Obituaries for 2017

[EasyAce]

The first album I ever bought (with babysitting money) was Steppenwolf Gold.  Still have it as a matter of fact.

My first Steppenwolf album was . . .


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBxjv4K2DOE

[goatprairie]

John Kay had one of the greatest voices in rock. I wish Steppenwolf had recorded a lot more music.  I put their greatest hits on my MP3 player.
The last thing I heard about McJohn after he left Steppenwolf was that for a while he was working at a golf driving range. He was one of the guys in the cage picking up the balls.

[Free Vulcan]

Cornelius Fudge died.

We don't send people to Azkaban for blowing up their aunt.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40818839

Looks like he was a real, talented, and classically trained actor. Getting to be so rare today.

[Wingnut]

John Kay had one of the greatest voices in rock. I wish Steppenwolf had recorded a lot more music.  I put their greatest hits on my MP3 player.
The last thing I heard about McJohn after he left Steppenwolf was that for a while he was working at a golf driving range. He was one of the guys in the cage picking up the balls.

 

[GtHawk]

Cornelius Fudge died.

We don't send people to Azkaban for blowing up their aunt.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40818839

Really enjoyed him in All Creatures Great And Small, RIP Siegfried.

[Suppressed]

Daniel Licht, ‘Dexter,’ ‘Children of the Corn’ Composer, Dies at 60
Jon Burlingame     AUGUST 3, 2017 | 09:36PM PT
http://variety.com/2017/film/news/daniel-licht-composer-dexter-children-of-the-corn-composer-dead-1202515585/

Daniel Licht, composer for TV’s “Dexter,” died of cancer late Wednesday. He was 60.

Licht scored all eight seasons of “Dexter,” the Showtime serial-killer drama, from 2006 to 2013. Although he also wrote music for movies and other TV projects, it was his quirky music for “Dexter” – employing unusual sounds using bones, knives, scissors, duct tape, wine glasses, didgeridoo, Irish harp and other instruments – that became his best-known work.

...

Excerpt.

[sneakypete]

Cornelius Fudge died.

We don't send people to Azkaban for blowing up their aunt.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40818839

@Restored

It should also be noted that he served with Richard Burton as enlisted men in the RAF during WW-2. IMHO,this is and was no small thing.

[goatprairie]

Daniel Licht, ‘Dexter,’ ‘Children of the Corn’ Composer, Dies at 60
Jon Burlingame     AUGUST 3, 2017 | 09:36PM PT
http://variety.com/2017/film/news/daniel-licht-composer-dexter-children-of-the-corn-composer-dead-1202515585/

Daniel Licht, composer for TV’s “Dexter,” died of cancer late Wednesday. He was 60.

Licht scored all eight seasons of “Dexter,” the Showtime serial-killer drama, from 2006 to 2013. Although he also wrote music for movies and other TV projects, it was his quirky music for “Dexter” – employing unusual sounds using bones, knives, scissors, duct tape, wine glasses, didgeridoo, Irish harp and other instruments – that became his best-known work.

...

Excerpt.

That's really strange....the wife and I recently finished watching the entire Dexter series. The theme song  ran in my head every morning after a previous evening's viewing.

[sneakypete]

Looks like he was a real, talented, and classically trained actor. Getting to be so rare today.

@Free Vulcan

If you think that,you don't watch many BBC productions. The British take their acting VERY seriously. IF they hire a lead that is either handsome or beautiful,that is nothing more than a happy coincidence because their PRIME goal is to hire the best actors they can find,regardless of the status of the role. No airheads there with supporting actors carrying them. In fact,no second-string actors in sight anywhere.

Don't believe me? Just watch anything from the BBC on PBS and see for yourself.

[goatprairie]

@Free Vulcan

If you think that,you don't watch many BBC productions. The British take their acting VERY seriously. IF they hire a lead that is either handsome or beautiful,that is nothing more than a happy coincidence because their PRIME goal is to hire the best actors they can find,regardless of the status of the role. No airheads there with supporting actors carrying them. In fact,no second-string actors in sight anywhere.

Don't believe me? Just watch anything from the BBC on PBS and see for yourself.

I was surprised recently to read about some young, prominent British actor who was a method actor.  I always remember reading about Laurence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman during the making of "The Marathon Man."
During one scene Hoffman was having trouble doing his lines and remarked out loud that he couldn't find his motivation.
Olivier supposedly retorted why didn't he try acting.

