The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (37 page)

Mike Jeffery
(UK business manager of The Animals and Jimi Hendrix; the DC9 in which he was returning to Britain collided with a Convair in mid-air)

Jerry Lee Lewis Jr
(US son of the rock ‘n’ roll legend who played percussion in his father’s band; born 2/11/1954; driving a jeep his father had bought him for his birthday, he collided with a car, 13/11)

Memphis Minnie
(US blues singer/guitarist; born Louisiana, 3/6/1897; stroke, 6/8)

Steve Perron
(US singer with The Children (Chillen) and The Mind’s Eye, who also wrote ZZ Top’s ‘Francine’; born 26/8/1945; choked on own vomit, 9/8)

Allan Sherman
(popular US singer/comedian who hit US #2 with the single ‘Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh!’ as well as scoring charttopping albums; born Illinois, 30/11/1924; respiratory failure, 21/11)

Murry Wilson
(uncompromising US manager/producer of The Beach Boys - father to Brian, Dennis and Carl. Neither Brian nor Dennis attended his funeral; heart attack, 4/6)

1974

FEBRUARY

Thursday 28

Bobby Bloom

(New York, 15 January 1946)

The term ‘one-hit wonder’ could have been coined for Bobby Bloom – and for him it certainly had a dark double-meaning. Although the US singer only troubled the charts once, his was the highest-profile case of accidental self-shooting since that of Johnny Ace (
Pre-1965)
nearly twenty years before. Originally a member of The Imaginations, the fairly talented Bloom became a soul-influenced songwriter who could name Tommy James & The Shondells’ UK number one ‘Mony Mony’ among his credits. His own performing career was patchy, to say the least, but, despite failed releases on many labels, the upbeat transatlantic Top Ten entry ‘Montego Bay’ (which, once again, fared better in Britain) saw his profile soar briefly in 1970. (Bloom also recorded as a member of animated ‘bubblegum’ heroes The Archies – though, unfortunately for him, not on the million-selling ‘Sugar Sugar’.)

Although Bobby Bloom was despondent about the sporadic nature of his success, his early death was no suicide. It was, however, a deeply ignominious passing: Bloom was apparently cleaning a gun at his Hollywood home when it unexpectedly fired.

MARCH

Saturday 9

Harry Womack

(Harris Womack - Cleveland, Ohio, 25 June 1945)

The Valentinos

The Womack Brothers

Realizing the dream of their deeply devout father Friendly, gospel quintet The Womack Brothers – Cecil, Curtis, Bobby, Friendly Jr and tenor Harry – became a surprise draw, emerging as they did from the tough neighbourhood of Quincy, Cleveland. It all appeared to fall into place when Sam Cooke took them on tour with his Soul Stirrers in the mid fifties: to Friendly Sr’s disgust, his boys opted to take the same secular route as Cooke; their father kicked them out of his house for deferring to the ‘devil’s music’. Signing with Cooke’s SAR label, the brothers became The Valentinos, enjoying R & B hits until their mentor’s dramatic death (
Pre-1965)
caused the collapse of the label. Bobby Womack attended Sam Cooke’s funeral as the widow’s new beau – even wearing a suit from Cooke’s wardrobe. Within this detail lies a black coincidence, to emerge a decade on …

By the 1970s, the ambitious Bobby Womack had become something of a star, and Harry occasionally played bass for his band. Bobby would repay his brother not least with the 1972 R & B hit ‘Harry Hippie’ – an unlikely homage to his sibling’s rather carefree existence. Harry Womack’s happy-go-lucky persona was set to cause critical problems, however, with his live-in girlfriend of five years. By 1974 this jealous lover had become so suspicious of Harry’s behaviour that Bobby Womack suggested he come on tour with his band, in order that the couple might sort out their domestic situation. In the event, Bobby Womack returned to his apartment one night to find his brother – who had a room there – brutally stabbed to death: Harry’s girlfriend had discovered girls’ clothes in his closet, and had attacked him with a kitchen knife. It transpired that the garments actually belonged to Bobby’s latest love.

APRIL

Friday 19

Vinnie Taylor

(Chris Donald - San Salvador, Bahamas, 1949)

Sha Na Na

The most unlikely participants at Woodstock were surely rock revivalists Sha Na Na, whose carefully choreographed prelude to Jimi Hendrix et al proved an unexpected success amid universal hippydom. Guitarist Chris Donald joined them the year after, with the group’s profile then at its highest. The son of a US State Department employee, young buck Donald had returned to America with his family, and played guitar with a series of surf-orientated bands before Sha Na Na beckoned; Vinnie Taylor (as he would become known) obliged the group by slicking back his hair and growing the requisite sideburns.

Although his image made him a popular stage figure, life did not end happily for Taylor: following a performance at the University of Virginia, he retired to his Holiday Inn bedroom in Charlottesville and overdosed, probably on heroin, during the night. The band he left behind descended into repetitious variety-slot filling, a lucrative US TV series and an appearance in the movie
Grease
(1977), nonetheless keeping the name of Sha Na Na in the public eye. The group continued to tour until the death of singer and bass-player ‘Chico’ Ryan
(
July 1998).

See also
Danny McBride (
July 2009). Later bass singer Reggie Battise died in
2010.

DEAD INTERESTING!

GOING OUT AT THE TOP

The UK singles chart painted a particularly bleak picture on 6 April 1974. At three, Hot Chocolate’s ‘Emma’ told the tale of the wannabe movie starlet who, though everybody believed in her, just couldn’t get a break - and took her own life
(
The Death Toll
#3). One place above this sat Paper Lace’s cloying ‘Billy, Don’t be a Hero’, the call-up tearjerker that would also head the US chart for Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods in June. The song at UK number one was worldwide smash ‘Seasons in the Sun’ - an adaptation of Jacques Brel’s ‘The Dying Man’ by Canadian singer Terry Jacks. Ahead of the track’s US release the previous autumn, Jacks’s publicity machine had circulated a rumour that Jacks was himself dying of cancer. In reality, it was only his marriage that was perishing - but the spin didn’t harm sales one iota.