The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (429 page)

On 28 December 2011, Philadelphia police were called to a family home in the Bristol Township where they discovered a man initially thought to be a ‘fall victim’. Closer inspection showed that the homeowner – musician Danny DeGenaro – had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest. The guitarist was shortly pronounced dead upon arrival at Middletown’s St Mary Medical Center. With little or no evidence to guide them, authorities were initially hesitant about the incident, although by March 2012 they had determined that they were now pursuing a homicide and had five individuals – including a teenage girl – detained on murder, conspiracy, robbery and burglary charges.

Shive, who had known and played with DeGennaro since their schooldays, praised his late friend very highly: ‘I only joined Kingfish because Danny was involved. He should’ve been international – in his voice I heard Lou Rawls; in his playing, Stevie Ray Vaughan.’

Original Kingfish keyboardist Mick Ward died in a car crash during 1974.

Golden Oldies #164

Robert Lee Dickey

(Tallahassee, Florida, 2 September 1939)

James & Bobby Purify

(Various acts)

Robert Dickey ‘adopted’ the name of his cousin and co-star, yet reportedly hated the song that made the duo a household name during 1966. Dickey had been a session guitarist and had toured with soul giant Otis Redding before teaming with James Purify to form the distinctively named pairing.

As a member of The Dothan Sextet, Dickey spent most of 1965 on the road as his act opened for Redding, the exposure to tens of thousands of Redding devotees put the musician in good stead for his own time in the spotlight. James & Bobby Purify were thus named and signed by Don Schroeder at Bell Records early in 1966, and some intense work paid off almost immediately. The Purifys’ first single, ‘I’m Your Puppet’ (1966, US Top Ten; US R & B Top Five) gave them an instant gold record - but Dickey claimed not to like the song he’d ‘had to sing in the studio for twenty-three hours solid.’ Little did he know he’d be singing it for the next five years - however, James & Bobby Purify were now ‘money’, and followed up this signature hit with three further Top Forty outings during 1967 in ‘Wish You Didn’t Have To Go’, plus the standards ‘Shake a Tail Feather’ and ‘Let Love Come Between Us’, both of which made the R & B Top Twenty. Suffice it to say that the duo was worked hard on the tour circuit at this point.

With hit records becoming fewer and farther between, in 1971 Dickey left an industry for which he never truly felt an affinity, and his replacement ‘Bobby Purify’ arrived in the shape of Ben Moore. The new partnership enjoyed notable success in Europe, even re-recording ‘I’m Your Puppet’ to good effect in 1976. Dickey, meanwhile, had secured more menial employment as a city maintenance supervisor - although he eventually returned to singing thanks to encouragement from his friend and mentor, Ray Charles
(Golden Oldies #20).
After a lower profile singing part with The Bethlehem Male Singers gospel troupe, Robert Dickey passed away from natural causes on 29 December 2011.

Lest We Forget

Other notable deaths that occurred sometime during 2011:

Ken Arcipowski
(US doo-wop founder and bass-vocalist with Randy & The Rainbows, who had the original hit with ‘Denise’, later revamped by Blondie; born 10/7/1944; unknown, 23/3)

John Barry
(acclaimed British musician/composer who fronted The John Barry Seven, responsible for the 1960 hits ‘Hit and Miss’ and ‘Walk Don’t Run’–he went on to score many major movies; born John Barry Prendergast, Yorkshire, England, 3/11/1933; heart attack, Glen Cove, New York, 30/1)

James ‘Curley’ Cooke
(US rock guitarist who was briefly a member of The Steve Miller Band during the mid-seventies–he also worked with Boz Scaggs; born Wausau, Wisconsin, 12/11/1944; cancer, 16/5)

Don DeVito
(Grammy-winning rock producer of many Bob Dylan albums as well as recordings by Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Carole King and Simon & Garfunkel–he started as a guitarist in Al Kooper’s band, The Sabres; born Brooklyn, New York, 6/9/1939; prostate cancer, 25/11)

Gil Garfield
(US pre-rock ‘n’ roll pop vocalist with The Cheers, who scored hits with ‘(Bazoom) I Need Your Lovin’’ and ‘Black Denim Trousers’; born Los Angeles, California, 20/5/1930; liver cancer, 1/1–two decades after the death of front man, Bert Convy)

Johnny Giosa
(aka Johnny G–US hard-rock drummer with the gold-selling BulletBoys–a later band of ex-Guns n’ Roses drummer Steven Adler; born 1969; car accident on the LA freeway, California, 28/8)

Esther Gordy Edwards
(aka ‘Motown’s Matriarch’–the older sister to label honcho Berry Gordy, she lent him the $800 to start the company, later becoming a vice-president and head of its museum, Hitsville USA; born Oconee County, Georgia, 25/4/1920; natural causes, Michigan, 24/8)

