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Pop Rock Nation

Category: Obituaries

remembering-the-artists-we-love

  • Rest in peace, Joe Cocker…

    Rest in peace, Joe Cocker…

    Joe Cocker has died of lung cancer at age 70

    Like so many other people, I was saddened to get the news last night about soulful British singer Joe Cocker, who died of lung cancer. I grew up listening to Cocker’s gravelly, sexy, and unique sound. In recent years, Cocker and his wife, Pam, had been living in Crawford, Colorado, where they had started the Cocker Kids’ Foundation, a local charity in support of the youth in their adopted community. I am sure the people of Crawford will remember Joe Cocker for his generosity, aside from his memorable music.


    Joe Cocker’s awesome cover of The Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends”.

    Though I wasn’t around when Cocker got his start in the music business, my generation will always remember Cocker’s “With A Little Help From My Friends”. It was the theme song for the hit 80s era show, The Wonder Years. Of course, children of the 80s will also remember Cocker’s beautiful duet with Jennifer Warnes for the blockbuster film, An Officer and A Gentleman. I have to admit, that film is one of my all time favorites and so is “Up Where We Belong”.


    This is such a beautiful love song and Cocker’s gruff vocals are such an interesting contrast to Warnes’ silky smooth soprano.

    When I was in college, I had a roommate who used to play one of Cocker’s live albums all the time. I became more familiar with his music and realized that performing live, he must have been an incredible sight to see. Speaking of live performances, here’s a somewhat recent one with Cocker singing his 1974 hit, “You Are So Beautiful.” Lots of women and probably more than a few men swooned to this one.


    I find myself getting a little choked up over this right now. If there’s one thing Joe Cocker did well, it was conveying emotion in his music.

    Want to rock a little? In 1970, Joe Cocker famously covered “The Letter”, a song originally made popular in 1967 by The Box Tops, and made it his own.


    Remember when people actually wrote letters instead of emails? I kind of miss those days.

    And then there was the downright bluesy, sexy, sax infused “You Can Leave Your Hat On”…


    Take it off… take it all off. But you can leave your hat on.

    The bluesy trend was also in Cocker’s version of Traffic’s “Feelin’ Alright”.


    “Feelin’ Alright” is another cover song Joe Cocker made his own.

    And who can resist the suggestive sexiness of Cocker’s cover of The Beatles’ “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window”?


    Here’s a video from 1970 featuring Leon Russell.

    Joe Cocker had an amazing career and will always be remembered for his gritty, distinctive vocals, his incredible energy, and his indelible original musical stamp on songs that were written by other people. The world of rock and roll has lost a true legend and the people of Crawford, Colorado have lost a good, and according to news reports, surprisingly down-to-earth and regular citizen. May Joe Cocker rest in peace and may peace be with his family.

  • Remembering Gerry Goffin…

    Remembering Gerry Goffin…

    The world lost a great lyricist yesterday. Today, I’m remembering Gerry Goffin.

    Carole King is one of my favorite singer-songwriters. Since I was a small child, I’ve loved her very personal music which is often accompanied by meaningful lyrics. Because I’m such a Carole King fan, I follow her on Facebook. Yesterday, she posted that her ex husband, the father of her two daughters, and former song writing partner, Gerry Goffin, died of natural causes. He was 75 years old.

    During his lifetime, Gerry Goffin wrote the lyrics for seven Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers and a total of 59 Top 40 hits. Though Goffin was best known for writing hits with Carole King, he also worked with some other big names in the music business, including: Russ Titleman, Barry Mann, Carole Bayer Sager, and Michael Masser. Goffin was also one of the first people to recognize Kelly Clarkson’s talent as a singer. He hired her to sing demos in 1995, years before she became famous for being the world’s first American Idol.

    I don’t want to write too much about his personal life, because honestly, I don’t know much about his personal life. What I know about are his songs, which could serve as a wonderful soundtrack for people who came of age in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. In fact, I have an interesting anecdote related to Carole King and somewhat loosely to her first husband, Gerry Goffin.

    Back in April 2010, my husband Bill and I were on our very first cruise on SeaDream I, a small luxury mega yacht. It was a five night cruise in the Caribbean and, though we are definitely not financially well off people, it was populated by some folks who have ties to show business. One night, they had karaoke. It was very poorly attended. I think maybe six people showed up, most of whom didn’t want to sing. Since I love singing, I was game. I sang “I Feel The Earth Move”, which is a song that was written by Carole King alone.

    When I was finished singing, a lady approached me, along with a couple that she introduced as her parents. She complimented me on my voice and asked if I was in the music business. I said I was a housewife. We ended up hanging out for awhile and she told me that her husband works with Joan Jett. I later met her husband and was left with the impression that maybe he was in Joan Jett’s band. Her husband was wearing a USO baseball cap and told me he appreciated Bill’s service in the Army. Later, they had a brief conversation and the guy gave Bill his card. When we got home, I looked them up on the Internet and it turned out that the couple were Joan Jett’s managers and they were pretty much responsible for helping her to launch her career.

