I have fallen into the emotional rollercoaster of the holiday season tonight just as I was trying to climb aboard. Partially, I know it’s because the holidays seem to change meaning as I get older and, partially, it’s due to unrelated events of the night. I’ve just come from watching the final hour of This Is England ’88 which is, hands down, one of the most emotionally gripping hours of television I have ever watched in my life.

I don’t want to give spoilers, but if you’re not familiar with the movie This is England and the subsequent Channel 4 mini-series installments, This is England ’86 and This is England ’88, they are the critically-acclaimed semi-autobiographical works of director Shane Meadows. In 2006, Meadows introduced the world to a group of characters for whom there was such demand as to yield the series, which (as you might guess) revisits the characters from the film every two years. Meadows’ propensity to leave no detail untouched in his script writing and directing is no less vivid in the ’88 installment than any previous.

This song, “Dogwood Blossom” by the prolific and talented Irish songwriter Fionn Regan, closed out the show and left its wood-strewn insights and harmonies running in salty streaks down my face as I reflected on the passing of writer/journalist Christopher Hitchens just after the show had ended. The two events, though tied by coincidence, seem brazenly apropos upon reflection to the song herein. It’s just that thought which lingers in my mind: if heaven does exist, will there be hell to pay when he arrives?

Rest gently then, Mr. Hitchens, and thank you for being fearlessly contrary, callously brazen in spite of yourself, and be not damned for your eternal belief in that which you held true.

Fionn Regan – Dogwood Blossom
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Confirmed reports out of Nashville tell us that Dobie Gray, one of American music’s most vibrant and timeless voices, passed away peacefully this morning in his sleep. He was 71. No further details are available right now, but I will update this story as I learn more.

A multi-dimensional performer whose work crossed decades, genres of music and artistic styles, Dobie worked consistently as a performer up until the time of his passing. Dobie will be without a doubt be most remembered for songs ‘The In-Crowd’, ‘Loving Arms’ and his performance of the unforgettable, iconic ode to rock and roll music, ‘Drift Away’.

Rest in Power, Dobie, and thank you for everything you gave to the world of music.

[ Official Dobie Gray Website ]

Dobie Gray – Drift Away

Every time someone in music dies, I have to sit around and find new ways to eulogize them or talk about their work. It gets to the point as a writer where I feel like I’ve twisted every coinable phrase. I adjust each sentence to fit the mold of the subject and properly send them off into the sunset like a blazing Viking funeral craft barreling towards a natural gas pipeline. Then someone of my generation, arguably one of the most talented and revered (or reviled and feared depending on whom you would ask) is taken from us too young and I start again. The story of Amy Winehouse and those like her is as old as human history, the romantic figure of stolen youth shackled to a crate of drugs floating aimlessly down a sea of hyperbole and gossip towards a black whirlpool of rumor and left to drown. I couldn’t write her story any more than she planned to live it for us. How she went from the voice of a generation and media darling to tabloid sideshow freak in eight years is the story of fame itself and the curses it can bring.

Amy Winehouse’s greatest gift to this world was her unquestionably powerful, soulful and resonating voice. She won multiple Grammy awards, she toured the world, sold millions of records and made a real impact on the times in which she lived. Is it strange, then, how armchair pundits, graceless Nancies and Real Housewives everywhere were always more apt to focus on her struggles with addiction and recovery, a struggle which she did not survive? Illuminating the suffering that takes place in the throes of addiction is easy to do standing on this side of things, such as when a celebrity passes away. We can argue that the things which killed her she could have walked away from, but that merely shows a propensity for people who aren’t addicts to proselytize about what those who suffer from the disease of addiction face every moment of their lives.

Then there’s the fact that Amy died at the age of 27. Oh, yes, there it is: that stupid fucking club. It’s so obvious to you who know about the club and what it means that this was her m.o. from the start. She wanted to join a club! Yes, that’s quite the languid observation to make. It helps people who like coincidences to string them together and form theories that, though based in reality, are simply not real. Clubs like this exist so that writers have something to put their finger on to explain senseless loss of life. But wait — did you know that the worst hand in poker is the 2-7 off-suit. Could that be part of the club? I bet that’s it! A numerological explanation for everything! The number 27 is unlucky in some way, oh how star-crossed and fascinating we are for knowing this!

