Starting 2017 with the positives….
Let’s love this people NOW, while they are ALIVE. Even with their obvious flaws, let’s not leave it too late to thank them for what they’ve given us. Add as many names as you can. The list is life!!
Jerry Lee Lewis.
Chuck Berry.
Fats Domino.
Simon & Garfunkel.
Bob Dylan.
Brian Wilson and Al Jardine.
Paul McCartney.
Ringo Starr.
Mick Jagger.
Keith Richards.
Ronnie Wood.
Bill Wyman.
Charlie Watts.
Everybody in Manfred Mann.
Aretha Franklin.
Eric Clapton.
Ray and Dave Davies.
Steve Cropper.
Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone.
The Incredible String Band.
Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Bob Plant.
Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman and David Crosby.
Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and (yes!) Neil Young.
Rod Stewart.
Jeff Beck.
Joni Mitchell.
John McLaughlin (he never stops….)
Smokey Robinson.
Todd Rundgren.
James Taylor.
Carole King.
Woody Woodmansey.
Jimmy Cliff.
Randy Newman.
Herbie Hancock.
Al Stewart.
Scott Walker.
Don Henley.
Nile Rodgers.
All of the original Roxy Music.
The original Sex Pistols.
Mick Jones, Topper Headon, Paul Simenon.
All of Talking Heads.
Most of Blondie.
New Order.
Kylie.
Public Enemy.
Lorde (note to self – check this)
…..and, yes, DONOVAN.
PS. All of these people on this record are ALIVE. Thank you for this great record!
Grim reaper sharpens scythe…..
He can go fuck himself, the boney wee bastart.
Point of order. Clive Palmer from the original Incredible String Band line-up (and the first album) is no longer with us.
Oh bloody hell. I didn’t know that. Next you’ll be telling me the original Humblebums aren’t still with us!
That’ll never happen.
It’s a great list though. Nice work.
Clive achieved Nirvana in 2014
I think the ‘original Roxy Music’ statement is a bit shaky. Didn’t the bass player have some problems?
Roxy had an ongoing bassist problem didn’t they? Which is how they ended up with the colossus that is Gary Tibbs.*
Bryan, Brian, Andy, Phil and Paul all thankfully still with us – and at least two of them still doing good stuff.
*While I’m here, both “hit” incarnations of Adam & The Ants are still above ground. The first line-up – not so lucky, as Matthew Ashman joined the choir invisibule in ’95.
A few more:
Steve Winwood
Roger Chapman
Peter Green
Diana Ross (yes!)
Wilko Johnson
Richard Thompson
Nick Lowe
Graham Parker
Garth Hudson (….achieves Afterword Saturation point and has to spend 20 minutes listening to civilians describe Gary Baaalow as a National Treasure)
Ginger Baker
I said “obvious flaws”, not “acute sociopathy”
“Let’s love these people now”
That’s kind of hard to do with Ginger, I realise.
Everyone on the B***o album is still alive. Though one is permanently retired and another is, worse, in Fleetwood Mac.
And every line-up of Fleetwood Mac is still around, except the three Bobs – Brunning, Weston and Welch.
I think saying Danny Kirwan is still “around” is a bit of a stretch. See also Syd Barrett 1970-2006.
“Still breathing”, perhaps?
…just not making music for our entertainment. Who are we to say he isn’t living a perfectly satisfactory life? I’ve done fuck all with mine, yet I’m quite happy with how it’s gone…
I suspect it’s a terribly sad story. In 1969 Fleetwood Mac were the biggest UK chart act, displacing the Fabs who had held that distinction since 1963.
Within a few years Danny Kirwan was sacked from the band and alcoholism lead him to a life of mental illness and homelessness.
A similar narrative, from a similar time, is the wonderful Jim King from Family.
Rick Wakeman
Mr & Mrs Fripp
Jon & Ian Anderson
The Chuckle Brothers
Not forgetting Bruce…
T’ you….
T’Pau.
T’ Deum
Bless you!
T’a!
ladies tend to outlive gents:
Diana Ross and Mary Wilson,
Gladys and Bubba Knight,
Martha Reeves and all of The Vandellas,
Betty Kelly and Carolyn Gill (The Velvelettes),
Ronnie Spector and Nedra Talley,
Darlene Love and Dolores Brooks,
Mary and Betty Weiss (The Shangri-Las)
Shirley Owens and Beverley Lee (The Shirelles)
Phil Spector.
Come on!
