R.I.P. Poly Styrene.

Sad news: Punk icon Poly Styrene dies at 53.

R.I.P. Ari Up

Slits' Ari Up Dead at 48. Sad. The weird thing is that I just recently picked up a copy of Simon Reynolds' Totally Wired: Post Punk Interviews and Overviews, and she's the first interview featured. I still don't know much about her, but I do know she was NOT a typical girl.

R.I.P. Will Owsley.

Completely missed this over the weekend. Another sad loss, and Tennessean at that. He was one of the talents found on the Nash Pop Compilation I posted during Powere Pop Month. I Found this interview from 1996 posted on Youtube:

R.I.P. Alex Chilton

I feel like I just got punched in the gut: Alex Chilton dies at 59.

R.I.P. Mark Linkous.

Damn, the song above just about sums it up. R.I.P. Mark Linkous

R.I.P. Doug Fieger.

Crap: The Knack's Lead Singer Dies at 57

My Tribute to the Aughts - Third in a Trilogy

Above is a fan made, video tribute to Jam Master Jay (October 30, 2002). Above that is a video introduction to Howard Zinn's A People's History of American Empire, narrated by Viggo Mortensen. Sadly, Zinn passed away earlier this week. On that somber note, here's the third and final volume of my Tribute to the Aughts.

R.I.P. 2000’s – Disc 3

51. “Super” by Neu! (Klaus Dinger, 03/21/08)
52. “Hep Cat Baby” by Eddy Arnold (05/08/08)
53. “Who Do You Love?” by Bo Didley (06/02/08)
54. “Precious, Precious” by Isaac Hayes (08/10/08)
55. “Paint Box” by Pink Floyd (Richard “Rick” Wright, 09/15/08 )
56. “Statue of Liberty” by the Descendents (Frank Navetta, 10/31/08)
57. “We Can Love” by Delaney & Bonnie (Delaney Bramlett, 12/27/08)
58. “Down on the Street” by the Stooges (Ron Asheton, 01/06/09)
59. “Goo Goo Muck” by the Cramps (Lux Interior, 02/04/09)
60. “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes (Estelle Bennett, 02/11/09; & Ellie Greenwich, 08/26/09)
61. “Do Ya” by Electric Light Orchestra (Kelly Groucutt, 02/19/09)
62. “Planet Strange” by Titanic Love Affair (Jay Bennett, 05/24/09)
63. “Can’t Seem To Make You Mine” by the Seeds (Sky Saxon, 06/25/09)
64. “Rock With You” by Michael Jackson (06/25/09)
65. “Needles & Pins” by Peter & Gordon (Gordon Waller, 07/17/09)
66. “Let Me Dream If I Want To” by Mink DeVille (Willie DeVille, 08/06/09)
67. “Can’t Hardly Wait” by the Replacements (Jim Dickinson, Producer; 08/15/09)
68. “500 Miles” by Peter, Paul and Mary (Mary Travers, 09/16/09)
69. “Summertime Blues” by Blue Cheer (Dickie Peterson, 10/12/09)
70. “The Enemy” by D.O.A. (Chuck Biscuits [HOAX] 10/24/09)
71. “Time” by the Alan Parsons Project (Eric Woolfson, 12/02/09)
72. “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” by Jack Rose (12/04/09)
73. “Cows” by the Suburbs (Bruce C. Allen, 12/07/09)
74. “Gepetto” by Vic Chesnutt (12/25/09)
75. “Shivers” by the Boys Next Door (Rowland S. Howard, 12/30/09)

Total Time 1:14:45

Download it here: R.I.P. 2000's - Disc 3

In one last blatant attempt to get you to comment, who do you think was the most significant Rock & Roll-Related death of the decade? I'll give you one I forgot (and he wasn't listed in the Wiki article I linked). How about Sam Phillips? No Sam Phillips, no Elvis. No Elvis, No Beatles. No Beatles, end of Western Civilization as we no it.

But seriously, it was tremendously fun compiling these three discs, but at the same time it was a little depressing. I can only imagine that the next decade will bring even more significant deaths, as the figures who make up the first and second waves of Rock & Roll aren't getting any younger. I hope I'll still be around to catalog it.

Happy Listening!

My Tribute to the Aughts - Second in a Trilogy

The above video by Alice in Chains features Layne Staley singing lead. He passed away on April 5, 2002.

