The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (199 page)

FEBRUARY

Thursday 5

Joe Stubbs

(Joseph Stubbles - Detroit, Michigan, 1942)

The Falcons

The Originals

(The Four Tops)

(The Contours)

(101 Proof (Aged in Soul))

(The Spinners)

The younger brother of The Four Tops’ Levi Stubbs, Joe Stubbs was lead singer with The Falcons – which meant being sandwiched between legends Eddie Floyd and Wilson Pickett. Stubbs was never to reach the heights these contemporaries did, but he was a strong vocalist nonetheless and often hired by Motown as cover: with his brother’s help, this occasionally included live work with The Four Tops themselves. Joining The Falcons in 1957, Stubbs’s voice was at the centre of their biggest hit, the pop Top Twenty entry ‘You’re So Fine’ (1959). Stepping down as lead in 1962, Stubbs reemerged with his own group under the somewhat unwieldy name of 101 Proof (Aged in Soul), scoring his only Top Ten hit with ‘Somebody’s Been Sleeping’ (1970) – though this featured Clyde Wilson on lead duties. Joe Stubbs had long been suffering the heart condition that eventually killed him.

Other members of 100 Proof to have passed on are Don Hatcher (d 2005), Carlis ‘Sonny’ Monroe (d 2009) and Steve Mancha (Clyde Wilson - d 2011).

Tim Kelly

(Trenton, New Jersey, 13 January 1963)

Slaughter

(Various acts)

FEBRUARY

A massive fan of made-up metal-lists Kiss, guitarist Tim Kelly realized a dream when Slaughter supported Gene Simmons and his glam dinosaurs on their first tour after he signed up. He’d been invited to join the band – Mark Slaughter (vocals/guitar/keyboards), Dana Strum (bass) and later Blas Elias (drums) – after meeting them at a friend’s barbecue. Kelly had been a solid guitarist since his teens, gaining a good deal of experience with other bands, including his older brother’s group, Allegiance. With the approval of Kiss, Slaughter cleaned up with the glossy 3-million-selling debut album for EMI,
Stick It to Ya
(1990), which, while not the most groundbreak-ing listen, certainly pushed all the necessary buttons. Similarly, power ballad ‘Fly to the Angels’ punted the band into the Billboard Top Twenty and was an MTV mainstay. Although
Wild Life
(1992) kept things bubbling, promotion to metal’s premier league was scuppered by a number of events: a falling-out with EMI (they left for CMC), Elias’s motorcycle accident, which shut up shop for a year; and Kelly’s continuing problems with drugs. A third studio album,
Fear No Evil
(1995), did not fare as well as its predecessors.

On 5 February, Tim Kelly was travelling along Highway 96 when an 18-wheeler tractor/trailer crossed the middle lane and struck his car head on, before ploughing into another vehicle. Kelly survived until arrival at a clinic in Baghdad, Arizona, whereupon he was pronounced dead from severe head injuries. The truck driver – who was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $20K – was discovered to have had at least three types of drug in his system, including amphetamines. A memorial service near Kelly’s former home in the outskirts of Las Vegas drew a huge crowd; local authorities also declared a ‘Slaughter Day’.

Friday 6

Carl Wilson

(Hawthorne, California, 21 December 1946)

The Beach Boys

Life’s a beach and then you die, it seems. Not that Carl Wilson would have had many regrets. Ever the mediator, the great leveller, he hadn’t perhaps the inspiration of older brother one, Brian, nor the presence of older brother two, Dennis, but what Wilson had – apart from a fine voice and more than a few decent licks on his Fender Strat – was an uncanny ability to contain disaster when it threatened.

While Brian Wilson was hypnotized by the perfect arrangements of The Four Freshmen, it was Chuck Berry fan Carl who suggested the boys ‘went rock ‘n’ roll’. The three brothers’ musical aspirations began under the name Carl & The Passions – a small, early nod, perhaps, to the pivotal role the 15-year-old was to play in the years to follow. The moniker was quickly changed to The Pendletones – reminding Carl of his position – with the addition of their cousin Mike Love and school buddy Al Jardine; the band then became the more generic Beach Boys – a brand that would outlive at least two of the Wilson brothers. The Beach Boys signed with Capitol (via the regional Candix) in 1962, scoring a rapid spate of feelgood California surf hits, Carl Wilson’s faultless backing to Brian’s sensitive lead voice an essential ingredient – his own time in the spotlight would come later. By the end of 1963 The Beach Boys were pretty much the biggest thing in US music, but by the time they’d scored their first number one with ‘I Get Around’ (1964) the cracks were already beginning to show. After the group’s first world tour, Brian Wilson’s partial breakdown and subsequent retirement from live performing proved a huge watershed for The Beach Boys – unexpectedly instigating their finest work. With the leader spending more time perfecting their sound in the studio (as well as more time under the influence of psychedelics), Carl’s angelic vocal was given greater prominence. This was most notable on the 1966 hit ‘God Only Knows’ – written especially for him by his brother. This dedication proved inspiring to the youngest Wilson, whose touching falsetto elevated the tune to one of the finest of the band’s career – and, for many, one of the best of the entire decade. Even more impressive was worldwide number one ‘Good Vibrations’ (1966), at that time the biggest hit of The Beach Boys’ history. Again Carl’s vocal complemented Brian’s extraordinary musical arrangement and the group finally seemed to be giving The Beatles a run for their money. The following year, Carl Wilson successfully avoided both the draft and then ‘civilian duties’ (ie, community service) by refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance.

Dennis and Carl Wilson - before the tide went out for ever

With Brian Wilson fading from view during the seventies (or, more accurately, ballooning out of sight), his younger brother took on songwriting responsibilities but – with the exception of the wry and critically acclaimed
Surf’s Up
(1971) – The Beach Boys were no longer the force of old. In 1972, an album,
Carl and The Passions,
re-emphasized the singer/guitarist’s standing in days gone by, but it really wasn’t up to the standard of previous outings. Realizing that, without the main man, their best bet was to tour as a nostalgia act, The Beach Boys then put original material on to the back burner. Internal squabbling and disappointment at the band’s apparent loss of ambition saw Wilson issue his own solo albums,
Carl Wilson
(1981) and
Youngblood
(1984), to almost universal indifference (a third was released after his passing). The musician’s disappointment in these relative failures had, however, been put into some kind of perspective by the death of his brother Dennis (
December 1983).

Carl Wilson returned to the fold to sing lead on ‘Kokomo’ (1988), a fairly inconsequential Beach Boys workout (for the equally inconsequential Tom Cruise movie
Cocktail
), which astonishingly sold over a million copies in America on its way to becoming the group’s biggest smash of all time. This prompted The Beach Boys’ induction into the new Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, and prompted Carl – now very much the leader of the band (‘I haven’t spoken to Brian in a while – I don’t even know his telephone number …’) – to resume touring. This he continued to do despite learning he had lung cancer in 1996. Having undergone chemotherapy, Wilson played with The Beach Boys throughout their 36th Annual Tour in 1997, even introducing his doctors on stage at one concert. Believing he would make a full recovery, his family, friends and bandmates were devastated by Carl Wilson’s death in early 1998 – the cancer had spread to his brain. He was survived by his wife and two sons. With the peacemaker dead, the surviving Beach Boys split, reformed, split again and generally argued about everything, litigation flying left, right and centre.

‘There was no one more spiritual than Carl.’

Marilyn Rutherford, Brian Wilson’s first wife

Falco

(Johann Holzel - Vienna, 19 February 1957)