The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (152 page)

Sunday 29

Paul Ryan

(Leeds, 24 October 1948)

Paul & Barry Ryan

Predating Bros by some twenty-five years, Paul and Barry Ryan were pop’s original pin-up twins, the sons of fifties chanteuse Marion Ryan
(née
Sapherson), who enjoyed a major UK hit with ‘Love Me Forever’ (1958), by which time her sons were already showing signs of following in her footsteps. The pair began steadily with a series of modest hits for Decca in the UK – starting with ‘Don’t Bring Me Your Heartaches’ (1965) – before the more introverted Paul Ryan began to feel the strain of their teenybop status and requested to move more into the background. The reshuffle reaped instant dividends: Barry Ryan’s reading of his brother’s composition ‘Eloise’ (1968) soared to number two in the UK, earning a gold disc. Although this was to prove a career zenith, Ryan was happy in his new role, also penning hits such as Frank Sinatra’s ‘I Will Drink the Wine’.

Leaving music, Paul Ryan opened a small chain of hair salons during the eighties, which earned the already wealthy songwriter a decent living until his early death from cancer. Marion Ryan survived her son by seven years.

DECEMBER

Wednesday 23

Eddie Hazel

(Brooklyn, New York, 10 April 1950)

Parliament/Funkadelic

A disciple of Jimi Hendrix, teenager Eddie Hazel sat on the porch of his home in Plainfield, New Jersey, honing his craft on a guitar given him for Christmas by an older brother. Hazel had a distinct style of his own, however, and impressed Billy ‘Bass’ Nelson and legendary frontman George Clinton, who were at this point touring as The Parliaments. Eventually persuading Hazel’s slightly over-protective mother – who had moved her sons to New Jersey in order to avoid ‘gangs and drugs’ – the pair secured the young guitarist for their line-up. As the group morphed into the multi-tentacled funk monster known as Funkadelic, Hazel’s extravagant solos became a trademark of the group’s sound. Much of his (and the band’s) adopted psychedelia could be attributed to their massive substance intake. Hazel’s was fairly well documented in the elaborate ten-minute jam he contributed to the defining ‘Maggot Brain’ (1971), his mother’s opinion of which remains undocumented. The guitarist became friends with original drummer ‘Tiki’ Fulwood (whom he had been instrumental in placing), and at one point their LSD-partying became so consuming that Clinton – in a rare moment of hierarchical convention – suspended their wages (and subsequently fired Fulwood). The normally affable Hazel then found himself in serious hot water after an assault on an airline stewardess, and was incarcerated for some time. In the event, Clinton welcomed his tremendous playing (and some back-up vocals) back into the P-Funk fold – Hazel contributed to 1975’s
Let’s Take It to the Stage
– but by now the ever-expanding set-up was leaving him behind.

Devastated by the death of Fulwood
(
November 1979),
Hazel dropped out of the project for some years, pursuing a solo career and also contributing to the work of others, including The Temptations. His own health had deteriorated alarmingly during the eighties, but Hazel snubbed medical advice and returned to a ‘P-Funk AllStars’ tour package early in 1992. Suffering severe internal bleeding and liver failure – possibly the result of his activities in his younger days – Eddie Hazel died at home in New York just months after the shows.

See also
Glen Goins (
July 1978); Raymond Davis (
Golden Oldies #27) Garry Shider (
June 2010). P-Funk trumpeter Richard ‘Kush’ Griffith died in 2007, vocalistMallia Franklin in February 2010 and rhythm guitarist ‘Catfish’ Collins six months later.

Thursday 24

Bobby LaKind

(California, 1945)

The Doobie Brothers

(Various acts)

A drummer with seventies rock behemoths The Doobie Brothers, Bobby LaKind stayed in place as the band moved seamlessly from blues-flavoured offerings through FM rock to the AOR-stylings of the late seventies. While Keith Knudsen hammered away on a regular kit, LaKind was by his side playing congas – a treat first heard on the band’s
Taking It to the Streets
album (1976). In 1979, The Doobies enjoyed a charttopping album with
Minute By Minute
and a massive-selling (and Grammy-winning) US number-one single with the very radio-friendly ‘What a Fool Believes’. As well as his work with The Doobies, LaKind also provided studio drums for Nicolette Larson, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Linda Ronstadt.

For Bobby LaKind, The Doobie Brothers effectively ended in 1990, though the band reconvened for benefit shows in 1992. By now LaKind had been diagnosed with colon cancer, which, despite treatment, was to claim his life that Christmas. LaKind was the first of four former Doobie Brothers to pass away.

See also
Cornelius Bumpus (
February 2004); Keith Knudsen (
February 2005). Bassist Dave Shogren also passed away in
1999.