died of a brain haemorrhage at around 8 pm. The actual circumstances of the accident will doubtless never be ascertained – some fans expressed almost as much surprise at the fact that this erstwhile ‘princess of darkness’ might be visiting an island renowned for its constant sunshine as at her death. Nico was buried alongside her mother at Grunewald Forest cemetery park, Berlin.

Nico’s life may have appeared doomed for some time, but at least she almost made it to fifty – unlike one or two previous lovers. In the space of just four years during the sixties, she had affairs with Brian Jones (
July 1969),
Jimi Hendrix (
September 1970)
and Jim Morrison (
July 1971)
– all of whom died at the age of twenty-seven.