The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (328 page)

Freddie Bell & The Bellboys

Freddie Bell was always destined to make it in music. A talented bassist, trombonist and drummer, he was also a good singer with a dynamic stage presence. In 1952, he formed The Bellboys with Jack Kane on sax, Frankie Brent on guitar/bass, Jerry Mayo (Gennaro Meoli) on brass, Russ Conti on keys and Chick Keeney on drums. This R & B/rock ‘n’ roll crossover act played the Vegas hotel circuit until being signed to Teen Records in the mid-fifties.

In their early days, the band impressed many, not least film producer Sam Katzman, who placed them in the
Rock Around the Clock
movie (1956), alongside Bill Haley, Tony Martinez, Alan Freed and The Platters. This groundbreak-ing film featured the group’s lively ‘Giddy-Up-a-Ding-Dong’, which became a UK Top Five hit that autumn. They also influenced the young Elvis Presley, who recorded another Bellboys standard, Leiber and Stoller’s ‘Hound Dog’, after witnessing the group in concert.

The Bellboys returned to the big screen in 1964, in the distinctly British-flavoured
Get Yourself a College Girl,
which pitted them with The Animals and The Dave Clark Five. Sadly, Bell and his group’s tremendous performances didn’t translate into US record sales, and they quickly reverted back to club gigs. Freddie Bell had long retired from the music business by the time of his death from lung cancer on 11 February 2008.

Jerry Mayo died from a blood disorder in June 2011.

Monday 18

Jim Jones

(Cleveland, Ohio, 12 March 1950)

Pere Ubu

(Various acts)

Few who saw Jim Jones marching enthusiastically with the Maryfield High School band would have earmarked him as a future experimental guitarist, but, indeed, the musician worked hard to make a name for himself in Cleveland’s avant-rock scene.

Although Jones wasn’t around for the first incarnation of Pere Ubu – the late-seventies expressionist rock act – having played with groundbreak-ing bands such as Easter Monkeys, The Mirrors and well-received protopunks The Styrenes, he understood exactly the
modus operandi
behind singer David Thomas’s much vaunted group. Nevertheless, Pere Ubu had become a more accessible affair by the time Jones arrived for
The Tenement Year
(1988) – their first record since reuniting after their 1982 split. The guitarist (who had also played with Thomas’s sabbatical project, The Wooden Birds) was then hired for
Cloudland
(1989), which even saw the group find MTV exposure. Jones also contributed vocals and Hammond organ for their nineties studio albums.

By the end of the decade, however, he was forced into semi-retirement due to ill health, after struggling with the demands that constant touring required of a marginal band. Jones continued to play occasionally with a number of other less well-known Ohio bands before suffering a massive heart attack at his Cleveland home.

See also
Peter Laughner (
June 1977)

Sunday 24

Larry Norman

(Corpus Christi, Texas, 8 April 1947)

People!

(The Back Country Seven)

Widely regarded as the father of Christian Rock, Larry Norman could play piano and sing by the age of four and began composing songs in his head, with lyrics tending toward dogs and clowns as opposed to the righteous proclamations of his Southern Baptist parents. Though he also found inspiration in Paul Robeson and Mahalia Jackson, around the age of ten the young musician began finding pleasure in the secular sounds of Elvis Presley (despite his father’s apparent ban on this music).

By the mid-sixties Norman – now a high-school student in San Jose – was integrating into a California music scene that had begun to embrace spiritualism and peace. His band, The Back Country Seven, opened for the likes of The Doors and Jimi Hendrix, with Norman also playing solo spots as a singer. Members of the emerging psychedelic pop group People! were so impressed with his performances that they invited Norman to join the band in 1966. In turn, he invited his friend Gene Mason to sing alongside him, hoping the duo could help People! emulate the success of vocal units like The Righteous Brothers. In any event, they managed to score appearances on ABC’s
American Bandstand
as well as one hit single, ‘I Love You’ (1968, which had bombed in the UK for The Zombies). This Billboard Top Twenty hit made number one in Italy, Israel and Japan. (People! can also make a reasonable claim to be the first band to have attempted a rock opera.)

Quite what Norman’s parents made of their son’s success in the field of ‘demonic’ rock ‘n’ roll is open to conjecture, but – following something of an epiphany in his life – the singer, for a time, turned his back on the industry. Norman had been sought for a main role in the controversial rock musical
Hair
but, disapproving of its apparent promotion of ‘free love’ and drug use, turned down the opportunity (which would have made him quite wealthy). Feeling that the rock scene was nothing but ‘a big lie’, Norman chose to take a break from music to live out his Christian beliefs.

Larry Norman’s solo career began again when he rediscovered the power of rock ‘n’ roll to communicate the gospel. After an impoverished sabbatical spent playing coffee houses and writing tunes for shortlived musicals, Norman found himself signed to Capitol, the label taking a punt on his 1969 debut,
Upon This Rock.
Many voices denounced his work: evangelist Jimmy Swaggart continued to view rock ‘n’ roll as ‘pornography’, and Norman’s record wasn’t entirely well-received in the cynical rock world, either. Despite Capitol reluctantly viewing this ‘flop’ record as evidence that there perhaps was no market for Christian rock, Norman had unwittingly pioneered a new form of ‘preaching’ that was to continue through releases like
Only Visiting This Planet
(MGM, 1972) – a record now widely regarded as the most important Christian rock album in history. An extraordinarily prolific writer and artist, Norman recorded over forty studio albums in a career spanning four decades. That he failed to receive the same commercial approval as those who followed in his footsteps seemed to matter little to the man, faith always taking priority over fame.

Larry Norman
(front right),
with People!: Smile, Jesus loves you!

‘Larry Norman – Evangelist Without Portfolio 1947-2008 – Bloodstained Israelite’

The words on Larry Norman’s tombstone

Larry Norman’s first glimpse of his maker occurred in 1992, when the singer suffered a near-fatal, nine-hour heart attack, originally misdiagnosed as oesophagitis. The lasting damage that this inflicted upon his major organs prompted Norman to pare down his working life, and he returned to his family home to help care for his ailing father. Despite his recorded output slowing to a halt, Norman’s unarguable contributions to his field and formidable back catalogue saw him inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame in 2001 – alongside his boyhood hero, Elvis. This was also the year the singer finally chose to retire, his health now seriously failing him, even if his spirit remained willing. Retinal haemorrhaging soon caused his sight to fail, causing the singer to crash his car in 2006.

On 23 February 2008, Norman posted a message to his blog: ‘I feel like a prize in a box of Cracker Jacks, with God’s hand reaching down to pick me up. I am ready to fly home.’ His death the next day was met with hundreds of tributes from a broad cross section of both popular and worship music artists. His songs have been covered some three hundred times, while artists as diverse as Bob Dylan and The Pixies continue to cite him as an influence.

Regardless of Larry Norman’s message, his influence on two initially resistant cultures should not be underestimated.

Close…

Larry Norman

Having suffered multiple health issues throughout his adult life, Larry Norman had several brushes with inspiration before his untimely death. One that was less clear-cut, however, was an airplane accident in 1978 that the Christian rocker claimed cost him considerably in his later life.

Norman was preparing to sign a deal with Warner Brothers as he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on United Airlines flight 215. As the plane lurched to its touchdown, an overhead luggage compartment panel collapsed, hitting the musician’s head with enough ferocity to give him a concussion; he believed it also caused spinal and brain damage. In later interviews, Norman stated that this life-threatening event had provoked bipolar disorder. His then-manager Philip Mangano, however, denied that the incident had been at all serious.