A year ago when Danny Kalb died I predicted there would be deaths to report two or three times a week. Turns out that rock and rollers by and large live longer than I thought. Three deaths were reported in the New York Times today. Denny Laine, a founder of the Moody Blues, was 79. He sang lead on Go Now!, their big hit. He was in the band for their first two albums, then in Ginger Baker’s Air Force. Paul McCartney liked what he was doing and asked him to join Wings. He left 10 years later after McCartney was arrested in Japan for marijuana possession. Laine continued to make new music as well as play concerts. The Times said had like to play music to an audience.
Scott Kempner died while living in a nursing home because of early onset dementia. That shouldn’t happen to anyone, much less a one-time member of an influential proto-punk band, The Dictators.
Geordi Walker, 64, died of a stroke. He played with Killing Joke for nearly 40 years. The obit mentioned he moved back to England (from the U.S.) to take care of his father and he had a kid named Atticus. I thought they included those details to make him sound normal, having said he was in the band Revolting Cocks.
converselyspeaking 