"Let It Rot" Calender of Death

"Let It Rot" Calender of Death

Michael Gray

by

And while we're on the subject of history CREEM presents the...

Brighten up your bedroom with Michael Gray's CREEM Calendar Of Rock'n'Roll Demises! See at a glance who OD'ed on your birthday! And use its info to play Spot The Macabre Coincidences. (Example: note how bluesmen drop like flies in the period May 24-26! Note how Greenwich Village folk choose April '66 for suicide time! Notice how Brian Jones and Jim Morrison both die in water on the some day of the year!!!)

The Calendar includes blues artists as well as rock people, because the connections between' the two are obviously strong; but it excludes jazz artists except where those concerned have sufficient fame to be known to all rock fans (e.g. Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong). For your extra delectation, near-misses have also been included, as has the occasional nonrock demise where such demise is in line, as it were,, with rock'n'roll styles of departure (e.g. Stephen Foster, and Chopin).

There are some omissions on which we'd welcome additional information.'These are: the rumoured demise-by-foul-play of a Quicksilver Messenger Service roadie; the rumoured deaths of two ShangriLas; the death of the Roulettes' lead guitarist; Keith Moon's chauffeur getting run over; the manager ofJ. Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers dying in a car-crash as their record ''Last Kiss" entered the charts; Roy Orbison's sons burning to death in 1968; three passings-away among those who worked for Georgie Fame; and the near-miss of Jackie Wilson getting shot on-stage by an overzealous fan at the Apollo in the early sixties. Let us know about any others we have missed.

We've also put together the chart (below) showing the scores notched up by, for instance, the automobile industry, the aviation industry, etc. etc. It is of limited accuracy since in many of the cases listed no cause of death is given1. All the same, it serves as an indication to rock stars and their friends of what to avoid and when.

Scoreboard:

The highest score, on the basis of the Calendar's Information, goes inevitably to the Don't Knows (they finally topped a poll) with 55. The others are as given below. However, scaring it by time of year and then by cause of death, the results are: JANUARY: 18,» FEBRUARY: 13, MARCH: 11, APRIL: 15, MAY: 13, JUNE: 16, JULY: 16, AUGUST: 23, SEPTEMBER: 13, OCTOBER: 9, NOVEMBER: 16, DECEMBER: 18.

CAUSES: Murder 30, The Automobile Industry: 27, Heart Failure: 22, ODs: 20, The Aviation Industry: 16, Suicide: 11, Old Age: 7, The Motorcycle Industry: 4, Alcohol: 4, Cancer: 4, Strokes: 5, Other Brain-Failures: 3, Fire: 3, Under The Surgeon's Knife: 3, Asthma: 3, Other Legitimate lllnesses:-3, Drowning: 3, Manslaughter: 3, Official Executions: 3, Electrocution: 2, TB: 2, Inhalation Of Vomit: 2, Other Causes Each Scored: 1. So April is not the cruelest month — January is; and it seems that rock people, like old age pensioners, die more frequently in winter than at other times of year. It also seems that if you work in or around rock, your most Hkely fate is to be. murdered—though if we exclude from that statistic the five who were killed in the Tel-Aviv disco, th.en the car industry scores highest. Planes notch up a surprisingly poor showing, and though motorbikes are quite good for Near Misses, they don^do at all well when it comes to the real thing. Above all, rock musicians should note that going anywhere'by car in January or Novmber is, on the evidence, deliberately courting disaster.

January

ICold cold heart: Hank Williams dies of "heart failure and too many pills in the back of an automobile" — Nik Cohn. 1953: age 29_

O Speckled Red, 1973 Tex Ritter: gallops up to that great saloonbar in the sky, 1974_

4 Cyril Davies, father of British R&B, 1964

8 El vis' twin brother, Jesse Aaron Presley: stillborn, 1935 Kenneth Patchen, father of the Angry Young Men, 1972__ '

Howlin' Wolf; his body gives out at the age of 65, 1976_

1 9 The first OD in pop? Stephen Foster dies v in a coma from alcoholic poisoning .after being taken to the hospital from the bathroom of a Bowery hotel, 1864_

J / Fred Fisher, composer of the 1905 two million seller "If The Man In The Moon Was A Coon", 1942