In that same vein are those who will romanticize her death and make it into something it most surely should not be. “Oh, lucky girl, she managed to push eject at just the right time.” Or perhaps, “She wasn’t nothing but a filthy old slapper anyways, mate. Hide your baby aspirins when she was about you would.” To the millions of kids (and adults) who enjoyed her music, we have to hope that they’ve got no romantic notions of her passage. But just as surely as they would make that connection with her, perhaps at some level so did Ms. Winehouse herself in younger days.

Maladjusted and malnourished as this songbird spent much of her final years in this world, she didn’t seem to shy away from the negative attentions. Perhaps she thrived on it at some point. The tabloid press, who was never one to let the poor girl have a pack of smokes much less time to get her shit together, are without their bread and butter today. The pen swift tailors of dodgy ragtag filth which is bought and paid for by the keepers of glass houses in which they so quaintly reside will surely lack subject matter for their slow news days after today. How long will they torture her corpse? Will Amy be forced to live out her legacy in this world as a zombified pseudo-Bat Boy, outrageous stories of her exploits in the afterlife disgracing the ink which reproduces them for the masses?

For her part in all of this, regardless of what drugs she used, what lives she may have altered forever because of her addiction and mental health, I feel quite confident that she still deserves better in death from the press than she got in life.

Nobody thinks about her family who have to bury a daughter, a sister. Nobody talks of her dear friends, the musicians and producers who worked with her and invested their time and energy into her career. But certainly, people will poll the celebrities out there and ask what they think. Ah yes, let’s ask other celebrities what they think of a celebrities’ death! That’s where the real heart and soul of the matter is, isn’t it? It makes me ill just to imagine that the world I live in has transmogrified into a weeping hot air balloon propelled by itself. And what, then, does that make me?

Sadly, as much as I bitch and moan for the loss of someone who had so many chances in life, I know precisely what I am in this place on the internet where you read me. The world will never tire of people like me eulogizing, canonizing, theorizing and exorcising artists who walk the edge of extremity and danger with reckless abandon as Amy Winehouse did. So long as there are people out there who need to hear someone tell them how they are supposed to feel when this kind of tragedy occurs, my bread will always be buttered on both sides.

I only wish that all that butter and bread could save the life and voice of just one Amy Winehouse, that maybe I wouldn’t be needed here so often, and that the world could love a girl like Amy as I do — for the gift of her music more than what the press made her into. It wasn’t you that was no good, Amy. I really believe it was us.

Amy Winehouse – You Know I’m No Good

I am unqualified to write about Gil Scott-Heron’s life or death, and I want you to know that I know this before I write about him or what I think his music means to the world and to me. I make no pretense of authority, knowledge, insight, personal interaction with or particular credible depth with which to pursue writing about him. What I can tell you is that everything I do know of Gil Scott-Heron I learned because of how deeply and profoundly his work moved and continues to move me and the understandings I am grateful for that I came to discover through choosing to be exposed to his body of work.

Gil-Scott Heron’s poetry, his books, his music and his legacy, the source of debate and controversy almost since the day his name came into popular culture, have become permanently knotted threads woven into the fabric of the modern American literary and musical landscapes. His influence on hip-hop is incalculable by any measure. His poetry and lyricism are studied and discussed at length by scholars, authors, writers, poets and rappers far and wide. His music and spoken word recordings remain a wellspring of animus that spreads itself across multiple genres.

As influenced by the pro-Black radical movement as he was a searing voice of the movement itself, Scott-Heron’s work carries an intense weight that some are unprepared to hear: beautiful melodies laced with messages of empowerment and vitriolic phrases bubbling up from a well-founded anger felt among Black people who came of age during his generation. Scott-Heron consistently made astute and unflattering observations regarding the corrupt activity of politicians and the political process; the confounding persistent, willful ignorance by white America towards the growing, vast expanses of dirty, crime-and-drug-infested ghetto streets which stretched from one end of this continent to the other during the mid-late 20th century; and, the disenfranchised millions who lived in them, a people whom his words & music impacted and represented, particularly African-Americans.