Here's the second installment, taking us from October of '03 through the end of '07. There are some heavy hitters on this comp, and it may be my favorite of the three. I'd love to give you a little blurb on each and every track, but in the interest of time I'll just pick three.

"Teenage Kicks" by the Undertones is on this to honor the late John Peel, who often said it was the greatest single ever recorded.

If you're my age (forty-something), then there is no way you escaped Boston's first, self-titled album-- one of the biggest selling debuts in history. I remember having a gestalt experience when I was in sixth grade, and my brother was playing it on our crappy record player. "There's not a bad song on this album!" I thought. True enough, but 30 years of Classic Rock radio have certainly caused me to feel as if many of those songs had worn out their welcome. Listening to it again recently in preparation for this tribute, I was able to forget how many times I'd heard "More than a Feeling" and I enjoyed the album all over again. Especially, "Hitch a Ride" which is really just a fantastic Power Pop tune-- think about it, harmonies, handclaps, guitar solo, all the elements are in place.

Finally, I know that what Ike Turner did as an abusive husband should never be forgiven. I hope, though, that we can also appreciate him as a very talented songwriter and an important figure in the History of Rock & Roll. I still have no idea how "Crazy in Love" wasn't a massive hit. I wish the Detroit Cobras would cover it.

Happy listening!

R.I.P. 2000’s – Disc 2

26. “Speed Trials” by Elliott Smith (10/21/03)
27. “Like a Summer Rain” by Jan & Dean (Jan Berry, 03/26/04)
28. “That’ll Be the Day” by the Crickets (Nikki Sullivan, 04/06/04)
29. “I Got a Woman” by Ray Charles (06/10/04)
30. “Personality Crisis” by the New York Dolls (Arthur Kane, 07/14/04)
31. “Flying on the Ground is Wrong” by Buffalo Springfield (Bruce Palmer, 10/01/04; & Dewey Martin, 01/31/09)
32. “Teenage Kicks” by the Undertones (John Peel, DJ 10/25/04)
33. “Just Like Yesterday” by Bread (Jimmy Griffin, 01/11/05; Mike Botts, 12/09/05; & Larry Knechtel, 08/20/09)
34. “Means to an End” by Traffic (Jim Capaldi, 01/28/05)
35. “Sister Madly” Crowded House (Paul Hester, 03/26/05)
36. “Reach Out I’ll Be There” by the Four Tops (Renaldo “Obie” Benson, 07/01/05; & Levi Stubbs, 10/17/08)
37. “Back Again” by Badfinger (Mike Gibbins, 10/04/05)
38. “Raw Hide” by Link Wray (11/05/05)
39. “Big Houses” by House of Freaks (Bryan Harvey, 01/01/06)
40. “634-5789” by Wilson Pickett (01/19/06)
41. “(I Wanna) Love My Life Away” by Gene Pitney (04/05/06)
42. “One Thing Can Hold Us” by the Go-Betweens (Grant McLennan, 05/06/06)
43. “You Can Get It If You Really Want” by Desmond Dekker (05/25/06)
44. “Do What You Want” by Billy Preston (06/06/06)
45. “Octopus” by Syd Barrett (07/07/06)
46. “Can't Explain” by Love (Arthur Lee, 08/03/06)
47. “Whenever You’re Around” by the Dave Clark Five (Dennis Payton, 12/17/06; & Mike Smith, 02/28/08)
48. “Out of Sight” by James Brown (12/25/06)
49. “Hitch a Ride” by Boston (Brad Delp, 03/09/07)
50. “Crazy in Love” by the Ike-Ettes (Ike Turner, 12/12/07)

Total Time: 1:12:03

Download it here: R.I.P. 2000's - Disc 2

My Tribute to the Aughts - First in a Trilogy

Okay, here's my tribute to the first decade of the 21st Century. As I mentioned in yesterday's post instead of compiling my favorite songs or artists of the decade, I've decided to post three compilations worth of Rock and Roll personalities who passed away during the decade. I'll post one new compilation every Friday (or Thursday night!) until the end of January.

