When any famous author whom I’ve read dies, I always struggle with what to write. I have a lot to say about musicians and sometimes I have a lot to say about filmmakers, but with authors I feel like whatever I write will be inadequate. When someone as prolific and respected as Philip Roth dies, …
Tag: RIP
RIP Roy Halladay
It’s hard to know what to say when someone famous dies. When it’s a musician or filmmaker, I talk about their work. I can’t do that with sports. Normally, I don’t write blog posts about athletes when I they die, as I don’t feel as close to athletes as I to do artists, it’s just …
RIP George A. Romero
Apparently Romero died. I was once a pretty big fan of his work. Romero, as I’m sure you know, pretty much invented the “zombie plague” movie. (This is as opposed to the old fashioned zombie movie, where there would be, like, one zombie chasing our heroes.)
RIP Chuck Berry
With guitar-based rock music decidedly out of fashion it is possible – probable? – that many people don’t understand how important Chuck Berry was to the music of the second half of the 20th century. But just because the electric guitar isn’t currently popular doesn’t mean it wasn’t the central vehicle for musical expression of …
RIP George Martin
George Martin was the most innovative producer of the 1960s and, given what happened in the 1960s, perhaps the most innovative producer in the history of rock music. As someone who grew up with The Beatles (long story), his music had a massive impact on my life. Martin is, of course, most known for producing …
RIP Umberto Eco
I only ever read two books by the man – one fiction, one non-fictiojn – but I felt his presence in my life in many ways. Ever since I first saw (the awfully cast) film version of his The Name of the Rose, I was intrigued, I felt like there was something there. The movie …
RIP David Bowie Playlist
I am going to try to put together some of my favourite songs Bowie wrote and performed over the years, but I apologize if this list is not thorough enough. Nothing will really be good enough to capture what he meant to me or millions of others.
RIP David Bowie
Much like when Lou Reed, another of my favourite songwriters, died, I find myself in complete shock. Shock that someone I have spent over half my life listening to, discussing/debating and feeling like I had some kind of connection with, has died…could die. Shock that death comes for us all, no matter how great.
RIP EL Doctorow
I got into E.L. Doctorow because he was once one of my father’s favourite American novelists. Over the years I read eight of his twelve novels – though not his most famous, Ragtime – one of his two short story collections and his play. I haven’t read any of them recently. I feel like I …
RIP Chris Squire
Among the “Big 6” prog bands, Yes was long my least favourite -though, as I age, ELP has taken their place very handily. I have always found their discography rather immense and, well, kind of repetitive – though I have not given it the time I have given King Crimson’s, for example. So, maybe how …
RIP Ornette Coleman
I am not the man to write an obituary about Ornette Coleman, but what the hell, I’ll try to tell you what he meant to me anyway. If you don’t know him, Ornette Coleman ostensibly invented free jazz, that is the style of jazz that abandoned the previous rules of jazz and embraced free improvisation …
RIP Lou Reed
Lou Reed died today. I am at a bit of a loss for words, simply because, as with the death of any songwriter who has an impact on my life, I always just assume he would be around forever, which is a ridiculous thing. He was only 71, but not that long ago, 71 was …
RIP Ray Manzarek
As keyboardist for the Doors, Ray Manzarek brought a level of virtuosity and taste to rock keyboards while (usually) showing a level of restraint most other rock keyboard innovators of the 1960s could not. (I mean the prog keyboardists such as Keith Emerson, Jon Lord, etc.) Manzarek helped bring various non-rock influences to “psychedelia”, such …
RIP Ravi Shankar
There was a time when I really, really wanted to get into Indian music. However, I lived in small town Quebec. So I used the internet (Napster then a few of Napster’s successors) and found very little in what I was really looking for: crazy-long ragas. I found a couple supposedly by Shankar (I have …
RIP Dave Brubeck
I can’t pretend I know all that much about Dave Brubeck, the jazz pianist who just died. Like most jazz fans, I know Time Out well. And I only know the rest of his career from reading about him. I don’t think I have listened to a single other Brubeck album though I have heard the …
RIP Elliott Carter
I have come late to Carter’s work, having only heard most of his string quartet cycle in the last year. I must say that I was extremely impressed and really interested in hearing more. Carter’s music – at least his music of the ’60s – breaks boundaries – and perhaps that’s why it is most …
Gore Vidal was crazy but sometimes he was also awesome
I guess what I mean to say is RIP Gore Vidal. But I have a problem saying that, and my problem is that Gore Vidal believed a lot of stuff (particularly about the United States government) that was not true. Worse, he made those beliefs public. Worse, because he was Gore Vidal, he made it …
RIP: Jon Lord
Jon Lord was one of the earliest rock keyboardists – along with people like Keith Emerson – to attempt to fuse so-called “classical” music (actually it was usually Romantic music) with rock. He convinced his band, Deep Purple, to cover Richard Strauss, among others, to include his string and wind arrangements, and to eventually perform …
RIP Ween
I found out about Ween’s demise last week, and I have been trying to think of how to sum up what they meant to me – and the world, but of course! – in some kind of measured way. I have a rather bizarre relationship with them: I came to them rather late (2001? 2002?) …
Dick Clark is Dead
Dick Clark died the other day. I woke up to a CTV news feature which included a CTV employee saying that Clark had “real talent” and was very nice… unlike all those other “middling talents” who weren’t so nice. If Clark had real talent, I wonder what all those musicians he showcased had? Extra-real talent?
RIP Gerald E. Tucker
Though Professor Gerald Tucker initially confounded me, as he did many first year students, he became one of my favourite professors at Bishop’s University while I was there – perhaps my favourite. He never finished the curriculum for any class I took with him – I’m not sure we ever made it 2/3rds of the …
RIP Rick Martin
For the second time in as many years the Hall of Fame has been exposed for not honouring someone in time. This time the death obviously wasn’t expected, but that doesn’t make it any better. First, they ignored or avoided the opportunity to put Burns in during his lifetime. I really don’t pay attention to …