Month: July 2015

If I leave here tomorrow, will you still remember me?

Posted on by brucehhackett

images-9“I’ve lost a lot of friends on this highway, so long, everyone, I watched them all sail into the distance, like a setting sun, they’d only just begun, and we just lost another one…”  Graham Nash, 2002

It’s a sad truth that the creative arts fields — music, film, literature — have had more than their fair share of gifted artists who have died prematurely.  In popular music in particular, a disturbing number of promising, successful talents have left us at a young age.  Considering that the average age of death in the US these days is nearly 79, anyone dying in their 40s or 50s has died young.  Those passing away in the 20s or 30s have died WAY too young.

In rock ‘n roll’s first couple of decades, it seemed to be an almost monthly occurrence that we’d lose a major player to drugs, or suicide, or a plane crash, or a bullet, or a terminal illness.  I don’t know about you, but for a while there, I got really tired of grieving for yet another musical hero who bit the dust for whatever reason.

Read More

Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name

Posted on by brucehhackett

How do rock bands select their names?

In its infancy, rock and roll music was played by bands and artists with simple, straightforward names that tended to fall into three general categories:

Somebody and The Somethings:  Many dozens of bands used this linguistic structure, from Bill Haley and His Comets to Little Anthony and The Imperials, from Freddie and the Dreamers to Paul Revere and The Raiders.  Among other things, this allowed the record companies to eventually spin off the leader as a solo act, like Tommy James (without The Shondells) and Diana Ross (without The Supremes).

The Numbers:  The charts were full of groups whose names identified the number of members:  The Four Seasons, The Four Freshmen, The Kingston Trio, The Dave Clark Five, Sir Douglas Quintet.

Read More