Legends dropping like flies

Muhammad Ali what a Great Man....

Ali Jumper Tlalk Down.JPG
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...d-the-vietnam-war_us_5751e545e4b0c3752dcda4ca

Muhammad Ali’s most famous act of social activism — one that would strip him of his best fighting years, cost him millions of dollars, forever alter his image and eventually send him into debt — began with one off-hand quote: “Man, I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.”

It was March 1966, and the U.S. military was escalating its fight in Vietnam. It began substantially lowering its standards for the draft so it could conscript more men, and call up men with lower IQs for 1-A service. This meant that Ali, whose Army-tested IQ score of 78 had been too low for the draft in 1962, was now eligible for unrestricted military service.

The boxer, who died Friday night at the age of 74, happened to hear this news while surrounded by reporters, and in a classic, boisterous knee-jerk reaction — I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong — he set off a years-long cultural revolution.

For the most famous athlete on the planet to openly decry the war was, at the time, blasphemous. When he declared his apathy toward the Viet Cong, public support of the Vietnam War was at its peak — in the first three months of 1966, the war’s approval rating was over 50 percent, according to Gallup. Ali, citing his faith and membership in the Nation of Islam, refused service and said he was a conscientious objector.
‘The Greatest’s’ Greatest Risk

In a flash, Ali, already controversial for his conversion to Islam and name change from Cassius Clay, became one of the most hated public figures in the country. Nobody close to Ali’s level of fame had resisted the draft, and his seemingly flippant opposition to the war made him a target of ridicule from the public, the government and his sport. He’d spend the next four years battling for his beliefs in court instead of the ring, and after his 1967 arrest for draft dodging, all of his state boxing licenses were stripped. Ali’s boxing career was effectively over.

For a time, Ali continued to face public pressure to accept service. During his four years of court battles, he was given opportunities to recant, apologize and join the military in an entertainment capacity — to perform for the troops and cameras and show off his own signature persona. He declined, and some of his allies turned against him.

The Nation of Islam, the same religious group that anointed him Muhammad Ali, disavowed him for his style of active resistance, according to Dave Zirin’s A People’s History Of Sports In The United States. Jackie Robinson, an athlete and activist himself during his playing years and beyond, ripped Ali for disappointing black war veterans, and by and large, black soldiers agreed with Robinson: Ali was being too radical.

AP
Ali spoke out about race relations and the Vietnam War across the country during his exile from boxing.

“He’s hurting, I think, the morale of a lot of young Negro soldiers over in Vietnam,” Robinson said. “And the tragedy to me is, Cassius has made millions of dollars off of the American public, and now he’s not willing to show his appreciation to a country that’s giving him, in my view, a fantastic opportunity.”

But to Ali, that “fantastic opportunity” was a death sentence, and moreover, representative of the white aristocracy’s use of poor, often black Americans to fight the war for them.

“The government had a system where the rich man’s son went to college, and the poor man’s son went to war,” he said.

Anyone who immediately came to Ali’s defense put themselves in danger. In A People’s History Of Sports In The United States, writer Jerry Izenberg recalled receiving bomb threats and tons of hate mail because he was willing to hear Ali out in the early days of his service refusal. But in most of the media, nastiness prevailed. Unlike Izenberg, famous sportswriters like Red Smith and Jim Murray were calling Ali a “punk” and “the white man’s burden.”
Americans Rally Around Ali

Ali wasn’t alone for long in his anti-war stance. While his legal case continued, he kept up his anti-war rhetoric, based on arguments against the systematic classism and racism decried by the civil rights movement of the 1960s. His stump speech was simple, but powerful and impassioned: I won’t be used by powerful white men as a tool to kill other people who are fighting for their own beliefs and freedoms, and neither should you, especially if you’re poor and/or black.

The longer Ali remained free, the lower the war’s approval ratings dove. Per Gallup, they immediately began to slip after Ali’s “I ain’t got no quarrel” comment. A month after that line hit the press, support for the war slipped below 50 percent for the first time. Two months after Ali was convicted for draft dodging in June 1967, only 27 percent of Americans approved of the war — the lowest point during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. Ali even implored Martin Luther King Jr. to speak out against the war.
Marka via Getty Images
Ali couldn’t legally fight, but he could still train.

By the summer of 1967, many Americans, particularly black Americans, were now all-in on Ali. His courage and masterful promotion of his ideas (after all, this is the athlete who embodied self-promotion) helped the civil rights movement move forward and the war’s popularity sink.

