The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (43 page)

Possessor of a fine falsetto/tenor, Elbridge Bryant moved to Detroit to become (via earlier vocal troupe The Distants) an original member of The Temptations – but is often forgotten inbiographies because he was dismissed from the group ahead of their mid-sixties chart domination. Just how many songs featured Bryant’s crystal-clear tones is uncertain, as few Temptations records featured full credits, though he definitely sang lead on ‘Isn’t She Pretty?’ (1962) and ‘May I Have This Dance?’ (1963) – undeniably among the act’s most-favoured early numbers. Bryant, however, had a tendency towards heavy drinking and belligerence, which ultimately curtailed his time with Motown’s biggest group.

Bryant, desperate to leave his day-job as a milkman, became increasingly disillusioned with the band’s lack of success, and his unreliability and aggressive behaviour were the result of alcohol-promoted mood swings. Bryant attacked bandmate Paul Williams on a couple of notorious occasions – once smashing a beer bottle across the baritone’s face; after the second occurrence, following a performance at the Motortown Christmas Revue in 1963, he was dismissed by The Temps and replaced by David Ruffin. Bryant spent time with lesser acts – such as the locally popular Dramatics – but his drinking did not let up and his death in Florida from cirrhosis of the liver therefore came as little surprise.

See also
Paul Williams (
August 1973); David Ruffin (
June 1991); Eddie Kendricks (
October 1992); Melvin Franklin (
February 1995); Ali ‘Ollie’ Woodson (
May 2010). Three later Temptations have also since died.

Al Jackson Jr, with Booker T and MGs Steve Cropper and Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn: Time was tight

DECEMBER

Monday 8

Gary Thain

(Wellington, New Zealand, 15 May 1948)

Uriah Heep

The Keef Hartley Band

Gary Thain was a journeyman bassist who began his career with a number of New Zealand turns before moving to Britain when he was eighteen. Reluctant to be in the spotlight, Thain developed a reputation for his fastidious work rather than any onstage flamboyance. Although he picked up his first music-press column inches as a member of the blues-rock combo The Keef Hartley Band, it was with prog stalwarts the occasionally critically derided Uriah Heep that Thain experienced his most successful period. Playing with Uriah Heep in Dallas in September 1974, Thain received a massive electric shock on stage which caused him several months of ill health, during which time his cohorts saw fit to dismiss him from the band. The bassist understandably became reclusive and depressed; he’d had heart problems throughout his life, and now these were being exacerbated by his increasing use of heroin. The Texas experience having weakened his resistance, Gary Thain died in Norwood, London, apparently from an overdose.

See also
David Byron (
February 1985)

‘He was a rather weak person who never took care of himself. But still a nice guy - and a great bassist.’

Ken Hensley, leader, Uriah Heep

Lest We Forget

Other notable deaths that occurred sometime during 1975:

Cannonball Adderley
(US soul/jazz saxophonist; born Julian Adderley, Florida, 15/9/1928; stroke, 8/8)

Saul Bihari
(US record executive and co-founder (with his three brothers) of early R & B label, Modern Records; born Missouri, 9/3/1918; unknown, 22/2)

Patsy Collins
(giant UK roadie with Deep Purple; arguing with promoters over $750K owed to the band, he fell down a Jakarta lift shaft and died in a cab on the way to hospital - his body then ‘disappeared’, 4/12)

Chan Daniels
(US folk singer with The Highwaymen, who bagged a transatlantic #1 with 1961’s ‘Michael’; born 1/1/1940; pneumonia, 2/8)

Tom ‘Big Daddy’ Donahue
(formidable US rock DJ/entrepreneur who produced The Beatles’ last ever US show at Candlestick Park; born Indiana, 21/5/1928; heart attack, 28/4)

Lefty Frizzell
(influential US country musician and sometime collaborator with Hank Williams; born William Orville Frizzell, Texas, 31/3/1928; stroke/haemorrhage, 19/7)

Ronnie Quinton
(UK roadie with Deep Purple who was killed in a car crash – just eight months before the death of Patsy Collins, 10/4)

Arthur ‘Duke’ Reid
(influential Jamaican reggae producer, DJ and Trojan Records founder, the main rival to Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd; born Portland, c 1915; lengthy illness)

Stephen Taylor
(Jamaican singer and founder of The Ethiopians, who hit with 1967’s ‘Train To Skaville’; born 1944; hit by a van)

T-Bone Walker
(fêted US blues guitarist – the first to ‘plug in’ – who influenced a generation of rock acts including the Allman Bros; born Aaron Thibeaux Walker, Texas, 28/5/1910; bronchial pneumonia, 16/3)