The Stool Pigeon music newspaper

Mr B. Brewer & Ms M. Arulpragasam. The engagement is announced between Benjamin, son of Edgar and his first wife Sherri, and M.I.A., daughter of Karla and Arul.

Mr R. Kurre & Ms J. Klaus. The engagement is announced between Rainer, son of Manfred and Jisela, and Johanna, Alois and Jutta.

Mr D. Hobday & Ms S. Pickles. The engagement is announced between Dorian, Archie Bronson Outfit member and son of Maxine and Martin, and Sarah, of Hermana and daughter of Anna and Roger.

Mr S. Preston & Ms C. Aznar. The engagement is announced between Preston, son of Anthony and Miranda, and ex-girlfriend Camille.

Mr J. Timberlake & Ms J. Biel. The engagement is not announced between Justin, son of Lynn and Randall, and Jessica, daughter of Kimberly and Jonathan.

Cannon - Carey. On Wednesday April 30, at Carey’s private estate at Windermere Island in the Bahamas, Nick Cannon, son of James and Beth, to Mariah Carey, daughter of Alfred and Patricia.

Hopson - Koziel. On Saturday May 17, at Palac Slubow, Warsaw, Richie, Stool Pigeon snapper and son of David and Tess, to Anna, daughter of Andrzej and Grazyna.

Moss - Lindsay. On Saturday June 7, at Boturich Castle, Balloch, Richard, son of Roger and Magritte, to Karen, daughter of Nigel and Linda.

Wentz - Simpson. On Saturday May 17, at the Simpson residence in Encino, California, USA, Pete Wentz, son of Dale and Pete, to Ashlee Simpson, daughter of Joe and Tina.

The divorce is announced between country-pop singer Shania Twain and her Robert Mutt’ Lange, music producer.

The divorce is announced between Liv Tyler and Royston Langdon, formerly frontman of Spacehog.

Sean Body, music bookseller, b. 03.01.1966, d. 15.04.2008

Dick Charlesworth, jazz clarinettist, b. 08.01.1932, d. 15.04.2008

Sean Costello, bluesman, b. 16.04.1979, d. 15.04.2008

Daniel Federici, E Street Band, b. 23.01.1950, d. 17.04.2008

Tristram Cary, film and TV composer, b. 14.05.1925, d. 24.04.2008

Humphrey Lyttelton, musician and broadcaster, b. 23.05.1921, d. 25.04.2008

Jimmy Giuffre, jazz saxophonist, b. 26.04.1921, d. 24.04.2008

Georgina Dobrée, clarinettist, b. 08.01.1930, d. 27.04.2008

Frances Yeend, soprano, b. 28.01.1913, d. 27.04.2008

Mickey Waller, drummer with Jeff Beck Group, b. 06.09.1941, d. 29.04.2008

Kishan Maharaj, tabla player, b. 03.09.1923, d. 04.05.2008

Eddy Arnold, country singer, b. 15.05.1918, d. 08.05.2008

Larry Levine, recording engineer, b. 08.05.1928, d. 08.05.2008

Leyla Gencer, soprano, b. 10.10.1928, d. 09.05.2008

Dottie Rambo, gospel singer, b. 02.03.1934, d. 11.05.2008

John Rutsey, drummer with Rush, b. 1953, d. 11.05.2008

Aarne Olavi Jakonen, laid the foundation for the freebirds to come, swam in ice, b. 26.10.1914, d. 15.5.2008

Alexander Courage, film and TV composer, b. 10.12.1919, d. 15.05.2008

Wilfrid Mellers, composer, b. 26.04.1914, d. 17.05.2008

Siegmund Nissel, violinist, b. 03.01.1922, d. 21.05.2008

Utah (Bruce) Phillips, folk singer, b. 15.05.1935 , d. 23.05.2008

Jimmy McGriff, jazz organist, b. 03.04.1936, d. 24.05.2008

Earle Hagen, songwriter, b. 09.07.1919, d. 26.05.2008

Campbell Burnap, jazz trombonist, b. 10.09.1939, d. 30.05.2008

Bruce Purchase, actor, writer, painter, b. 02.10.1938, d. 05.06.2008

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The Originator now Bo Deadly
Words Daddy Bones

Just a handful of artists in recorded music history can truly claim to be an originator. Chicago rock’n’roll pioneer Bo Diddley was known as The Originator. He was a spearhead of the city’s Chess-Checker stable in the mid-fifties, alongside such other luminaries as Chuck Berry, and can be credited as being among the first rock’n’roll artists to make an impact in the UK - in 1955, with an EP that shot a rockin’ arrow through the jaded heart of post-war Britain. Elvis was yet to figure.