Gil Scott-Heron entered the legacy he would leave behind during a painful and damaging time in this country when it was, at the very least, considered criminal to simply be a person of color by a large percentage of the people who were in positions of political, economic and social authority in America. Gil Scott-Heron voiced rebellion against an undeniably oppressive system designed to, in no uncertain terms, keep people of color and other minorities in a state of abject poverty and self-hatred intended to perpetuate itself across generations. Scott-Heron was unafraid to use his voice to attack the figures behind the bully pulpits who acted as if they were beyond reproach, to point out obvious hypocrisy and purposeful ignorance to impoverished inner city affliction wherever it existed, willing to attack both the white power structure and individuals falsely calling themselves Black revolutionaries with an equal fervor. Because Gil Scott-Heron devoted himself to speaking out without fear of retribution, he was the subject of investigations, harassment, and threats by people from both sides of the ongoing social conflict that existed in America during and after the Vietnam war. Though lionized by fellow musicians, critics, poets, and culturally significant figures throughout his career, Scott-Heron was often the outsider trying to find a way to describe to all other outsiders how to find a way in, over or around the obstacles that stood in their path.

To try and describe him with anything less than a string of hyperbolic phrasings and unsuitable adjectives would be to eschew the importance of his contributions. I have heard him referred to as “the black Bob Dylan”; while I find this phrase well-intentioned, I personally find it a little bit insulting because it requires someone hearing that reference to place him in a box or a category that can be easily digested. However, not unlike Dylan, he used his words and music to move people in a way that was intended to affect lasting changes in the world.

When Gil Scott-Heron came out with his first, and to many his most important, contribution to music & poetry “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” in 1970, he was making a call-to-arms, both demanding that Black people should stop allowing themselves to simply settle for the status quo and, at the same time, openly lambasting the homogenized television culture of a post-Vietnam America that paid no attention to the plight of the inner city except as fodder for the television news. But Scott-Heron’s words and music, a truly unique blend of his influences — Langston Hughes (by far his biggest influence), John Coltrane, Billie Holliday, Richie Havens, Otis Redding, Jose Feliciano, and multi-instrumentalist Brian Jackson (with whom Scott-Heron collaborated for many years) — transcended a single work, performance or recording. From 1970 to 1982, Scott-Heron released 13 albums and published three books, performed and toured feverishly, and created a series of recordings that teemed with the rhythms of the streets, blending both African and Latin percussion with timeless new progressions in jazz and blues.

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson – Home Is Where The Hatred Is

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson – New York City

There’s no denying the sad irony that Scott-Heron, who long touted the evils of drugs and alcohol in songs like “Home Is Where The Hatred Is”, “The Bottle” and “Angel Dust” became, himself, crippled by throes of addiction. At some point in the 1980′s, Scott-Heron became as notorious for his failure to make public appearances as he was admired for his body of work. His public appearances became fewer and far between, leading many to simply write him off entirely. Scott-Heron spent the last ten years of his life being arrested, placed into court-ordered drug rehabilitation or incarcerated a number of times for cocaine possession, jailed in 2001-2002, 2006 and arrested again in 2007. From somewhere within him, though, a part of his damaged spirit found the desire to push him into regaining his foothold on his life’s work.

Recording what would be his final work, I’m New Here (a collaboration with XL Recordings founder and owner Richard Russell), Scott-Heron was no longer merely enraged with the stubbornness of his own demons grinning impishly at the marks he made on a world that, in some sense, had turned and left him in exile to carry out their demands. Gil Scott-Heron, at the time of his death, left behind no mere footnote to his legacy or solemn bookend to his work. On first listen, I’m New Here may sound like the words of a defeated or angry man giving up his will to modern convenience, abated by time and circumstance. My initial reaction to the album and the subsequent remixes was a kind of disgust, the thought that Scott-Heron, whom I deem a personal hero, was being taken advantage of by XL Recordings and the UK media in an effort to exploit him and capitalize on his weakened condition brought on by virtue of his addiction. On repeated listening, and knowing what I know of the relationship between Scott-Heron and Richard Russell now, I see something much less sinister and much more profound. These are not the incoherent ramblings of a once-great poet and performer being coddled by white media magnates in an effort to seem racially unbiased; they are the willful collaborations between a man genuinely moved by Scott-Heron’s work and the reactions of a man who knew exactly how far he had leapt from the precipice of all he rallied against, seeing his humanity with clarity and recognizing the frailty of the very human conditions he struggled with.

