Long John Baldry dead at 64

[FORD]

Blues star Long John Baldry dies
British-born blues singer "Long John" Baldry has died aged 64 after fighting a chest infection for four months.

Born John William Baldry, he passed away at Vancouver General Hospital in British Columbia, Canada.

Baldry - whose only UK number one came in 1967 with Let The Heartaches Begin - was a friend of Paul McCartney and inspired Eric Clapton to play guitar.

He also performed with Rod Stewart and Elton John before a Grammy nomination in 1998 for narration work with Disney.

Founding father

Baldry - who leaves behind siblings Margaret and Roger, as well as long-time friend and partner Felix "Oz" Rexach - started his career playing folk and jazz in the 1950s.

He became one of the founding fathers of British Rock 'n' Roll in the 1960s and appeared at The Cavern in Liverpool, becoming friends with McCartney.

Baldry was invited to perform on the Beatles' internationally televised special "Around the Beatles" in 1964, along with P J Proby and Cilla Black.

He performed with influential British bands Blues Incorporated, and Cyril Davies' R&B All Stars in the 60s.

Later, he fronted the Hoochie Coochie Men, which included Rod Stewart, who later joined Baldry in Steam Packet, also featuring keyboardist Brian Auger and singer Julie Driscoll.

After a brief period with Bluesology, which featured Elton John on keyboards, Baldry went solo.

'Boogie Woogie'

With production assistance from Rod Stewart and Elton John, he recorded the album, It Ain't Easy, for Warner Bros. featuring his signature song "Don't try to Lay no Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock n' Roll."

After emigrating to Canada in the early 1980s, he recorded for EMI Music Canada, and since 1991 recorded five albums for Stony Plain Records in Edmonton, Alberta.

The label is set to re-release Baldry's Warner Bros. albums, It Ain't Easy and Everything Stops for Tea, in the autumn.

Since the early 1990s,he was also known in Canada for his extensive voice work in commercials.

He also narrated on Winnie The Pooh recordings for Disney and was the voice for Robotnik on the popular Sonic The Hedgehog computer game.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...ic/4709509.stm

Published: 2005/07/22 23:22:38 GMT

[mewisemagic]

Good Read!Where The Hell Is Loons When You Need Him?

[FORD]

Originally posted by mewisemagic
Good Read!Where The Hell Is Loons When You Need Him?

Probably mourning....with a bottle and some Baldry albums.

[Panamark]

Was he the dude that did that remake of "Youv'e lost that loving
feeling" ? (Or am I getting me wires crossed ?)

[ashstralia]

Originally posted by Panamark
Was he the dude that did that remake of "Youv'e lost that loving
feeling" ? (Or am I getting me wires crossed ?)

yeah, i think you're right again marky

i dug that song.

[superdave]

One of the true all-time greats....

[mewisemagic]

Originally posted by FORD
Probably mourning....with a bottle and some Baldry albums.

Good One!LMMFAO

[Angel]

Originally posted by Panamark
Was he the dude that did that remake of "Youv'e lost that loving
feeling" ? (Or am I getting me wires crossed ?)

He most certainly was, although I myself consider that one of his worst. The man was a definite blues maestro. I saw him numerous times, and he was probably the classiest act in the music industry. Once you saw him live, you couldn't refer to him as anything else but Mr. Baldry.

The first time I saw him live, he was playing a theatre at the Banff School of Fine Arts. He fell in love with the acoustics - took the stage at 8:00 and at 11:00 he announced that the crew were signalling him to get off the stage - he was supposed to be finished at 10:00. He said he didn't want to stop, and then announced to management that he would pay the overtime. The show finally ended at 12:45 am. He sang every song he knew - it was phenomenal.

I last saw Mr. Baldry a couple of years ago, and as usual, he was the consummate show man, and simply oozed class. It's our loss, but damn are they ever having a good time in Blues Heaven right now! (I'm imagining him & Janis doing a duet of "Black Girl" or "Insane Asylum" - spine tingling thought that is!)

Read what Rod Stewart and others have to say about him:

http://www.johnbaldry.com/1941-2005.asp

[Loons The Great]

Long John Baldry R.I.P.

[diamondsgirl]

Found this at Chartattack...

Top Ten reasons Long John Baldry was so cool:


1. To the best of our knowledge, the "long" part of Long John Baldry came from the fact he was 6"7. If there's another reason, well, good for him.

2. Baldry seemed to have connections to pretty much every important musician of the '60s and '70s. For example, he was in a band called Bluesology in with a then-unknown Elton John. The "John" part of Elton John is in honour of Baldry.

3. A friend of Paul McCartney's, Baldry performed on the Fab Four's television special Around The Beatles in 1964.

4. Also, long before his Songbook days, Rod Stewart was hired by Baldry to sing in his band the Hoochie Coochie Men.

5. In 1968 he had chart success with the theme song to the Olympics, titled "Mexico."

6. Eric Clapton considered Baldry one of his musical inspirations.

7. Baldry was born in England and lived in New York and Los Angeles, but chose to permanently settle in Vancouver and become a Canadian citizen.

8. In 1981 he was nominated for a Juno as Most Promising Male Vocalist. That promise finally paid off when in 1997 he won the Best Blues/Gospel Album Juno for his Right To Sing The Blues record.

9. He was the voice of D. Ivo Robotnik in the cartoon Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog. He was also the narrator for Winnie The Pooh recordings which earned him a Grammy nom in 1998.

10. "Let The Heartaches Begin" hit #1 on the U.K. charts in 1967. May radio stations play that song in tribute instead of "Don't Try To Lay No Boogie Woogie On The King Of Rock N' Roll."

[diamondsgirl]

first thing I ever heard of from him was when he did "I got my mojo workin'"...he friggin nailed it. And thats one of my fav blues tunes ever.

[Angel]

I see that Army members are more musically savvy than DDLR. Over there no one has ever heard of the man, and the only thing they have to say about him is that he fucked Elton John up the ass. You have restored my faith in CVH fans!

[Loons The Great]

Originally posted by diamondsgirl
first thing I ever heard of from him was when he did "I got my mojo workin'"...he friggin nailed it. And thats one of my fav blues tunes ever.

I've never heard the Ann Cole version, but I love jus' about e'ery Muddy Waters version I've heard nah nah...an' King Papa Diamond Dave worked it up in '88 and '91 live in front of yo...

[Angel]

Hearing Ian Astbury do it with Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger last week was pretty awesome! If you have a chance to catch D21C (Doors of the 21st Century) - go for it! AWESOME show!