| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| kdion11 |
Posted - 25/06/2009 : 20:58:22
Seeds Frontman Sky Saxon Dies in AustinSky Saxon, lead singer and bassist of '60s garage rockers the Seeds, died Thursday in an Austin, Texas hospital. He had been in the ICU since Monday suffering from an undisclosed illness -- doctors suspected an internal organ infection -- until his wife, Sabrina, announced his passing via Facebook.
Influenced heavily by the Rolling Stones, Saxon -- born Richard Marsh -- founded the Seeds in 1965 in California. The next year, the psychedelic rockers released two albums, 'The Seeds' and 'A Web of Sound,' and had hits with 'Can't Seem to Make You Mine' and 'Pushin' Too Hard,' their most successful song. In 1967, the band released two more albums: 'Future,' a psychedelic rock album, and 'A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues,' which was credited to the Sky Saxon Blues Band and featured liner notes by the legendary Muddy Waters.
After some lineup changes and a few more commercially unsuccessful albums, Saxon dissolved the band in the early '70s. He joined a California commune, the Source Family, adopted the name Sunlight and occasionally performed with their trippy house band, the Ya Ho Wa 13. In 1989, Saxon reformed the Seeds to tour with other '60s acts like Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Arthur Lee and Love. They toured again in 2003, and Saxon kept busy musically, releasing an album last year, and recording with the Smashing Pumpkins. Though he fell ill last Thursday, Saxon still managed to play a short gig on Saturday night at Austin rock club Antone's.
Earlier today, Sabrina Sherry Smith Saxon wrote on her Facebook page, "Sky has passed over and YaHoWha is waiting for him at the gate. He will soon be home with his Father. I'm so sorry I couldn't keep him here with us. More later. I'm sorry." No other announcements have been made.
RIP Sky ! |
| 7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| stewart |
Posted - 01/07/2009 : 20:21:40
and The Times namechecks Love too
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6604123.ece |
| stewart |
Posted - 29/06/2009 : 20:37:12
the obit in The Guardian namechecks Love
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/29/sky-saxon-obituary
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| rocker |
Posted - 29/06/2009 : 18:07:37
all...
Recent obituary from the NY Times
Sky Saxon, Lead Singer And Bassist for the Seeds
BYLINE: By BRUCE WEBER
Sky Saxon, the mop-haired bass player and front man for the psychedelic protopunk band the Seeds, whose 1965 song ''Pushin' Too Hard'' put a Los Angeles garage-band spin on the bad-boy rocker image personified by the Rolling Stones, died Thursday in Austin, Tex. He was thought to be 71.
His death was announced by his wife, Sabrina Smith Saxon, on her Facebook page. In a telephone interview on Thursday, she said the cause was heart failure.
Mr. Saxon, who had remained an active musician, played his final gig at an Austin club with a local backup band on Saturday night and was taken to the hospital on Monday, she said.
The Seeds, formed in 1965, were a short-lived but cultishly memorable band that melded primitive rock rhythms with the free-love message of the flower power generation. Both their look (mod fashions and bowl-cut hairdos) and their sound borrowed from British rockers. Critics gave them credit for helping to popularize psychedelic rock and for prefiguring the punk movement.
Mr. Saxon composed songs and played electric bass, but it was perhaps his sullen, stylized lead vocals that best characterized the band. Never as threatening as the Stones, they were, instead, rather sweetly dangerous, appearing on white-bread television music and dance shows like ''American Bandstand'' wearing tailored bellbottoms and velour shirts or shiny Nehru jackets. Mr. Saxon voiced the vaguely menacing lyrics to songs like ''Can't Seem to Make You Mine,'' ''Painted Doll'' or ''Pushin' Too Hard,'' a pulsing, anthemic warning to any girlfriend with ambitions to rein in her man.
The Seeds flamed out in the early 1970s, but they lingered in the annals of rock history as representatives of their time and place. Their songs have appeared in movies including ''Cop Land'' (1997) with Sylvester Stallone and ''Secretary'' (2002), the story of a dominant-submissive relationship, which starred James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Sky Sunlight Saxon was the name he used in later years, the middle name given to him in the 1970s as a member of the Source Family, a spiritual cult whose leader -- known as Father Yod or Ya Ho Wha -- started what has been described as the quintessential hippie commune; Mr. Saxon was also known within it as Arelich. He was born Richard Elvern Marsh in Salt Lake City in 1937, according to several online sources. Ms. Saxon said her husband's birthday was Aug. 20 but would not confirm the year because he believed age was irrelevant, she said. He moved to Los Angeles to start a music career after high school.
Mr. Saxon's first marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his wife, whom he married in 2007, his survivors include an unspecified number of siblings, several children and grandchildren.
After the Seeds dissolved, Mr. Saxon performed and recorded with numerous bands, including some he called the Seeds, and he occasionally played with the Source Family's own band, known as Ya Ho Wha 13. In 1998, he arranged for a 13-CD boxed set of its music to be produced in Japan.
''Sky has passed over and Ya Ho Wha is waiting for him at the gate,'' his wife wrote on Facebook. ''He will soon be home with his Father.''
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| Susan B. |
Posted - 26/06/2009 : 19:14:19
Sky was always a great performer. My husband and I met him at Jimi Hendrix's 60th birthday party at the BB King theater in November 2002. He had come there, as we did, to see Arthur Lee perform for the first time since being released from prison. He sat at our table and was very colorful and amusing. We bought one of his cd's from him. the following year we saw him perform at the Knitting Factory. The show was amazing and we were looking forward to seeing him in the near future. R.I.P. Sky. |
| BobbyFischer |
Posted - 26/06/2009 : 05:40:35
He is the main reason i ended up exploring rare 60s music,in my early twenties I was too happy with the 60s music i allready loved,Beatles,Kinks,Doors etc,then I bought a 60s compilation called acid rock.Great lp of 60s classics mostly from groups I hadnt heard of,including LOVE 7 and 7 is.But the most impact on me was "the wind blows your hair",which is such a perfect blend of psychedelia and punk,a truely masterpiece
which in Arthur Lee/
Love style was in a self sabotaging manner put on the B side of their single..Listening to Saxon at his most sneering,angry voice like pushing to hard somehow reminds me of Johnny Rotten,he was a true pioneer for The punk movement that happened 10 years later.,RIP SKY |
| rockstar |
Posted - 25/06/2009 : 22:54:48
Requiescat in pace .
sound |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 25/06/2009 : 22:36:00
Rest in peace Sky. What a musical influence.....we'll miss you.
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Never run from anything immortal. It attracts their attention. |
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