The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (226 page)

The phenomenal success of ‘Telstar’ couldn’t be repeated, however, the quiet Caddy eventually moving on to arrange for a slew of sixties and seventies artists, including: Elkie Brooks; Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich; Kiki Dee; The Pretty Things; Spencer Davis Group; and Dusty Springfield. Caddy also worked more anonymously for Polydor and was behind a series of budget cover albums for Avenue. His final appearance was at a 1991 Joe Meek memorial concert in Lewisham. Despite being a heavy drinker throughout his life, Alan Caddy is believed to have died from natural causes.

See also
Johnny Kidd (
October 1966); Joe Meek (
February 1967)

Saturday 26

Allen Woody

(Douglas Allen Woody - Nashville, Tennessee, 2 October 1956)

The Allman Brothers Band

(The Artimus Pyle Band)

(Gov’t Mule)

Signing up with the ill-fated Allman Brothers Band mightn’t seem the wisest decision to some, but bassist Douglas Allen Woody could see only greatness in the heroes of his youth. By the time he joined the restyled band in 1989, The Allmans’ history was already strewn with casualties, guitarist Duane Allman having led the way in a motorbike accident
(
October 1971
), Woody’s antecedent bassists Berry Oakley (
November 1972)
and Lamar Williams (
January 1983)
following the co-founder to that great jam session in the sky. Woody was perhaps already dicing with death: he’d previously played with The Artimus Pyle Band – the group knocked together by the former Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer who had escaped the carnage of his band’s 1977 air crash by the skin of his teeth (
October 1977).
Allen was a decent musician, though, having learned guitar and bass by his fifteenth birthday, his father encouraging him to get into blues and country as well as the rock ‘n’ roll he loved. With this in mind, he and fellow Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes eventually jumped ship to form the offshoot rock act Gov’t Mule in 1997, a hard-rocking band that had begun to acquire much good press by the turn of the millennium.

But the extraordinary curse of the Southern bands was set to continue. At 10.30 am on 26 August 2000, the body of Douglas Allen Woody was found seated in a chair in his room by a shocked chambermaid at the Marriott Courtyard Motel in Queens. Woody, who was set to fly back to Nashville after a New York concert, was believed to have suffered a heart attack in his sleep.

SEPTEMBER

Monday 4

David Brown

(New York, 15 February 1947)

Santana

(Various acts)

An early bass guitarist with globe-conquering Latin rock legend Santana, David Brown joined The Santana Blues Band, as it was known, in 1966. After shortening the band’s name, Mexican-born guitarist and singer Carlos Santana settled his classic line-up of Brown, Gregg Rolie (keyboards/vocals), Jose Chepito Areas (timbales), Mike Carrabello (congas) and Michael Shrieve (drums), ahead of their memorable Woodstock Festival appearance in 1969. The effect of the band’s live show was potent, with the eponymous debut album vaulting into the American Top Five. Its follow-up,
Abraxas
(1970), is widely considered Santana’s finest work (at least by pre-millennial fans), this album spawning big hit singles in ‘Black Magic Woman’ and
‘Oye Como Va’
(both 1971). After the recording of
SantanalII
(1971), Brown left the group: the album topped the charts in his absence. The bassist’s immediate replacement was jazz virtuoso Stanley Clarke, with whom Santana went on to pursue more experimental styles. Brown – who was also a flautist – briefly rejoined Santana during the seventies, but spent more time on other projects for the remainder of his career, such as sessions with Greg Allman and Boz Scaggs. Little was heard of the bassplayer in the years prior to his death in 2000 from liver and kidney failure. By this time, of course, his former boss had found a whole new audience with the 20-millionselling
Supernatural.

See also
Richard Kermode (
January 1996); Leone Thomas (
May 1999)