In Memoriam: Bernice Johnson Reagon

 

[purchase Breaths, a compilation of two Sweet Honey in the Rock Albums]

The first In Memoriam post that I wrote here (in 2011) was my second post ever, before I was even an “official” member of the SMM team.  It was about singer and civil rights activist Matt Jones who was, at one point, a member of the SNCC Freedom Singers.  Jones wasn’t one of the founding members, but the subject of this piece, Bernice Johnson Reagon was.  And she was much more.

Born in 1943 in southwest Georgia, she was the daughter of a Baptist minister and showed both academic and musical talent at an early age.  In 1959, she enrolled in Albany State College to study music, but the imperative of the civil rights movement led her to be active in the NAACP and SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee).  Bernice became involved in the “Albany Movement,” which aimed to desegregate Albany and ensure voting rights for Black residents.  As part of the Movement, protestors, including Reagon, sang at rallies as a sign of unity.  Reagon was jailed in 1961 for participating in the protests (as was Martin Luther King, Jr.)  Not only did the Albany Movement fail in its initial goals, Reagon was expelled from college as a result of her imprisonment.  She briefly attended Spelman College but dropped out to focus on civil rights work.

Along with Rutha Harris, Charles Neblett and her future husband Cordell Reagon, she founded the SNCC Freedom Singers, which began touring in December 1962 to raise money for SNCC.  In 1963, Bernice married Cordell, and in 1964, she left the SNCC Freedom Singers to give birth to her daughter Toshi, who became a powerful performer in her own right.  Son Kwan Tauna (who is a chef) was born in 1965, and the couple split in 1967.  Reagon returned to Spelman and graduated in 1971.  At Spelman, she formed the Harambee Singers, an all-female group which focused on opposition to South African apartheid.

After graduating, she received a Ford Foundation Fellowship, allowing her to obtain her Ph.D in History from Howard University in 1975.  While in grad school, Reagon was the Vocal Director of the Black Repertory Theater in D.C. and in 1973, she created an all-female and all-Black a capella group, Sweet Honey in the Rock.  She was the director of Sweet Honey in the Rock until 2003, and the group became world-renowned, recording albums that spanned genres, touring globally and earning three Grammy nominations, while continuing their focus on social justice and equality.

The video above is Sweet Honey in the Rock’s, “Ella’s Song,” written by Reagon in honor of civil rights pioneer Ella Baker, originally released on their 1983 album We All…Everyone of Us,” and it’s a powerful song of courage and struggle.

Reagon has published a number of books, released several solo albums and contributed to award-winning documentaries.  For years, she worked with the Smithsonian and National Museum of American History and was a distinguished professor of history at American University.  Among other honors, Reagon was awarded a MacArthur Foundation grant, a Peabody Award (for “Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions” a NPR series on Black church music), the Charles Frankel Prize and Presidential Medal (presented at the White House by President Clinton, and the Heinz Award.

Reagon died on July 16, 2024 at the age of 81, survived by her children, a granddaughter, her life partner, Adisa Douglas, and her siblings.

In Memoriam-Karl Wallinger

[purchase Best in Show, a World Party greatest hits compilation]

We’re back again for some In Memoriam posts, honoring some of those from the music world we lost in 2024.  How many posts?  We’ll see....

Back in 2014, in my early-ish days writing here, I wrote about the first CD that I ever bought, World Party’s debut, Ship of Fools, in 1987.  I didn’t even have a CD player at that time, but saw the disc at a used record store, and because I had already heard some of it on the radio, I bought it.  The CD player came shortly after that, and I’m still buying them (I’m an old guy, and like to own my music, and yes, I do download music, too.)  The video above is of the hit song from that album, “Ship of Fools.”

Karl Wallinger was born in Wales in 1957, exhibited his musical talent at an early age.  He was a Beatles fanatic, but not to the exclusion of other music, and ended up with a musical scholarship to Charterhouse (the alma mater of, essentially, the original lineup of Genesis and their first manager/producer Jonathan King, as well as Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant, and the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and many other notable Brits, dating back to its founding in 1611).  After deciding that the life of a classical musician was not for him, Wallinger moved into rock music, forming a band with two guys who went off to be in the Alarm, and doing studio work. 

