John Mayall, massively influential British bluesman. NYT (archived).
Though he played piano, organ, guitar and harmonica and sang lead vocals in his own bands with a high, reedy tenor, Mr. Mayall earned his reputation as “the godfather of British blues” not for his own playing or singing but for recruiting and polishing the talents of one gifted young lead guitarist after another.
In his most fertile period, between 1965 and 1969, those budding stars included Eric Clapton, who left to form the band Cream and eventually became a hugely successful solo artist; Peter Green, who left to found Fleetwood Mac; and Mick Taylor, who was snatched from the Mayall band by the Rolling Stones.
A more complete list of the alumni of Mr. Mayall’s band of that era, known as the Bluesbreakers, reads like a Who’s Who of British pop royalty. The drummer Mick Fleetwood and the bassist John McVie were also founding members of Fleetwood Mac. The bassist Jack Bruce joined Mr. Clapton in Cream. The bassist Andy Fraser was an original member of Free. Aynsley Dunbar would go on to play drums for Frank Zappa, Journey and Jefferson Starship.
As you know, Bob, music – especially music of this period – is outside of my area of competence, so I am going to defer to valued commenter pigpen51 for additional comment on Mr. Mayall and his legacy.
Also outside of my area of competence (Hello, pigpen51! Really, I should give you posting privileges here.): Duke Fakir, of the Four Tops.
His family said in a statement that the cause was heart failure.
“Heart failure,” MacAdoo said in an almost sorrowful tone.
“Heart seizure,” Haere said automatically.
“What’s the difference?”
‘Everyone dies of heart failure.”
–Ross Thomas, Missionary Stew
Lewis H. Lapham, of “Harper’s Magazine” and “Lapham’s Quarterly”.
This might just be me, and I may very well be speaking ill of the dead. But when I see someone described as a “scholarly patrician”, I mentally translate that to: someone who thinks they are better and smarter than you are, therefore they know better than you how to run your life, and believe the government should enforce their point of view on you.
Finally, one I’ve been holding for a couple of days and want to get in: Robert L. Allen, “writer, activist and academic”. I knew of Mr. Allen because he wrote the book on “The Port Chicago Mutiny“, which was proceeded by the Port Chicago explosion.
There were a large number of black soldiers stationed at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine, loading and unloading ammunition. Safety procedures may not have been what they should have been. On July 17, 1944, the E.A. Bryan exploded during the loading process. It was a massive explosion which destroyed everything within 1,000 feet, including another ship. 320 people died, many of them black sailors.
…
Interestingly, Mr. Allen’s death apparently prompted the Navy to exonerate all the sailors last week.
I haven’t read Mr. Allen’s book, though I kind of want to. I know about the book and the incident from a long piece John Marr wrote in the late and very much missed “Murder Can Be Fun” zine (issue #11).
Thank you for the praise, which is totally undeserved. As for Mr. Mayall, I have heard of him in passing, and one cannot possibly begin to thank his soul for those guitarists and other musicians that he fostered into the mainstream. No doubt our musical lives would have missed much had they not gotten the shot that he gave them.
As for the Four Tops, and Duke Fakir, while I was into more of the classic rock sort of thing, the group the Four Tops was always a fantastic one to hear and I even had an 8 track tape of them, that I played in my first car, a 1971 Ford Galaxie 500 with the 351 engine in it. That had the Windsor block while the next car I bought, a 1973 Ford Gran Torino, had the same 351 engine but with a Cleveland block. There was a noticeable difference in the performance of them. Of course in 1978 with the price of gas around 60 cents per gallon, we didn’t often try to figure out MPG.
I remember the day that my 8 track tape of the Four Tops gave up the ghost. I was driving my 40 mile one way trip to work, with two of my coworkers along, and one of them strung the tape our the window, at 70 MPH on the expressway. I bet we had a ribbon trailing over 25 yards behind us, when a police officer came the other direction on the other side of the divided highway.
My friend quickly cut the tape and rolled up the window, but fortunately the cop did not turn around and follow us. I would have been about 20 years old at the time.
I still listen to some of their songs on Youtube which include Sugar Pie Honey Bunch, and Can’t Help Myself.
I often am sad that we didn’t have the internet when I was in high school, for the sheer knowledge available. I recall reading the dictionary and a set of encyclopedias that my parents had in our house, strictly to learn more about the world. I have often stated that once I learned to read, the only good thing about school was that I learned to play music and got to play sports.
Of course I know in the back of my mind that if we did have the internet when I was younger, I would never have left my bedroom, as I would be watching the free porn that it seems is available now everywhere. Back then I had to rely on my 7 year older brother to occasionally bring a Playbook home and I would sneak it from his dresser drawer. Only to read the articles of course.