The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (29 page)

Phil King

(c 1947)

Blue Oyster Cult

Long Island heavy/prog band Blue Oyster Cult are often referred to as ‘the thinking man’s rock band’ – which perhaps makes Phil King’s death all the more unlikely.

Beginning as Soft White Underbelly in the late sixties, the group formed by influential musician and writer Sandy Pearlman at Stony Brook College would run through an enormous number of members in its lengthy history. In their formative years, Blue Oyster Cult (apply umlauts as appropriate) found the position of vocalist the hardest to fill. BOC signed, briefly, to Elektra, the label that had enjoyed enormous success with The Doors over the previous years; it was believed that singer Les Bronstein had a similar presence to that of Jim Morrison. However, Bronstein suddenly quit, leaving the door open for a series of frontmen, of whom the shortest-lived was probably Phil King.

King was not considered reliable by the other members of the group and had already left by the release of their eponymous debut for CBS (1972) – the vacant slot was taken by the band’s manager, Eric Bloom. The wayward King had fallen into a twilight world of drink and gambling, and it was during such a session that he was murdered in New York, shot three times in the back of the head following an argument.

MAY

Wednesday 3

Les Harvey

(Leslie Harvey - Glasgow, Scotland, 13 September 1944)

Stone the Crows

(Various acts)

The somewhat-less-flamboyant younger of the rocking Harvey brothers, Les joined his first band, The Kinning Park Ramblers, at just sixteen. By eighteen, the hard-working guitarist/songwriter was playing with The Blues Council, a touring combo that disbanded after the tragic deaths of two of its members, singer Fraser Calder and bass player James Giffen (
March 1965).
Les Harvey’s demise, however, was even more dramatic.

Introduced to no-holds-barred rock/blues singer Maggie Bell by his brother, Harvey’s fortunes changed when he joined Power, soon to become Stone the Crows, a popular live act managed by Led Zeppelin boss Peter Grant. Harvey’s textural yet dynamic playing was as key to the act as the duelling vocals of Bell and Jimmy Dewar; his Les Paul technique had been noted elsewhere, and a touring stint with Aretha Franklin’s band ensued in 1971. With a fourth album
Ontinuous Performance
[sic] for a new line-up of Stone the Crows in pre-production, the band played a low-key tour of the UK in the spring of 1972. Tuning up at the start of a performance at Swansea’s Top Rank Ballroom, Les Harvey grasped a poorly grounded microphone and was electrocuted. As 1,200 expectant fans looked on, Harvey collapsed at the front of the stage in what for many years would be rock music’s most public tragedy. He died in hospital, where girlfriend Bell was also receiving treatment. Catastrophe continued to haunt those connected with Harvey: replacement guitarist in Stone the Crows Jimmy McCulloch also died in tragic circumstances
(
September 1979),
as indeed did Les’s older and better-known brother, Alex Harvey
(
February 1982).

See also
James Dewarl (
May 2002)

JUNE

Tuesday 13

Clyde McPhatter

(Durham, North Carolina, 15 November 1932)

The Drifters

(Billy Ward & The Dominoes)

Despite his relatively brief fame, the importance of an artist like Clyde McPhatter to later vocalists like Smokey Robinson should not be underestimated; another Baptist minister’s child, McPhatter’s resonant tenor was largely the result of his gospel training. He made the move to R & B, very much the flavour in 1950, fronting Billy Ward & The Dominoes at just seventeen. McPhatter (and indeed his fans) reached near-hysteria during his stage performances, so involved was he in his music, and The Dominoes quickly became a ‘name’, charting many songs on the US R & B listings – their racy ‘Sixty-Minute Man’ was 1951’s number-one seller. They did not see national pop success until after his departure, however, because in 1953 – after a number of salary disputes with Ward – the popular lead upped sticks for Atlantic Records. (Legend has it that, on the very day of the split, label supremo Ahmet Ertegun telephoned every McPhatter in New York City until he found his man.) Here, McPhatter formed the soon-to-be-legendary vocal troupe The Drifters. (The Dominoes, meanwhile, consoled themselves with new boy Jackie Wilson at the helm.) Had he not been drafted in May 1954, Clyde McPhatter would probably have become a major international star with Atlantic. However, while he served in the army, the touring Drifters were fronted by ‘soundalike’ David Baughan, and on his return McPhatter decided to call time on the group. Several solo successes ensued with Atlantic and Mercury – including the 1958 gold disc ‘A Lover’s Question’ – but the impetus of his earlier career had been stalled, and no hit records were forthcoming after 1962. Further labels shed the once-great singer like a hand-me-down jumper.

Clyde McPhatter’s spiralling depression at his lack of longevity caused him to resort to the bottle, his health deteriorating at an alarming rate over the last years of his life. In 1972, having failed to relaunch his career, he was discovered dead by his female companion in a cheap Bronx hotel. McPhatter, already stricken with a variety of kidney and liver ailments, had suffered a heart attack in his sleep. No longer a star, McPhatter was – after Rudy Lewis and Baughan – already the third former Drifter to pass on (
Pre-1965/Dead Interesting!)
though his death was shockingly overlooked by the media. Some semblance of proportion was reached, however, with his induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame fifteen years later.