Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Negromancer Bits and Bites August 23 2011 - 2 Songwriting Legends Leave Us

Stuff, I've found:

First, let's remember Yusef Hawkins.  Hawkins was a 16-year-old who was murdered 22 years ago today for going into a white neighborhood in America to buy a fucking car.

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Nick Ashford is dead.  Please, read the New York Times obituary.  If you don't want to, here's a short bit about him. Nick Ashford was half of the Motown songwriting duo, Ashford and Simpson, with wife Valerie Simpson.  Ashford and Simpson wrote, among other songs, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing."  They started their career writing for The 5th Dimension, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles and joined Motown in 1966.  Ashford and Simpson had their biggest hit as an R&B duo in 1984 with "Solid." They were inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.  R.I.P. Mr. Ashford.

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Another famous songwriter who died is Jerry Leiber, who was one of the real great ones.  With his partner, Mike Stoller, the lyricist wrote "Hound Dog" for Big Mama Thorton and also "Stand By Me" with Ben E. King.  After Elvis Presley made "Hound Dog," a huge hit in 1956, they also wrote "Jailhouse Rock," among others, for Presley. R.I.P. Mr. Leiber.

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