Remembering 2018

Being a rock music lover, I try to take a moment to remember some of the greats that passed last year and for that thanks go to the website Ultimate Classic Rock dot com for helping me out here. As time goes by more and more rockers pass as well so that the list seems to be getting smaller over the years. I will remember each of those that I knew well in turn. Also gives me a chance to watch them strut their stuff in their prime. They were great!!

Marty Balin

Marty started Jefferson Airplane and was THE singer of the late 1960's. Never a Frank Sinatra but he and Grace Slick out in front always made me tingle. They were so good together that it surprised me to read (in both Grace's and Marty's) autobiographies that they'd never well you know had relations together. Grace had apparently had relations with everyone in the band.... except Marty. Maybe that's why he quit after Volunteers, maybe not. He was a great though and I will miss him.... and in fact I will probably put on a JA record onto my newly acquired turntable right now.

Danny Kirwan

Danny was one of the awesome guitar lineup that was the original Fleetwood Mac. Or rather to give it it's full name Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac Featuring Jeremy Spencer. Danny was a Peter Green protege and PG wanted him in the band for when he wanted to just stretch out and jam. Jeremy Spencer mostly played slide and loved the old blues guys and didn't want any of that so Peter got Danny in and they were just awesome together. He wrote a lot of Mac's tunes of the times when he arrived, still a teenager. And that is how I will remember him for he had a sad life later on.

Just listen to him and Peter Green go though. Just electric.

Otis Rush

What a guitarist. Not much more that I can add for although I loved how he played I sadly don't know much about him other than from what I picked up listening to his work on tunes I'd first heard from mainly English blues players.

Fast Eddie Clarke

Is it fashionable to like Motorhead? Not sure as people sneer at their down and dirty heavy metal but the metal heads love them. Why? Well of course who doesn't like Lemmy? He was dirty, drunk, fun and funny. He could play too and he wanted to play loud and fast. So he needed a loud and fast guitarist and who better than Fast Eddie? I don't care what people think, I love them!!

Ed King

I think I've written about Lynyrd Skynyrd's visit to my home town Southend on Sea supporting Golden Earring and playing their first album. That must have been in 1974. They were brilliant of course but I was more fazed about a really cute girl that I had been trying to meet whom I saw backstage with one of the cuter guitarists than Ed King. Talk about devastated. Mind you as I said the band were brilliant. Ed quit reasonably early so avoided the plane crash which wiped out the early band, as he didnt like touring apparently. Can't imagine why. That girl was really cute.

Ed wrote a lot of the tunes including Sweet Home Alabama where he played lead, and truly fantastic lead solos they were. In fact I recently watched a YouTube video of an early Skynyrd show and it was all Ed playing solos. Not the other two so much. Here's a 1974 video from You Tube from a show in Germany promoting the tune as their new single. Fantastic playing by Ed.

RIP all you guys.