Obit of the Day
Looking at the famous, infamous, not-so-famous, and unique lives that have shuffled off this mortal coil.
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Obit of the Day: Play in a Day
The first guitar lesson taken by John Lennon was given to him by Bert Weedon. Fellow Beatles Paul McCartney and George Harrison learned their A and D chords from Weedon. Weedon never once sat down with them, although he was in the room. Bert Weedon, who died at the age of 91, published Play in a Day a “guitar guide to modern guitar playing” that taught hand position, basic chords and easy songs like “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Thousands of British kids picked up their first six-string with Weedon’s book open in front of them.
Weedon began playing guitar as a 12-year-old in London. Although trained in classical guitar, he had an ability to play most any music genre by sight. As a professional he became part of the BBC Show Band and accompanied legends such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Judy Garland. He became the first British guitarist with a solo hit in England with “Guitar Boogie Shuffle” in 1959. Almost twenty years later, in 1976, he became the first to chart a solo guitar album in the UK with 22 Golden Guitar Greats.
Another legend of the music industry passes this week, joining Dick Clark and Levon Helm.
(Image of Weedon’s Play in a Day is courtesy of roganhouse.co.uk)
Obit of the Day: Long, “Strange” Trip
When Nancy Sinatra put on her walking boots Billy Strange was there. When her baby shot her down, Bill Strange was there. When Elvis made memories, Bill Strange was there. When the Beach Boys recorded pet sounds, Billy Strange was there.
Billy Strange was a guitarist, songwriter, and arranger who worked with some of the best-known artists and made some of the most popular records of the 1960s. He arranged Nancy Sinatra’s hit “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” and played guitar on “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).” (“Bang Bang” was featured on the soundtrack of Kill Bill.) When Elvis came to Los Angeles, Strange wrote “Memories” and “A Little Less Conversation” for the star.
Strange began playing guitar when he was 14 years old and became a touring musician at 16. Later he became part of a group of session musicians living in L.A. They played on albums by the Beach Boys (including Pet Sounds), The Byrds, Sonny and Cher, and Frank Sinatra. The gentlemen earned the nickname “The Wrecking Crew” because older session musicians thought that rock and roll would “wreck” music.
Billy Strange and the other members of the Wrecking Crew were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee in 2007. Mr. Strange died at the age of 81.
(How Does That Grab You? is copyright of Boots Enterprises, Inc., 2006)
Obit of the Day: It Really Was All About the Music
Bert Jansch was so poor as a child that his first guitar was one he built himself at the age of twelve. “The strings were so far off the fretboard it was almost impossible to play — the D was the only chord I could hold down.” When he received his first paycheck at age 16 he immediately put a down payment on a Höfner cello guitar. A few months later he quit and took lessons at Howff, an Edinburgh café, which offered them for free.
By 1965, when he was 22, Jansch had made a name for himself for his guitar playing, unique vocal sound and haunting lyrics. His cover of “Anji” (spelled “Angie” on the album above) and the disquieting song, “Needle of Death,” written to honor a friend who had overdosed, helped make his self-titled debut album a million-seller. Jansch saw little of the income, though, since his sold his rights to it for £100.
Jansch would spend the next forty-five years following a similar pattern: creating beautiful music (as a solo act, with the group The Pentangles, with his roommate John Renbourn, or behind various performers) and then avoiding the fame and riches that normally accompany such talent. At one point he became a sheep rancher in Wales. His influence, though, couldn’t be hidden. Both Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and Neil Young spoke of copying and modifying Jansch’s style. (Zeppelin took directly from Jansch’s “Blackwaterland” for their own “Black Mountain Land.” Young, who Jansch toured with in the last few years, copied “Death by Needle” almost “note for note” for his own “Ambulance Blues.”)
“I don’t care what the world thinks of me. I’m not one for showing off, but I guess my guitar playing sticks out.”
Jansch, who Rolling Stone named as one of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, received two lifetime achievement awards from the BBC Folk Awards: one in 2001 for his solo work and again in 2007 with the rest of The Pentangles.
He was one month shy of his 68th birthday.
(“Anji” from The Best of Bert Jansch is copyright of Shanachie Records. It was released originally in 1980 and then again in 1992.)
Additional information for this post from the Daily Telegraph.
Obit of the Day: “Miracle” Career
Marv Tarplin was a high schooler in Detroit when he was asked to play guitar for The Primettes, an all-woman singing group that featured Betty McGlown, Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Diane Ross. The five performers were scouted by Motown founder Berry Gordy’s frontman, Smokey Robinson. The Primettes were transformed, minus McGlown, into The Supremes and Diane became Diana. Marv Tarplin was asked by Robinson to join his group, The Miracles.
Tarplin joined in 1960, just in time to play on Motown’s first million seller, “Shop Around.” But Tarplin wasn’t simply a guitarist. He and Robinson, and Warren “Pete” Moore on occasion, co-wrote several of the Miracles hits of the 1960s including “I Like It Like That,” “Doggone Right,” “Point It Out” and their biggest hit “Tracks of My Tears.” (Click to listen.)
“Tracks” only peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard charts in the U.S. in 1965, but reached the top ten in the U.K. when it was released in 1969. The song went gold and has since been covered by over two dozen artists. Rolling Stone ranked it as the 50th greatest song of all time, and it was “inducted” into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007.
Tarplin followed Robinson out to Los Angeles when the singer left The Miracles. They continued to write together and had another hit with “Cruisin’” in 1979, which reached #4 on the charts in the U.S.
When Mojo ranked the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, Marv Tarplin was listed at number 99. Tarplin passed away at the age of 70.
(Recording copyright 2006 Madacy Entertainment LP.)