[Sanguine]

@Free Vulcan

If you think that,you don't watch many BBC productions. The British take their acting VERY seriously. IF they hire a lead that is either handsome or beautiful,that is nothing more than a happy coincidence because their PRIME goal is to hire the best actors they can find,regardless of the status of the role. No airheads there with supporting actors carrying them. In fact,no second-string actors in sight anywhere.

Don't believe me? Just watch anything from the BBC on PBS and see for yourself.

I agree and I like watching people who look like people.

[sneakypete]

I agree and I like watching people who look like people.

@Sanguine

Me,too. How believable are gritty dramas when all you see running around are super models with impeccable makeup and hair,faking karate kicks while wearing 6 inch heels,and beating the hell out of a half-dozen 300 lb thugs with weapons? That crap is more of a cartoon than a drama.

If you want to see genuine scary,check out "Alice" (Ruth Wilson) in the "Luther" series. She plays a murdering sociopath opposite Idris Elba,who is the homicide detective that first tried to arrest her for murder. Elba is a big,scary-looking guy that used to be a professional boxer,but it's Alice that is the scary one. Hell,she scared ME,and I KNEW it wasn't real and I was watching it on tv. Elba seemed to have no problem at all treating her as the scary one,either.

Ruth Wilson is something with bells on. Anything she is in is worth watching. Yeah,she is attractive,but no one will ever confuse her with being a model or great beauty. She IS one HELL of a talented actress,though.

One other thing I like about the British dramas is they never seem to play to any other stereotypes,either. ANY of the characters can die off at any time with no advance warning. 

In other words,it's kinda like real life.

BTW,if you get a chance,watch or buy the DVD's for the series "MI-5". Just might be the best dramatic series ever aired on tv.

[Sanguine]

@Sanguine

Me,too. How believable are gritty dramas when all you see running around are super models with impeccable makeup and hair,faking karate kicks while wearing 6 inch heels,and beating the hell out of a half-dozen 300 lb thugs with weapons? That crap is more of a cartoon than a drama.

If you want to see genuine scary,check out "Alice" (Ruth Wilson) in the "Luther" series. She plays a murdering sociopath opposite Idris Elba,who is the homicide detective that first tried to arrest her for murder. Elba is a big,scary-looking guy that used to be a professional boxer,but it's Alice that is the scary one. Hell,she scared ME,and I KNEW it wasn't real and I was watching it on tv. Elba seemed to have no problem at all treating her as the scary one,either.

Ruth Wilson is something with bells on. Anything she is in is worth watching. Yeah,she is attractive,but no one will ever confuse her with being a model or great beauty. She IS one HELL of a talented actress,though.

One other thing I like about the British dramas is they never seem to play to any other stereotypes,either. ANY of the characters can die off at any time with no advance warning. 

In other words,it's kinda like real life.

BTW,if you get a chance,watch or buy the DVD's for the series "MI-5". Just might be the best dramatic series ever aired on tv.

I'd forgotten Luther.  That was good, but brutal.

[sneakypete]

I'd forgotten Luther.  That was good, but brutal.

@Sanguine

But believable.

[GtHawk]

@Restored

It should also be noted that he served with Richard Burton as enlisted men in the RAF during WW-2. IMHO,this is and was no small thing.

No service in WWII was a small thing, but the war was over by the time he returned from flight school.

"Hardy won a place at Magdalen College, Oxford, but joined the RAF in 1944, going to the U.S. to train as a pilot. Before he could see action, the war was over and Hardy returned to Britain to finish his degree — not history, but English."

Really good article here 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4759116/Harry-Potter-actor-Robert-Hardy-dies-aged-91.html

[sneakypete]

No service in WWII was a small thing, but the war was over by the time he returned from flight school.

"Hardy won a place at Magdalen College, Oxford, but joined the RAF in 1944, going to the U.S. to train as a pilot. Before he could see action, the war was over and Hardy returned to Britain to finish his degree — not history, but English."

Really good article here 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4759116/Harry-Potter-actor-Robert-Hardy-dies-aged-91.html

@GtHawk

Thanks! The article I read made it sound like he was enlisted working at an airbase in England. In fact it DID say he and Burton worked at the air base. Said nothing about him being a pilot or in pilot training.