Answering an ad for a guitarist for The Waterboys, Wallinger convinced Mike Scott that the band really needed a keyboard player, and he joined first as a sideman, before his skill on numerous instruments, and his production talents, led to his joining the band full time for This Is The Sea, and helping to shape “The Whole of the Moon,” probably the Waterboys’ best known song. 

The growing rivalry and infighting between Scott and Wallinger resulted in Wallinger leaving to work on his own material, eventually recording as World Party.  As he later said, World Party consisted of “me and whoever is playing with me at any given time.”  Most of his albums were recorded with Wallinger playing the bulk of the instruments and singing, with guests, including Sinead O’Connor, contributing as needed.

It is hard to listen to World Party without hearing the Beatles’ influences, but he was far from a one trick pony, and his music included other influences ranging from folk to funk and psychedelia, often with lyrics with environmental or anti-war messaging.  World Party’s first three studio albums were critical and commercial successes, with the second, Goodbye, Jumbo, considered by most to be their best work.  But the band’s next two albums were less popular.  During this period, Wallinger also worked with other musicians and on soundtracks.

In 2001, Wallinger suffered a brain aneurysm, which affected his vision and prevented him from working for about five years.  During this inactivity, he was supported, in great part, by royalties from a popular cover of his song, “She’s The One,” by Robbie Williams.  Despite that, Wallinger was pissed off that he wasn’t informed about the cover, and that Williams often introduced the song as one of the best he’d ever written.  In fact, Williams has apparently only rarely publicly admitted that his version is a cover.

Wallinger was able to return to touring in 2006 but never released another studio album of new material.  In 2008, the album Big Blue Ball, a project that Wallinger worked on with fellow “Old Carthusian” (that’s what they are called), Peter Gabriel was released.  It was based on recording sessions from 1991, 1992 and 1995 and Gabriel recalled that working with Wallinger was “the most creative and fun week I have ever had in the studio.” In 2012, Wallinger released Arkeology, a five-CD compilation that included rarities and covers of Beatles songs. 

On March 10, 2024, Wallinger died of a stroke at his home in Hastings, at the age of 66, survived by his wife, sculptor Suzie Zamit, son Louis Wallinger and daughter Nancy Zamit, as well as two grandchildren.

In Memoriam-Robin Lumley and John Giblin

 [purchase Product]

Robin Lumley and John Giblin were members of Brand X at various times.  I’ve written before about Brand X, a jazz-rock fusion band probably best known for the contributions of Phil Collins (who I’ve written about, too), but the band’s membership was somewhat of a revolving door.  (And I wrote about another member, guitarist John Goodsall, for our 2021 In Memoriam theme.)  Lumley was a founding member of the band, on keyboards, and was involved from 1974-1980, with a brief hiatus in 1978, while Giblin, a bass player, was a member in 1979, although his recordings were released through 1982. 

Robin Lumley was born on January 17, 1948, in Devonport, England.  Originally a drummer, he switched to keyboards in the 1970s.  In 1972, his former neighbor, David Bowie, rang him up one day, to see if he would be interested in replacing Bowie’s ill keyboard player, Matthew Fisher from Procol Harum, starting the next day.  He was interested and joined the Spiders From Mars.  After that, Lumley worked as a studio musician and met Collins, which led to the formation of Brand X.  Lumley also became interested in music production.  His hiatus from Brand X in 1978 was to work on production projects, including Rod Argent’s Moving Home, and Bill Bruford’s Feels Good to Me, and he later produced records for Orleans, Anthony Phillips and Isotope, among others.

In the 1980s, he formed a jazz-rock band that included Rod Argent, Graeme Edge (of the Moody Blues), Morris Pert (of Brand X), and Gary Brooker (of Procol Harum). Lumley later married an Australian and moved to Australia. In 2001, he formed SETI with Graeme Edge, bassist Rob Burns, and Rod McGrath (cellist for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra).  He also composed and produced music for over 250 television and radio commercials for numerous television productions in the US, UK and Australia.

Lumley died from heart failure in Plymouth, on March 9, 2023, at the age of 75.

***

John Giblin was born on February 26, 1952, in Bellshill, Scotland.  He was best known as a studio musician, contributing bass to albums and performances by artists such as Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Kate Bush, Simple Minds, John Anderson, Phil Collins, Al Green, and Annie Lennox.  Giblin was best known for his mastery of the fretless bass.

