Jeremy Simmonds - The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches

This book is dedicated to my daughters, Betsan and Lucy.

Cover design: Sarah Olson Front cover photo: Samir Diwan

Copyright Jeremy Simmonds, 2006, 2008 Second edition Jeremy Simmonds, 2012

First published by the Penguin Group, London, as Number One in Heaven: The Heroes Who Died for Rock n Roll

This second edition first published in 2012 by

Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN 978-1-61374-478-9

Printed in the United States of America

5 4 3 2 1

Once youre dead youre made for life - you have to die before they think youre worth anything

Jimi Hendrix

Robert Johnson: Sold his soul but couldnt buy it back

Through the haze of cigarette smoke and honest sweat, the whiskey didnt so much look good as essential. Just one or two before sleep would do it for the guitar-slinger, already weary from a days labour, the musician now pushed to the limit by the roadhouse-owners demands. But though the atmosphere was tense, he was oblivious to anything that may have been afoot that night. Hed not noticed the stale, sour tinge upon the bottles rim escaping the lights, the noise and the people was his only wish at this late hour. The faces of those whod shared his performance that night were ecstatic yet strange. Then their eager voices began to waver, distort and finally become incoherent as the 27-year-old bluesman began to slump

Thus, the night of 16 August 1938 kick-starts a timeline of death in popular music with the strychnine-poisoning of Robert Johnson, the Delta-blues pioneer considered by many the finest of them all. The likelihood is that his end came at the Three Forks roadhouse in Greenwood, Mississippi, belonging to his lovers jealous husband; it is also highly probable that Johnson (born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, on 8 May 1911) had been with the woman in question that very evening and it is beyond any doubt that the agony in which the writer of classics like Sweet Home Chicago and Come on in My Kitchen ended his days forty-eight hours later caused him to denounce the evil blues and give his dying soul to Christianity.

So, with a holler to the devil himself, what better way to summon up a roll-call of the deceased? The sentiments uttered and spluttered by Johnson as he crawled back to the crossroads two nights later might equally apply to the further ungodliness that was to emerge in his wake. Upon its arrival in the fifties, rock n roll was tagged the music of the devil by the same God-fearing folk who dubbed the secular world of soul and R & B also inherently wrong particularly when its delights had tempted some of their own to wander. Similarly, folk, punk, dance music and hip hop have all incurred the wrath of the puritans at some point. All of which leads one to suspect that things might be getting a tad crowded downstairs.

But no matter where he is now, Robert Johnsons in fine company. The above dramatization of his demise serves only to preface The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars the ultimate chronology of pops dead. What lies before you is the definitive register of those who arrived, rocked and pegged out over the past fifty or so years. Space demands that details in some cases might read like a perverse end-of-term report, highlighting where the subject performed admirably and underlining specifically where he failed, and ultimately fell. In this school of rock, you have to be absent to attend those who make it are those who didnt make it.

Who is included?

Naturally, therell be readers wholl feel certain names have been unfairly brushed over (or, worse still, ignored completely), but the criteria for inclusion are simple. If an artist had a short but unusual life, hes in (step forward, Mr G G Allin); if he had an extraordinary demise, hes definitely in (take a bow, Sam Cooke); if he made a significant contribution to his art, hell also get a paragraph (not you, Baltimora ).

Who isnt included?

Well, 1938 was one hell of a long time ago and to list all demises in popular music before 1965 would (given the fields infancy) be virtually impossible. Genres are blurred and embryonic at this point, thus this books apparent ban on certain musical styles is instigated for no other reason than that rock n roll was supposedly sent to destroy them. (Until they cross over, of course.) Gospel, for example, manifests itself via such fabulous performers as the aforementioned Cooke and Mahalia Jackson though one might have to scroll the small print pretty carefully for the lesser names. As one must also do to find those for whom detail is sketchy, those who enjoyed only the merest flirtation with musical success, or indeed those who survived beyond a completely arbitrary threshold of sixty-five years apart from that special bunch who make up the books Golden Oldies. In this latest edition, readers will note that these become more plentiful as rock n roll approaches a weary seventh decade. However, The Encyclopedia still, of course, offers Lest We Forget to scoop up the many also-rans and sidemen at the end of each year.

Peripherals

Mortality can be a tricky subject, so should this unrelenting parade of the deceased cause one to pause for breath and check ones own pulse, then relief is at hand. The expansive chronology section is broken by a smorgasbord of intriguing, lighter-hearted facts (Dead Interesting!) and lucky escapes (CloseCloser!), as well as a parade of completely subjective Top Tens (The Death Toll) featuring the most morbid tunes pop music has ever seen. So, not that much of a respite, its true.

But the chronicle cannot begin in earnest without first cataloguing those major names who fell during pops monochrome years

Shameless disclaimer

This book isnt really designed to carry exhaustive biographies of every entrant, so readers desiring such are encouraged to look elsewhere. Its also fair to say that with thousands of dates to consider, one or two small errors may creep in so do inform us if a mistake becomes apparent. (Similarly, any new information is also gratefully received.)

Despite Johnsons apparent condemnation of his own lifestyle (he was painfully sick, remember), his earlier words and actions were set to inspire. Without his scratchy musings thered be no Muddy Waters, no Hendrix, no Stones and heaven forbid no Gun Club. Similarly influential was Huddie Ledbetter the Cajun-blues guitarist known as Leadbelly who, in 1949, finally submitted to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a crippling condition known as Lou Gehrigs disease (after the New York baseball star whod died from the disease eight years previously). Ledbetter (born in Mooringsport, Louisiana, on 29 January 1889 (or 1885)) had been imprisoned regularly for violent crimes including a thirty-year term for homicide. The abiding myth about the man is that he was pardoned from incarceration in 1925 when a recording of his musical plea for freedom found its way into the hands of the serving governor. Remarkable, if true; more likely is that standard parole terms were considerably more lenient then than they are now. Leadbelly, however, left behind a host of standards, including Black Betty, and a long-suffering wife.