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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Dead

  • Rock Hall Inductee Ruth Brown Dead at 78

    The woman who influenced perhaps more influential female singers, among them Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin, has died at 78.

    Ruth Brown, who toured with everyone who was anyone in the 1950s, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Musicians known musicians, and if Brown’s legacy had faded over the decades (despite a mid 1970s comeback), the people playing the songs remembered.

    Brown had a heart attack and stroke near her Las Vegas home.

  • Freddy Fender’s Next Teardrop Falls

    Freddy Fender, 69, is dead of what media reports are calling lung cancer.

    Fender offered a unique mix of Mexican-American and country-western music, and began recording at the age of 20. His early career was marred by arrest and imprisonment while his later carer was hampered by various medical ailments. Despite those, Fender won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Performance.

    His most famous song was Before The Next Teardrop Falls, which became a crossover #1 Billboard hit in 1975. Fender had another top 10 hit that year with Wasted Days and Wasted Nights and a #20 single with Secret Love the same year. Truly, 1975 was a good year for the portly Texan.

    Fender’s official webpage has been turned into an online memorial and has hundreds of entries as of this writing.

    Spinning In The CD Today:
    Are You Ready For Freddy – Fender’s breakthrough hit album 31 years ago.

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  • Floyd Founder Dead From Diabetes At 60

    Most rock fans don’t know who Syd Barrett was. Like Peter Green with Fleetwood Mac or Dave Shogren being replaced on bass just before The Doobie Brothers hit, Cambridge-born Barrett formed Pink Floyd when he was only 20. This week he died at age 60, leaving a void in a chapter of progressive rock.

    Barrett only significantly contributed to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the first Floyd album. He wrote or co-wrote every track, leaving Roger Waters firmly in the shadows and David Gilmour somewhere on a Cambridge streetcorner. Barrett led his Pink Floyd troupe through Abbey Road on a drug-induced series of recording while The Beatles worked on a little concept album called Sgt Something or Other.

    Although drug issues forced Barrett to leave the band, his influence remained an impact on Pink Floyd for years. The band members said in a statement, “Syd was the guiding light of the early band lineup and leaves a legacy which continues to inspire.”

    Barrett suffered from diabetes for years. The American Diabetes Association offers a free, anonymous online screening tool for those who think they might either have diabetes or be at risk.

    Spinning In The CD Player Today
    Nothing. Go take the diabetes screening test above.