Never mind the murder, the domestic abuse, the guns, the hair. Think of those beats at the beginning of Be My Baby. And, while it’s a recent memory, that luminous Christmas album. Tough gig for St Peter but… thankfully I ain’t him.
Boom… b’boom CLACK!!
Nice to see that Michelle Phillips is still going strong. She may be the only surviving member of the Mamas & the Papas,though.
And remaining in California for a moment, I know that many Afterworders will join me in thanking Bob Weir (69), Phil Lesh (76), Bill Kreutzmann (70), Donna Jean Godchaux (69) and Mickey Hart (73). “In the end there’s just a song / Comes crying like the night / Through all the broken dreams / And vanished years….”
All of the proper Genesis are still with us.
And so are Right Said Fred.
All of Gerry & the Pacemakers, except Gerry’s brother Freddie, are still with us.
Ditto all original Searchers members except Chris Curtis and Tony Jackson
‘all original Searchers members except Chris Curtis and Tony Jackson’ is actually 2/4.
True, but like the Hollies the Searchers had a very early line-up change when Frank Allen replaced Tony Jackson in 1964. So it’s actually 3/5
There are two versions of the Searchers now active. Mike Pender leads, er, Mike Pender’s Searchers, while Frank Allen and John McNally go out as The Searchers.
Right, Fred’s dead.
For an awful moment there I thought I’d been mistaken about the I’m Too Sexy Hitmakers. But no! The Fairbrasses Vogue On!
Dame Vera Lynn is 99 (100 in March)
Cliff Richard
The Shadows
Alice Cooper
Ozzy Osbourne (somehow?)
Pete Townsend
Kenney Jones
The Shads? Be more pacific. Hank is still Strattin’ along.. the others?
Jet Harris and Tony Meehan from the first Shadows line-up 1958-61 and John Rostill from the mid-60s line-up are no longer alive.
Only Hank and Bruce from the original line-up and Brian Bennett and Brian “Liquorice” Locking from the second/third line-ups are still around
He should sort out that nickname, it’s not a good look and never was. Same with the woman in ISB.
I think she’d dropped that by the time she became a Liberal Democrat councillor.
No, that was the other one.
Yes, that was Rose Simpson who became mayor of Aberystwyth.
Liquorice got the nickname because he started out on clarinet before moving to bass. It was him who turned Hank onto the Jahovahs Witness malarkey and he was indirectly responsible for Cliff turning to Christianity.
If that weren’t enough he played bass on the early DONOVAN records including Catch The Wind
Iommi, Butler, Osbourne and Ward are still with us.
Noddy Holder
Jim Lea
Dave Hill
Don Powell
Roy Wood
The classic Slade! Thanks for that.
All of the original Move line-up except Carl Wayne are still of this world
Oh yes. Whither the Idle Race?
Hard to track down the minor members
All the Idle Race are still above ground. Here they are in 2014…
http://theelonetwork.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/0/0/25000684/_9465837_orig.jpg
Thankfully none of them looking thinner than a skelling-ton.
Nice find, @DrJ
All of Madness.
I know they’re younger, but that seems to make fuck all difference these days. (Compare The Specials)
Let’s not forget my 6 year old’s favourite (exactly how many 20p pieces did he go through on the jukebox in Ed’s Diner the other day?), Little Richard. Although he’s not been well (Mr Penniman, that is, not Lucas!), so please don’t let this be a hex. Poor Lukey is only just getting over the death of his favourite character in Rogue One last week, I don’t think I could break it to him that of his trio of favourite singers only Bruno Mars and Olly Murs are left…
Carl Palmer
Of all conceivable Tyrannosaurus Rex/T.Rex incarnations, only drummer Bill Legend is still standing (or sitting, probably)
A few more…
Abba
Vini Reilly
PiL
ABC
Frankie Goes To Holloywood
10CC
The Fall (everyone major has survived!)
Dave Gilmour/Roger Waters/Nick Mason
Aersomith
The Replacements
Prefab Sprout
Lloyd Cole
David Thomas
Jonathan Richman
The Jam
The Damned
Kate Bush
The Cure
The Stone Roses
Happy Mondays (yeah, I know….)
Peter Gabriel
Tony Banks
Mike Rutherford
Phil Collins
Anthony Phillps
Dave Gilmour
NIck Mason
Roger Waters
Jon Anderson
Rick Wakeman
Steve Howe
Alan White
Bill Bruford
Alan Parsons
Pye Hastings
Richard Sinclair
Mike Oldfield
Robert Wyatt
Fred Frith
Tim Hodgkinson
Chris Cutler
Peter Blegvad
Dagmar Krause
Michael Rother
Brian Eno
Bryan Ferry
Phil Manzanera
Kate Bush
Excellent list. Fuck the reaper!!