As noted above, Giblin recorded with Brand X in 1979, when the band was being pushed to make more commercial music.  The surprising response to this pressure was to have two separate units record—one with bassist Percy Jones, keyboard player Peter Robinson, drummer Mike Clarke and Goodsall, and the other featuring, Lumley, Giblin, Collins and Goodsall.  The output of these two groups were released, but no improvement in commercial success was achieved, leading to a band breakup.

More recently, Giblin was playing more acoustic bass, and was involved in projects with Peter Erskine of Weather Report and Alan Pasqua of Tony Williams Lifetime. 

Giblin died of sepsis following a long illness on May 14, 2023 in Cheltenham, England, aged 71.

You can hear both men on the Brand X track in the video, “Algon (Where an Ordinary Cup of Drinking Chocolate Costs £8,000,000,000),” a title taken from a Monty Python sketch (in which the cup of chocolate only cost £4 million), from the Product album.

 

In Memoriam-Chas Newby, A Beatle for Four Gigs

[purchase The Quarrymen Live in Penny Lane, featuring Chas Newby on bass and vocal]

You’re a teenage (left-handed) bass player, and a former band mate asks you to fill in on a few gigs with a cover band that had recently been on tour, because their bass player is unavailable.  Needing a bit of extra Christmas cash, Chas Newby agreed, and played four shows in England with his old friend Pete, and his fellow band members, John, Paul and George.  Chas had fun and pocketed all of £4.  But when John suggested he stay with the band for a tour in West Germany, Newby declined, figuring that he had a better chance of success in his preferred field of chemistry.

Of course, the rest is history.  Nearly two years after Newby declined Lennon’s offer, the Beatles hit it big with “Love Me Do,” featuring Paul McCartney on (left-handed) bass.

As Newby said:

To me then it was just four gigs with a different band. Music was never going to be a living for me. All of us at that time were thinking what we were going to do with our lives, some doing teaching, or science, or whatever.

I wanted to do chemistry. John, Paul and George, they just wanted to be musicians.

They had been away in Hamburg. They’d played a hell of a lot over there so they were very tight, very proficient, and they gave it some stick. But I did the four gigs and went back to my college course the week afterwards.

In fact, Newby went back to St. Helens College and continued his studies in chemistry, eventually getting his Master’s from Manchester University.  In 1971, a decade after his brief encounter with possible superstardom, he joined Triplex Safety Glass, which manufactured windscreens for trains and aircraft.  He retired in 1990 and became a math teacher. 

Further proof of his being merely a blip in Beatles’ history, Chas only had one encounter with any of the band after his four gigs (the last of which was 63 years ago today--New Year's Eve 1960--at the Casbah).  In 1962, he recounted:

I was on my way home and I pulled up at some traffic lights. There, waiting at the crossing, was George. I said hello and asked if he needed a lift. He said he was waiting for someone and that was that. Off I went.

Before his death on May 22, 2023, Newby played in a charity band, The Racketts, and in the reformed Quarrymen, which once counted John, Paul, George, and Newby’s predecessor in the Beatles, Stu, as members.

In Memoriam: Paul Janovitz

 

As my co-blogger and friend Jordan noted:

SMM returns at least briefly for remembrances of music people who passed on in 2023. Sadly, there are many that meant much to me - considering that my age is such that the time is nigh. Musical heroes of the late 60s and 70s are a disappearing breed.

SMM had an amazing run for almost 20 years, amassing close to 3.5 millions visits as of this writing. Amazingly, the blog still draws regular hits (22K this month) despite its being more or less off-air for the past year. Kudos to Jordan for suggesting that we come back for an In Memoriam round to end 2023. The thought was on my mind as well:  It's hard to put such an important part of your life to sleep forever, but the number of willing bloggers and the output had dwindled too far to keep going on the blog's original premise: winding down from weekly to bi-weekly themes.

Among the choices of music people who passed in 2023, and the first I am going to go with is someone not many of you have likely heard of, but who, by association, is dear to my heart. For many years (including in my other [inactive] blog) I have written about Bill Janovitz (of Buffalo Tom fame). It is with saddened heart that I learned as I looked at a list of musicians that passed in 2023 that Bill's younger brother Paul was among those who passed away this year at the young age of 54. I have listened to music that Bill Janovitz and Buffalo Billand Crown Victoria put out for at least the past 10 years, but I wasn't aware of Paul's group Cold Water Flat until now. That said, his life story resonates close to home. My combined interest in music and photography (Paul's other art interest) makes me feel closer to the family in a parallel manner.