16 Clara Ward, gospel star, dies after a week in a coma following a stroke, 1973Paul Beaver, the moog man, dies of a stroke, 1975_

17 Billy Stewart and three of his band die when their car falls off a brldqe into a river, 1970___

20 Alan Freed, 1965_

23 Big Maybelle dies in Cleveland, Ohio, 1972_

24 James 'Shep' Sheppard of the Heartbeats and of Shep And The Llmelltes is found dead and robbed in his car on Long Island Freeway, 1970

__ 27 Mahalla Jackson dies of heart-failure aged 60, 1972_

28 A hear miss?* Stevie Wonder rumored to have had a gun drawn on him by Phil Spector during a dispute over an engineer at The Record Plant, LA, 1974

29 A Nail In Rock's Coffin: the prerpiere of Grease, Chicago, 1971

5 1 Slim Harpo, 1970 Exact date unknbwn but during January: Charley Bradshaw, 1959

February

The Big Bopper, Richie Valens & Buddy Holly (singing "It Doesn't Matter Any More") die when their plane crashes in snow, 1959

___ David Seville, the inventor of the Chipmunks, 1972 Five Israelis killed in a grenade attack on a Tel Aviv disco, 1975_

8 Max Yasgur, 53: Woodstock didn't kill him but heart failure does, in a Florida hospital, 1973

___ 10 Near miss: Phil Spector gets severe burns when his car blazes up in L. A. — or, according to his office at the time: he undergoes surgery after receiving multiple head and body injuries when his car crashes, 1974

15 Nat King Cole dies of lung cancer and his wife unsuccessfully sues the cigarette manufacturer, 1965_

22 Near misses: Rodney Bingenheimer is assaulted and his girl-friend raped at knifepoint in a VW Microbus on Sunset Boulevard, 1971 Nine years after her abrupt departure from the Supremes, Florence Ballard, 32, suffers a cardiac arrest in a Detroit hospital and dies. Off welfare and reconciled with her husband, Flo was dieting for a career comeback when she was stricken; 1976

28 Bobby Bloom, 28, shoots himself through the head in a West Hollywood apartment, 1974 •

March

4 Debut of guillotine in the Alice Cooper stage show, 1973__

5 Michael Jeffery, Jimi Hendrix's manager, dies in a plane crash over France, 1973

6 Richard Carpenter comes up with another pale imitation: he crashes his motorbike outside Ontario, Cal., but only breaks his wrists and one leg,. 1973__

7 Nasty Near Miss: John Hammond has a heart-attack (his 3rd) in Max's Kansas City while listening to his Columbic signing Bruce Springsteen, 1973_

8 Pigpen — Ron McKernan — aged 27 is found dead in hisCorteMadera, Cal., apartment, weighing only 128 pounds and suffering from alcoholic poisoning, 1973_

9 Bobby Womack's brother Harry, -28, is stabbed to death in Bobby's Hollywood apartment, 1974__

1 2 Charlie 'Bird* Parker, 35, 1955

14 Robert B. Ballou is kicked to death leaving a Soul Train concert for refusing to surrender his leather jacket, 1971__

16 Tammi Terrell dies of a brain tumor at the age of 24, 1968_

19 Near Miss: Lear jet flying Mountain over Pennsylvania has to dump its fuel and crashIgnd with 50/50 chance of survival: but survival wins, 1971 At five in the morning, former Uriah Heep bassist Gary Thain downs two sleeping pills and takes a bath, after jamming with a friend all night. He's found dead shortly afterward by his gi rlfriend. Says the coroner, "This is part of the pattern. It happened because of his addiction to drugs." 1976 Paul Kossoff, 25, of Back Street Crawler and the legendary Free, expires in his sleep on a New York-bound plane. His second (and final?) death, 1976_

22 Carl Perkin*' manager dies in a car crash; Perkins' brother Jay dies later from injuries received, and Carl takes a year to recover from'his: 1956 ,__

28 Arthur Crudup dies still awaiting his royalties from Elvis, 1974__

29 Claire Ufland, 16, dies of barbit. poisoning and the English sleazo rag News Of The World uses her diary for BBC Top Of The Po$ sex/drugs/payola scandal hot copy, 1971

April

1 Scott Joplin dies in New York City, 1917

4 Kurt Weill, the man who brought you "Mack The Knife", 1950

8 Exact date unknown but definitely April: Paul Clayton commits suicide by jumping out of a window after a 3-day acid trip, 1966

