BREAKING: Sometimes Famous People Die

[JoeP]

Again?

[The Man]

Singer-songwriter John Prine, age 73, COVID-19.

He wasn’t a household name… except among other songwriters. Rather than try to sum up his appeal, I’ll just let some of those songwriters speak for him.

Originally Posted by Bob Dylan

Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs. I remember when Kris Kristofferson first brought him on the scene. 'Sam Stone' featuring the wonderfully evocative line: 'There’s a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes, and Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose.' All that stuff about 'Sam Stone', the soldier junkie daddy, and 'Donald and Lydia', where people make love from ten miles away. Nobody but Prine could write like that.

Originally Posted by Johnny Cash

I don't listen to music much at the farm, unless I'm going into songwriting mode and looking for inspiration. Then I'll put on something by the writers I've admired and used for years — Rodney Crowell, John Prine, Guy Clark, and the late Steve Goodman are my Big Four.

Originally Posted by Roger Waters

I don't really listen to Radiohead. I listened to the albums and they just didn't move me in the way, say, John Prine does. His is just extraordinarily eloquent music — and he lives on that plane with Neil Young and Lennon.

Originally Posted by The Boss

Over here on E Street, we are crushed by the loss of John Prine. John and I were "New Dylans" together in the early 70s and he was never anything but the lovliest guy in the world. A true national treasure and a songwriter for the ages. We send our love and prayers to his family.

Originally Posted by Kris Kristofferson

He sang about a dozen songs, and had to do a dozen more before it was over. Unlike anything I’d heard before. Sam Stone. Donald & Lydia. The one about the Old Folks. Twenty-four years old and writes like he’s two hundred and twenty. I don’t know where he comes from, but I’ve got a good idea where he’s going. We went away believers, reminded how goddamned good it feels to be turned on by a real Creative Imagination.

I could find a dozen more quotes like that without the slightest bit of effort, but instead of that, I’ll post a few songs he wrote, in whole or in part:

John Prine - Sam Stone - YouTube

Bonnie Raitt-Angel from Montgomery - YouTube

And, uncredited:

David Allen Coe You Never Even Called Me by My...

R.I.P. to a legend.

[Stephen Maturin]

It's good to see you post again, The Man, even if it's here in the sad thread. I've missed your insight.

[The Man]

Thanks. I've just been busy lately with school, and beyond that, I've been pouring my efforts into a couple of gaming projects since the world itself is such a clusterfuck. I think I should make a post about those too. Everyone's stuck at home, so people are playing games a lot more. Hell, my dad is playing Halo. Never expected that to happen.

But yeah, wish it were a happier occasion than this goddamned thread

ETA: ICYMI, I maek poast on the aforementioned game projects.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

RIP, Mort Drucker, whose caricatures revealed as much as they ridiculed. In your memory, we will continue to satirize even in dark times, and laugh like Idiots while doing it. pic.twitter.com/AUWEaIMWUe

— MAD Magazine (@MADmagazine) April 9, 2020

[Kyuss Apollo]

Aww, man! Came on to see if Rush Fucking Limbaugh had died yet only to find Mort Drucker has passed away.

show spoiler

[ceptimus]

Two people well known in the UK, but perhaps not so much in the USA.

Motor racer Sir Stirling Moss died, aged 90, not of coronavirus as far as I know. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/52261216

And Tim Brooke-Taylor of Goodies fame died, aged 79, and his death was due to coronavirus. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52262490

[fragment]

Loved The Goodies when I was a young 'un. Thanks and farewell, Tim.

Also reports that mathematician John Conway has died from Covid-19. Most widely known for the Game of Life cellular automaton, but apparently quite an accomplished mathematician in many other ways.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Anthony Causi, beloved Post sports photographer, dies of coronavirus at 48

[Miisa]

Brian Dennehy Dead: ‘Tommy Boy’ and ‘First Blood’ Star Dies at 81 – Variety

Allen Daviau Dead: Five-Time Oscar Nominee Was 77 – Variety

[The Lone Ranger]

I always liked Brian Dennehy. No matter what the role, he always seemed to really enjoy acting. As such, even when he was playing a despicable character, he was always fun to watch.

[The Lone Ranger]

Originally Posted by The Man

Singer-songwriter John Prine, age 73, COVID-19.

I particularly liked his music -- long before I knew who he was, even. Mostly, I knew of his songs because they'd been covered by John Denver and other artists I was more familiar with. "Paradise" remains a particular classic -- and as I live in the Southern Appalachians, it's all too relevant.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Gene Deitch - Wikipedia Tom and Jerry animator.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

COVID claims 111-year-old Foon Hay Lum, pioneering activist for Chinese Canadians

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by fragment

Also reports that mathematician John Conway has died from Covid-19. Most widely known for the Game of Life cellular automaton, but apparently quite an accomplished mathematician in many other ways.

[Ari]

Fun facts according to his biographer who wrote a pretty recent book I haven’t read yet but plan to on John Conway, is that for a part of his life he resented and hated the game of life.

He felt there were a lot more interesting things that he had done and that the game of life was simplistic little fun in comparison but learned to accept that maybe it was worth being known for. And yes there’s definately some ego there as he only really thought about a biography after suffering a stroke, realizing his mortality.

(From the little I understand, once they developed things like the glider gun, he used higher level math to show what was theoretically possibly to create and got bored with it, despite it taking years for people to then actually go about and create some of those things. For him the more general concepts were the exciting part.)

[fragment]

One interesting cellular automaton I read about years ago is Wireworld, for which a basic computer has been designed.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by Ari

Fun facts according to his biographer who wrote a pretty recent book I haven’t read yet but plan to on John Conway, is that for a part of his life he resented and hated the game of life.

He felt there were a lot more interesting things that he had done and that the game of life was simplistic little fun in comparison but learned to accept that maybe it was worth being known for. And yes there’s definately some ego there as he only really thought about a biography after suffering a stroke, realizing his mortality.

(From the little I understand, once they developed things like the glider gun, he used higher level math to show what was theoretically possibly to create and got bored with it, despite it taking years for people to then actually go about and create some of those things. For him the more general concepts were the exciting part.)

I've seen an interview where he compares his story to Leonard Nemoy's, having gone through both his I Am Not Spock and I Am Spock periods.

[Basset Hound]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/...es-90-n1199411

Don Shula is Dead.

[JoeP]

Florian Schneider, Kraftwerk co-founder, dies aged 73 | Music | The Guardian

He's fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n auf the great Autobahn in the sky.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Roy Horn of Siegfried and Roy duo dies of coronavirus

[Ari]

I saw their Vegas show as a kid, it was perfectly fine big stage magic with big pretty murder beasts often in glass boxes as the focal point. I still have a white tiger stuffed animal from the Mirage.

At some point they started to get more hands on and thinking they were the alpha when Roy ‘learned’ not to bop a several hundred pound killing machine in a stressful environment.

[The Man]

Little Richard, Rock Pioneer Who Broke Musical Barriers, Dead at 87 - Rolling Stone

RIP

[JoeP]

I came here to post that, or more precisely Little Richard, rock'n'roll pioneer, dies aged 87 | Music | The Guardian

Wherein we learn

Richard’s breakthrough single, Tutti Frutti, was originally a song about anal sex – “If it don’t fit, don’t force it / You can grease it, make it easy,” he sang – until the producer Bumps Blackwell suggested it be cleaned up.

Awopbopaloobop alopbamboom indeed.

[Stephen Maturin]

John Waters combined Little Richard and Divine to create one of the more ... memorable moments in American movie history.

Pink Flamingos-The Girl Can't Help It .mov -...