An obit of sorts for Paul mentions that he was a multi-instrumentalist: primarily guitar and vocals, and that - after the Cold Water Flat band he formed disbanded, he went on in a more acoustic style, playing clubs in the Boston area. It was at about this time that he started putting more effort and energy into photography, some of it of notable. What that obit doesn't mention is that Paul's brother Bill isn't the only other musician in the family: brother Scott plays with The Russians and Tom plays with Sodafrog. 

In Memoriam—Tim & Robbie Bachman

[purchase Bachman-Turner Overdrive II]

Hey, Star Maker Machine fans, we’re temporarily back.  At least as long as some of our writers feel like keeping our year-end “In Memoriam” tradition alive.  Every year, the music world loses contributors, some really famous, others obscure, and many in between.  When I looked at the list(s) of potential subjects available on the Internet, the fact that two Bachman brothers died in 2023 jumped out at me.  So, while they are far from my favorite musicians who passed this year, I thought it would be worth investigating their lives.

Tim Bachman was born in 1951 and Robin “Robbie” Bachman was born in 1953 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the younger brothers of Randy, who was born in 1943 (brother Gary, born in 1945, briefly was BTO’s manager before moving into real estate; he died in 2020).  Randy achieved fame and success as a member of The Guess Who, but at the height of that band’s popularity, Randy quit in 1970.  His departure was due to a combination of his conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the conflict his beliefs had with the more standard rock ‘n’ roll lifestyles of his bandmates, a desire to spend time with his family, and gall bladder issues.

Randy eventually formed a country-rock band with Chad Allen, who was the original vocalist for The Guess Who, called Brave Belt, with 18-year-old Robbie on drums.  Fred Turner joined Brave Belt on bass and vocals, and Allen departed, as their sound moved from soft to hard rock.  Tim Bachman was recruited as a second guitarist, and the band was renamed “Bachman-Turner Overdrive.”  Their eponymous debut album was a success due to their relentless touring schedule, despite lacking a hit single.  But Bachman-Turner Overdrive II spawned two massive hits, “Let It Ride,” and “Takin’ Care of Business,” an enduring rock classic. 

But all was not fraternal among the Bachman brothers.  Randy’s religious beliefs mandated that all BTO members abstain from drugs, alcohol and premarital sex on tour, and it appears that brother Tim was a serial offender, and he left the band in early 1974, replaced by Blair Thornton.  This was far from the last time that the three brothers would be at odds over the ensuing decades.  The next album, Not Fragile (a commentary on the Yes album), without Tim, was another success, featuring “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” and “Roll on Down the Highway.”

After releasing a few albums that were fairly successful, Randy Bachman left the band in 1977, due to a series of creative and other disagreements with his bandmates, including Robbie.  The remaining members added bassist/vocalist Jim Clench, and toured as “BTO,” since Randy retained the rights to his last name, before disbanding in 1980.

Randy decided to reform the band in 1983, with Tim on second guitar, but not Robbie, who objected to certain licensing arrangements, and because he wanted Thornton to be included, rather than his brother Tim.  There was, inevitably, litigation.  Randy left the band again in 1987, and a version of BTO, led by Tim as the only Bachman, toured for a few years, before Randy returned to the fold with Robbie on drums, but no Tim.  In 1991, Randy was out again, replaced in the band by a different Randy (Murray), and this incarnation toured until 2004, making it the most enduring lineup.

The conflict between Randy and Robbie prevented the band from being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2003, because Robbie insisted that his big brother be excluded, but eventually, in 2014, the induction happened, with both brothers (but not Tim) included. 

In 2009, Randy and Turner reunited as “Bachman & Turner” after Robbie and Thornton sued to prevent them from using either the BTO or Bachman-Turner Overdrive names. 

Tim was accused of a number of sexual offenses in the 2010s, but was either found not guilty, or had the charges stayed.

Robbie died on January 12, 2023, aged 69; Tim followed him on April 28, 2023, at the age of 71, after battling cancer, leaving Randy as the last Bachman brother.