I started filing away songs into an R.I.P playlist about six months ago. About a month back I figured there had to be a good resource on the interweb, which would remind me (and in some cases, educate me!) as to who exactly died over the last ten years. Say what you will about Wikipedia, but they have a great page devoted to Rock and Roll deaths: List of Deaths in Rock and Roll. While it's not complete, it did help me come up with more than 75 great tunes to share with you here at Burn and Shine. The first of which is Jim Carroll's "People Who Died" (see video above). JC left us on September 11, 2009.

I've sequenced the comps in the same order as the deaths. I know it sounds morbid, but I really hope you'll see this as a celebration of their work. I also hope these comps will stir up some comments. If you happen to scroll through the list over at Wiki and see a glaring omission (about a half dozen or so on my three comps aren't mentioned on the Wiki page), please leave me a comment here-- as I'd love to make a bonus disc and round this sucker out to an even 100 songs.

Just a few comments as to the songs I chose to represent the artist (or in some cases, artists). In almost all cases the person who passed away is either one of the performers, the writer and/or singer or producer of the song. When two or more people from the same band had passed away, I tried to use a song that featured both (or all three). For instance, the Ramones track, features Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee and the Mamas and the Papas track was co-written by John Phillips and Denny Doherty). There is one exception that won't show up until Disc 2, and I'll explain that one once we get there. Disc 1 takes us about three quarters of the way through 2003.

Happy Listening!

R.I.P. 2000s (Disc 1)

01. “Searchin’” by the Coasters (Will “Dub” Jones, 01/16/00; & Billy Guy, 11/05/02)
02. “Boys” by the Shirelles (Doris Kenner-Jackson, 02/04/00)
03. “Little Demon” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, 02/12/00
04. “Sex & Drugs & Rock’n’Roll” by Ian Dury & the Blockheads (Ian Dury, 03/27/00)
05. “Let’s Go” by the Cars (Benjamin Orr, 10/03/00)
06. “A New England” by Kirsty MacColl, 12/18/00
07. “Hey Jack Kerouac” by 10,000 Maniacs (Rob Buck, 12/19/00)
08. “Respect Yourself” by the Staple Singers (Pops Staples, 12/19/00)
09. “I Saw Her Again” by the Mamas & the Papas (John Phillips, 03/18/01; & Denny Doherty, 01/19/07)
10. “I Don’t Care” by the Ramones (Joey, 04/15/01; Dee Dee, 06/05/02; & Johnny, 09/15/04)
11. “Dimples” by John Lee Hooker, 06/21/01
12. “What is Life” by George Harrison, 11/29/01
13. “In Fields of Fire” by Big Country (Stuart Adamson, 12/16/01)
14. “The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don’t Want to Get Over You)” by Waylon Jennings, 02/13/02
15. “Doctor, Doctor” by the Who (John Entwhistle, 06/27/02)
16. “You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice” by the Lovin’ Spoonful (Zal Yanovsky, 12/13/02)
17. “Johnny Appleseed” by Joe Strummer, 12/22/02
18. “Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You” by the Bee Gees (Maurice Gibb, 01/12/03)
19. “Finger Poppin’ Time” by Hank Ballard & the Midnighters (Hank Ballard, 03/02/03; & Cal Green, 07/04/04)
20. “Castles Made of Sand” by the Jimi Hendrix Experience (Noel Redding, 05/11/03; & Mitch Mitchell, 11/12/08)
21. “I’m Into Something Good” by Herman’s Hermits (Mickie Most, Producer, 05/30/03)
22. “(Making) Teenage Faces" by The Exploding Hearts (Matt Fitzgerald, Jeremy Gage & Adam Cox, 07/20/03)
23. “Empty Hearted Town” by Warren Zevon (09/07/03)
24. “So Doggone Lonesome” by Johnny Cash (09/12/03)
25. “Johnny & Mary” by Robert Palmer (09/27/03)

Total Time: 1:15:09

Download it here: R.I.P. 2000's - Disc 1

Jay Reatard R.I.P.

Waiting For Something - a short documentary about Jay Reatard

Jay Reatard | MySpace Music Videos

Weird, I was going to post my tribute to the decade on Friday (still am, actually). Instead of making a compilation of a bunch of bands I loved from the decade, I decided that I was going to make a compilation of all the Rock and Roll related deaths that happened during the Aughts. Here we are two weeks in and the first significant death of the Teens (?) happens, to a fellow Tennessean, no less-- one day after that rat bastard Lane Kiffin decided to bolt to the left coast. I digress. R.I.P. Jay.