The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (408 page)

The rough-edged four-piece became Jim & The Lords, and impressed sound engineer David Hassinger – who likewise impressed upon
them
the need for a new band name before he took over as their manager and submitted demos. (As it happened, the one chosen – The Electric Prunes – was little more than the punchline to a kids’ joke.) The group signed with Warner’s imprint Reprise in 1966. However, the first single ‘Ain’t It Hard’ failed to puncture the Hot 100, the label then insistent that songwriters should step in to compose the next release. Contract composers Nancie Mantz and Annette Tucker thus came up with ‘I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night’ (1966), which, after a sluggish start, climbed the US charts to within an ace of the Top Ten, shifting just short of one million units as it did so. The song – still considered a classic of the psychedelic genre – opened the band’s debut album, pushing the collection of originals and tailored efforts well into the Billboard 200. Similar wordplay featured on the next hit, Mantz and Tucker’s ‘Get Me to the World on Time’ (1967, US Top Forty), which charted in its wake. (By now The Prunes featured new guitarist James Spagnola, with the returning Preston Ritter on drums.)

The Electric Prunes weren’t to replicate this success, though they might’ve stood a better chance had their career not been beset by all manner of stylistic and line-up changes during what should have been their late-sixties heyday. Despite this upheaval, the classic roster were to roll back the years with a series of shows at the turn of the millennium, the genial Tulin then recording with Billy Corgan on Smashing Pumpkins’ eighth album
Teargarden By Kaleidoscope
(2009) – for which he also appeared live and on Jay Leno’s
Tonight Show.
(Tulin also lent his talents to Corgan’s Spirits in the Sky, a psychedelic ‘supergroup’ formed to pay homage to recently deceased hero Sky Saxon
(
June 2009
).)

‘Mark played his instrument with a quiet fire. And he died doing what he loved–helping others.’

Friend and admirer, Billy Corgan

It appears that scuba-enthusiast Mark Tulin collapsed on Catalina Island, off the coast of California, having been on duty helping out the Avalon Underwater Clean-Up, which assists distressed divers. Despite being administered immediate aid, the bassist died from a heart attack.

See also
Jonathan Melvoin (
July 1996)

MARCH

Golden Oldies #130

Johnny Preston

(John Preston Courville - Port Arthur, Texas, 18 August 1939)

(The Shades)

American heart-throb Johnny Preston enjoyed a spectacular if brief moment in the pop spotlight at the turn of the sixties. Preston had been spotted fronting his Lamar University rock ‘n’ roll band, The Shades, by keen-eared disc jockey and recording artist J P ‘Big Bopper’ Richardson. The star offered him the ‘death-ditty’ ‘Running Bear’ shortly before his own tragic passing in the air crash that also killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens (
Pre-1965).

Because of Richardson’s death, the song stayed under wraps at Mercury for almost a year; however, it had a massive impact when it was finally released. ‘Running Bear’ struck a chord with almost all record buyers, catapulting Preston to the top of the charts in both America (1959) and the United Kingdom (1960), selling two million copies worldwide. (One little-known ghostly fact is that Richardson’s disembodied Native American ‘yelps’ punctuate the song’s chorus, alongside those of future country star George Jones.)

The young singer was an overnight star, following this smash with the somewhat corny ‘Cradle of Love’ (1960, US/UK Top Ten), which, for some reason, also became a massive hit in Greece. Despite this impressive start, things quickly fell flat after the third Top Twenty entry, ‘Feel So Fine’ (1960). Preston suddenly found the going altogether tougher and, despite many television and radio appearances, found himself high and dry by the end of 1961 - his sixth single ‘Free Me’ limping home at Cash Box number ninety-seven. Although Preston recorded for other labels during the sixties, he chose to abandon the music industry before he turned thirty. (It almost goes without saying, however, that the singer found time now and again to dust off his duds for the lucrative oldies circuit.)

After many years of continuing health problems, Johnny Preston succumbed to heart failure during bypass surgery in Beaumont, Texas on 4 March 2011.

Tuesday 8

Mike Starr

(Honolulu, Hawaii, 4 April 1966)

Alice In Chains

Sun Red Sun

(Various acts)

Nine years after the grisly, drug-related demise of singer Layne Staley (
April 2002
), further tragedy was to blight the history of Seattle grunge-metal giants Alice In Chains, with the reportedly prescription-related death of original bassist Mike Starr.

AIC were formed from the ashes of rock act Diamond Lie, by Starr, Jerry Cantrell (guitar) and Sean Kinney (drums), the three employing distinctive lead singer Layne Staley to complete the line-up. The group turned a few heads with their first album,
Facelift
(1990), although this set and its performance were to give little indication of the impressive series of platinum recordings that were to follow throughout the decade. AIC soon began to surf a global wave started by fellow Seattle-ites Nirvana and Pearl Jam, however their vision was unarguably darker still – the lyrics and delivery of Staley pointing to a world of alienation and, latterly, addiction. Nonetheless, the group broke through powerfully with the 1992 singles ‘Would’ and ‘Them Bones’, both sizeable British hits.

Citing personal reasons – possibly his burgeoning addictions – Starr left the band during 1993 while touring the four-million-selling
Dirt
(1992), although Staley was to suggest to the press that his friend had simply had enough of touring. (Starr was replaced by Mike Inez.) The bassist, however, promptly began work on a new project called Sun Red Sun with former members of Black Sabbath, although this too was shelved within months following the AIDs-related death of guitarist Ray Gillen
(
December 1993
).

‘Addiction’s no joke. We lost a very good friend of ours to that–Mike deserves a better life.’

Jerry Cantrell, in 2010

For many years abusing substances, Starr – who had remained close to the AIC singer – claimed to have been the last person to see Staley alive in 2002. Some years later, the bassist stated on VH1 reality show
Celebrity Rehab
that had he not been high himself on benzodiazapine, he might never have left Staley alone. Suffice to say, Starr’s involvement in what they considered to be frivolous television entertainment was
not
well-received by his former band mates in the light of Staley’s passing.