In his passing, a hope exists within me that those who come to Gil Scott-Heron’s work will pay less attention to the gaps and more attention to the important building blocks and pieces which remain. The struggle of Black people to overcome that Scott-Heron encouraged and the ignorance to the plight of the inner city by white America that he fearlessly criticized may seem like a footnote in American history to the untrained eye. But I can’t listen to Scott-Heron’s voice, his inflection, his passion without asking myself all the time if anything has really changed or, if what’s really happened, is that the game remains the same while we as a culture have not truly progressed but simply shifted the blame.

Of the many things Poly Styrene was, timid was never amongst them. Her personal and musical arc, from 1977′s Germ Free Adolescents all the way to this collection of songs for what would be her final album, Generation Indigo, showed quite the opposite.

She was many things to many people: a feminist punk icon, an experimental artist, an environmentalist and a staunch anti-consumerist. She openly shunned labels like “riot grrrl” “protest singer” and “sex symbol”, titles which she had quite easily earned. What she knew was that such labels were conventions of writers and the media who have a suffocating need to affix concepts to everything.

::: Poly Styrene – Code Pink Dub :::

What’s clear to anyone who pays even a cursory attention to the lyrics on this album is that her intentions were ultimately quite pure. Winding a balance between defiant and divine, she wanted to create some kind of harmony that would make the world a better place — not a revolutionary concept though, truly, Poly was precisely that — and in these songs, she had clearly unlocked a way to manipulate popular culture as a means to convey her thoughts about the injustices she saw. If tuneful power pop, dubstep, reggae-influenced pop music & electropop was a vehicle that could deliver her, she was willing to pretend as a means of subversion. What nobody counted on, probably not even her, is that the results would be so beautiful, beatific and satisfying to hear.

Producer Martin Glover, whose work has fueled the careers of artists U2 to Edwyn Collins to his own band Killing Joke, leaves no gaps. In life, this album would surely have propelled her headlong to the attentions of a generation raised on Lady Gaga, The Gossip and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. In the tragic irony of her passage on the day before the record was released in the U.S., I hope it nonetheless does the same. It’s hard to imagine, hearing this record, seeing her on the brink of resurgence only to disappear into the void.

::: SEE ALSO ::: [R.I.P.] Poly Styrene, Punk Icon (1957-2011)

::: PURCHASE :::

Poly Styrene – Generation Indigo [Amazon]

PHOTO: Fabrizio Rainone

With sadness, we can now confirm rumors of the passing of Poly Styrene, punk rock icon & lead singer of seminal U.K. punk band X-Ray Spex. According to a posting on her official Facebook page by her long-time friend Symond Lawes, “i just spoke to her mother and its very true, she passed away quietly last night, her mother and daughter were with her, bless you marianne. symond xxx”. The news was further confirmed by her PR team, saying “We can confirm that the beautiful Poly Styrene, who has been a true fighter, won her battle on Monday evening to go to higher places.” She was 53.

::: LISTEN ::: [Full Album Stream] Poly Styrene – Generation Indigo

Often considered the original “riot grrrl” (stemming from her band’s first 1977 single, “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!”), her musical evolution found her wavering between the Germ Free Adolescents proto-punk she pioneered, jazzier experimentations and, more recently, daring power pop, electropop and electro-punk. The artists Poly Styrene has influenced reference a who’s who of popular music over the past 30 years — most recently, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Santigold and The Gossip count among them.

Aside from her status as a punk rock icon, Poly Styrene (born Marian Joan Elliott-Said) has been called “a revolutionary with a genuine love for this world and the people and things in it” by those she worked with. She had long been an outspoken counterculture figure, willing to engage in protest to make her point as a tireless advocate for environmental causes, an opponent of rampant consumerism and fighting for the rights of women. Never one to consider herself a protest singer and openly against being labeled a sex symbol, Styrene instead simply wanted to make a difference in the world. “You don’t think you’re doing anything groundbreaking,” she recently told Sinead Gleeson in an interview. “I just made music because I wanted to put good energy out there. I was young and optimistic and you feel you can do anything.”