[GtHawk]

@GtHawk

Thanks! The article I read made it sound like he was enlisted working at an airbase in England. In fact it DID say he and Burton worked at the air base. Said nothing about him being a pilot or in pilot training.

Happy to share it, I learned things about him I didn't know, even though I am pretty sure I had seen a biography of him before.

[berdie]

John Kay had one of the greatest voices in rock. I wish Steppenwolf had recorded a lot more music.  I put their greatest hits on my MP3 player.
The last thing I heard about McJohn after he left Steppenwolf was that for a while he was working at a golf driving range. He was one of the guys in the cage picking up the balls.

I sure don't doubt you @goatprairie .

I saw him several years ago on late night tv, His voice sounded good.
But it was a little strange seeing an old guy singing Born To Be Wild.  But it may have been appropriate. He looked like he had been rode  hard and put a way wet.

[EasyAce]

Darren Daulton, former Phillies All-Star catcher, dies at 55
Cancer is a murderer as it is, glioblastoma a particularly brutal one.

RIP to one of the key men of the 1993 Philthy Phillies pennant winners---and one of the few
on the club who blamed no one but himself for his problems off the field and in retirement.

[EasyAce]

Don Baylor, who won MVP with Angels and World Series with Twins, dies at 68
Multiple myeloma, a fourteen-year battle. He partnered with former Yankee pitcher/Mets and Yankees
pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre to promote research into the disease. Baylor also played in three straight
World Series---for the 1986 Red Sox, the 1987 Twins (who won that Series), and the 1988 Athletics (in
his final season as a player)---and won an American League MVP with the 1979 Angels. He later
became the first manager of the Colorado Rockies and subsequently managed the Cubs for a spell.

RIP to a class act.

[jmyrlefuller]

Ty Hardin, actor turned tax activist, dies at 87



Hardin, a Korean War veteran and former college football player under Paul "Bear" Bryant, had a brief spell of success in Hollywood, including as the star of the Western TV series Bronco in the late 1950s. After a string of movies he made in Europe in the 1960s, his acting career largely ended.

A tax dispute with his then-home state of Arizona led to him founding a group later known as the Arizona Patriots, which began as a tax protest organization but was later infiltrated by antisemites, Laroucheans and other assorted radicals, as well as FBI undercover agents. The organization was raided in 1986 once it was clear the group was going to pull off terrorist attacks if left unchecked, at which point Hardin left the state of Arizona and lived a mostly quiet life afterward.

Obituary from the New York Post

Wikipedia

IMDB

[sneakypete]

Ty Hardin, actor turned tax activist, dies at 87

 

A tax dispute with his then-home state of Arizona led to him founding a group later known as the Arizona Patriots, which began as a tax protest organization but was later infiltrated by antisemites, Laroucheans and other assorted radicals, as well as FBI undercover agents.

No need to mention FBI agents but once. They were there spying on each other.

There was a VERY good reason people in the south in the early 60's were fond of saying "If you need to speak to a FBI agent quickly,the quickest way is go to a KKK meeting".

The Kennedy Crime Family had the Feebs taking over the KKK,and were even supplying them with dynamite and ideas. Ok,so the Kluxxers of the late 50's to early 60's probably couldn't have found an idea after a week of looking,but it was the Feebs suggesting the bombings and other atrocities through their informers and undercover agents. Whole careers were made from that stuff.

Same thing with the OKC bombing. McVey and his pals practically living in a FBI dorm the whole time they were experimenting with explosions and planning the bombing,and chances are at least 50/50 that it was a undercover Feeb that whispered "bomb a federal building" into McVey's ear. Yeah,it WAS McVey's fault for listening and doing it,and the SOB only got a fraction of what he deserved to get for murdering all those innocent people,but when you go whispering suggestions in the ears of mentally damaged people,you deserve some of the blame for the things they do.



Obituary from the New York Post

Wikipedia

IMDB

[Gefn]

Glenn Campbell has died.

http://www.tmz.com/2017/08/08/glen-campbell-dead/

I'm really bummed out about this. RIP, Rhinestone Cowboy

[thackney]

http://www.glencampbell.com/glentraviscampbell

It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and legendary singer and guitarist, Glen Travis Campbell, at the age of 81, following his long and courageous battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Glen is survived by his wife, Kim Campbell of Nashville, TN; their three children, Cal, Shannon and Ashley; his children from previous marriages, Debby, Kelli, Travis, Kane, and Dillon; ten grandchildren, great- and great-great-grandchildren; sisters Barbara, Sandra, and Jane; and brothers John Wallace “Shorty” and Gerald.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Glen Campbell Memorial Fund at BrightFocus Foundation through the CareLiving.org donation page.

