Posts tagged as Obits
Candyman Bites It
Nello Ferrara, creator of the Atomic FireBall and the Lemonhead, has died. Atomic FireBalls were the consensus favorite candy at the New England summer camp I went to as a boy, and being able to eat one without panting was a badge of honor. So it's a little disturbing to learn this: "Mr. Ferrara came up with the idea of spicy-hot Atomic FireBalls in 1954, after serving in Occupied Japan in the post-atom bomb era, according to his son, company CEO Salvatore Ferrara II." Ferrara was 93.
Angelo Dundee, 1921-2012
I used to love boxing, before I finally, inevitably came around to the idea that it is pretty much barbaric. I basically have a year or two before I finally accept the same thing about football, so I'm hoping the Saints win one more in that time. But, yeah, there comes a point where you can no longer watch something that is essentially damaging its participants for your entertainment. But thank God there was a time before we realized that, and could celebrate men like Angelo Dundee, one of the sport's greatest trainers, who passed away yesterday at the age of 90.
Don Cornelius, 1936-2012
Mellifluent Soul Train creator Don Cornelius shot himself to death early this morning at his home in Los Angeles. "Before MTV there was Soul Train, that will be the great legacy of Don Cornelius," said Quincy Jones in a statement to press. "His contributions to television, music and our culture as a whole will never be matched." Above, the first (and reportedly only) episode in which Cornelius himself danced down the famous Soul Train Line.
Etta James, 1938-2012
Etta James, one of the greatest singers of all time, has passed away from complications from leukemia at the age of 73. She is justifiably best known for "At Last," a song any performer would make a deal with the devil to have in her repertoire, but her talents ranged from blues to gospel to R&B to standards to really anything she was interested in performing. Some favorites follow. READ MORE
Jimmy Castor, 1947-2012
New York singer, saxophonist and band leader Jimmy Castor died yesterday of as-yet-unknown causes. The very funky Castor took Frankie Lymon's place in the doo-wop group The Teenagers in 1957 (when he was not yet a teenager). And he went on to solo success with "Hey, Leroy, Your Mama's Callin' You," which has been sampled a lot, notably on the Beastie Boys' "Hold It Now, Hit It," and which also seems, pretty clearly, to have been source material for Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard." Castor had his biggest success in the early '70s, with his group The Jimmy Castor Bunch. Samples of the above "Troglodyte (Caveman)" and the title track from the 1972 album It's Only Just Begun have been used in too many rap songs to count.
Russell Hoban, 1925-2011
"I think death will be a good career move for me. People will say, 'Yes, Hoban, he seems an interesting writer, let's look at him again.'" READ MORE
Christopher Logue, 1926-2011
The poet Christopher Logue passed away on Friday. Best known for his modern reconstructions of The Iliad, he also wrote a remarkable memoir called Prince Charming, a terrifically frank and self-critical work which is well worth tracking down. Here's a recording of an excerpt from his All Day Permanent Red. The London Review of Books is featuring two poems, one by him and one dedicated to him, here. And here's an interview from 2003. Logue was 85.
Paul Motian, 1931-2011
The legendary drummer Paul Motian, whose work in the first Bill Evans Trio alone would have made him a member of the jazz canon, has passed away at the age of 80. There's some nice stuff here.
Heavy D, 1967-2011
One of the nicest things about driving north out of the city is that point ten or fifteen minutes past the Bronx Zoo when you see the familiar sign and you say to yourself or the unlucky person who's in the car with you and has had to hear you repeat your own silly little favorite sayings again and again and again for the past ten years, "Money Earnin' Mt. Vernon!" It's such a great rhyme, it rolls off the tongue perfectly, really one of the best municipal nicknames anyone's ever come up with. Sadly, the man who grew up there who coined the phrase—or, at least, the man who brought it to my attention, and probably the greatest number of other peoples'—died yesterday. The beloved rapper and actor Dwight Errington "Heavy D" Myers; he was 44. Which is way, way too young. READ MORE