In 1968, with his court case under appeal, Ali found himself in grave financial debt. To earn money in lieu of the millions he could’ve been making boxing, he began giving hundreds of speeches at college campuses, to young audiences that would make up the vehement anti-war movement. Ali solidified himself as a peace-maker and the counter-culture icon young Americans yearned for.

After years of appeals, the Supreme Court overturned Ali’s conviction in June 1971. By then, states had begun reinstating his boxing license. His view of the war became America’s view of the war, and people were ready to see their hero back in the ring. And after three and a half years, he returned, beating Jerry Quarry in October 1970 in Atlanta.
Ali’s Unmatched Athlete Activism

All told, Ali’s significant career sacrifice and what it stood for radiated across the country, and no athlete has had such a marked social impact since. Fifty years after Ali said he had no quarrels with the Viet Cong, professional athletes still speak out admirably on social issues — most notably, LeBron James wore an “I Can’t Breathe Shirt” in December 2014 to support Eric Garner protesters — but they don’t really face the risks Ali did.

While still important, symbolism is usually as far as today’s athletes are willing to go to make a political point.

Today’s brand-focused, business-like athletes generally choose to make ornamental political statements with T-shirts, playing accessories and social media posts, and not to put their careers on the line with their activism.

Simply put, there’s too much money at stake in today’s modern sports culture. Choosing to sacrifice nearly four years of one’s career seems unthinkable, no matter the cause. The peak time for professional [mens] athletic performance is between 25 and 27 years old, and that’s when star athletes receive their largest contracts. Ali was sidelined for that period of his life.

Late civil rights movement leader Stokely Carmichael perhaps put it best, as quoted in Zirin’s book:

Of all the people who opposed the war in Vietnam, I think that Muhammad Ali risked the most. Lots of people refused to go. Some went to jail. But no one risk as much from their decision not to go to war in Vietnam as much as Muhammad Ali. And his real greatness can be seen in the fact that, despite all that was done to him, he became even greater and more humane.

His humanity — that’s where Ali’s true greatness lies. Sports fans can say we were robbed of Ali’s true prime, but society gained something much better: a leading voice against the class and race issues that intertwined with one of the deadliest foreign wars in U.S. history.
 
I just watched a tribute show on his life.

Seems the fix was in on atleast 2 of his fights. The phantom punch and the corner dropout.
 
http://road.cc/content/news/192494-how-stolen-bike-set-muhammad-ali-path-greatness
Today, the world is mourning the loss of Muhammad Ali, ‘The Greatest’ – and as a man who transcended his sport like no other, that self-given epithet is entirely appropriate. But had it not been for a bike thief in Louisville, Kentucky more than 60 years ago, Ali may never have discovered boxing at all.
Aged 12, Cassius Clay, as he then was, went with friends in September 1954 to the city’s Columbia Auditorium where the Home Exhibition was taking place, looking for free sweets.
He left his bike – a red and white Schwinn that had been a birthday present – outside, and when he returned, it was gone.
He was told to go to the building’s basement, where he would find a police officer, Joe Martin, who ran a boxing gym there. Ali told Martin exactly what he wanted to do to the bike thief. Martin replied that first, he had better learn how to throw a punch properly.
The youngster began training with Martin, and within a month and a half he had won his debut amateur contest. Six years later, at the age of 18, Clay won light-heavyweight Olympic boxing gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
Shortly afterwards, he turned professional and, in his home city, won his first professional bout at the Memorial Hall in Louisville.
The rest, as they say, is history.
 
They kept that white police officer close for promo's to help promote Ali's fights.

I never realized he was a draft dodger. I doubt the government would have ever put him in harms way, but Ali stood up for his beliefs saying "The Viet Cong never called me a (the N word)"
 
http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/arnold-palmer-the-king-of-golf-dies-at-87/ar-BBwCFrK?li=BBnb7Kz :cry:
Arnold Palmer: 'The King' of golf dies at 87
by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY Sports
36 mins ago
Golf legend Arnold 'The King' Palmer dies at 87
Before accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, Arnold Palmer shared a few laughs with President George W. Bush and gave the commander in chief a few golf tips in the East Room of the White House.
Eight years later, when honored with the Congressional Gold Medal, Palmer, who again offered golf tips to some of the most important politicians in the country, jokingly thanked the House and the Senate for being able to agree on something.
After receiving the highest civilian awards given in the United States, Palmer went outside each day, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the U.S. Capitol, and signed autographs for hundreds of people.
That was Palmer, a man who connected with the masses, who related to kids, the hourly wage employee, the CEO — and Presidents.

