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INTRODUCTION
This is the Rest in Playlist for Friday, March 31, 2023, featuring artists who passed in the week prior, from March 18th through March 24th. This week features the world’s oldest drag queen; musicians from Russia, Italy, Norway, Romania, and England; and the passing of our Headliner, Mudcrutch founder Tom Leadon. But first, let’s start the Rest in Playlist with our Opening Act.
Opening Act:
RIP Opening Act (Joker Therapy)
[22 Mar 2023] Wayne Swinny, 59, American guitarist (Saliva), brain hemorrhage.
Our Opening Act this week comes to us on March 22nd from the world of modern hard rock. In 1996, guitarist Wayne Swinny helped form the band Saliva with other players in the Memphis rock scene. Just five years later, the band had taken off, landing two tracks in the original Fast and Furious movie soundtrack, including this song that went to #15 on the Mainstream Rock charts in 2001, “Click Click Boom.”
Saliva – Click Click Boom
Headliner:
RIP Headliner (Yoda Death Natural)
[22 Mar 2023] Tom Leadon, 70, American musician (Mudcrutch).
Our Headliner this week is Tom Leadon, a founding member of Mudcrutch. In 1970, Leadon formed the band as guitarist with Randall Marsh on drums, Tom Petty on bass, and Mike Campbell on guitar. By 1975, Campbell and Petty had left and joined with Benmont Tench to form The Heartbreakers. Fast forward to 2007 and Tom Petty gets the Mudcrutch crew back together to record. Here’s 2008’s “Scare Easy.”
Mudcrutch – Scare Easy
Main Stage:
RIP Main Stage (Gandalf Death Frodo)
[20 Mar 2023] Dmitry Nova, 34, Russian musician (Cream Soda), drowned.
Opening on our Main Stage this week is our youngest performer on the Rest in Playlist, Dmitry Nova from Russia, founder of the synth-pop band Cream Soda. At just 34 years old, Dmitry died of drowning in the Volga River on March 20th. Here’s music from their 2017 track, ironically called “Volga.”
Cream Soda – Volga
[17 Mar 2023] Fuzzy Haskins, 81, American Hall of Fame singer (Parliament-Funkadelic).
We paid tribute last week to the passing of Fuzzy Haskins from The Parliaments and Parliament-Funkadelic. But by including later hits from P-Funk, we may have left the impression that Haskins was leading on those tunes, when it was George Clinton. So, to properly salute Haskins, we dial back to the 1970 original eponymous Funkadelic album, with a tune he wrote and sang called “I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing, Everybody Got a Thing.”
Funkadelic – I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody Got A Thing
[23 Mar 2023] Luca Bergia, 54, Italian drummer (Marlene Kuntz).
Joining the Rest in Playlist on March 23rd we have Luca Bergia, drummer with the Italian alt-rock band, Marlene Kuntz (at least, I presume it’s pronounced Kuntz). Bergia founded the band in 1987 and passed at the age of 54. Here’s Marlene Kuntz with “Vita su Marte.”
Marlene Kuntz – Vita su Marte
Headliner:
[22 Mar 2023] Tom Leadon, 70, American musician (Mudcrutch).
Continuing with our Headliner, Tom Leadon, who co-founded Mudcrutch in 1970 with Tom Petty and Mike Campbell. After they left to form the Heartbreakers, Leadon went to California to follow his brother Bernie, who’d just formed the Eagles. Tom ended up playing bass in Linda Ronstadt’s band before he found himself playing on a 1976 Top 40 hit with a country-rock band called Silver. This is that hit, “Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang.”
Silver – Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang
In the News:
RIP In The News (Dirty Laundry)
Whenever the Grim Reaper takes a century or more to claim his prize, that’s noteworthy here on Rest in Playlist. This week, two centenarians passed on who provided decades of entertainment for us all.
[18 Mar 2023] Dot Wilkinson, 101, American Hall of Fame bowler and softball player.
Dot Wilkinson Intro
That’s Dot Wilkinson throwing out the first pitch for a Diamondbacks game in 2016, who passed on March 18th at the age of 101. Wilkinson is one of a handful of athletes enshrined in two sports Halls-of-Fame, residing in the National Softball Hall of Fame and the International Bowling Hall-of-Fame.
