These Are People Who Died, 2025, PART 1
Death Don't Have No Mercy in This Land
Now that the year’s almost in the can, it’s a good time to look at the Grim Reaper’s Class of 2025, Rock ‘n’ Roll Division.
Once again, we lost some great ones, folks. And, even though though this list is far from comprehensive, the musicians I want to memorialize is so long, I decided to do it in two parts. Part 2 I’ll post tomorrow.
So let’s look at some of the year’s fallen heroes who died in the first 6 months of the year.
Each one here has a link to an actual obituary with more info on these remarkable pickers, singers, and instrumentalists.
As I said above, this certainly is not an exhaustive list, so, like I said last year, if I missed your favorite ... WRITE YOUR OWN DAMN LIST !
So here goes:
Brenton Wood (Died 1-3-25) The Compton-born soul singer who had 1967 hits with “The Oogum Boogum Song” and “Gimme Little Sign,” (and a lesser-known but damn fine version of “Psychotic Reaction”) had a huge Chicano following. Wood, whose real name was Alfred Jesse Smith, was a huge influence on the modern Chicano soul or “Souldies” sound, acts like The Sin-seers and Trish Toledo.
Sam Moore (Died 1-10-25) Moore was one half of the classic Stax soul duo Sam & Dave. His old partner, Dave Prater died back in 1988. Even if you weren’t alive back in the mid ‘60s when they were some of the most successful purveyors of Southern soul, surely you’re familiar with their hits like “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Comin’.” Here’s another great Sam & Dave tune, performed live on Ed Sullivan
David Lynch (Died 1-16-25) The creator of Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks was best known as a director. But he also had music in his bones. For one thing, his films had some of the best soundtracks, thanks largely to composer Angelo Badalamenti. Lynch teamed up with Badalamenti to write the strange and beautiful Into the Night album for Julee Cruise. And in the early 2010s, when well into his 60s, he started producing strange and beautiful — and sometimes frightening — albums under his own name. Here’s the title track of his first:
Garth Hudson (Died 1-21-25) The Band, especially in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, loved to dress up like they were from the Old West. But none of them looked more the part than Garth Hudson, the bushy-bearded keyboard (and sometimes sax) player of the group. He was never known to sing, but his playing was a major factor of The Band’s unique sound. Here’s a live version of probably his most important organ solo:
Marianne Faithfull (Died 1-30-25) She was a sweet, pretty, wide-eyed mod girl with an angelic voice when she sang “As Tears Go By” and “Come Stay With Me” back in the early days of the British invasion.But when she reemerged more than a decade later with her still untouchable album Broken English, her voice was rougher and tougher and sometimes frightening. This is the Marianne I’ll always remember.
Jerry Butler (Died 2-20-25) Nearly life-long Chicago resident Butler began his music career at the age of 13 as a member of a gospel group called the Northern Jubilee Singers. There he met another kid, one named Curtis Mayfield and the two eventually started a little group called The Impressions. Butler went solo, scoring hits like “For Your Precious Love” and “Only the Strong Survive.” He wrote Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” And he even recorded “Moon River” a year before Andy Williams! More recently, Butler was a politician, serving as a Cook County commissioner from 1985 to 2018.
David Johansen (Died 2-28-25) The last of the New York Dolls left us this year. Though many mainstreamers remember him mostly for being Buster Poindexter, a loungey novelty act who had a huge late ‘80s hit with a faux-calypso song called “Hot Hot Hot.” But I prefer to remember him as the frontman of The Dolls, the major punk rock band before punk even found its name. Here they are bringing their subversion to The Midnight Special:
Larry Tamblyn (Died 3-21-25) Keyboardist Tamblyn was a founding member and keyboard player of The Standells, who with their songs “Dirty Water” and “Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White” helped define what later became known as “garage rock,” the precursor of punk. Larry was the brother of actor Russ Tamblyn (“Dr. Jacoby” for all you Twin Peaks fans”) Another cool factoid: The Standells once appeared on The Munsters, playing a version of “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” I’m fortunate to have seen Larry with a latter-day version of The Standells at the 2013 Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans. Below is the band in the 1967 movie Riot on Sunset Strip. (Music starts about a minute and a half in):
Michael Hurley (Died 4-1-25) Known as the “godfather of freak folk,” Hurley sang of werewolves and ruby whores, wild geese and gamblers, Portland water and the man in the moon. I always thought of him as a jolly hobo campfire singer — versed more in Dr. Seuss than Woody Guthrie — kicked off of Big Rock Candy Mountain for growing weed. I’ll always kick myself for missing a Hurley house-party show in Santa Fe back in the oughts. But I’ll never forget that joyful feeling I got when I heard “Hog of the Forsaken” in the closing creditsn of the first episode of Deadwood.
