The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (96 page)

JULY

Wednesday 4

Jimmie Spheeris

(New Orleans, Louisiana, 5 November 1949)

Poet/songwriter Jimmie Spheeris was a well-recognized figure on the California music scene, but died before he could make a meaningful commercial breakthrough. His Columbia debut,
Isle Of View
(say it phonetically; 1971), gained critical praise for the musician, though, and he consolidated this success with strong follow-up
The Original Tap-Dancing Kid
(1973), after which ‘The Venice Minstrel’ was much in demand for live work, and able to attract Joni Mitchell’s producer Henry Lewy as a collaborator. After a fourth record,
Ports of the Heart
(1976), Spheeris was, however, without a record contract and facing obscurity.

On the night he finished recording his 1984 comeback album, Jimmie Spheeris felt invigorated. He had also recently completed a doctorate in scientology (a tough shout for an openly gay man) – and Independence Day celebrations were just hours away. Spheeris left the studio and jumped on to his motorbike, speeding east back home to Santa Monica; heading the other way, though, was an inebriated van driver, Bruce Burnside, who collided with him. The musician was knocked from his bike and across the pavement – sustaining horrific head injuries. Spheeris was pronounced dead on arrival at Santa Monica Medical Center. His eponymous album would not see the light of day for a further sixteen years. The singer is survived by older sister Penelope – whose work as a film director includes
Wayne’s World
and
The Decline of Western Civilization.

Saturday 14

Philippé Wynne

(Philip Walker - Detroit, Michigan, 3 April 1941)

The Spinners

(Funkadelic)

(The Pacesetters)

(The JBs)

(The Afro-Kings)

A natural, fast-talking extrovert, Philippe Wynne was already in his thirties by the time his concert performances with The Afro-Kings raised awareness of his natural ability as both singer and showman. Meanwhile, as an act in the Motown stable, The Spinners (‘Detroit’ was added for the British market) found attention deflected from them on to more prosperous artists like The Miracles, The Temptations and The Four Tops. Wynne’s defection to The Spinners was therefore a pretty good move for both parties.

The Spinners’ fortunes really changed in 1971 when Aretha Franklin recommended them to Atlantic and the production mastery of Thom Bell – who saw in them the perfect vehicle for his smooth, soon-to-be-trademark ‘Philadelphia’ sound. Then, along came the ideal frontman in Philippe Wynne, a gospel-trained singer who had something of a pedigree, having worked with both Bootsy Collins’s Pacesetters and James Brown’s JBs. The fans loved his and main lead Bobbie Smith’s dynamic delivery of the band’s output, sending tunes like ‘I’ll Be Around’ (1972), ‘Could It be I’m Falling in Love’ and ‘Ghetto Child’ (both 1973), ‘Then Came You’ (1974, a US number one with Dionne Warwick) and ‘Rubberband Man’ (1976) high into the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Wynne stayed with the group until 1977 (missing out on later successes like 1980’s reissue of ‘Working My Way back to You’), then rejoined the P-Funk stable as a sometime member of George Clinton’s Funkadelic, simultaneously conducting a solo career.

Although his greatest days were as the main man with The Spinners, Philippe Wynne was a tremendous performer to the very end – which came as he performed at the Jack London Square Club, Oakland. After leaping into the audience, Wynne suffered a fatal heart attack, collapsed and died.

See also
Billy Henderson (
Golden Oldies #43); Pervis Jackson (
Golden Oldies #74). George Dixon (2005) has also died, as has early lead Edgar ‘Chico’ Edwards (2011). (Joe Stubbs (
February 1998) briefly sang with the group.)

Saturday 21

Michael Osborne

(California, 22 December 1949)

Axe

A melodic hard-rock band expected to clean up throughout the metal-friendly eighties, Axe came to prominence with one of the first MTV rock hits, 1981’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Party in the Streets’. With tricksy guitarists Mike Osborne and Bobby Barth ever at the fore, they were much in demand, opening for Cheap Trick, Judas Priest, Motley Crue and The Scorpions, as well as selling a fair few copies of their
Livin’ on the Edge
(1980) and
Offering
(1981) albums. Just as the band appeared to be break-ing into the major league, the car in which Osborne and Barth were travelling home crashed on a California highway. In that moment, Axe was finished: Osborne died at the scene, while the extremely fortunate Barth survived but needed several months to recuperate, eventually joining Blackfoot and Angry Anderson (Rose Tattoo). Axe made a comeback in 1997 with a new line-up.

AUGUST

Tuesday 7

Esther Phillips

(Esther Mae Jones - Galveston, Texas, 23 December 1935)

Another church-trained vocalist – and another protégée of Johnny Otis – Esther Mae Jones showed potential as an R & B performer as early as 1948, when she was entered by her sister into a talent show at one of the entrepreneur’s clubs. ‘Little Esther’ (as she was billed) soon became a regular with Otis’s California Rhythm & Blues Caravan, topping the R & B charts twice with her ballsy renditions of ‘Double Crossin’ Blues’ and ‘Mistrustin’ Blues’ (both 1950). The titles were perhaps apposite: the singer was clearly under age when working for Otis, and was also exposed to drugs while still a minor – allegedly to help this large-framed girl control her weight. Frustration with her mentor spilled over in 1951, when ‘Little Esther’ finally left Otis’s show after one wage disagreement too many.

Esther Mae Jones was addicted to heroin before she was twenty – a sad fact that, along with her terminated employment, contributed to her regularly being broke. In 1962, however, young maverick Kenny Rogers signed the rechristened Esther Phillips to Lenox, his brother’s country label, issuing the US Top Ten version of ‘Release Me’ (later a smash for Engelbert Humperdinck). Clearly demonstrating a talent far beyond the novelty of some of her earlier work, Phillips was picked up by Atlantic, for whom she recorded polished versions of classics – her ‘And I Love Him’ (1965), a take on The Beatles’ tune, still stands tall – as well as some highly personal songs such as Gil Scott-Heron’s heroin opus, ‘Home is Where the Hatred is’ (1972). Another cover gave Phillips her biggest latterday hit, ‘What a Diffrence a Day Makes’ (1975, UK number six), a dancefloor ‘smoulderer’, still arguably the definitive version of that standard.