::: RELATED ::: Poly Styrene Remembered by Kathleen Hanna, Billy Bragg and Beastie Boys

In recent times, Poly partnered with producer Martin Glover (aka Youth of the band Killing Joke) to create a new album, Generation Indigo (which was officially released stateside today, 26 April). The album has been the subject of extensive critical acclaim, including Spin Magazine’s 8/10 rating.

On a spiritual level, Poly Styrene’s search for self in the period after X-Ray Spex brought her to the Hare Krishna’s in the early 1980′s, living for several years in a Hertfordshire Krishna temple with her daughter as she struggled to cope with bipolar disorder. In a candid February interview with the Sunday Times, the 53-year-old Styrene announced to the world that she had been diagnosed with & was battling breast cancer. While outward signs seemed to point towards a recovery, it is apparent that she succumbed to the disease last night.

Poly Styrene leaves behind her mother and a daughter, Celeste. Our condolences go out to her family, her friends, and her many fans around the world.

::: X-Ray Spex – Oh Bondage Up Yours! :::

::: Poly Styrene – Generation Indigo Minimix by Youth :::

Here’s a recent interview with rock journalist John Robb about what would become her final album, Generation Indigo. The album, released today in the U.S., was already slated to be streamed in its entirety by Spinner.Com, a stream which can be heard by clicking here.

::: Related Stories :::
Punk icon Poly Styrene dies [BBC]

After a lengthy battle with lung cancer, Gerard Smith, bassist for TV on the Radio, died this morning at the age of 34.

After announcing to the world in March that he had been battling cancer, he expressed that he would not be part of this year’s extensive tour to support the band’s latest album, Nine Types of Light.

Smith joined TV on the Radio in 2005. In addition to Nine Types of Light, Smith appeared on 2006?s Return to Cookie Mountain and 2008?s Dear Science.

While the overall future of their tour remains uncertain, TV on the Radio have canceled their next five scheduled tour dates. We’re keeping Gerard’s friends, family and bandmates in our prayers and thoughts.

(Information courtesy of Consequence of Sound)

TV on the Radio 2011 Tour Dates:
04/20 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrew Hall
04/22 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
04/23 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
04/24 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
04/26 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
04/29 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
04/30 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
05/02 – San Diego, CA @ 4th and B
05/03 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Music Box
06/22 – Zagreb, HR @ T Mobile Inmusic Festival
06/23 – Munich, DE @ Muffathalle
06/24 – Berlin, DE @ Astra
06/27 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 2
06/28 – Glasgow, UK @ O2 ABC
06/30 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter
07/01 – St. Gallen, CH @ St. Gallen Festival
07/03 – London, UK @ Wireless Festival
07/04 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
07/05 – Cologne, DE @ Live Music Hall
07/08 – Bilbao, ES @ BBK Live Festival
07/09 – Lisbon, PT @ Optimus Alive! Festival
07/13 – Paris, FR @ Olympia
07/17 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
08/28 – St. Louis, MO @ LouFest

Longtime manager Ron Richardson has reported that disco & house legend Loleatta Holloway passed away this evening after slipping into a coma. No further details are known at present. She was 64 years old.

Loleatta Holloway had been long-revered as one of the original ‘disco divas’. She was one of the primary inspirations for early house music, often having her acapella vocals sampled without her permission (and never being paid). Loleatta began to take her rightful place and gain unquestionable popularity after her song “Love Sensation” was remade by Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch in 1991 as “Good Vibration” featuring Loleatta on vocals. The following is courtesy of Discogs:

Loleatta Holloway was born in Chicago, Illinois in November 1946, and began her career singing gospel music with the Queen of Gospel, Albertina Walker and the Caravans.

In 1976 she began singing on Disco productions (mainly on Salsoul Records) and was responsible for some classics like “Love Sensation” or “Relight My Fire” by Dan Hartman.

