The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (87 page)

Less than a year after the unexpected death of former bandmate James Honeyman-Scott (
June 1982),
bassist Pete Farndon’s equally needless passing did little more than prove that Pretenders’ frontwoman Chrissie Hynde was right to dismiss him when she did.

A brash and wilful character in every sense, Farndon was expelled from school and was working as a site labourer when his love of earthy rock ‘n’ roll saw him gravitate towards Hereford’s pub-rock scene at the start of the seventies. Farndon was very much the drifting sort: after a spell in Australia touring with successful Sydney band The Bushwackers, he took himself off to Hong Kong – where his predilection for recreational drugs surfaced. Returning to the UK in 1978, Farndon was called up for bass duty (by mutual friend and early member Gas Wild) with the fledgling Pretenders, one of the soon-to-be-great bands to emerge out of Britain’s punk movement. Almost at the same time, the leather-clad Farndon and his apparent soulmate, Ohio-born singer Chrissie Hynde, began a two-year affair that was to coincide with The Pretenders’ most successful period. At the start of 1980, the couple – plus Farndon’s old pal guitarist Honeyman-Scott and drummer Martin Chambers – celebrated a double UK number one with the single ‘Brass In Pocket’ and the group’s eponymous debut album. Despite two strong hit singles in ‘Talk of the Town’ (1980) and ‘Message of Love’ (1981), the second album felt a long time coming, which did The Pretenders – and particularly Pete Farndon – few favours, to say the least. Farndon’s split from Chrissie Hynde in 1981 was fast-tracked by his escalating heroin use. After a physically exhausting tour of the US, the Far East and Australia, Farndon was eventually sacked on 14 June 1982 by the group’s leaders elect, Hynde and Honeyman-Scott, for what they told the press was ‘incompatibility’ – obviously a cover for his increasingly wayward behaviour. Then, by a sick quirk of fate, Honeyman-Scott was found dead just two days later.

The devastated Hynde (now dating Ray Davies of The Kinks) briefly entertained the thought of allowing Farndon back into The Pretenders, though Chambers and manager Dave Hill were set against it. Instead, Farndon sought out old friends Topper Headon (The Clash) and Rob Stoner (Chris Spedding) in the hope of putting together a new band. However, even as this new group was working on their initial songs, Pete Farndon was found dead in the bathtub of his London apartment, drowned during a heroin-induced sleep. The catalyst to the bassist’s demise was left in little doubt – the needle was still in his arm.

Sunday 17

Felix Pappalardi

(The Bronx, New York, 20 December 1939)

Mountain

A classically trained dropout from the University of Michigan, musician Felix Pappalardi found a niche in pop music (via a short stint in the US army), hanging with the early folksters of Greenwich Village, which put him in touch with characters like Joan Baez, Richie Havens and Tim Hardin. Less interested at the time in performing rock himself, Pappalardi moved into production and cemented a serious reputation very quickly indeed. After work with Baez, The Youngbloods and The Lovin’ Spoonful, Pappalardi found his greatest success in this capacity with British supergroup Cream. It is his fine input that sets
Disraeli Gears
apart from every other rock release of 1967 – with
Wheels Of Fire
(1968) and
Goodbye
(1969) not far behind it. By now Pappalardi had teamed with Gail Collins, a talented songwriter (with whom he co-wrote the Cream classic ‘Strange Brew’) who, significantly, became his wife. On the disbanding of Cream, Pappalardi finally lived his rock dream by forming the early hard-rock unit Mountain. Full of trickery and knowing bombast, Mountain – Pappalardi (bass), Leslie West (guitar), Steve Knight (organ) and Lawrence ‘Corky’ Laing (drums) – were a huge hit on the live circuit, and they were yet another act who found greater attention at Woodstock, even enjoying a hit single the following year with ‘Mississippi Queen’. Perhaps it was a bridge too far: the battle to become the world’s loudest rock act saw Pappalardi quit Mountain two years later with serious hearing problems. His career was significantly quieter thereafter.

