The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (52 page)

The classic Skynyrd line-up - of whom Leon Wilkeson
(left),
Allen Collins
(thirdleft),
Steve Gaines
(secondright, standing),
Ronnie Van Zant
(thirdright, crouching),
Billy Powell
(left, seated)
and Cassie Gaines
(right, seated
) are no more

Rossington, Powell and Pyle had all lost their fathers in their formative years – the latter to a plane crash that bore a chilling resemblance to this one, even down to its departure from the same Greenville airport. Though Lynyrd Skynyrd’s various reformations proved largely unsuccessful, a new line-up was revealed in time for the tenth anniversary of the accident. But things weren’t the same without the charismatic Ronnie Van Zant, who, despite a tendency towards drinking and fighting, had often been looked upon as the father figure the others never knew.

See also
Allen Collins (
January 1990); Leon Wilkeson (
July 2001); Hughie Thomasson (
September 2007); Billy Powell (
January 2009); Ean Evans (
May 2009). Also deceased are sometime singers Terry ‘Topper’ Price (d 2007) and Deborah JoJo’ Billingsley - who had a premonition about the plane crash (d 2010).

Lest We Forget

Other notable deaths that occurred sometime during 1977:

Al Banks
(US lead vocalist with fifties doo-wop act The Turbans before a brief stint with The Drifters; born Andrew Banks, Pennsylvania, 26/7/1937; unknown, 7/1977)

George Barnes
(seminal US musician who played with The Jodimars - believed one of the first to record with electric guitar; born Chicago, 17/7/1921; heart attack, 15/9)

Bing Crosby
(the world’s most popular pre-rock ‘n’ roll crooner - ‘White Christmas’ is the biggest-selling record of our time; born Harry Lillis Crosby, Washington, 2/5/1904; cardiac arrest while playing golf, 14/10)

Sleepy John Estes
(US blues guitarist; born Tennessee, 25/1/1904; a stroke put him to sleep for the last time, 5/6)

Peter Carl Goldmark
(Hungarian-born but US-naturalized inventor of the LP record, among other little sidelines like colour TV; born Budapest, 2/12/1906; car crash, 7/12)

Willie Jones
(US R & B/blues pianist; born Mississippi, 2½/1920; cardiovascular disease, 31/12)

Gary Kellgren
(UK studio engineer who worked with Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Sly Stone and Rod Stewart; born 1939; drowned at a Hollywood swimming party, 20/7)

Matt McGinn
(UK singer/composer known as The Scottish King of Folk; born Glasgow, 17/1/1928; living in a two-room house with his family of nine, he died from smoke inhalation during a fire, 6/1)

Jimmy Stuard
(US New York ‘gay’ disco DJ; he was one of nine people killed at the tragic Everard Bathhouse fire, 25/5)

One-Armed John Wrencher
(US blues singer/harmonica player; born Sunflower, Mississippi, 12/2/23; heart failure, 15/7)

Bukka White
(US blues guitarist; born Booker T Washington White, Tennessee, 12/11/1906; cancer, 26/2)

The Death Toll #2

BOTTOM OF THE POPS

The following is a non-definitive chart of songs about genuine tragedies written
sans
consideration for such trifling issues as taste or sensitivity - plus one or two censored by authorities who didn’t quite get it. Read ‘em and weep.

1 ‘Teenybopper Death’

Michael des Barres (1974)

Recorded by cult actor and ex-Silverhead vocalist Michael des Barres (one-time husband of GTOs singer Pamela), this sweet little number dealt with the tragedy of Bernadette Whelan - the 14-year-old fan who died from asphyxiation after a David Cassidy concert at White City, London. Staggeringly, the track had its title changed to ‘Bernadette’ and was all set for release as a UK single until pulled at the last moment by (err, appropriately) Purple Records, following understandably adverse tabloid publicity.

2 ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes’

The Adverts (1977)

Now accepted into the pantheon of great punk singles, TV Smith’s fantasy (or nightmare) of the grimmest possible transplant gave his Adverts their only hit in 1977. Gilmore was the US murderer who’d killed at least twice before facing the death penalty in January the same year; a lesser-known fact is that two people actually
did
receive the killer’s corneas upon his request.

3 ‘Jack the Ripper’

Screaming Lord Sutch (1963)

Often exempted from modern censure, the late David Sutch
(
June 1999)
was as guilty as anyone with this very early piece of sensationalism concerning London’s most notorious killer and rapist (who later returned in Thin Lizzy’s banned ‘Killer on the Loose’ in 1980). This track failed to chart despite being accompanied by a Scopitone - the earliest form of promotional film - depicting Sutch as ‘Jack’, replete with snarling grin. Not nice.