10 Near Miss: Nat King. Cole badly beaten up on-stage in Birmingham, Alabama, by six anti-R&B vigilantes (the audience was allwhite), 1956 Stu Sutcliffe, Beatle Person, dies at 21 of a brain hemorrhage, 1962 Phil Ochs hangs himself at his sister's home: "The words just weren't coming anymore," 1976 Deep Purple roadie Ronnie Quinton is killed in a.head-on collision with another car on the Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu. Ronnie worked for seven years as Ritchie Blackmore's personal guitar handler. 1975

12 Exact date unknown but definitely April: Jan Berry of Jan & Dean has rock's worst near miss: he splits his head open crashing his Corvette and suffers severe brain damage. He has to re-learn speech etc., and is still undergoing surgery, four years later: 1966 ■

13 Over 100 badly injured as police use teargas and, batons in battle with 2,000 fans ■ storming the steps of the Warsaw Palace of Culture at the Rolling Stones' first Iron Curtain concert, 1967

17 Eddie Cochran takes all three steps to heaven with Sharon Sheeleyas their car wraps itself around an English lamp-post, 1960 Near Miss: Gene Vincent in same crash. .It makes his leg worse. Vinnie Taylor of Sha-Na-Na, suspected heroin OP, 1974__

21 Don Drummond, top ska saxophonist, 1971 Earl Hooker, same day same year

25 Pam Morrison, widow of Jim the Poet, ODs, 1974

27 Blue Oyster Cult front-man Phil King is shot to death (three times in the head with a .38 Magnum) in a gambling fight in New York State, 1972_ - '

28 Another Nail In Rock's Coffin: first performance of Hair, in New York City, 1968

30 Richard Farina, allegedly on acid, rides his motorbike away from home and fatally crashes, 1966. A suicide? Frankie Lymon (of the Teenagers) ODs, 1968

May

Near Miss/Seemed Like A Freeze-Out: Gordon Lightfoot gets Bells Palsy .(paralysis of the face: no cure known but sometimes it just goes away again), 1972 Jimi Hendrix returns for a spacey CREEM interview. 1976__

2 Caryl Chessman is gassed in San Quentin, 1960, after 11 years and nine stays of execution. The demos that followed lead to the formation of the American New Left.

3 Electric Music For the Body: Les Harvey of Stone The Crows, aged 25, is electrocuted in front of 1,200 students at the Top Rank Ballroom, Swansea, England, 1972_

4 Four students shot dead at Kent State College, Ohio, 1975 f __

__ 7 . through Near Miss: a Spanish Dan Peak window of America and needs falls 69 stitches —: mostly in his .head, 1972_

8 Graham Bond tries to stop a London underground train the hard way. ft takes police two days to identify his body, 1974

20 Student shot dead at "People's Park", 1969, as 2,000 National Guardsmen occupy Berkeley, California in order to regain an empty building-site Near Miss: Chicago bassist/vocalist needs five hours surgery after being assaulted at Dodger Stadium, L.A., 1969

_ 24 Elmore James: his mojo stops working, 1963_1__

25 Sonny Boy Williamson, 1965 Duke Ellington, aged 75, 1974_

27 Little Willie John dies in Washington's Walla-Walla Jail after serving three years on a manslaughter rap, 1968 Jimmie Rodgers dies of TB, 1933

30 Bernadette Weelan, 14, gets crushed at a David Cassidy concert (May 26): suffers cardiac arrest and severe brain damage & dies after four days, 1974

June

1 Robert Wyatt's Near Miss: he leaves a party via the drainpipe, falls and breaks his spine, 1973_

O A 13-year-old boy* in Calgary, Canada,* hangs himself by the neck until he is dead, thus ending 2 1/2 months of teeny hanging parties inspired by watching Alice Cooper death mock-ups on TV: 1974_■

3 Diana Ross' two hideous dogs are poisoned by the Latin Casino nite-club in Philly, 1969____

/§ Murray Wilson, the Beach Boys' dad, dies of a heart-attack, 1973_

5 Ralph J. Gleason, the eminent jazz and pop music writer, dies. Ralph wrote about and interviewed virtually everyone in music that mattered in his 30-year career. He made movies, TV shows, founded Rolling Stone with Jann Wenner. 1975