A personal statement from Kim Campbell will follow.

The family appreciates your prayers and respect for their privacy at this time.

[thackney]

He was a true rags to riches story, playing so many different styles of music. The 12th child and seventh son of a dirt poor sharecropper, his dad bought him a $5 guitar from Sears & Roebuck at the age of four.

His final recording won his sixth Grammy Award in 2014, "I'm Not Going to Miss You," This song is heart wrenching for me.

Glen Campbell - I'm Not Gonna Miss You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8TsAh-zYFI

The video is full of scenes, of his wife and children growing up, which he acknowledges, he won't remember.

http://www.glencampbell.com/content/about

...His work during this period would have been enough to secure his place in rock history. Alongside musicians like Leon Russell and drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer, he played on an astounding 586 sessions in 1963 alone. That's him creating unforgettable guitar parts on the Beach Boys' landmark Pet Sounds album, Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night," the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" and the Monkees' "I'm a Believer," not to mention hits by Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Lou Rawls, Ricky Nelson, Merle Haggard and Bobby Vee. And you'll also find him among backing a who's who list of artists with the Crew as the house band on the legendary "T.A.M.I. Show."...

Hall of Fame Inductions
2005 - Country Music Hall Of Fame
2007 - Musician's Hall Of Fame

Grammy Awards
1967 - Best Country & Western Solo Vocal Performance, Male, "Gentle On My Mind"
1967 - Best Country & Western Recording, "Gentle On My Mind"
1967 - Best Vocal Performance, Male, "By The Time I Get To Phoenix"
1967 - Best Contemporary Male Solo Vocal Performance, "By The Time I Get To Phoenix"
1968 - Album of the Year, By The Time I Get To Phoenix
2000 - Grammy of Fame, Single, "Wichita Lineman"
2004 - Grammy Hall of Fame, Single, "By The Time I Get To Phoenix"
2008 - Grammy Hall of Fame, Single, "Gentle On My Mind"
2012 - Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
2014 - Best Country Song, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You"

Academy Of Country Music
1967 - Single of the Year, "Gentle On My Mind"
1967 - Album of the Year, Gentle On My Mind
1967 - Top Male Vocalist
1968 - Album of the Year, Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell
1968 - Top Male Vocalist
1968 - TV Personality of the Year
1971 - TV Personality of the Year
1975 - Single of the Year, "Rhinestone Cowboy"
1975 - Song of the Year, "Rhinestone Cowboy"
1998 - Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award
2015 - Career Achievement Award

American Music Awards
1976 - Pop/Rock Single of the Year, "Rhinestone Cowboy"
1976 - Country Single of the Year, "Rhinestone Cowboy"
1977 - Country Album of the Year, Rhinestone Cowboy

Country Music Association Awards
1968 - Entertainer of the Year
1968 - Male Vocalist of the Year

GMA Dove Awards
1986 - Album By A Secular Artist, No More Night
1992 - Southern Gospel Recorded Song of the Year, "Where Shadows Never Fall"
2000 - Country Album of the Year, A Glen Campbell Christmas

Miscellaneous Awards
1974 - CMA of Great Britain's Entertainer of the Year
2008 - Q Legend Award
2012 - Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc. - Career Achievement Award
2014 - Hollywood Music In Media Awards - Lifetime Achievement Award
_________________

[Millee]

He was my very first crush.  Have been a fan my entire life.  RIP, Mr. Campbell.   

[truth_seeker]

Glenn Campbell has died.

http://www.tmz.com/2017/08/08/glen-campbell-dead/

I'm really bummed out about this. RIP, Rhinestone Cowboy

Sad for this to happen, knew it was coming. My wife just got pissed for me saying this, but I mentioned to her it was probably a relief for both Glen, and his family.

Neither one could have been enjoying these final times.

BEFORE GC made his chops as a C&W performer, he was a member of the wrecking crew in LA, along with Leon Russell, etc.

[truth_seeker]

Two great ones, that died in the last year


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm3NoFsaKQ0

[debrawiest]

Sad news. He was a phenomenal guitarist. RIP

[Wingnut]

Quite by accident my 1st Glen Campbell 45 I ever bought was "Wichita Lineman" 

I thought it was a football song.  Turns out it was a pretty good little song.  I kept it.