Mark ‘Drac’ Hicks
(US funk singer/guitarist with the popular Slave, who scored a 1977 R & B #1 with ‘Slide’; born Dayton, Ohio, 1949; heart attack, 14/6–he died just three months after bassist Mark Adams)

Kampane
(US rap artist with the Roc-A-Fella posse–he recorded ‘What You Drinkin’ On?’; born Rhian Stoute, Brooklyn, New York, 1978; he was shot by a rival New Jersey gang who then torched his body in a Chevy Tahoe, 16/8)

Kevin Kavanaugh
(US rock keyboardist/singer who played with the Bruce Springsteen-affiliated Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes–he also played with The Disciples of Soul and The High Voltage Brothers, among others; born West Orange, New Jersey, 27/11/1951; illness, 4/6)

Phil Kennemore
(US ‘classic metal’ bassist with popular Oakland band Y&T, who managed a gold album with 1984’s
In Rock We Trust;
born 20/10/1953; metastatic lung cancer, 7/1)

Tom King
(US rock guitarist with The Outsiders who scored several hits starting with a million-seller, the Top 5 ‘Time Won’t Let Me’ in 1965; born Cleveland, Ohio, 13/7/1942; he died of congestive heart failure at a Wickliffe nursing home, 23/4)

Kathy Kirby
(eye-catching UK pop singer who, despite only a handful of hits, was believed to be the highest-paid of her generation-1964’s ‘Secret Love’ was her best-known song; born Kathleen O’Rourke, Essex, England, 20/10/1938; illness, 19/5)

Paul Leka
(respected US keyboardist/songwriter/ producer originally with The Chateaus-among his compositions are the #1 hits ‘Green Tambourine’ by The Lemon Pipers and Steam’s ‘Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye’; born Bridgeport, Connecticut, 20/2/1943; brief illness, Sharon, 12/10)

Anet Mook
(Dutch singer/guitarist with London-based altrockers Cay, who released the blistering
Nature Creates Freaks
before splitting in 2000; born c 1974; she was struck and killed by a train in Amsterdam, 11/6)

Monte Owens
(US singer/guitarist with popular doo-wop combos The Mello-Moods and The Solitaires, with whom he scored the big 1957 R & B hit ‘Walking Along’; born Monteith Owens, New York, 31/3/1936; short illness, The Bronx, 3/3)

Darryl Pandy
(giant-sized US gospel/house vocalist with a remarkable multi-octave range-he sang the 1986 dance hit ‘Love Can’t Turn Around’ with Farley Jackmaster Funk; born Chicago, Illinois, 1962; illness, 10/6)

Joseph ‘Pinetop’ Perkins
(revered US blues singer/pianist who toured with Earl Hooker before joining Muddy Waters’s band; born Belzoni, Mississippi, 7/7/1913; having survived a 2004 train crash that totaled his car, he died from natural causes in Austin, Texas, 21/3)

Lee Pockriss
(enduring pop songwriter/musicologist, among whose compositions were the #1 smashes ‘Catch a Falling Star’ by Perry Como, ‘Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie -Yellow Polka Dot Bikini’ by Brian Hyland and ‘Teen Angel’ by Shelley Fabares; born Brooklyn, New York, 20/1/1924; illness, Connecticut, 14/11)

Cory Smoot
(aka Flattus Maximus-mutant US guitarist/producer with mask-wearing metal-pastiche band GWAR, who scored a platinum single in Germany with 1998’s ‘Sammy’; born 1977; coronary condition-he was found dead on the band’s tour bus in North Dakota, 3/11)

Randy Wood
(US founder of the Dot label, which issued the records of Pat Boone, The Del-Vikings, The Surfaris and even Nervous Norvus-during one week in 1955, he boasted five of the Top 10; born Morrison, Tennessee, 30/3/1917; injuries sustained in a fall at his La Jolia, California, home, 9/4)

The Death Toll #6

MURDERING THE CLASSICS

After ‘love’ comes ‘murder’ - a subject obsessed-over for almost as long as the former by pop lyricists throughout the world. In some cases, the two passions are inextricably linked, in others, cold brutality takes the fore. Below is a completely subjective chart compiled from the hundreds of examples from the past fifty-plus years of music - you might even call it
The Killers’ Greatest Hits…

1 ‘Banks of the Ohio’

Olivia Newton-John (1971)

It didn’t seem possible that the pure Ms John might purvey tunes of such sinister intent as this Australian number-one that became the angelic singer’s second Hot 100 single in the US. Truth be told, the lyrics -describing a young man who counters his intended’s rejection of marriage proposal with her murder - were written back in the nineteenth century. However, ‘Banks of the Ohio’ is just one of a veritable glut of tales pertaining to riverside crimes of passion, including songs by Neil Young, Tom Waits, P J Harvey and even ONJ’s natural successor Kylie Minogue, whose ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’ was an unexpected effort penned by the king of the ‘murder ballad,’ Nick Cave.