ALL of the great Kraftwerk lineups are alive. Notwithstanding cycling mishaps.
Gerry Rafferty?
I didn’t see Hootenanny, surely he was there swapping ribaldries with Rowland Rivron.
6 years ago today, on 4 Jan 2011, Gerry Rafferty achieved a higher state of consciousness, aged 63.
All of The Smiths.
Lee Perry
The Congos
Burning Spear
Toots Hibbert
Ernest Ranglin
Aston Barrett
Scientist
Grace Jones
Sly & Robbie
Winston Rodney is alive? Excellent!
Apart from Sticky, all of the Compass Point musicians who played for GJ are still warming the leatherette.
Over here Dennis Bovell, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Drummie Zeb, David Hinds, most of the Counter-Eurovision lineup of Misty.
And, er, all of UB40.
Jones the Voice.
Martin Ace & Deke Leonard.
Dave Edmunds.
Ry Cooder.
Taj Mahal.
Sonny Rollins.
Abdullah Ibrahim.
Herbie Hancock.
Wayne Shorter.
Terry Riley.
Arthur Brown.
Danny Thompson.
Zoot Horn Rollo, Drumbo & Rockette Morton.
Don Preston, Bunk Gardner, Artie Tripp & Ruth Underwood.
Mmmm …nice jazzy list, there Mike.
And you can add Gary Peacock to it, too. He’s now 81.
Hell, let’s make up the trio and give thanks for Jack DeJohnette and Keith Jarrett too!
And Chick Corea, in fact all of RTF,
plus Gary Burton,
Pat Metheny,
Lyle Mays
Steve Gadd
Anthony Jackson
Donald Fagen
Walter Becker
Chaka Khan
David Sylvian
Peter Frampton
Dave Mason
Even if Frampton was dead, I suspect he would Come Alive.
As I mentioned on the Rick Parfitt thread, three original members of From The Underworld hitmakers The Herd are still very active, with only the drummer Andrew Steele no longer above ground.
Peter Frampton (guitar) – you know him
Gary Taylor (bass) – now living in Perth, Australia and playing in a gypsy jazz duo with Hank Marvin among other things
Andy Bown (keyboards) – now a member of Status Quo
Judith Chalmers
Not wearing pants works. Not sure that’s a good message for Ver Kids.
Here’s an UP for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – loss of Tracey Pew (Bass Player in Birthday Party) – before John The C gets on the case.
Big Shout Out For
Angus Young
Malcolm Young – hang in there mate.
George Young
What Remains of Acca/Dacca & all who sailed in her
Harry Vanda
Could name The Remains – but not certain who does “remain” today?
Susan Boyle.
I’m going to be “SELFISH” & hope the following survive at least this year of 2017:
The Record Collector mag.
Mojo mag.
Uncut Mag.
As I do have subs for this year (and beyond) & would like all their employees to keep their jobs for another year so as to entertain & enlighten me musically.
Also of note is that the PASTE mag (U.S.) is trying to make a PRINT revival from the grave this year with a quarterly edition – here’s hoping it succeeds.
It’s interesting how Record Collector which started life as a flimsy supplement to the Beatles Monthly re-issue mags in 1979, now looks like it could outlive them all.
Yes it is quite amazing that it has lasted – started out at 50p (about 75cents) Sept. ’79 & at today’s price 4.40gbp – still going strong after 601 issues – let’s hope we haven’t jonah it.
Another mag in that “flimsy” style is “Rock ‘N’ Reel” (Folk and Roots and Blues and Beyond) started up in late ’80’s – it is still around today as R2.
Have we mentioned Jet Black yet? He’s 79 this year. So at the height of punk he was already pushing 40…
And I thought Charlie Harper was old
And let’s not forget Ian Hunter, a spritely 77
Shame on the lot of you… still alive still utterly fab.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49W_BYUXLk4
Delroy, Doris, Denise, Lorraine and Stedman Pearson. Hurrah for Five Star!
I hear Five Star are popular in Italy these days…
The Bachelors seem to still be alive and kicking, and the Austin 7 seems to be in even better nick.
the Bachelors are alive and kicking *each other* – two versions of the band, like UB40, Sham 69, Barclay James Havest, etc.
Austin 7, you say? Go on then.
http://i.imgur.com/jpII2xI.jpg
Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt (retired, but…), Emmylou Harris, Miss Grace Jones, Her Madge-esty.
