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Rock and Roll Heaven

No, no, I won’t sing the Righteous Brothers song. I . . . well . . . I hate the Righteous Brothers. There, I’ve said it now. Shame about the tenor. He’s passed on. (Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield August 10, 1940 – November 5, 2003. RIP).

On to today’s topic. Purple members who have gone over to the other side, passed the pearly gates, sleep with their fathers in Sheol, have joined the choir at Canterbury, sleep with fishes, are crossing the River Styx. (The fallen of Styx: John Panozzo September 20, 1948 – July 16, 1996; John Curulewski October 3, 1950 – February, 1988. RIP).

Here are a few memories of Purple members and family members who have left this veil of tears for a place that always has cold beer in an ice bucket in the dressing room and plenty of clean towels. And rest rooms that don’t stink like tom cat spray. And a favorable babe-to-skank ratio in the crowd. And monitors that [censored] work once in a blankity-blank while. Not that it matters if the sound man is drunk again. Oh, and you go to get paid and Billy’s the only one who can pay you and Billy won’t talk to anybody who won’t bail him out. Again.

But I digress. Tommy Bolin died 30 years ago today.

A survey of our dear departed musicians:

A young Cozy Powell (December 29, 1947 – April 5, 1998) playing a jazz set. I think. I’m not a musician but one of my other personalities is. Oh, Jeff Beck is on this too.

Tommy Bolin (August 1, 1951 d. December 4, 1976) with Deep Purple in Japan ca. 1976. Tommy died soon after. Deep Purple was on life support in this video.

Brian Connolly (October 5, 1945 d. February 9, 1997) and the Sweet. Google around for the connection!

Before Dave Sutch (November 12, 1940 d. June 16, 1999), Blackmore was a really normal guitar god. Sutch pushed him over the edge.

This guy and the Mothers were at the best place around. Frank Zappa (December 21, 1940 d. December 4, 1993).

So there they are, a few of the greats who have crossed the Purple path. And a string o’ Strats, killed by Ritchie Blackmore. Oh, and a camera.

Jo



2 Comments to “Rock and Roll Heaven”:

  1. 1
    legris richard elprupdeep@w.fr says:

    cannot believe it!!!! 30years !!! was 14 years old boy and already a big fans of deep …… and still is! hello mr teaser and rest in peace.hope you got plenty of herb other there.cheers…..

  2. 2
    Reinder says:

    Randy California!

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