_ Roy Orblson's first wife Claudette (25) " is killed in a head-on collison on her motorbike as Orbison watches helplessly, 1966

8 Laverne Andrews, the eldest of the Andrews Sisters, dies of cancer, 1967

Near Miss/A Whiter Shade Of Pale: Johnny Winter finally emerges from nine months in River Oaks Hospital, New Orleans, cleaned out from suicidal depression and heroin addiction, 1972__

10 Near Miss: Jethro Tull and their audience get tear-gassed by Denver police during a concert; the 28 people hospitalized included three babies and four policemen: 1971

J Earl Grant is killed in a car smash, 1970

13 Clyde McPhatter dies of liver, heart & kidney ailments in the Bronx, 1972. "He was the man" — Smokey Robinson, But he was down: sacked from almost every gig in recent years, while his last recording sessions (1971) yielded nothing._; j ' /

J ^ Lonnie Johnson, 1970

18' Exact date unknown but on d Sunday in June: a car crash kills Martin Lam bell of Fairport Convention and Genie The Tailor (the clothes designer to whom Ja'ck Bruce's album Songs For A Tailor was dedieated), 1969__

21 L.A. rock DJ Humble Harve Miller charged with murdering his wife, 1971

22 Judy Garland takes herself over the rainbow, 1969 __._. - ■' :

29 Shorty Long drowns when his small boat capsizes on a lake in Ontario, 1969 Jayne Mansfield, The Girl Who Couldn't Help It, is decapitated in a car crash, 1967

July

Brian Jones turns on to chlorine, 1969 Jim Morrison, not to be outdone, has a heart-attack in the bath, Paris, 1971

The Fillmore,

Louis Armstrong dies of severe heart & lung ailmentstheday after his 71 st birthday, 1971 _•

10 Jelly Roll Morton dies in Los Angeles, bitterly believing his talent to have been unrecognised, 1941___'

14_ The Everly Brothers split up, 1973

J ^ Billie Holliday ODs, 1959

24 White Trash drummer Bobby Ramirez is murdered off Rush Street in Chicago, aged 23, 1972

27 Five rock fans die in auto crashes en route to Watkins Glen Festival, 1973 Llghtnln' Slim, 1974 _

28 Skydiver at Watkins Glen Festival jumps with an exploding device that catches fire;, he dies before he hits the ground. He is the only on-site death out of a 600,000 crowd: 1973_■

29 Near Miss??: Bob Dylan has his motorcycle crash in Woodstock, 1966 Cass Elliott chokes on a ham sandwich in her posh London hotel suite. It is her last, 1974. A 22-year-old security man, George Byington, is stabbed to death outside a Who concert by a man, then beaten unconscious by another security man: Forest Hills Stadium, 1971

__ 31 Yep, what sings and flies into mountains? Jim Reeves, 1964

August

1 ferry Johnny boat Burnette and drowns, goes 1964 fishing, falls off a

3 Lenny Bruce ODs on morphine, 1966

6 head-injuries Near Miss: Stevie in auto collision Wonder with gets a logging serious truck in North Carolina, 1973_ -

7 Memphis Minnie,

Q Steve Perron (lead singer of Children ^ and writer pf the ZZTophit'Francene') dies from inhaling vomit, 1973_

9 Sharon Tate & Co., are slaughtered by Manson & Co. (Mqnson had songwriting connections with Dennis Wilson of the Beac-h Boys), 1969 Lillian Roxon dies of a severe asthma qttack, 1973__

■R O And Friday-the-13th at that: King Curtis is stabbed to death by one Juan Montanez in a fight outside a New York City building owned by Curtis. Aged 37, 1971

14 Rock'n'Roll's Queen Mother, Gladys Presley, has a fatal heart attack at 4 a.m., 1958

15 Bill Broonzy dies 25 1/2 hours later: 5:30 a.m., 1958___

17 Paul Williams— not the West Coast midget but an original Temptation — is found in his swimming trunks in his car, gun in hand and bullet in, head, 1973_

18 Double-Barrelled Miss: Mick Jagger gets Shot accidentally on the Ned Kelly set; meanwhile, back at the hotel, Marianne Faithful tries suicide: Australia, 1969