[Applewood]

I envision Campbell in heaven making music with the angels. Rest in peace.

[EasyAce]

I still think these are Glen Campbell's best . . .


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NeHeNZkH7k


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_baSK91-OB8

He was also part of this short-lived experiment, with fellow ex-Beach Boys traveler Gary Usher
and then-Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, making this striking record . . .


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG3rS9M5lwo

RIP Mr. Campbell.

[Free Vulcan]

Campbell was one of the greatest songwriters of any genre.

[Gefn]

I still think these are Glen Campbell's best . . .


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NeHeNZkH7k


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_baSK91-OB8

He was also part of this short-lived experiment, with fellow ex-Beach Boys traveler Gary Usher
and then-Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, making this striking record . . .


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG3rS9M5lwo

RIP Mr. Campbell.

I think Phoenix and Whitata were written by JImmy Webb. Love that guy.

[sneakypete]

Glenn Campbell has died.

http://www.tmz.com/2017/08/08/glen-campbell-dead/

I'm really bummed out about this. RIP, Rhinestone Cowboy

@Freya

I am very sorry to hear that,but he has been in really bad shape the last few years,and there should be a limit to the suffering anyone has to go through.

[Wingnut]

Session Men offline: Glen Campbell & The Wrecking Crew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9-FfwwXRDg&ab_channel=TheProductionCompanyUSA

[sneakypete]

Two great ones, that died in the last year


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm3NoFsaKQ0

@truth_seeker

DAYUM! I had managed to forget Leon Russel had died,and now I'm bummed out again. IMHO,one of the greatest singers and songwriters ever. I am continually pissed off every time I hear some millennial dunghead credit Donnie Hathaway with "A Song for You". Leon Russel wrote and performed that song for the woman he married before Donnie Hathaway was a glean in the eye of one of his mama's customers.

[EasyAce]

I think Phoenix and Whitata were written by JImmy Webb. Love that guy.

They were both written by Jimmy Webb. So was "Galveston," another big Campbell hit. From all accounts,
teaming Campbell with producer/arranger Al DeLory and with Webb's material kicked his career from nothing
special to never better starting in 1967-68.

I once had a promo single on Capitol. It was Al DeLory, playing piano and arranging an almost ethereal
re-cut of "Wichita Lineman." I used to like listening to that record in winter, because somehow I always
pictured the protagonist of the song out working an isolated rural line. It might have been the way
DeLory arranged the strings on both his instrumental cut and Campbell's hit, but it was a wintry feeling
that made you feel for the protagonist even if you were growing up near New York City, as I did. I used
to see the linemen working in my little suburb in winter and feel for those poor guys.

[sneakypete]

I once had a promo single on Capitol. It was Al DeLory, playing piano and arranging an almost ethereal
re-cut of "Wichita Lineman." I used to like listening to that record in winter, because somehow I always
pictured the protagonist of the song out working an isolated rural line. It might have been the way
DeLory arranged the strings on both his instrumental cut and Campbell's hit, but it was a wintry feeling
that made you feel for the protagonist even if you were growing up near New York City, as I did

.

@EasyAce

It doesn't take much imagination for anyone who has ever driven through Kansas to imagine the nightmare it must be to be climbing poles in the winter in that part of the country. Cold,bleak,and the damn wind never stops blowing. Get out of town in low visibility like a snowstorm,and it must be like being sealed up in a fishbowl,and cut off from the rest of the world.

Whatever they get paid,it's not enough.

[Gefn]

@EasyAce

JImmy Webb wrote All I know. That song brings me to tears. It's beautiful

[EasyAce]

@truth_seeker

DAYUM! I had managed to forget Leon Russel had died,and now I'm bummed out again. IMHO,one of the greatest singers and songwriters ever. I am continually pissed off every time I hear some millennial dunghead credit Donnie Hathaway with "A Song for You". Leon Russel wrote and performed that song for the woman he married before Donnie Hathaway was a glean in the eye of one of his mama's customers.