In 1984, Holloway left Salsoul Records and began to work on an album, “Crash Goes Love”. Unfortunately it was never completed and only two singles were released for Streetwise, the title track and “Heartstealer”.

During the following years, many of her old hits were adapted by House producers like Black Box who used the original acapellas of her songs over new melodies. According to her, she never earned a penny of most of these productions. The only time she was paid and credited was on the Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch song “Good Vibrations” (1991), which also sampled some of her vocals for “Love Sensation”.

Our hearts go out to her friends, family and fans around the world during this difficult time.

Loleatta Holloway – Love Sensation

UPDATE: Since news of Loleatta’s passing, there have been tributes on blogs everywhere — my personal favorite is over at American Athlete where Pat Les Stache gives people a chance to hear two of her best songs, “Runaway” and “The Greatest Performance of My Life”.

Loleatta Holloway – The Greatest Performance of my Life (Larry Levan Mix)
Loleatta Holloway – Runaway

I was really impressed with this nicely mashed-up tribute to Nate Dogg (who sadly passed away this week at the age of 41) put together by Richard The Third. Putting together “I Got Love” with the new Burial, Four Tet and Thom Yorke track “Ego“, I think it speaks for itself. Nate Dogg, you were the master of the G-Funk era, and like this picture says: It Aint a Hit Unless Nate Dogg Sings On It.

Rest in Peace, Nate.

This song, “Rub-a-Dub Sound”, produced by reggae superproducers Sly & Robbie, was released in 1984 & is considered highly influential to the creation of the style known as ragga. Sit tight and listen keenly as we remember Sugar Minott.

Few people are as deeply influential to the creation of hip-hop and the roots of both hip hop and graffiti culture as Rammellzee. One of the founding fathers and originators, we mourn his passing today.

I can’t tell you what that first night down at Willie Mitchell’s nightclub on Beale Street was like for me back in 19881994 (ed note: thanks Archie), the night Charley Burch first took me in to meet the man himself. I couldn’t tell you because, well, I was young and unscrupulous back then and, not to mention, so much fun was being had, I felt like I was spending a New Year’s with my own family.

At the time, I was a very young man and I couldn’t tell you Willie Mitchell from Willie Stargell. I had no idea who the man was, his legacy or what he had done for Memphis music. I only knew he had a club, that he was exceptionally kind to me, and we took a mutual liking to one another that New Year’s Eve. He and his wife Anna Barbara, his family … they treated me as if I was part of their family, that I was welcome to be where they were. I was immediately taken with his daughters, Von and Lorrain, and his grandchildren, Archie and Boo. I felt like I had come home to Memphis for the first time. That night, I saw myself reflected. I felt, for the first time in my life, really, truly at home in Memphis.

In the days, weeks and years which followed, though, I grew to become intimately familiar with the life’s work of the legendary Willie Mitchell. From time to time I would catch myself in an awestruck moment when I thought about him and, often, sat speechless at having been so blessed to meet and know this great, great man. I was often fearful to speak up in his presence which, if you know me, is a rare feat in anyone’s presence.

Around Pops I always felt, as I do with people whom I hold in such admiration, the need to quietly listen and learn what I could, recognizing that time was indeed a precious commodity.

Tuesday morning, when I heard the news of Pops’ death, I became very still. For a long time, I knew this day would come, and in my mind I had tried to prepare so much for what I would say when it did. I knew that Pops had been ill for many months, that he had broken his hip back in September and was struggling to recover from cardiac arrest several weeks ago. At first, I was wrought with distress but, somehow, a kind of calm came over me.

I knew that Pops was at peace, that he didn’t have to struggle with the pain any longer.

When I think of Pops, I think of a man who was among a core group of people whom we refer to as “the winners” in the world of entertainment. He was as real as it gets, a visionary who could pick a hit record as easily as he could see through a situation, call bullshit on it, and move on without blinking or waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I can still hear Pops telling a joke, cutting on someone in a playful way for not doing something, or telling the most fascinating stories about entertainment that I’ve ever heard to this day to a slack-jawed room of listeners. I see Pops waiting for the playback with his trumpet in hand, or giving someone in the studio some quick vocal guidance to improve their range. I see him sitting at his desk, or adjusting the levels from behind the console, or on the phone in his office handling business at his studio. This is how I have him emblazoned in my mind: a man so dedicated to the craft of making records, the image is inseparable from the man himself.