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23 Paul Kossoff's first death; hesuffersmajor heart and'lung stoppage but is miraculously revived after 35 minutes, to live another seven months. A blood clot in his leg had traVeled near his heart, instituting a massive physical breakdown. Drugs were a "supporting reason''. 1975___

27 Brian Epstein is found dead in his London bedroom from an accumulation of Carbitol, 1967 ■___.

31 Exact date-unknown but during August: Columbia Records hire a 9-foot-tall New Yorker and plan for him to publicize a Gentle Giant tour. Just before it starts he dies of a heart attack. 1972 Exact date...etc: Bobby Parker, 1973 Exact, date...etc.: Near Miss: Quincy Jones is pulled back to life after serious brain surgery, 1974 / Exact date...etc.: Wynonie Harris, 1969

September

J.R.R. Tolkien, 1973. (We wouldn't have included him but Rolling Stone says he "was a friend of us all".)__

Al Wilsonof Canned Heat is found dead in Bob Hite's back yard in Topanga Canyon with a bottle of reds in his pocket, 1970. (He was 27,) _'

_ At a Wishbone Ash concert in Texas, sandwich-vendor Francisco Carrasco is murdered for refusing to give a free sandwich to a member of the audience, 1971

Josh White, 1969

50 doves die in a misfiring publicity stunt for Warners' band White Witch; but enterprising P.R. dept, quickly switch their press party to the Daphne Funeral Home, San Francisco, 1972

15 Another good day for Near Misses: B^ian Epstein attempts pills overdose suicide .but is revived in hospital — an 11 -month reprieve — 1966 Uriah Heep bassist Gary Thain gets severe electric shock (he later retires) in concert in Dallas, 1974

_ 18 Hey Joe, where you goin' wid dat puke in your lungs?: Jimi Hendrix, 1970_

19 Have.Corpse Will Travel: Gram Parsons has a fatal heart-attack due to "overstimulation" at the Joshua Tree Inn, California, 1973_'

__ 20 What sings, flies into something or other and becomes the greatest singer-songwriter in American history overnight? Jim Croce, 1973_i_

21 Walter Brennan walks way up there among them clouds, where the cotton's high and the corn is a-growin', and there ain't no fields to plough. Last words: "Across the fields I see/That mule, Ol'Rivers and me." 1974 _■ -

23 Robbie McIntosh, the Average White Band drummer, ODs on heroin, believing it to be cocaine, in a North Hollywood hotel room, 1974. "He turned blue," says an eye-witness. In 1975 the courts decide it was murder.

26 Bessie Smith dies from injuries in .a car crash outside Coahoma, Mississippi, 1937

27 Rory StormeODson sleeping-pills and his mother kills herself the^ same day (shortly after her husband's debth), 1972 _

29 Duringla Tucky Buzzard set at the WhiskyA-Go-Go a club security guard dies of a heart-attack while chasing three teenage girls round the room, 1971_ .

30 James Dean and his Porsche come to the crossroads, 1955

October

3 Woody Guthrie finally loses his 15-year battle against Huntington's Disease, 1967

4 The Judy Garland of Rock finally ODs at the Landmark Hotel in Hollywood: Janis Joplin, 1970__

6 Near Miss Repeat (see also May 12th): Pacifica Radio (KP-FT-FM) in Houston, Texas bombed again, 1970 _•

1 J Edith Piaf, regretting rien,

12" A true victim of the rock'n'roll business: Gene Vincent, deserted, has a seizure following a bleeding ulcer and dies, 1971

15 Near Miss: Howlin' Wolf suffers severe heart-attack, but survives, 1969 _

16 Near Miss: Edgar Broughton Band's bassist is saved from death only by his rubber-soled gym-shoes after an electrocution accident in concert, 1971_

17 Frederic Chopin dies coughing up blood, 1849____

18 Grits'n'Greens: Al Green has his bare back scalded by boiling grits by Mary Woodson, 29, who then shoots herself. Memphis, 1973__

21 A Mutilation: Jon Mark of Mark/Almond falls out of a tree in Hawaii and loses the ring fingef of his left hand, 1972

23 Al Jolson, 1950 Tommy Edwards — "It's All In The Game"— 1969

__ 25 Nick Drake, an island Records protege dies: the coroner says it's suicide after prolonged mental illness — but Nick Kent says different. 1974

O O Duane Allman, aged 24, dies in a motor^ cycle crash in Macon, Georgia, 1971

November

Miss Christine, a GTO and Zappa associate, ODs,, 1972

Leadbelly, 1949 New York Dollsdrummer Billy Murcia, aged 21, goes to the Speakeasy (London), goes from there to a girl's flat, "nods off", and dies of "accidental suffocation" when, the girl pours black coffee down his throat, 1972 _.

