Tag: RIP

RIP Earl Scruggs

Earl Scruggs Legendary musician and banjo player Earl Scruggs passed away this morning at the age of 88. Even if you were not listening to bluegrass at the time and were a kid watching television, you still knew Flatt & Scruggs, as I did every week when I watched The Beverly Hillbillies and they played their instruments on “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” to open the show (with Jerry Scoggins singing on the version used on the show).

During his great career, Scruggs played with a number of famous artists, including Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Ravi Shankar, King Curtis, Elton John, and many others. The actor, comedian, and banjo-player Steve Martin wrote about Scruggs in The New Yorker earlier this year, “Few players have changed the way we hear an instrument the way Earl has.” Below is a clip from 2006 where Martin joins Scruggs to play “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Scruggs started with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1945, but then left with Lester Flatt to form the Foggy Mountain Boys, which later became known just as Flatt & Scruggs through the 1950s and 1960s. Scruggs also was one of the few country or bluegrass artists who spoke out publicly against the war in Viet Nam, appearing at the 1969 US Vietnam Moratorium in Washington, DC. Below is Flatt & Scruggs playing “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.”

Flatt passed away in 1979. Here’s hoping somewhere the two are making some sweet music again. RIP.

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    Co-Writer of Walt Disney’s Favorite Song Passes Away

    Mary Poppins Robert Sherman, who with his brother Richard Sherman co-wrote numerous Walt Disney classics, has passed away at the age of 86. The Sherman brothers composed music for such films as Mary Poppins (1964), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), The Jungle Book (1967), and other films. They also composed the oft-played, “It’s a Small World After All.” Among their many awards, the brothers received Academy Awards for the score of Mary Poppins and for the best song, which also was from that film, “Chim Chim Cher-ee.”

    Richard’s brother Robert has explained that among their classic songs was Walt Disney’s favorite song, “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins.

    It is a beautiful song that is unusual for a children’s movie. The song is not about dancing and happy animated creatures, but instead it is about a poor (homeless?) woman taking care of birds. One commentator has argued that the scene has religious overtones about “stewardship” and “a responsibility on humanity to care for nature.” It’s an interesting argument that reflects on the pivotal role of the woman feeding the birds in contrast to the children’s capitalist father who balks at the children spending their money on bird feeding. Wikipedia recounts how when Walt Disney first heard the song, he recognized that it was the central meaning of the film about charity and caring for others.

    As a child, I found the scene both scary and intriguing (the latter of which might have been from the mystery to my American ears about what Julie Andrews sang when she sang “tuppence a bag”). Speaking of caring for others, the woman who played the small part of the bird woman was Jane Darwell, who had played Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Disney coaxed her out of retirement to play the part in Mary Poppins, which was her last film and which had some similar themes to her role in The Grapes of Wrath. Not a bad message from her or the Sherman brothers. RIP. In their honor, be nice today.

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    Whitney Houston RIP

    Whitney Houston has passed away at the age of 48. At this point, the cause of death or where she died has not been revealed. Despite all of her troubles in recent years, you cannot argue that she had a great talent. In the 1980s when she was on top of the world with songs such as “The Greatest Love of All,” it would have been hard to imagine the troubled last part of her career and her early death.

    Rest in peace.

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    Etta James RIP: All I Could Do Was Cry

    Etta James

    Singer Etta James has passed away from leukemia at age 73. You’ll be hearing a lot of her greatest hit, “At Last,” so here let us take a moment to close our eyes and listen to the more appropriately named, “All I Could Do Was Cry.” RIP.

    That is real emotion you hear in James’s vocals. Supposedly, “All I Could Do Was Cry” was inspired by her former boyfriend Harvy Fuqua dating Gwen Gordy. The song was written by Gwen Gordy and her former boyfriend, Billy Davis (and Berry Gordy). Fuqua and Gwen Gordy eventually got married, so there is genuine tension in the song from one of the broken-hearted writers and the broken-hearted singer. That is complicated, but the result is brilliant.

    What is your favorite Etta James song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Hubert Sumlin RIP

    Hubert Sumlin Living the Blues Earlier this week, one of the creators of the Chicago blues sound, guitarist Hubert Sumlin passed away at the age of 80. Sumlin played as rhythm and then lead guitarist for Howlin’ Wolf from 1963 until Wolf died in 1976. So even if you have never heard Sumlin’s name, you have heard his guitar work on such blues classics as “Spoonful,” “Smokestack Lightning,” “Wang Dang Doodle,” and “Back Door Man.” Beyond that, you have heard his influence in many of the rock classics you know. Among many others, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix all credited Sumlin with influencing their guitar work. Sumlin also played guitar for Muddy Waters for a short period.

    Here is an undated video that appears to be fairly recent of Sumlin showing he still has the chops, playing “Killing Floor” with Eric Clapton, Jimmie Vaughan, and Robert Cray.

    By most accounts, Hubert Sumlin was a quiet and unassuming man. Because he was not one to hog the spotlight, if you were not a devoted blues fan you might have missed his name. But one may see a part of the history of rock and roll in the admiring and joyful facial expressions of Clapton, Vaughan, and Cray as they play with the legend. RIP.

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