Here is a man who, even at 81 years of age, was at the controls of his studio every single day of his life that he was physically able. You might be surprised to know: that was quite often. He gave and gave to the point where some might have given up. Instead, he approached the recording process with enthusiasm. Willie Mitchell exuded qualities that seem so lacking in others: elegance, dignity, strength, compassion, and an ear for music that was keen to the very end.

The term “legend” is a word we throw around far too much these days. We call people legends who have had three or four hit records. We call people legends who have done one or two great things. There are very few among those who are truly deserving of the title “legend”, whose body of work so thoroughly embodies the spirit of the term. Willie Mitchell lived a long and fascinating life, continuing to make his mark through 60 years of music, recording, performing and songwriting.

Without Willie Mitchell, we would never know the works of Syl Johnson, O.V. Wright, Ann Peebles, Otis Clay, Denise LaSalle or enjoyed the extensive body of work (which he was instrumental in crafting) by the Reverend Al Green. We would never have gotten to know Hi Records or the steady stable of brilliant soul, gospel, blues, rock and R&B performers whose work was recorded at Royal Studios, whose records appeared on that much-loved, independently-operated label during the many years he sat at it’s helm. At a time in the world where we focus on the power of the independent producer, performer or record label, Willie Mitchell wore all of these hats successfully and graciously, long before it was a point of fashion.

And you out there who call to mind words like “genius” to describe yourself or others, I challenge you to place your own legacy against that of Willie Mitchell. Few would begin to stand up to measurement, and none would have the impact that Pops did.

The Pops I knew was not a showy person, not a person who flaunted or was extravagant in an overbearing, blinged-out haze. Pops struck me always as a ferociously private person and, truth be told, I don’t see it as my duty to break that covenant with him. His life and his legacy exists in the sounds that we still sing and enjoy today from the many artists whose lives he has impacted. People that have recorded at Royal Studios in just this decade include Anthony Hamilton, Buddy Guy, John Mayer, Solomon Burke, Rod Stewart … the list goes on and on.

Much of the music Pops himself put into this world as an R&B performer of the 1950′s and 1960′s is long out-of-print, sadly. But like a cooling breeze whistling it’s way across South Lauderdale and Trigg on a blisteringly hot Memphis summer’s day, the music that Pops put his signature sound on can be heard everywhere in both classic and modern soul, blues, gospel, hip-hop, R&B and pop music. To call his impact “far reaching” fails, it seems to me, to make room for the impact his work will continue to have on generations to come.

The street that is named for him, in the neighborhood he made the home of Royal Studios for nearly 55 years, seems small but fitting tribute.  I want that people should wander back and forth down this street, any street bearing his name, and call to mind the plethora of great works Pops was a part of. I want them to think of the lasting joy Pops brought to Memphis and to the world through the gift of music.  If any of us should live to be 81 years old, we should all be so lucky to live a life so fulfilled and transition to the next world with such dignity.

Rest in peace, Pops. I’ll see you again someday. Thank you for being here for me in this world, being here for all of the children that your life’s work helped to inspire, and thank you for the many gifts you bestowed upon us.

We who were always unfit to walk in your shoes have much to learn from what you taught.

Willie Mitchell – “Reachin’ Out”

*** UPDATE: ***JesseCASH has set up a donation page requesting assistance to go directly to Vic’s family. Click here to be taken to the donation page. (via Kristin Hersh)

With a heavy heart, we can now verify that indeed, sadly, of one of the Athens music scene’s most enduring figures, songwriter and guitarist Vic Chesnutt, has died. The cause of death is suicide.

Surrounded by family and friends, Vic Chesnutt died in Athens Georgia this afternoon, Friday 25 December at 14:59.

Several news sources had reported on Thursday that Chesnutt had fallen into a coma, and rumors about his condition began to circulate on the internet. A Twitter message from Henry Owings, the man behind Chunklet Magazine and a friend of Chesnutt’s, first sent the news to people that Chesnutt had died, later confirmed by a piece published in The San Francisco Examiner.