All of the original Seekers and most of the New Seekers (adieu Peter Doyle) are still with us.
Roy Harper, who some 40 years ago was given a couple of years by doctors, is still alive, performing and hopefully will be recording again.
Yes, there are one or 2 who were shown their own graves and bucked the trend like that. Wilko, mentioned above, is clearly the obvious example. I didn’t know about Roy Harper, but certainly remember the inkies reporting Michael Chapman retiring on the grounds of his massive heart attack in, what was it, early 80s, possibly earlier. Likewise his one-time mucker Rick Kemp (Steeleye Span) retired because of his rheumatoid perhaps 30 years ago, yet is still plugged and playing. Holly Johnson was expecting a swift dismissal from his HIV. There are probably more who owe their ongoing to advances in medicine.
He had some sort of cardio/pulmonary disease.
The story that he contracted a disease after giving the kiss of life to a sheep (he tried for a few years to make a parallel living as a sheep farmer) was a product of the fertile mind of publicist B.P. Fallon.
The album “Lifemask” was an acknowledgment of his diagnosis.
I haven’t seen Stevie Wonder mentioned, or have I missed something?
Thank you Stevie.
I meant to put him in the OP. That may be the best non-Macca/Dylan/Clapton call of all.
Stevie Wonder was on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke last year. The hairline is over the horizon and he’s put on a few pounds, but he didn’t look too bad.
I love Stevie Wonder, and I’d like to give Moose a yellow card for putting Clapton in the same bracket as him (Macca and Dylan qualify). Fer shame!
All members of the first, second and third Mahavishnu Orchestras (1971-75) are with us, bar MO2 trumpeter Steve Franckewich (and the caveat that MO2 violist Marsha Westbrook is untraceable).
Let’s have a shout out for Pete Atkin (71) and his good mate the great Clive James (77), who appears to have been defying imminent death for a couple of years now. Yes, let’s have a huge great Afterword Hurrah for Pete and Clive!
HURRAH
Clive seems to be the Wilko of letters. What a glorious long goodbye he’s been giving us in the last few years.
Pete Atkin was run over by a bus last January and was put in an induced coma to aid his recovery. However he did lose the sight in his right eye. Fortunately he has recovered and will soon be returning to playing live.
A tremendous duo in their prime, I had the good fortune to see them performing on stage together.
http://www.peteatkin.com/bus.htm
The remaining half of the Who. Daltrey’s always been fit, but Townshend has had his moments.
Apart from Viv, are all the Bonzos still with us?
Dennis Cowan sadly bought it in 1973. Being a bassist is bad news isn’t it? (Roxy, Cream, Sid Vicious, er, Bad News)
A great thread!
The Hollies got mentioned somewhere but not the ORIGINAL line up….as far as I know they are all still intact namely: Clarke, Nash, Hicks and bass spanker Eric Haydock and tub thumper Don Rathbone
Also the original Manfred Mann men are all present and correct : Mann, Jones, McGuiness, Mike Hugg and Mike Vickers. Beat that!
Mike d’Abo and Klaus Voorman too – the latter, the first man on Earth to have a Beatle haircut.
I suspect he’s gone down the backcombing route long ere now.
Here it was a year ago – looking like his own
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZraO7V4PEs
Thanks for that. What a cool chap he still is!
But not erstwhile Manfred Mann bassist Jack Bruce who played on Pretty Flamingo and the EP Instrumental Asylum
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe.
Chris Lowe’s alive? Someone should tell him!
haw haw
The Kentucky Headhunters (AKA Itchy Brother) going for nigh on 50yrs
ZZ Top
Rush
Elvin Bishop
Govt Mule ( 1 loss Woody) -see Allman Brothers
You’d think Rush would qualify wouldn’t you, but actually their original drummer (who played on their first album) died a few years back.
John Fogerty, Doug Clifford and Stu Cook from Creedence
Mavis Staples
Burt Bacharach (originally typed that as Bury Bacharach which is a tad unfortunate)
Cat Stevens
Elton John
Buddy Guy
Cat Stevens still very much alive, despite advocating death for others
…. naughty but nice!
I claim no expertise on the life and doings of Mr Georgiou but, that notwithstanding, did he not step back from that extreme position?
He tries to pretend that it never happened but the evidence is there for all eternity
Despite all the dangerous, noisy beasties he has encountered, Sir David (born 1926) is still going strong.