Palmer, who died Sunday in Pittsburgh at age 87, was the accessible common man who would become the King and lead his own army. Along the way he became one of the sport's best players and a successful businessman, philanthropist, trailblazing advertising spokesman, talented golf course designer and experienced aviator.
Alastair Johnson, CEO of Arnold Palmer Enterprises, confirmed that Palmer died Sunday afternoon of complications from heart problems. Johnson said Palmer was admitted to the hospital Thursday for some cardiovascular work and weakened over the last few days.

"We are deeply saddened by the death of Arnold Palmer, golf's greatest ambassador, at age 87," the U.S. Golf Association said in a statement. "Arnold Palmer will always be a champion, in every sense of the word. He inspired generations to love golf by sharing his competitive spirit, displaying sportsmanship, caring for golfers and golf fans, and serving as a lifelong ambassador for the sport. Our stories of him not only fill the pages of golf’s history books and the walls of the museum, but also our own personal golf memories. The game is indeed better because of him, and in so many ways, will never be the same."

While his approach on the course was not a model of aesthetics — the whirlybird followthrough, the pigeon-toed putting stance — it worked for him. With thick forearms and a thin waist, Palmer had an aggressive risk-reward approach to golf that made for compelling theater. He hit the ball with authority and for distance and ushered in an aggressive, hitch-up-your-trousers, go-for-broke, in-your-face power game rarely seen in the often stoic and staid sport.

Palmer, part of the alluring "Big Three," with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, won 62 titles on the PGA Tour, his last coming in the 1973 Bob Hope Desert Classic. Among those victories were four at the Masters, two at the British Open and one at the U.S. Open. He finished second in the U.S. Open four times, was runner-up three times in the PGA Championship, the only major that eluded him, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
Palmer became one of the best known sports figures and, at 5-10, 175, a telegenic golfer who burst out of black-and-white television sets across the country in the late 1950s and into the 1960s and took the game to the masses.

"Arnold meant everything to golf. Are you kidding me?" Tiger Woods said . "I mean, without his charisma, without his personality in conjunction with TV — it was just the perfect symbiotic growth. You finally had someone who had this charisma, and they're capturing it on TV for the very first time.
"Everyone got hooked to the game of golf via TV because of Arnold."

Friend to Presidents

Palmer won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average on the PGA Tour four times, played on six Ryder Cup teams and was captain twice.
He received virtually every national award in golf and was the "Athlete of the Decade" for the 1960s in a national Associated Press poll. Palmer, who helped found the Golf Channel decades later, also helped usher in the Champions Tour, where he won 10 times, including five majors.
He was a magnetic star who attracted legions of fans who had never played golf as the television boon exploded across the land.

Those fans included U.S. presidents.
Dwight Eisenhower, who loved golf, was one of Palmer's best friends. Richard Nixon asked Palmer about the Vietnam War. Palmer played golf with both Presidents Bush.
Eisenhower painted Palmer's picture — as did Norman Rockwell. There is a drink named in Palmer's honor, as well as an airport, a golf tournament, hospitals, streets, charity initiatives and 19th-hole grill rooms.
And from start to finish, Palmer signed as many autographs, posed for as many pictures, chatted with as many fans in the galleries as any golfer who hit a golf ball.
"There are two things that made golf appealing to the average man — Arnold Palmer and the invention of the mulligan," actor/comedian and good friend Bob Hope once said.

Palmer was a folk hero with a driver in his hand and a handshake after the round. From 2007 through 2015, he served as the honorary starter for the Masters, creating one of the best moments of the tournament every year on Thursday morning.
"Arnold Palmer was the everyday man's hero," Nicklaus said. "From the modest upbringing, Arnold embodied the hard-working strength of America."

