The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (25 page)

But, by summer, Courson had become disquieted by a drop in Morrison’s mood. She and Morrison’s US friend Alan Ronay did their best to distract the singer during supper on the evening of 2 July, but it was clear all was far from well. After a silent meal, Morrison may have gone alone to see the Robert Mitchum movie
Pursued
at a local cinema, or perhaps to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus (a bar by the Seine), or he may have returned straight home to the apartment. One fact that seems fairly conclusive is that when he complained of ‘feeling ill’ Courson drew Morrison a bath – and found his dead body still immersed next morning. Whether he had overdosed on heroin remains an unanswered question: his body was already sealed in a coffin before a reliable post mortem could be performed. What seems most likely is that years of alcohol and drug abuse finally took their toll on a man who was only twenty-seven but ‘felt bloated and forty-seven’. (Shortly before her own 1974 death from an overdose, Courson allegedly confessed to Morrison biographer Danny Sugerman that she had administered Morrison a ‘fatal shot of heroin’.) So Morrison succumbed to the heart attack he himself had anticipated towards the end. He’d refused medical assistance that same evening.

Jim Morrison was buried privately on 7 July at Père Lachaise cemetery, alongside Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and Balzac. His headstone has long featured not only his name but also those of hundreds of fans from around the world (French authorities are thus keen to have it removed to the USA). Morrison’s words continue to sell records, while Oliver Stone’s 1991 biopic
The Doors
gives a vibrant, if distorted, view of the artist’s life. (The latter also provoked The Doors’ first ever UK Top Ten hit with the reissued ‘Light My Fire’.)

In his later writing, Jim Morrison fantasized about faking his death and starting again as Mr Mojo Risin’ – an anagram of his name. And there will always be those who maintain Mr Mojo Risin’, the Lizard King, the ‘erotic politician’ – or just plain old Jim – cocked that ultimate snook and is still around today …

See also
Danny Sugerman (
January 2005)

‘You’re drinking with Number Three.’

Jim Morrison, to friends after hearing of Hendrix and Joplin’s deaths

Sunday 4

Don McPherson

(Indianapolis, Indiana, 9 July 1941)

Main Ingredient

Former Harlem school-friends Main Ingredient began their musical life as The Poets in the mid sixties, this mellow, soulful R & B act the brainchild of Don McPherson. McPherson took his place as the combo’s lead singer, his passionate vocal reminiscent of that of Smokey Robinson. Signing to Red Bird, the singer and his cohorts, Cuba Gooding (briefly), Enrique ‘Tony’ Silvester (who died in November 2006) and Luther Simmons Jr enjoyed a number-two R & B hit with ‘She Blew a Good Thing’ before changing the band’s name to The Insiders. Their ultimate name, Main Ingredient, was the choice of the label (allegedly taken from the blurb on a Coke bottle). However, after two well-received long-players, Don McPherson was diagnosed with leukaemia.

McPherson’s early death preceded the flurry of US pop hits enjoyed by the group (beginning with 1972’s platinum-selling ‘Everybody Plays the Fool’, for which lead vocals were taken by the returned Gooding). Main Ingredient split in 1976, though re-formed versions toured for a further twenty or so years.

AUGUST

Wednesday 11

Lefty Baker

(Eustace Britchforth - Miami, Florida, 7 January 1942)

Spanky & Our Gang

(The Folkers)

(The Bitter End Singers)

Spanky & Our Gang was a US harmony/pop group, among rock ‘n’ roll’s first acts to lose two members in separate circumstances. The band – loosely termed Chicago’s Mamas & The Papas – had been formed by blues singer Elaine McFarlane and musicians Oz Bach, Malcolm Hale and Nigel Pickering. Often dressed in flowing robes and wearing the requisite thick moustache, guitarist Lefty Baker replaced Bach for the group’s final chart outings for Mercury, ‘Sunday Mornin’’, ‘Like to Get to Know You’ and ‘Give a Damn’ (1968), shortly after which Hale passed away suddenly (
October 1968).
This, and lessening interest in them, ended Spanky & Our Gang as a going concern.

Baker’s own untimely death from cirrhosis of the liver in Burbank, California, came about a year or so after he left Spanky & Our Gang. He had attempted to launch a couple of new bands and was also overseeing his own recording studio.

See also
Oz Bach (
September 1998). Nigel Pickering died from liver cancer in
May 2011.

Friday 13

King Curtis

(Curtis Ousley - Fort Worth, Texas, 7 February 1934)

The Coasters

The Kingpins

The Noble Knights

Young prodigy ‘King’ Curtis Ousley was seen as jazz saxophone’s
enfant terrible
when he forced his way into Lionel Hampton’s band as a freshman; after all, he’d hawked his tenor sax around the streets of his home town from the age of twelve and utterly believed his time had come. Having turned down a scholarship to tour with Hampton, Ousley moved to New York, earning a good living as a session-player. Crossing over to rock ‘n’ roll, Curtis formed his own band, King Curtis & The Noble Knights (later the Aretha Franklin-backing Kingpins), though Ousley’s most-noted work was on the hits of others, of which fifteen charted on Billboard during his career. His fantastic playing with The Coasters is best illustrated by the sax break that illuminates their biggest hit, ‘Yakety Yak’ (1958). Before his death, King Curtis featured prominently on the recordings of Nat ‘King’ Cole, Buddy Holly, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Eric Clapton and The Isley Brothers.

A few months after guesting on John Lennon’s 1971
Imagine
album, Curtis Ousley found himself, like most New Yorkers, suffering in a severe August heatwave. Lugging an air-conditioning system to his apartment on West 86th Street, Ousley’s path was blocked by two drug-using vagrants. Asking them to move, the musician was met with aggression and attacked with a knife: convicted felon Juan Montanez inexplicably stabbed Ousley in the heart. Although he managed to disarm Montanez – and indeed stab him with his own weapon – King Curtis was dead on arrival at the Roosevelt Hospital. His funeral was a gathering of the good and the great – a Kingpins’ set was followed by a spiritual sung by Aretha Franklin; also in attendance were Jesse Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Duane Allman (himself killed just two months later
(
October 1971
)). Montanez was later convicted of Ousley’s murder.