[18 Mar 2023] Gloria Dea, 100, American actress (King of the Congo, Plan 9 from Outer Space) and magician, coronary artery disease.
Gloria Dea Line
Also, on March 18th we lost the first magician to ever perform on the Las Vegas Strip way back in 1941, Gloria Dea. Dea just reached her 100th birthday. In addition to her work in Vegas, she appeared in a handful of films in the mid-20th century, including King of the Congo from 1952, from which we just played a clip, and the legendary Ed Wood’s awful sci-fi film, 1959’s Plan 9 From Outer Space.
[21 Mar 2023] Willis Reed, 80, American Hall of Fame basketball player (New York Knicks) and coach (New Jersey Nets), NBA champion (1970, 1973), heart failure.
Willis Reed Game 7
From the sports world on March 21st, we also said goodbye to former New York Knicks basketball player Willis Reed at age 80. Reed was a member of the Knicks’ first NBA Championship team in 1970, whose appearance in Game 7 at the Garden following a major leg injury provided the spark to inspire the team to victory.
Festival Stage:
RIP Festival Stage (Who Face Emptiness)
[20 Mar 2023] Anita Thallaug, 85, Norwegian singer (Eurovision Song Contest 1963) and actress (Blonde in Bondage, I moralens navn).
On our Festival Stage tonight we welcome a Norwegian singer who began her career as a child of seven in 1945, finished last in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest, and went on to become an actress in a few Scandinavian films. Anita Thallaug passed away on March 20th at the age of 85. Here’s a song from 1957 called “Du Og Bare Du Er Min.”
Anita Thallaug – Du Og Bare Du Er Min
[23 Mar 2023] Darcelle XV, 92, American drag queen.
Having lived in Portland, Oregon, for fifteen years, we’re especially mourning the death on March 23rd of Walter Cole, who performed in drag in the Rose City as Darcelle XV. At the age of 92, Darcelle was recognized by the Guiness Book of Records as the World’s Oldest Drag Queen.
Darcelle XV – The Rose
[20 Mar 2023] Virginia Zeani, 97, Romanian operatic soprano.
Our oldest performer on the Rest in Playlist this week is a 97-year-old operatic soprano from Romania named Virginia Zeani, who joined the Rest in Playlist on March 20th. She made her debut in 1948 singing in “La Traviata,” which she’d go on to perform over 640 times. This is her performance of La Rodine, Act 1.
Virginia Zeani – La Rodine, Act 1 (Chi il bel sogno di Doretta)
[24 Mar 2023] Christopher Gunning, 78, English composer (La Vie en rose, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Middlemarch).
Closing out the Festival Stage this week we have a 78-year-old Englishman who composed film scores for numerous movies, Christopher Gunning, who passed away on March 24th. Perhaps his best-known work are his compositions for all TV films of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, including the Hercule Poirot Theme.
Christopher Gunning – Hercule Poirot Theme
Encores:
[17 Mar 2023] Fuzzy Haskins, 81, American Hall of Fame singer (Parliament-Funkadelic).
We’ve got an encore set here to close out this week’s Rest in Playlist. We bring Funkadelic’s Fuzzy Haskins back to the stage with a record they made back in 1972, called “Miss Lucifer’s Love.”
Funkadelic – Miss Lucifer’s Love
[22 Mar 2023] Tom Leadon, 70, American musician (Mudcrutch).
Tom Petty got Mike Campbell, Randall Marsh, and our Headliner, Tom Leadon, back together to revive Mudcrutch in 2007, adding Benmont Tench from the Heartbreakers to the group. They released two studio albums and a live album, and toured intermittently over the next decade until Petty’s death in 2017. Here’s some more Mudcrutch, with their cover of “Six Days on the Road.”
Mudcrutch – Six Days On The Road
[22 Mar 2023] Wayne Swinny, 59, American guitarist (Saliva), brain hemorrhage.
Let’s close with an encore from our Opening Act, Saliva’s Wayne Swinny. Here’s a cut from 2007 that made it all the way to #2 on the Mainstream Rock Chart, “Ladies and Gentlemen.”
Saliva – Ladies and Gentlemen
Closing
And that’s the Rest in Playlist for Friday, March 31st, 2023, featuring artists who passed the week before. Join us here next week for a tribute to the artists who have passed this week. For Rest in Playlist, I’m “Radical” Russ Belville reminding you to seize the day, it may be your last.
