The Medusa Fora

Bass guitarist "Big Merv" Shields, of the neo-nazi iteration of Skrewdriver, who was unvaccinated and referred to COVID as "a leftie Jewish plot" has died of... wait for it... COVID-19.

Barry Cryer. Comedian and supreme joke writer. He's been making me laugh most weeks for 50 plus years.

“A man drives down a country lane and runs over a cockerel. He knocks at a nearby farmhouse door and a woman answers.

“‘I appear to have killed your cockerel,’ he says. ‘I’d like to replace it.’ The woman replies: ‘Please yourself – the hens are round the back.’”

RIP Baz.

American actor Howard Hessman, best known as DJ "Dr. Johnny Fever" in 80s sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati", and teacher Charlie Moore in "Head of the Class" has died at age 81.

“All right Cincinnati, it’s time for this town to get down! You got Johnny, Dr. Johnny Fever, and I am burning up in here. We’re all in critical condition, babies, but you can tell me where it hurts because I got the healing prescription here from the big KRP musical medicine cabinet. Now, I am talking about your 50,000-watt intensive care unit, babies!”

RIP Norma Waterson, 82.

One of the true greats of English traditional music. Sister of Lal and Mike, spouse of Martin Carthy and mother of Eliza.

firehazard wrote:RIP Norma Waterson, 82.

One of the true greats of English traditional music. Sister of Lal and Mike, spouse of Martin Carthy and mother of Eliza.

I have always loved a good family band, and I liked how they continued to worked in various inter-generational iterations through the years. What a hard loss this must be for all of them.

firehazard wrote:RIP Norma Waterson, 82.

One of the true greats of English traditional music. Sister of Lal and Mike, spouse of Martin Carthy and mother of Eliza.

Very sad. What a career she had. RIP.

Nashville pianist Hargus "Pig" Robbins has died at the age of 84. He played on about a million hits, including Dolly Parton's "Jolene", Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler", and Patsy Cline's "I Fall To Pieces" to name just three. The defining but never heavy-handed intro to Crystal Gayle’s 1977 “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” is him.

Pretty much every bio and obit says something like "He was blind, having lost his sight at age four due to an accident involving his father's knife," but none explained this in detail and how it lost the sight in BOTH eyes?

Donny Gerrard of the Canadian band Skylark, has died at the age of 75. Best known as the voice of the 1972 US/Canadian top-10 hit "Wildflower".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ8n_Esop5I

Skylark were one of many spinoffs of Ronnie Hawkins' backing band The Hawks. If that guy was as mafia as his publisher* was, and took a cut of everyone's future work, he would be a very, very, wealthy man (oh don't worry, he did fine).

* "American entrepreneur" Moris Levy, whose 1986 arrest was nationally televised.

Betty Davis, funk singer, songwriter, fashion icon, and multi-talented music influencer died this morning. She was 77.

Howard Grimes, the drummer best known for his work in the rhythm section of the Hi Records house band, died Saturday (February 12) of kidney failure at Saint Francis Hospital in Memphis, NPR reports. He was 80. Nicknamed “The Bulldog” for his heavy foot on the kit by Hi Records founder Willie Mitchell, Grimes tracked classic records with Al Green, Ann Peebles, Otis Clay, Syl Johnson, and more as a member of the Hi Rhythm section in the 1970s.
https://pitchfork.com/news/howard-grime ... ies-at-80/

P.J. O'Rourke, one of the few actually funny conservative (or conservative leaning) satirists and comedians. Funny guy. I'll miss him on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me.

DzM wrote:P.J. O'Rourke, one of the few actually funny conservative (or conservative leaning) satirists and comedians. Funny guy. I'll miss him on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me.

“The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it,”

Back before the deadly sectarianism - when Democrats might vote Regan, but P.J. O'Rourke might make fun of The Republicans. I fear satire is dead since the orange menace.

Low D wrote:I fear satire is dead since the orange menace.

Meh. They said the same thing after 9/11, but eventually people figured out how to tell jokes again.

Dallas Good, who co-founded/co-fronted Canadian band The Sadies with his brother Travis, has died of a coronary illness just days after being diagnosed. He was 48. Don't know if they have much profile in the US but they are probably the best rock and roll band working in Canada.

https://exclaim.ca/music/article/dallas ... s_has_died

https://exclaim.ca/music/article/rememb ... the_sadies

https://exclaim.ca/music/article/tribut ... the_sadies

A sad follow up to the above... fans of sketch comedy show "Kids In The Hall" may know the fabulous instrumental Toronto band "Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet", who provided the soundtrack. AFter their break up, 2/3rds of that band joined Dallas Good in the band "Phono-Comb". Shadowy bass player Reid Diamond died of cancer in 2001, and when the band reunited in 2012 it was Dallas Good who played bass, so drummer Don Pyle & guitarist Brian Connelly have now lost 2 bass players and 2 friends.