Leon Russell wrote that song in 1970, a year after Donny Hathaway signed his Atlantic recording contract.
Hathaway covered "A Song for You" on his second album; it got a lot of air play on radio stations whose
forte was soul music. I missed that album when it was originally released, though I had Hathaway's first
and third (the live set) albums, but I got all five of his Atlantic albums in a small box package recently,
reissued by Rhino/Atlantic a couple of years ago. (Ray Charles eventually recorded a version of "A Song
for You" and won a Grammy for Best Male R&B Performance for his version in 1993.) It was after the last,
Extensions of a Man, that Hathaway's chronic clinical depression kicked over in earnest, eventually
leading him into his 1979 suicide.

Oy those millenials! ;)

[EasyAce]

@EasyAce

JImmy Webb wrote All I know. That song brings me to tears. It's beautiful

@Freya
The songs we've been talking about are almost enough to forgive him for "MacArthur's Park!" ;)

[EasyAce]

.


@EasyAce

It doesn't take much imagination for anyone who has ever driven through Kansas to imagine the nightmare it must be to be climbing poles in the winter in that part of the country. Cold,bleak,and the damn wind never stops blowing. Get out of town in low visibility like a snowstorm,and it must be like being sealed up in a fishbowl,and cut off from the rest of the world.

Whatever they get paid,it's not enough.

When I was in the Air Force in Omaha, a master sergeant with a pilot's license befriended me and liked
me to join him flying every Saturday out of our base's Aero Club. We used to fly over Kansas on those
little jaunts, just relaxing, having an airborne smoke and coffee, even in winter. I'd look down at those
big snow-blanketed Kansas areas and wonder, if Omaha could get clobbered in the winter and a trip
from my apartment to the base would have been better done on a dogsled, I could only imagine what
those hearty Kansas folks thought. (On the other hand, flying over Leavenworth I had other thoughts
. . . )

[sneakypete]

Leon Russell wrote that song in 1970, a year after Donny Hathaway signed his Atlantic recording contract.
Hathaway covered "A Song for You" on his second album; it got a lot of air play on radio stations whose
forte was soul music. I missed that album when it was originally released, though I had Hathaway's first
and third (the live set) albums, but I got all five of his Atlantic albums in a small box package recently,
reissued by Rhino/Atlantic a couple of years ago. (Ray Charles eventually recorded a version of "A Song
for You" and won a Grammy for Best Male R&B Performance for his version in 1993.) It was after the last,
Extensions of a Man, that Hathaway's chronic clinical depression kicked over in earnest, eventually
leading him into his 1979 suicide.

Oy those millenials! ;)

@EasyAce

I stand corrected. I figured Hathaway was a puppy because everybody I saw on tv ranting about how good a songwriter he was for having written "A Song for You" were 20-something airheads,and because I had never heard of him.

People crediting him with that song still piss me off,though.

[Wingnut]

@Freya
The songs we've been talking about are almost enough to forgive him for "MacArthur's Park!" ;)

I heard a long time ago he bet Richard Harris a Rolls-Royce that he could write a No. 1 song for him.

[EasyAce]

@EasyAce

I stand corrected. I figured Hathaway was a puppy because everybody I saw on tv ranting about how good a songwriter he was for having written "A Song for You" were 20-something airheads,and because I had never heard of him.

People crediting him with that song still piss me off,though.

@sneakypete
It would have pissed Donny Hathaway off, too. Hathaway was meticulous about giving credit where
due with the material he played. Hathaway was
a fine songwriter, but he'd have been
the first to make sure Leon Russell got the label credit for writing "A Song for You." It was a tragedy
that Hathaway's mental problems got in the way of his talent---he was a phenomenal arranger
and singer and had one of the jazziest sounding soul groups in the business performing with him
---because for a good while it seemed as though he would take R and B farther than anyone
artist since Ray Charles recorded for Atlantic.

[EasyAce]

I heard a long time ago he bet Richard Harris a Rolls-Royce that he could write a No. 1 song for him.

I wonder which Rolls Royce Harris gave him . . .



;)

[Wingnut]

I wonder which Rolls Royce Harris gave him . . .



;)

lol...  did it make #1...in the states anyway.

[sneakypete]

@sneakypete

It would have pissed Donny Hathaway off, too. Hathaway was meticulous about giving credit where
due with the material he played.

@EasyAce

Which is as it should be. Writing a song like "A Song for You" isn't some mindless thing like hitting a home run or scoring a touchdown. It is something pretty damn fine and unique in this world,and the people who are lucky enough to be able to do this should get the recognition they deserve.

[mountaineer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8TsAh-zYFI&feature=share