Lenny Welch (Died 4-8-25) One might dismiss Lenny as a one-hit wonder. Who cares? That one hit, “Since I Fell for You” from 1964, was — and still remains — a stunner.
David Thomas (Died 4-23-25) Alas poor Crocus Behemoth, we hardly knew you. Thomas, for the sake of those who think I might be talking about the guy who started Wendy’s, was the founder, frontman and main visionary of Pere Ubu. Ubu, those inscrutable, magical maniacs originally from Cleveland, started out at the dawning of the punk era, and lasted up through at least 2023, when their final album, Trouble on Big Beat Street, was released. They always seemed to be at least one step beyond us. And they always sounded better when you weren’t trying to understand them.
Joe Lewis Walker (Died 4-30-25) One of the greatest bluesmen of the last few decades, Walker was born in San Francisco, not Mississippi (though his dad was.) He grew up listening to and learning from bluesmen who played the Bay Area and got opening spots for the likes of Mississippi Fred McDowell, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Freddie King and Earl Hooker. Walker played in bands backing Charlie Musselwhite and Otis Rush. He was roommates with former Paul Butterfield Blues Band guitarist Mike Bloomfield. By the mid 80s, he began releasing solo albums, nearly. 30 of them, starting with Cold is the Night. Here’s one of his most popular songs.
Johnny Rodriguez (Died 5-9-25) This country star from Texas was “discovered” by none other than the late Tom T. Hall, who hired Johnny for his band. His first single, “Pass Me By (If You’re Only Passing Through),” quickly became a major country hit. My favorite though was “Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico,” probably because, in the early ‘70s, that was one of my favorite pastimes. Here’s a version of that introduced by Mr. Hall:
Sly Stone (Died 6-9-25) One of my Christmas gifts from my daughter this year was a 4-disc gospel music collection, Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel 1945-1958 Despite a smattering of “big names” — Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers, Sister Wynona Carr, Shirley Caesar, etc. —most of the tracks are by groups you’ve never heard of. At least I hadn’t. One of those tracks, “Walking With Jesus” is credited to “The Stewart Family,” A group that included an 13-year-old Sylvester Stewart along with sisters Rose and Loretta and brother Freddie. Of course the Family Stewart later would be known as The Family Stone, and young Sylvester would morph into Sly Stone. No, it doesn’t come close to the celebratory intensity of “Dance to the Music” or “I Want to Take You Higher,” and yes, it does sound like a ittle kid singing. But it’s great testament to Sly’s deep roots in music. And now, every time I hear “Stand” or “EverydayPeople,” I’ll envision Sly as that little youngster earnestly praising Jesus. And I believe any Jesus worth worshipping would have dug Sly & The Family Stone. Here’s the song:
Brian Wilson (Died 6-11-25) My very first live rock ‘n’ roll show, back in the summer of 1964, was The Beach Boys, who played Springlake amusement park in Oklahoma City. Their current hit at the time was “I Get Around,” and I practically flew out of my seat when they started playing it. Playing bass with the band was one Brian Wilson, who, like his bandmates, seemed to be having a great time. But when I saw the Boys again a few months later, Brian was missing. On bass was some kid named Glen Campbell. This period marked the rise of Brian’s creative powers as a songwriter and producer. But also the dawning of the actual madness that would consume and cripple him for big portions of his life. Brian would go on, of course, to make some great music throughout his career. For my money, I still think the 2004 completion and release of the long dormant album Smile album (Read my 10-8-2004 review HERE) was the apex of his career.
Lou Christie (Died 6-18-25) The man with the crazy falsetto was best known for his 1966 teen saga “Lightning is Striking Again,” and he had some lesser previous hits like “The Gypsy Cried” and “Two Faces Have I.” But my favorite was the follow-up to “Lightning” was the equally melodramatic “Rhapsody in the Rain” I liked the lyrics “A lonely rhapsody 'cause on our first date / We were makin' out in the rain…” What can I say? To a kid in junior high, it was exciting, EXCITING!!!!! It might have been the first time I heard the word “rhapsody,” so maybe it partially inspired the name of this Substack.
Rebekah Del Rio (Died 6-23--25) What did I say about David Lynch’s soundtracks above? I never became aware of Rebekah’s music until I saw Mulholland Drive (2001). She was a basically an unknown country singer up until then. But in that movie she sang a downright jaw-dropping a cappella Spanish version of Roy Orbison’s “Crying” (“Llorando”). “Ding dang, Rebekah Del Rio, that was aces,” reportedly were Lynch’s exact words after she first sang it to him. But her subsequent collaboration with Lynch, an eerie, ethereal dirge called “No Stars” is even better, according to my ears:
We’ll continue this graveyard stroll tomorrow.