    Ever since then, anytime I listen to a song by Carole King– and so many of her best songs were co-written by Gerry Goffin– I think of meeting my friend Meryl and her husband, Kenny. In fact, when I shared Carole King’s status update about Goffin, Meryl shared in the sadness with me.

    One of my favorite songs penned by Gerry Goffin and Carole King is “Up On The Roof”. It was originally recorded by The Drifters. My favorite version is, of course, the one James Taylor recorded in 1979. I think it was the first song I ever heard by JT and it made me fall in love with his music. Who hasn’t fantasized about getting away from it all, even if it’s only for a little while, up on the roof?


    Gerry Goffin’s lyrics are so relatable in this song about escaping it all and gazing at the stars with someone special.

    Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote “Take Good Care of My Baby”, a song that was a hit for Bobby Vee and was later used in lots of commercials… especially for baby products.


    Catchy, isn’t it?

    He also helped write a huge hit for the late Whitney Houston…


    Whitney Houston singing Goffin’s lyrics at the 1986 Grammys… I have always loved “Saving All My Love For You”.

    And one for Glenn Medeiros, popular when I was in high school…


    I confess, I didn’t know Gerry Goffin helped write this song until this morning…

    Another one of my favorite songs by Gerry Goffin is another one he wrote with Carole King… It’s been covered by so many people, myself included.


    Carole King sings “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, her breakthrough hit with her ex husband, Gerry Goffin…

    The Shirrelles made “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” famous, but I love the way Carole King does it, especially when she’s backed up by James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. And I love the words, which captures the feelings of any young woman unsure of her paramour’s love for her. Obviously, the song resonated with a lot of people besides me.

    Today happens to be my birthday and it hasn’t gotten off to the best start. It’s a little sad to be listening to these great songs by Gerry Goffin and knowing that there won’t be any more from him, now that his work on Earth is done.

  • Remembering Casey Kasem…

    Remembering Casey Kasem…

    I wasn’t surprised when I got the news on Father’s Day that he’d died. Today, I’m remembering Casey Kasem.

    Like a lot of other folks who get the bulk of their news from the Internet, over the past few weeks I became aware of the drama surrounding the last days of Casey Kasem’s life. His children from his first marriage to Linda Myers were at odds with his second wife, Jean Kasem, over the legendary announcer’s medical care. I read a number of disturbing accounts of what was going on between the kids and the wife, but I hesitate to draw conclusions. So much of what has been written about how Casey Kasem was cared for during his final days seems very dramatic. Given that I don’t know any of the people involved and recognize how the press can distort things, all I can say is that Kasem’s last weeks on earth were probably a lot less peaceful than they needed to be.

    Casey Kasem had lewy body dementia, a cruel disease that also affects my father. My dad is a year younger than Kasem is, though at this point, he still seems relatively coherent at times. Having seen lewy body disease and the dementia it causes up close, I can imagine that Kasem’s last days were very painful for his family. Lewy body dementia typically causes hallucinations and disorientation. In Kasem’s case, it also took his voice. My father has also lost much of his voice and that makes me realize how traumatizing it must have been for Kasem, to lose that one thing that he’d built his life around. My dad used to be a good singer but can barely speak now. It’s hard to imagine Casey Kasem without his famous voice; naturally, he stayed out of the public eye in his last days.

    I remember Casey Kasem so well as the voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo and the announcer on the American Top 40 radio show. On weekend afternoons, I’d be cleaning stalls at the barn where I boarded my horse. The radio would be playing and nine times out of ten, it was Casey Kasem’s show that was on, counting down the nation’s favorite pop songs. His voice had sort of an everyman quality to it. He sounded like a next door neighbor rather than some golden throated announcer. That quality made Casey Kasem easy to relate to; he just sounded like a nice, friendly guy who loved music and wanted to share it. He could be your friend, even if it was only over the airwaves.


    Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 circa 1987.

    Maybe today’s young people don’t have the memories of Casey Kasem’s show like I do. It’s been awhile since he was last on the air and radio is not the medium it once was, given the many entertainment choices we have available today. But besides hearing him on the radio, I remember seeing Kasem guest on a number of TV shows, including one memorable episode of Saved By The Bell, a show that was initially popular in the late 80s and eventually became even more popular in syndication.


    Casey Kasem on Saved By The Bell, introducing “The Sprain”. Looks like he enjoyed that gig!

    Of course, Kasem wasn’t without moments of drama. Since his death, a couple of clips on YouTube have sprung up, indicating that he had a tendency to curse sometimes.


    There’s a lot of swearing on this video, but I have to admit I get a kick out of hearing Casey Kasem cuss.


    Casey Kasem does Shaggy on Scooby Doo.

    In addition to his lengthy radio career, cartoon voices, and television cameos, Casey Kasem’s voice also pitched a lot of products. He lent his famous voice to many different product endorsements, doing voiceovers for everything from the California Raisin Advisory Board to Chevron.


    Casey Kasem does a voiceover for a Dairy Queen ad circa 1986.

    I think of Casey Kasem as being sort of the voice of my generation. At 82, he lived a long and very productive life. He was famous for his long distance dedications and his familiar tag line, “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars…” I hope wherever Casey Kasem is now, he’s among those stars and at peace.