8 Ivory Joe Hunter dies of lung cdncer, 1974_ . ■ _*_

11 Berry-Oakley of the Allmans: whereas Duane drove his motorbike into a truck, Berry chooses a city bus and, after refusing 'hospital treatment, dies of a brain hemorrhage, 1972 Dave Stringbean Akerman, country singer, and his wife, are robbed and murdered, 1973

12 Special Award For Repeated Near Misses: Bobby Jameson, songwriter, talked out of jumping off the top of Hyatt House, L.A., 3 months back, and after a severe epileptic seizure at the Troubadour two months back, tries a jumpingsuicide again; someone starts talking him down from the top of the Hollywood Theater, but halfway down he falls anyway and breaks both legs: 1972_

13 Jerry Lee Lewis Jr., 19-year-old drummer, dies in o car crash near Cockrum, Mississippi, 1973

16 Alan Watts, Zen writer, 1973. Rolling Stone says: "Without him there would have been no Zen-oriented beatniks, no Beatles going off to the Himalayas". So there.

18 Jr. Parker goes into the operating theatre for eye-surgery and dies, 1971 Danny R. Whitten (ex-Crazy Horse vocalist) ODs, 1972 _.

19 The man of whom Joan Baez dreams: Joe Hill, I.W.W. militant, poet & songwriter, is shot by firing squad in Utah State Pen. His last words are: "Don't mourn — organize!" 1915

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27 Jimmy Widener (for 10 years Hank Snow's lead guitarist) and Mildred Hazelwood (Eddie's wife) muqqed and shot to death, 1973

J ^ Papa Lightfoot, 1971

December

1 Magic Sam, 1969

2 jimmy Rodgers has a very near miss — he is found not in an English country garden but in mysterious circumstances in his car in L.A. with a fractured skull (from which he recovers, up to a point), 1967_■

Another roadie for Deep Purple, Patsy Collins, is killed in a fall down a service elevator shaft in Jakarta, Indonesia. Patsy was guitarist Tommy Bolin's personal bodyguard. Deep Purple's Jon Lord left Indonesia convinced of foul play; 1975__

6 Altamont: - The New York. Daily News produces this headline: "Calif. Rock Bash' Leaves 4 Dead And 3 Born," 1969

8 Near Miss?: Frank Sinatra Jr. is kidnapped at gunpoint from a Lake Tahoe motel-room by an acquaintance of Jan of Jan & Dean but released after 34 hours of being blindfolded, 1963_

9 Lou Handman, the man who wrote "Are You Lonesome Tonight" for-Al Jolson, dies Cursing Elvis and them other rock'n'rollers, little thinking that five years later;.., 1956

10 Otis Redding and three Bar-Kays die in a plane crash into a frozen Wisconsin Lake, 1967 Another Miss/A Weasel Rips His Flesh: Frank Zappa breaks his leg, fractures his ankle & thinks he's fractured his skull at the Rainbow in London, 1972_ '

11 Sam Cooke gets his come-uppance (well, his uppance anyway — don't know about hiscOme): shot three times by a girl he was apparently trying to rape in a Hollywood hotel, 1964

14 Dinah Washington, _

15 Glenn Miller's plane, goes missing over the English Channel, 1944 Fats Waller dies, of gin and excess, aboard the Santa. Fe Chief, 1943_

17 Famed bluesman and bottleneck guitarist Theodore "Hound Dog" Taylor, 59, dies of lung cancer. Hound Dog's rallying call at concerts was "Let's have some fun because when you're dead you're done." 1975,___ '

20 Bobby Darin, in the Ceders Of Lebanon Hospital because.an artificial heart-valve inserted in 1971 stops functioning,undergoes seven hours of surgery which, like his heart, fails him'at 12:15 a.m., 1973_£

23 Johnny Ace makes the heavenly charts with a bullet: playing Russian roulette in the intermission of a. Houston concert. 1954