Today in Rock and Roll History

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2012 - Winston Riley
Jamaican singer, songwriter and record producer Winston Riley died aged 68. He had been shot in the head at his home in Kingston. After being in a coma since the shooting, he died on 19 January. He formed the band The Techniques in 1962 and Riley's own song, ‘Double Barrel’, performed by Dave and Ansell Collins under his own production, was one of the first international reggae hits, reaching No.1 in the Dutch and UK Singles Chart.
 

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2020 - Robert Parker
American R&B singer and musician Robert Parker died age 89. He was best known for his 1966 hit, 'Barefootin'. He played with most of New Orleans’ musicians, including Fats Domino, Irma Thomas, and Huey “Piano” Smith.
 

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January 21st
1968 - Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix recorded his version of the Bob Dylan song 'All Along the Watchtower' at Olympic Studios in London. Rolling Stone Brian Jones (percussion) and Dave Mason from Traffic (twelve-string guitar) both played on the session. The track was released in the US as a single in 1968, peaking at No.20.
 

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1982 - B.B. King
B.B. King donated his entire record collection of over 20,000 discs to Mississippi University's centre for the Study of Southern Culture.
 

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1983 - Lamar Williams
The Allman Brothers Band bassist Lamar Williams died of lung cancer age 34. He joined the band in 1972 after the death of original bassist Berry Oakley. His doctors believed that the disease was derived from exposure to Agent Orange during his Vietnam service. Opposed to the war and to killing in general, Williams went AWOL frequently and wandered around the jungles of South Vietnam, occasionally returning to various units. He was given an honorable discharge in 1970.
 

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2003 - David Palmer
David Palmer, former keyboard player for Jethro Tull changed his name to Dee Palmer after a successful sex change operation. Palmer was the keyboard player for Jethro Tull between 1969 and 1980. He played on all the Tull classics including 'Thick As A Brick' and 'Aqualung.'
 

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January 22nd
2017 - Pete Overend Watts
English bass guitar player Pete Overend Watts and founding member of the 1970s rock band, Mott the Hoople died from throat cancer aged 69. Watts helped start the Buddies with guitarist Mick Ralphs, a band that evolved into Mott the Hoople after periods in which it was known as the Doc Thomas Group, the Shakedown Sound, then Silence. They became Mott the Hoople after Ian Hunter joined in 1969. Watts continued with Dale Griffin, Morgan Fisher and Ray Major in the Mott successor British Lions. He later became a record producer, producing albums for artists including Hanoi Rocks and Dumb Blondes.
 

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2021 - James Purify
James Purify died Pensacola, Florida, of complications due to COVID-19. The R&B singing duo, James & Bobby Purify biggest hit was ‘I'm Your Puppet’ in 1966, which reached No.6 in the US Billboard Hot 100.
 

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January 29th
1992 - Willie Dixon
American blues singer and guitarist Willie Dixon died of heart failure. He wrote the classic songs 'You Shook Me', 'I Can't Quit You Baby', 'Hoochie Coochie Man', 'I Just Want to Make Love to You' and 'Little Red Rooster'. Dixon was a major influence on The Rolling Stones, Cream, The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin.
 

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1965 - James Brown
At the Arthur Smith Studios in Charlotte, North Carolina, James Brown recorded 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag', which will reach No.8 on the Billboard Pop chart and No.1 on the R&B chart the following August and later win a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording.
 

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2012 - Soul Train
Don Cornelius, the host of US TV's Soul Train, (from 1971 until 1993), who helped break down racial barriers and broaden the reach of Black culture, died. Police officers responded to a report of a shooting at 12685 Mulholland Drive and found Cornelius with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was 75.
 

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2020 - Andy Gill
Andy Gill, the founding member and guitarist of British post-punk band Gang Of Four, died aged 64. The musician's scratchy, staccato riffs provided the band with their signature sound, and influenced the likes of Nirvana, Fugazi and Franz Ferdinand. He also produced albums for artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Stranglers, Michael Hutchence and Killing Joke.
 

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February 2nd
1979 - Sid Vicious
Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious died of a heroin overdose in New York City. There had been a party to celebrate Vicious' release on $50,000 (£29,412) bail pending his trial for the murder of his former girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, the previous October. Party guests, said that Vicious had taken heroin at midnight. An autopsy confirmed that Vicious died from an accumulation of fluid in the lungs that was consistent with heroin overdose. A syringe, spoon and heroin residue were discovered near the body.
 

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February 4th
1966 - Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan and The Band played at the Convention Center in Louisville, Kentucky. This was the first date on a world tour which would become noted as Dylan's first that used electric instruments, after he had ‘gone electric’ at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
 

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2013 - Reg Presley
Reg Presley lead singer with the Sixties rock and roll band The Troggs, died aged 71. Hit singles, included 'Wild Thing', 'I Can't Control Myself' and the UK No.1 'With a Girl Like You'. He also wrote the song 'Love Is All Around', which featured in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral and was a No.1 hit for Wet Wet Wet in 1994. Presley used his royalties from that cover to fund research subjects such as alien spacecraft, lost civilisations, alchemy, and crop circles, and outlined his findings in the book Wild Things They Don't Tell Us, published in October 2002.
 

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February 7th
1959 - Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly was buried in Lubbock, Texas. His tombstone reads "Holley", the correct spelling of his given surname and includes pictures of a guitar. On Feb 3rd 1959, after a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered an airplane to travel to his next show in Moorhead, Minnesota. Soon after takeoff, the plane crashed, killing Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper and the pilot, an infamous milestone in rock history known as The Day the Music Died.
 

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1959 - Guitar Slim
New Orleans blues guitarist Guitar Slim died of pneumonia aged 32. Born Eddie Jones he is best known for the million-selling song ‘The Things That I Used to Do’. Slim had a major impact on rock and roll and experimented with distorted overtones on the electric guitar a full decade before Jimi Hendrix. He became known for his wild stage act and had an assistant who followed him around the audience with up to 350 feet of cord between his guitar and his amplifier, and occasionally rode on his assistant's shoulders or even took his guitar outside the club, bringing traffic to a stop.
 
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