Bird of Scotland
Bird of Paradise
10CC are still at full strength
Steve Harley
All the lads from Sailor
Ray Dorset
Clodagh Rodgers
Brotherhood Of Man
Guys ‘n’ Dolls
Phew! A nation sighs in collective relief in the knowledge that the Glass Of Champagne hitmakers are all still extant.
Any news update on the health of The Mixtures?
And if we’re featuring Eurovision stars, Dana and Sandy Shaw are still very much with us
Paul Weller
Bruce Foxton
Rick Buckler
still a chance of that reunion happening
Rik has joined the Comedy Club in the sky, but all other Young Ones remain.
Thankfully, the BBC never decided to do an hilarious re-visit/update calling it the “Not So Young Ones” or “The Old Ones”
The Queen. She’s been out of action with a “heavy cold” over Xmas, but at 90 it can’t be long now.
Can you imagine the scene when she pegs out? It will be like Bowie, Prince and George Michael combined.
I suspect only @mikethep and I were born before she came to the throne and probably none us can remember any other monarch.
Even the most anti royalist lefty among us will be unmoved by her passing.
Can you imagine a world with Trump, Corbyn, Brexit and Charles III?
Beam me up Scotty!
There is somebody else here who might remember the Coronation – he surfaced when we did the How Old Are You thread. Can’t remember who now.
Given what’s going on in the world I imagine having a genuine tweed-wearing copper-bottomed eccentric on the throne might actually add to the gaiety of nations. Can’t do any harm, anyway. If nothing else, he’ll probably be a pain in the arse for successive PMs and governments on his watch.
Can’t happen soon enough for the Fail, apparently.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g401/mikethep/ER_zpssfgnstgc.jpg
What a terrible, hand-wringing, obsequious, arse-licking, small-minded headline.
I suspect you may be right about Charles. He seems like a decent cove, if a little bonkers.
I posted from my phone earlier, and the third last line above should have read:
ONLY the most anti royalist lefty among us will be unmoved by her passing.
I quite like the idea of Charlie being the DM’s darling.
I don’t think there’s much doubt he’s got a decent sense of humour (even though I suspect he hasn’t moved on from ‘The Goons’) and that alone makes him the ideal candidate.
I have this image of the weekly meeting with the PM, when Theresa (or whoever) walks in to catch Charles talking to the plants.
I like the last line of that DM front page piece: “A source said ‘Her majesty doesn’t like going to church with a cough, because she thinks it is off-putting for other celebrants'”
“A source” – in other words, we made it up.
‘I have this image of the weekly meeting with the PM, when Theresa (or whoever) walks in to catch Charles talking to the plants’.
Or even better, greeting her in a ‘Bluebottle’ voice.
‘You rotten swine! You’ve deaded the economy!’
Is that “Sherlock” headline something of a spoiler for anyone who hasn’t watched it yet? (ie me)
I haven’t seen it, but a climax on a mainstream BBC1 drama would be pretty shocking. Especially a painful one.
Especially if it led to a baby.
Just seen remnants of “Australian Story” on the life of a OZ Jazz GREAT – Don Burrows 88yrs – thanks also go out to James Morrison(another OZ Jazz great) & his family for assisting & keeping Don alive – Don’s still playing flute/tin whistle etc to his fellow residents in his retirement home/village.
I was playing this today (yeah, it’s a 1st pressing , read ’em and weep) when it occurred that, with just two exceptions, all Jethro Tull members from the first decade 1967-1977 are extant.
Those who have left us are: Glenn Cornick, bass (d. 2014) and his second replacement John Glascock (d.1979)
http://i.imgur.com/v1NQF8L.jpg
Serenade to a Cuckoo! See, this is why Black Sabbath were inevitable Johnny.
Yebbut, two things:
Tony Iommi was briefly a member of Tull as the replacement for Mick Abrahams and played with them at the Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus, before Martin “Lancelot” Barre took the job
Serenade For A Cuckoo is a Roland Kirk piece and therefore allowed under prog rules, just as Bourree by J.S.Bach was permissible on Stand Up
Bass players again! Might be something to what Moose said upthread….
An insight into my mental processes:
This Was -> Tiswas -> The Bucket of Water Song -> John Gorman -> Heyyy! All of The Scaffold are still alive! Result!!
Of the original Lovin’ Spoonful, only guitarist Zal Yanovsky is no longer alive.
John Sebastian, Steve Boone, Joe Butler and later member Jerry Yester are all above ground.
Barry Cryer
Graeme Garden
John Cleese
Michael Palin