Origins of 'Arnie's Army'

Palmer was the oldest of four children born to Deacon and Doris Palmer. He received his first set of golf clubs from his father, who worked at Latrobe Country Club from 1921 until his death in 1976. Growing up near the sixth tee of the club, Palmer learned the grip and the swing from his father, as well as manners, empathy, integrity and respect.
Palmer worked nearly every job at the club before heading to Wake Forest University, where he became one of the top collegiate players. But when his close friend, Bud Worsham, was killed in a car accident, Palmer quit school and enlisted for a three-year hitch in the U.S. Coast Guard.
While stationed in Cleveland, his passion for golf was rekindled. Then, while working as a paint salesman, Palmer quickly got his game back in order and won the 1954 U.S. Amateur Championship. On Nov. 18, 1954, at 25, he turned pro and signed a contract with Wilson Sporting Goods.
His greatest stretch of golf began in 1960 and lasted four years, with Palmer winning six major championships and 29 titles on the PGA Tour. It was in 1960, at the Masters in Augusta, Ga., that a local newspaper coined the phrase "Arnie's Army," when soldiers from nearby Camp Gordon followed Palmer. Soon, non-uniformed fans across the land enlisted.

Palmer's defining moment, one that embedded the word "charge" into the minds of his adoring fans, came in the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills. Palmer had won the Masters two months earlier, with birdies on the final two holes to edge Ken Venturi by one shot. But Palmer began the final round of the Open seven strokes and 14 players behind and was told by Bob Drum of The Pittsburgh Press that he was too far behind to win.
Angered by the remark, Palmer drove the first green 346 yards away and made the first of four consecutive birdies. He added birdies on the sixth and seventh and shot a final-round 65 to complete the comeback victory.

A month later, Palmer made a pilgrimage to St. Andrews for the British Open, and his presence helped salvage the game's oldest championship and elevated it back among the game's best tournaments.
In all, Palmer won eight times in 1960, the year he signed with pioneering sports agent Mark McCormack and quickly became a marketing giant for products ranging from golf equipment to jackets and slacks to automobile oil and rental cars. Palmer became the first professional golfer to earn $1 million for his career. Even into his 80s he was pulling in an estimated $20 million per year.
"Arnold was the epitome of a superstar," fellow Hall of Famer Raymond Floyd said. "He set the standard for how superstars in every sport ought to be, in the way he has always signed autographs, in the way he has always made time for everyone. On the golf course, all I ever saw was a mass of people. He was able to focus in on everyone in the gallery individually. It wasn't fake.
"And man, could he play the game."

Giving back through charities

But as dramatic as his victories were, so, too, were Palmer's losses in majors.
In 1961 he lost the Masters by one stroke when he made double-bogey on the 72nd hole after accepting premature congratulations from a friend to the right side of the 18th fairway.
Palmer lost three playoffs in the U.S. Open, to Nicklaus in 1962, Julius Boros in 1963 and Billy Casper in 1966, when Palmer blew a seven-shot lead with nine holes to play in regulation.
But the masses never deserted him. Palmer's appeal was so large, so wide that he even gave origin to a beverage that soon became a hit across the land. One of his favorite drinks was a mixture of iced tea and lemonade.
It is now available in grocery stores and is simply called the Arnold Palmer.
"A guy came up to the bar, and he ordered an Arnold Palmer, and the barman knew what that drink was," three-time major champion Padraig Harrington recalled about a visit to an Indian restaurant in Orlando in 2009. "Now that's getting to another level. Think about it, you don't go up there and order a Tiger Woods at the bar.
"When the guy ordered it, I thought, maybe you could do it in a golf club, but he's ordered it in a random bar. And the guy, who probably wouldn't know one end of a club from the other, knew what it was."

Palmer's accomplishments were wide spread, his influence wide ranging. He helped raised hundreds of millions more for charities.
In 1989, after Palmer played a major role in a fund-raising drive, the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women in Orlando opened. The first baby was born within hours after the ribbon cutting. Since, nearly 200,000 children have been born there.
In 2002, Arnie's Army Battles Prostate Cancer was launched and more than 2,500 tournaments across the country sponsored by the organization have raised more than $3 million for prostate cancer research.

Palmer also left his stamp on developing some 225 courses throughout the world.
"The game has given so much to Arnold Palmer," Nicklaus said, "but he has given back so much more."
This was evident when Palmer received the Congressional Gold Medal.
"Arnold Palmer democratized golf, made us think that we, too, could go out and play," said House Speaker John Boehner, an avid golfer. "He made us think that we could really do anything, really. All we had to do was to go out and try. ...
"Arnold, you've struck our hearts and our minds, and today your government, your fellow citizens are going to strike a gold medal for you."
Added Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "Golf made you famous, but your tireless efforts to save lives, not your short game, will make you immortal."