However, many people close to the situation, including the head of Chesnutt’s label at the time of his death, Constellation Records, worked vehemently to let people know that Chesnutt was not dead but remained in a coma. As a result, major news outlets (including Billboard and Spinner) pulled their stories on Chesnutt on Christmas Eve, turning the profound sadness felt by Chesnutt’s many fans around the world to confusion over the facts.

Confined to a wheelchair since he was 18, when a car accident left him a quadriplegic, Chesnutt was a master of melodramatic songwriting, one who was able to use the tragedy of his accident as a means of becoming aligned with his life’s work. Chesnutt was known for crafting songs that proved him at times both precociously venerable and, frequently, restlessly vulnerable. When Michael Stipe, the lead singer of R.E.M., first discovered Chesnutt in the late 1980′s, he was so taken with his work that he was moved to produced Chesnutt’s first releases, Little and West of Rome. Chesnutt went on to create a sphere of influence with his music, including his seminal 1995 album, Is The Actor Happy?, an album which established him as one of the decade’s pre-eminent songwriting masters.

In 1996, Chesnutt’s music was recorded for the benefit album Sweet Relief II: The Gravity of the Situation by a variety of major industry figures, including Garbage, The Smashing Pumpkins Madonna and R.E.M. The proceeds from this album still continue to benefit Sweet Relief, a nonprofit organization that assists musicians without insurance in their times of medical need.

Chesnutt’s last two albums, At the Cut and Skitter on Take-Off (both released this year) have been lauded by fans and critics as being among his most vital in a career that spanned some 25 years. The albums now prove fitting swan songs to Chesnutt’s legacy. We here share sadness with and extend our condolences to his family, friends and many fans around the world.

UPDATE: A memorial service for Chesnutt appears to have been planned for Sunday, though it is not known whether it will be open to the public.

Vic Chesnutt – Flirted With You All My Life

[Songs Of Survival And Reflection: 'At The Cut' (NPR, 12/1/09)]

Apparently, some Christmas Eve confusion about the condition of Athens songwriter Vic Chesnutt, who was reported to be in a coma on Thursday, has led to speculation about rumors surrounding his reported death. Stories have swarmed on Twitter and on various blogs this evening about his death. It now appears that two sources which carried notice about his passing, Billboard and Athens Blur, have pulled their stories.

Right now, we don’t know what’s going. Under whatever circumstances, we wish the best to Vic Chesnutt, his friends, family and many fans around the world this Christmas day. (HT: Brooklyn Vegan)

[Songs Of Survival And Reflection: 'At The Cut' (NPR, 12/1/09)]

If you were one of DJ AM‘s millions of fans, there was no way to think of him without recognizing his public appeals regarding his personal struggles with addiction. At the height of his fame as DJ, Adam Goldstein was irrepressible and tireless in his quest to help those suffering from addiction, through both financial contributions and personal counseling of those seeking to conquer their addiction and alcoholism. His death at the hands of drugs coincided with the completion of his impassioned MTV reality show Gone Too Far, which began airing on Thursday nights this past October.

But one other thing you knew full well was his passion for his sneaker collection. DJ AM was the truest of heads when it came to fresh kicks, and he had thousands of pairs. In fact, he had so many pairs in his collection that he never wore them all. Continue reading this after the jump.

In the wake of his death, the DJ AM Memorial Fund was constructed as a way to continue bringing financial help to organizations and groups that specialize in working with and treating those in the throes of addiction and alcoholism. Through the fiscal sponsorship of Creative Visions Foundation, a partnership organization who supports those involved in “Creative Activism”, the Memorial Fund will begin raising funds in a fitting way: 800 pairs of DJ AM’s beloved sneaker collection are being made available to the highest bidder in a series of eBay auctions. The first auctions will begin today, Sunday 14 November 2009 at 4:30 pm PST, and new shoes will be added every evening through the first week of December.

If you would like to bid on auction items, click here to be taken to the auction watch page at eBay. (HT: Stupid Dope)

[DJ AM Website : Creative Visions : Undefeated]