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From August Brown, at the LATimes music blog:
Jon Lord, the keyboardist who gave the British classic rock band Deep Purple its depth and heavy sonics, died Monday at the London Clinic after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 71…
Rock musicians including Yes’ Rick Wakeman, Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and members of Deep Purple-influenced bands such as Anthrax and Iron Maiden all lamented Lord’s passing, with Morello tweeting: “RIP the great Jon Lord, Deep Purple’s cornerstone/keyboardist. So many great great songs and that incredible SOUND of his! Thankyou.”
And very few people here will remember Kitty Wells — she was a golden oldie even when I was young — but she made her mark on popular music, per Randall Roberts, also at the LATImes:
Kitty Wells, who died Monday at age 92, was born in Nashville to a family of country musicians, and within that simple truth lies a fascinating narrative. Her story spans nearly a century, and its central plot points involve not only busting apart notions of a female singer’s place on the radio but also Wells becoming a reasoned foil to the male-dominated singers occupying the charts…
In hip-hop parlance, you can call “Honky Tonk Angels” a dis track: it’s a musical confrontation with another singer and another song — specifically, Hank Thompson’s “The Wild Side of Life.” Thompson’s song was 1952’s version of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” , spending 15 weeks at No. 1 from May through mid-August of that year. During those three-plus months, fans memorized the words to “Wild Side,” an indictment of a former girlfriend who gives up marriage for the allures of the “wild side of life,” and in the process becomes a woman destined to be “anybody’s baby.” During Thompson’s reign at the top, Wells, through songwriter J.D. “Jay” Miller, crafted a response.Countering the accusation at the center of “Wild Side” as though she’s listening to her ex from across the table, Wells sings of sitting near a jukebox that’s playing Thompson’s song. She hears him blame her for their breakup, indict her for nights spent in “the places where the wine and liquor flow,” but she isn’t having any of it…
But to reduce Wells to a single song is to risk diminishing both her craft, her artistry and her influence on the evolution of American music. Even before hitting with “Angels,” Wells had been a founding member of the “Louisiana Hayride,” the influential Shreveport, La., radio show that showcased some of country music’s biggest stars, and which in 1954 provided the first national exposure for a young Presley. In 1956, her “Kitty Wells’ Hit Parade” was the first full-length album released by a female country singer. Her hits stretched throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and she confirmed for formerly wary label executives that female country singers could hit hard with a good song and do it on a consistent basis. In her music, as in her life, she helped transform the no at the heart of “Honky Tonk Angels” into a proud affirmation of the possible.
If Charon is still running that ferry, tonight’s passengers must’ve had an interesting ride…
Adolphus
Weirder piece of Jon Lord pop culture.
youtube.com/watch?v=KiXcqxms3Bs
Who would have thought Hef would out live him.
Punchy
Saw in an article that Lord either played with or recorded albums (or both) with Ronnie James Dio. Is this correct?
RosiesDad
I still listen to Machine Head on a regular basis. Hush was one of the first 45’s I bought when I was a kid. To say that Deep Purple greatly influenced my likes in rock and roll is understating the case.
RIP Jon Lord.
piratedan
ty Kitty… while Hank is indeed legendary, he was not what you could consider enlightened for his time and voices like hers led to other women being heard like Ms. Cline, Ms. Lynn etc getting a chance.
S. cerevisiae
I know Blackmore played with Dio for years but I don’t remember if Lord ever did.
RIP Jon Lord, I have to link this
moonbat
kd lang worships Kitty Wells and it was because of kd that I first heard some of Wells’ music. She was a hot mama. That’s for sure.
double nickel
Not to mention Bob Babbit…not a good day for musicians yesterday.
chris fleming
funny thing–I just saw 3 guys from the current Deep Purple play in a club in Nashville last Saturday night– they still had it
ThresherK
(Self-edited)
I’ll miss them both.
Kitty Wells was a grande dame of country music before the novelty song about CB radio. (I’m dating myself, I know.)
And I’m stealing someone’s line: “If you throw a guitar down the side of a cliff, it will play the opening riff to Smoke on the Water”.
That’s from Dave Barry, writer, Rock Bottom Remainder, and garage bander in his early years (IIRC).
honus
I’m thinking about the time Jon Lord said “The most exciting thing about Deep Purple is my organ.”
Gustopher
I grew up listening to Deep Purple. Where other kids got horrible children’s music, I got one of the best bands ever. And Jon Lord really was the key to their sound.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=G6x8GGXrCFQ
m.youtube.com/watch?v=5kBPHKFGLTY
71 is a decent run, but cancer is a brutal way to go.
coolg
Back in 1957 I was 16 years old. I was fortunate to see the Ernest Tubb Show tour that stopped in my town. On the show with Ernest were: Johnnie and Jack; The Wilburn Brothers, and Kitty Wells. She was a big country star at that time and sounded wonderful to me. Country music was something that I had grown up with before I became a rock ‘n roller. Cut to 2003, Shreveport, Louisiana, Municipal Auditorium, a show that reunited as many of the living stars of the Louisiana Hayride was presented for 2 nights in a row. It was also broadcast live on KWKH as it had been in its prime years. It even had the same announcers back. Johnnie Wright (her husband and former “Johnnie” of Johnnie and Jack) and Kitty Wells were among the many performers. Kitty was no longer at the top of her game but she was game to perform. Of course, she got to “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” and when she sang the line “…was because there always was a man to blame” the audience erupted with a scream. It sent a chill through me that I won’t forget. I mourn her loss for her family and for real country music.
canuckistani
Jon Lord really was the best thing in an all-round awesome band. I was listening to Lazy last night as the perfect mix of guitar and organ.