ARNOLD DANIEL "ARNIE" PALMER

Born: Sept. 10, 1929, in the small industrial town of Latrobe in Western Pennsylvania, at the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains

Nickname: The King

Education: Wake Forest, on a golf scholarship, where he was the school's first individual NCAA champion, in 1949, then the NCAA individual medalist again in 1950; first ACC champion in 1953

Military service: U.S. Coast Guard

Hall of Fame: Inducted in 1974 into the World Golf Hall of Fame, among many halls of fame to honor him

Estimated net worth: $675 million

Playing career: 62 titles on the PGA Tour, including Masters titles in 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964; U.S. Open title in 1960; British Open titles in 1961 and 1962. Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average on the PGA Tour in 1961, 1962, 1964, 1967. Ryder Cup player in 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1971 and 1973. Last playing captain, in 1963, and captain again in 1975. 10 titles on the Champions Tour, including Senior U.S. Open title in 1981; Senior PGA Championship titles in 1980, 1984; Senior Tournament Players Championship titles in 1984, 1985

Author: A Life Well Played: My Stories, 2106; Arnold Palmer: Memories, Stories, and Memorabilia from a Life on and Off the Course, 2004; Playing by the Rules: All the Rules of the Game, Complete with Memorable Rulings From Golf's Rich History, 2002; A Golfer's Life (with James Dodson), 1999; 495 Golf Lessons, 1973; Play Great Golf, 1987; Arnold Palmer's Complete Book Of Putting (with Peter Dobereiner), 1986; Arnold Palmer's Best 54 Golf Holes (with Bob Drum), 1977; Go For Broke: My Philosophy of Winning Golf (with William Barry Furlong), 1973; Situation Golf (with Jesus Gutierrez), 1970; My Game and Yours, 1963

Filmography:Return to Campus (1975)

Trivia: In 1971, at 41, Palmer earned the biggest paycheck of his career -- $50,000 for winning the Westchester Classic

Quote: "I have a tip that will take five strokes off anyone's golf game. It's called an eraser." -- Palmer

By Rachel Shuster
 
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/entert...nger-Bobby-Vee-Dead-at-age-73--398207551.html :cry:
1960s Pop Singer Bobby Vee Dead at Age 73
Vee, whose hits included the chart-topping "Take Good Care of My Baby" and who helped a young Bob Dylan get his start, died Monday of advanced Alzheimer's disease.
Pop idol Bobby Vee, the boyish, grinning 1960s singer whose career was born when he took a Midwestern stage as a teenager to fill in after the 1959 plane crash that killed rock 'n' roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, has died. He was 73.
Vee, whose hits included the chart-topping "Take Good Care of My Baby" and who helped a young Bob Dylan get his start, died Monday of advanced Alzheimer's disease, said his son, Jeff Velline. Vee was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2011, and performed his last show that year.

Born Robert Velline in Fargo, North Dakota, Vee was only 15 when he took the stage in Moorhead, Minnesota, after the Feb. 3, 1959, plane crash in Iowa that killed Holly, Valens and Richardson on their way to the concert. That dark day in rock history was commemorated by singer-songwriter Don McLean in his 1972 pop song "American Pie" as "The Day The Music Died."
The call went out for local acts to replace Holly at his scheduled show at the Moorhead National Guard Armory. Vee and his 2-week-old band volunteered, along with three or four other bands. The show's emcee, Charlie Boone, then a disc jockey at KFGO Radio, turned to Vee and asked him the name of his band. Vee looked at the shadows of his bandmates on the floor and answered: The Shadows.

"I didn't have any fear right then," Vee recalled in a 1999 interview with The Associated Press. "The fear didn't hit me until the spotlight came on, and then I was just shattered by it. I didn't think that I'd be able to sing. If I opened my mouth, I wasn't sure anything would come out."
Vee called his debut a milestone in his life, and "the start of a wonderful career."
Within months the young singer and The Shadows, which included his older brother Bill on lead guitar, recorded Vee's "Suzie Baby" for Soma Records in Minneapolis. It was a regional hit, and Vee soon signed with Liberty Records.