At 6 am on the morning of 17 April 1983, the New York Police Department received a nervous call from Gail Collins Pappalardi. Detectives from the East 21st Street stationhouse travelled the seven blocks to the Pappalardis’ elegant fifth-floor Waterside Plaza apartment above East River. Felix Pappalardi was found lying prone in his underwear, a single bullet wound in his neck and a .38 by his body; he was pronounced dead at the scene. Collins – who had refused to answer any questions until she’d consulted her attorney – was later that day charged with possession of a firearm and second-degree murder. She maintained throughout that the shooting was ‘accidental’, and was later found guilty only of criminally negligent homicide, a verdict which so appalled trial judge Justice James Left that he castigated the jury for their leniency before the court, sentencing Pappalardi’s widow to a maximum four years. His dismay seemed well-placed when it came to light that Pappalardi’s eleven-month affair with singer/groupie Valerie Merians had recently been discovered by his wife; he’d also recently bought Collins the piece, of which, according to friends, she was ‘very proud’.

Golden Oldies #2

Muddy Waters

(McKinley Morganfield - Rolling Fork, Mississippi, 4 April 1915)

A key figure in the development of Chicago blues, Muddy Waters was brought up in Clarksdale by his grandmother after his mother died when he was young. He acquired his nickname as a boy because he was given to playing in the local creek. Running his own juke joint, Waters proved himself to be a magnificent slide-guitar-player and a highly gifted songwriter who took his lead from Delta greats like Son House and Robert Johnson. The ubiquitous Alan Lomax had spotted Waters’s talent, offering him in 1942 the chance to contribute songs to the famed Library of Congress recordings. Waters left the Delta for Chicago shortly afterwards, recording behind Sunnyland Slim for Chess and eventually fronting his own band (sometimes known as The Headhunters) in the early fifties - a bewildering collection of talent that included at one time or another Little Walter Jacobs (blues harp), Jimmy Rodgers (guitar), Otis Spann (piano), Big Crawford (bass) and Elgin Evans (aka Elgar Edmonds, drums). This band were responsible for some great sides, including ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’, ‘Mannish Boy’ and ‘I’m Ready’. Waters had ‘plugged in’ by now and paved the way for many other blues artists reluctant to use electric instrumentation.

Influencing a host of white bluesplayers during the sixties and seventies, Waters then reversed the trend by recording the bizarre near-psychedelic rock albums
Electric Mud
(1968) and
After the Rain
(1969), before a 1969 automobile accident left him unable to tour for three years. After collecting six Grammys during the seventies, Muddy Waters was eventually diagnosed with cancer in 1982, undergoing the removal of a lung and intensive radiation therapy. Suffering a relapse on 29 April 1983, Waters was rushed to hospital in Illinois, where he died in his sleep after a cardiac arrest.

JUNE

Thursday 5

Stan Rogers

(Hamilton, Ontario, 29 November 1949)

Standing 6’4”, Stan Rogers cut an imposing figure as he growled his way through songs both political and anecdotal but always with a Canadian flavour. Rogers had made the rare move from rock ‘n’ roll to folk, playing as a bassist when still a teenager, then surprising many with his 1977 debut,
Fogarty’s Cove,
an album of roots-flavoured vignettes that, although not a big seller, won praise from critics and peers alike. Rogers continued to chronicle the history of his native land in further well-received studio releases –
Turnaround
(1978),
Northwest Passage
(1981) and his final outing
From Fresh Water
– issued just after his premature death.

Frequently on the road, Rogers was returning from a folk festival in Kerrville, Texas, when disaster struck his Air Canada DC-9. A freak fire in one of the craft’s toilet facilities spread quickly, forcing the pilot into an emergency landing. Although the aeroplane touched down safely, the crew had gravely underestimated the severity of the situation. Twenty-three passengers were killed either by flash fire or from smoke inhalation. Stan Rogers was among the latter.

Friday 20

Walter Jackson

(Pensacola, Florida, 19 March 1938)

The Velvetones