Diddley was a man who created a rhythm so great they gave it his name. Ellas McDaniel (his adopted name) is alleged to have stumbled on the ‘Bo Diddley Beat’ as a consequence of being a frustrated drummer and because he’d spent 12 youthful years playing the violin. Transposing the rapid bow-drawing technique onto the guitar with a plectrum, and practically using the guitar as a drum, he devised a sliding, shimmering effect which he would alternate with a humping, Cubano-styled rhythm - all augmented by Jerome Green’s captivating maraca shuffle, way up in the mix.

It’s a style that’s been borrowed constantly ever since, from the Hand Jive craze to KT Tunstall’s breakthrough ‘Cherry Tree’ single. In fact, he was the originator who influenced many further originators; his frenetic treatment of his instrument - a famous oblong guitar of his own design - and his seminal special effects heavily influenced not just rock’n’roll, but the later US psychedelic/garage movement, and indeed the antics of Jimi Hendrix, who was aping Bo when he flipped his axe behind his head or picked at the strings with his teeth. James Brown too could not have avoided Diddley’s sense of rhythm - rhythm at the expense of melody - a single-chord, tension-building hold-and-release mechanism that would become a Brown trademark in the funk era.

Bo Diddley - nobody can be exact about where the nickname came from - was also an upstanding character whose peripheral contributions might have been more commonly recognised had he chased the crossover dollar harder with his music. But, to his eternal credit, he remained strictly ghetto throughout his career. A stern critic of the bleaker misogynist overtones of hip hop, he even toured schools to lecture kids about respect.

He continued to perform almost until his death; heart failure finally closing the lid on his specially shaped guitar case. He is survived by four sons, a mass of grandchildren and countless grateful artists, still to this day going chank chank chank, a-chank chank.

Bo Diddley, rock’n’roll pioneer, b. 30.12.1928, d. 02.06.2008

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Eddy Arnold

Eddy Arnold, the American country music star who sold more than 85 million records, has died aged 89 at a care home near Nashville, Tennessee. Arnold’s health was known to have deteriorated since March, when his wife of 66 years died and he fell and injured his hip.

Arnold left school to start working when he was 12, a year after his father died. Music was a way out of poverty and he graduated from singing in beer halls to performing on the radio. In the 1940s, he made his first recordings with the help of ‘Colonel’ Tom Parker. By the end of the decade, he had appeared on TV and in films and had a selection of number ones.

Though Arnold’s popularity declined in the fifties, he developed a pop country sound in the sixties that made him more attractive to a mainstream audience. Controversially, Arnold was introduced into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966, even though other, possibly more influential, country stars were still waiting for their elevation.

Arnold eschewed drink and drugs and was still recording music in his eighties. His last album, After All These Years, was released in 2005, when he was 87.
He’s survived by his two children Richard Edward Jr. and Jo Ann and two grandchildren. MM

Richard ‘Eddy’ Arnold, country singer, b. 15.05.1918, d. 08.05.2008

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Dottie Rambo

Dottie Rambo, the 74-year-old gospel singer-songwriter who wrote over 2,500 songs, has died after her tour bus crashed on the way to a concert in Texas.

Rambo was born Joyce Reba Lutrell in 1934. She sang on local radio aged 10 and left home to go on the road, singing in churches, two years later. When she was 16, she met Buck Rambo who she married and together they became the Singing Rambos (subsequently just The Rambos).

After working with Jimmy Davis, Rambo got a deal with Warner Brothers with whom she released the Grammy winning It’s the Soul of Me in 1968. Rambo is most well known for her songwriting. Her songs were performed by Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Whitney Houston, and countless others. She also recorded with Dolly Parton.

Parton said Rambo was “a dear friend, a fellow entertainer, and as of late my duet singing partner. I know Dottie is in heaven in the arms of God right now, but our Earth angel will surely be missed.”

Rambo suffered a ruptured disc in 1987, which left her paralysed. She started recording again in 2003 and was elevated into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2007.

Rambo is survived by a daughter, Reba Rambo-McGuire. MM

Dottie Rambo, American gospel singer and songwriter, b. 02.03.1934, d. 11.05.2008

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