He went on to record 38 Top 100 hits from 1959 to 1970, hitting the top of the charts in 1961 with the Carole King-Gerry Goffin song, "Take Care Good of My Baby," and reaching No. 2 with the follow-up, "Run to Him." Other Vee hits include "Rubber Ball," ''The Night Has A Thousand Eyes," ''Devil or Angel," ''Come Back When You Grow Up," ''Please Don't Ask About Barbara" and "Punish Her."
Besides his clear, ringing voice, Vee also was a skilled rhythm guitarist and occasional songwriter. He racked up six gold singles, but saw his hits diminish with the British Invasion of The Beatles and other English groups in the mid-1960s.

Vee kept recording into the 2000s, and maintained a steady touring schedule. But he began having trouble remembering lyrics during performances, and he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2011. He performed his last show that year, billed only as his retirement, during an annual community fundraiser that his family holds near their home in St. Joseph, Minnesota, about 65 miles northwest of Minneapolis. But he didn't announce his diagnosis until a year later on his website.
n a 2013 interview with The Associated Press, Vee said he knew his abilities were diminishing and he didn't want to put his family through a public decline.
"It's not getting any better, I can tell you that," Vee said. "But I'm doing the best I can."
Vee still released a new album, "The Adobe Sessions," a loose jam session recorded with family members in Vee's adobe garage north of Tucson, Arizona. The 2014 album featured some of Vee's favorite songs from Townes Van Zandt, Gordon Lightfoot and Ricky Nelson. It was released on the 55th anniversary of the Holly plane crash.
The album also included Vee's cover of Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me," a nod to the folk-rock legend who got his start in Vee's band in Fargo.

Dylan grew up in Hibbing, a town on northern Minnesota's Iron Range, and briefly played with Vee's band. Although their time playing together was short, Dylan had a lasting effect on Vee's career: It was Dylan who suggested Vee, going by the name Elston Gunn when he hammered on the piano at a couple of The Shadows' gigs, change his last name from Velline to Vee.
In his "Chronicles: Volume One" memoir, Dylan recalled that Vee "had a metallic, edgy tone to his voice and it was as musical as a silver bell." When Dylan performed in St. Paul in 2013, he saluted Vee in the audience and performed "Suzie Baby."

Vee and his wife, Karen, were married for more than 50 years. She died of kidney failure in 2015 at age 71. The couple had four children, including sons who performed with Vee.
Family members said Vee's memory wasn't affected so much by Alzheimer's as his speech. During the AP interview in 2013, he answered questions but would become tongue-tied searching for the right word. Vee tried unconventional methods to alleviate his Alzheimer's symptoms, from chiropractor visits to acupuncture, and also renewed his passion for painting.
And while he sometimes wished he could do the things that once came easily, Vee said he was "not going to cry about it."
"God brought me home," he said. "And that's the deal."
 
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...ed-songwriter-and-musician-dead-at-74-w450174 :cry:
Leon Russell, renowned multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who collaborated with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, the Rolling Stones and Elton John over the course of 50 years in the music industry, died Sunday. He was 74.

He was the forgotten man of Seventies rock — until Elton John pulled him back into the studio to make one more classic album
"Leon Russell died on Nov. 13, 2016 in Nashville at the age of 74. His wife said that he passed away in his sleep," Russell's website wrote. "The Master Of Space And Time was a legendary musician and songwriter originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma who performed his gospel-infused southern boogie piano rock, blues, and country music for over 50 years."

Elton John, who collaborated with Russell on 2010's The Union, paid tribute to the musician on Instagram. "My darling Leon Russell passed away last night. He was a mentor, inspiration and so kind to me," John wrote. "Thank God we caught up with each other and made The Union. He got his reputation back and felt fulfilled. I loved him and always will."

Russell, an inductee of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, dealt with a string of health problems in recent years, including surgery to stop leaking brain fluid in 2010 and a heart attack that he suffered this July that requested surgery.

Born Claude Russell Bridges outside Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1942, Russell began playing the city's nightclubs when he was still a teenager. While in high school, Russell formed a band called the Starlighters; upon graduating, Jerry Lee Lewis recruited him to join his touring unit.

"When I had a chance to go on the road with Jerry Lee Lewis. I'd just spent three days, twelve hours a day, taking entrance examinations to Tulsa University and I just thought, well, it's a waste of time, 'cause I have to study so many things I'm not interested in," Russell told Rolling Stone in 1970. "ROTC I had to take, and right away I knew that I didn't want to do that. I figured this was my chance to eat in a lot of restaurants and travel around, play some rock and roll music, which I decided was easier and better."
At the age of 17, Russell moved from Tulsa to Los Angeles, quickly climbing the nightclub ranks to emerge as one of the city's most in-demand session musicians. During this period, Russell worked with artists like the Byrds, Herb Albert and Phil Spector; as a member of Spector's "Wrecking Crew," Russell played keyboards on tracks like the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and Ike & Tina Turner's "River Deep – Mountain High."

In addition to his session work, Russell began recording his own music, beginning with 1968's Look Inside the Asylum Choir, his collaboration with fellow session musician Marc Benno,
Two years later, Russell released his first solo LP, Leon Russell, which featured "A Song for You." Artists like Andy Williams, Donny Hathaway, the Carpenters, the Temptations and, notably, Willie Nelson and Ray Charles covered the track, with Charles' rendition winning the 1993 Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. In 2005, "A Song for You" duet between Herbie Hancock and Christina Aguilera also landed a Grammy nomination.
 
The older we get, right?

I was fortunately introduced to Leon Russell from the band Newgrass Revival. Loved their version of his “Prince of Peace”.

‘Later learned he also cowrote the major hit “Superstar” covered by so many artists.

Major music talent and songwriting chops. Saw him live few decades ago with a couple of the Newgrass guys in his band. Great show…

RIP...

Here's a BB story too - http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7573584/leon-russell-legendary-songwriter-and-performer-dies-at-74
 
Castro hung on long enough to become irrelevant, but that won't stop arguing even after he's died.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/27/us/nfl-colin-kaepernick-castro-feud/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/11/27/marco-rubio-obama-pope-cuba-castro-death-bash-intv-sotu.cnn

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/27/world/justin-trudeau-castro-eulogy-parody/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2016/11/26/castro-mixed-reactions-orig.cnn
 
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-91975881/ :cry:
Why Florence Henderson's passing feels like a death in the family

It is unclear if Florence Henderson invented the mullet as Carol Brady. But she sure rocked it, just as she rocked motherhood.
BY CHRIS ERSKINE
November 25, 2016, 11:35 a.m.

She was my mom. She was everybody’s mom. Florence Henderson didn’t just play a role, she portrayed an idealized parent few of us had but everybody wanted. Sure, her kids were a handful, but otherwise nearly perfect. She was perfect. Even that big ugly house was perfect.
Talk about setting some impossible standards.

From producer Sherwood Schwartz, who gave America “Gilligan’s Island,” came the “Brady Bunch” on ABC. For the mother, he cast an actress with musical theater chops, someone who moved like a dancer, was always “on” and relentlessly cheerful, someone who handled mundane domestic challenges with optimism and aplomb. She represented California sun.
As Carol Ann Brady, Henderson made parenthood cool, transcending archetypes and sitcom cliches to such a degree, and with so much success, that she became one herself.
Her Mrs. Brady was sexy and sensible -- even funny, as per this scene when the family was preparing to go off to a dude ranch:

Carol Brady: What are you going to wear, Mike?

Mike Brady: Oh I don't know... my cowboy boots.

Carol: [John Wayne impression] Well, ya better wear somethin' else, or you're gonna get arrested!

Mike: Not to mention sunburn!

That Henderson died on Thanksgiving night, on what is the biggest family feast of the year, seems a little ironic, a little just. She rallied baby boomers, became their mullet-wearing Madonna, at a time when fractured families needed reassurance that they’d get a second chance.
Look, I don’t know if Henderson invented the mullet. But she certainly rocked it, just as she rocked motherhood.

For five years starting in 1969, Henderson raised six children in gentle-tough, no-nonsense style. “Kids need rules” was the message. And they need attention. Otherwise they feel bad for constantly disappointing you. That’s a simple message, and a timeless one.
Granted, her character had a lot going for her. A handsome architect husband who was always around. A full-time housekeeper. Gorgeous kids, as well as gorgeous stepkids. No Ritalin. No Wi-Fi.
Not in movies, not in literature, has the nation ever seen the American dream captured quite like this. The show didn’t have producers and writers so much as it had stylists. The clothes, the hair, the mod tonal palette. The Bradys’ lifestyle was more Midcentury Modern, and relevant, than anything John Lautner ever conjured.

Notice how it never rained on the Bradys? The seasons didn’t even change. The only way you could tell that time was advancing was that Mike Brady’s hair got longer and curlier, and the kids were getting taller.
That checkerboard opening quickly defined the show. On one side, the sons. On the other, the daughters. Let the games begin.

It wasn’t schmaltz, but it sure danced the line. Along with the weather, sibling rivalry was a constant:

“All day long at school, I hear how great Marcia is at this or how wonderful Marcia did that. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!”

With a snippet of dialogue, the show captured childhood frustrations that could shape a life. “Marcia-Marcia-Marcia” became a pop-culture battle cry for every silly, overwrought sibling rebuff.

Slyly, there was more to the show than first seemed. You could easily argue that the “Brady Bunch” marked the moment -- the tipping point -- when the nation became more obsessed with children than with adults. 

Certainly, it sprang to life in the late ’60s, when the nation was recalibrating, unsteady and angry at the status quo. When children started making important cultural and political calls, along came the “Brady Bunch,” in what seemed like a remnant of something Doris Day would do.

As a rule, sitcoms were bigger concepts back then. Mothers were witches, and horses talked. Martians moved in next door.
In the face of that, all Henderson had to offer was common sense.  That’s what she gave us in perhaps TV’s most-iconic role – a good mother in turbulent times. Sound familiar?
Her show was all very familiar, even if it seemed overly aspirational and too chirpy by half. The sitcom ran just five years, but we’ve seen it forever in reruns, and in our mind’s-eye of what home life can be.
That’s why Henderson’s passing late Thursday, at age 82, seemed like a death in the family. Because it was.
 
Maybe not such a legend but still a very admired funny guy, Andrew Sachs AKA Manuel

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-02/andrew-sachs-known-for-playing-manuel-dies-aged-86/8086430
 
John Glenn went back into space at 77, how is it he didn't live to be 120?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/08/health/john-glenn-dead/index.html

I just think of him as the ultimate Hemingnway hero. A guy like him isn't supposed to exist in real life, yet there he was.

1101620302_400.jpg
 
Damn, we lost Bob Coburn. If you know the radio show 'Rockline' he was usually the host over 34 years. Man, in my lifetime, was there ever a time he WASN'T on LA radio? Such a perfect radio voice and personality. . . .

Http://www.955klos.com/bob-coburn
 
Wham! Just like that.

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[youtube]E8gmARGvPlI[/youtube]
 
Carrie Fisher had a great sense of humor:

"...Anyway, George [Lucas] comes up to me the first day of filming and he takes one look at the dress and says, 'You can't wear a bra under that dress.'

So, I say, 'Okay, I'll bite. Why?'

And he says, 'Because... there's no underwear in space.'

I promise you this is true, and he says it with such conviction too! Like he had been to space and looked around and he didn't see any bras or panties or briefs anywhere. Now, George came to my show when it was in Berkeley. He came backstage and explained why you can't wear your brassiere in other galaxies, and I have a sense you will be going to outer space very soon, so here's why you cannot wear your brassiere, per George.

So, what happens is you go to space and you become weightless. So far so good, right? But then your body expands??? But your bra doesn't- so you get strangled by your own bra. Now I think that this would make a fantastic obit- so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra ..."
 
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/n...-of-Carrie-Fisher-Hospitalized-408550235.html :cry: Dies the day after her daughter.
Actress Debbie Reynolds, who had been mourning the recent death of her daughter, actress and author Carrie Fisher, died Wednesday, according to her her son. 
She had been rushed to a California hospital earlier in the day.
Reynolds, 84, was one of the most popular actresses of her time, perhaps best known for the musical "Singin' in the Rain," released in 1952.
Fisher, an actress who gained fame in the "Star Wars" movies, died on Tuesday at age 60.
"Thank you to everyone who has embraced the gifts and talents of my beloved and amazing daughter," Reynolds wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday. "I am grateful for your thoughts and prayers that are now guiding her to her next stop. Love Carries Mother."
Fisher starred with her mother in a documentary set to air on HBO in 2017. "Bright Lights: Starring Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. 
Reynolds starred opposite Gene Kelly in the 1952 classic "Singin' in the Rain," and was nominated for an Oscar for her role in the musical "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." She was also nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for her performance in the Broadway musical "Irene."
Reynolds received an honorary Oscar in 2015, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, but was too ill to attend the ceremony. Her granddaughter, actress Billie Lourd, accepted the statuette in her honor.
 
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