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INTRODUCTION
This is the Rest in Playlist for Friday, December 22nd, 2023, featuring recording artists from around the world who passed away recently. We’re almost to the end of 2023, so look forward to our 2-Hour Year-End Special playing all New Year’s Eve weekend. This week we have a Main Stage filled with Brushes with Greatness—those musicians who were in bands before they got really famous. We’ve also got musicians from South America, Eastern Europe, and Northern Africa, as well as an 80s re-imagining of a 60s hit and a salute to the people of Ukraine. Get ready to expand your musical horizons on this global jam session from the great beyond. Let’s kick things off with our Opening Act.
Opening Act:
[17 Dec 2023] Mike Maxfield, 79, English songwriter and guitarist (The Dakotas).
We begin with a bit of the British Invasion, courtesy of Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas. Mike Maxfield, who departed for the Great Beyond on December 17th, was their guitar player and the composer of this instrumental number they took to #18 on the UK charts in July 1963. In the US, it was covered by The Ventures and called “The Cruel Surf,” but this is the original Mike Maxfield tune called “The Cruel Sea.”
Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas – The Cruel Sea
Headliner:
[17 Dec 2023] Amp Fiddler, 65, American musician (Enchantment, Parliament, Funkadelic), composer, and record producer.
Our Headliner this week is one of the foundations of Detroit funk, Amp Fiddler, who also said goodbye on December 17th. He got his start singing backup and playing keyboards for the 70s disco group Enchantment, worked with Jamiroquai, Prince, Was (Not Was), the Brand New Heavies, and Fishbone, but is best known for his eleven years on keys with George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic. Here he is playing with George Clinton and Prince off Prince’s 1990 Graffiti Bridge album with “We Can Funk.”
Prince – We Can Funk (with George Clinton)
Main Stage:
[18 Dec 2023] Ronnie Caryl, 70, English guitarist (Flaming Youth, Phil Collins).
On our Main Stage we’ve got a trio of contestants for the Pete Best Award, presented to musicians who were in super-popular bands before they were super popular. First up, we have England’s Ronnie Caryl, who died on December 18th. Caryl was in a late 60s British band called Flaming Youth with a drummer named Phil Collins. The two of them later tried out for a new band called Genesis, and you know which one of them got that gig. But Phil didn’t forget his old pal Ronnie and invited him to play on his 1996 solo album. Here’s the title track to Dance Into the Light.
Phil Collins – Dance Into The Light
[16 Dec 2023] Colin Burgess, 77, Australian rock drummer (The Masters Apprentices, AC/DC).
Technically, Ronnie Caryl was never in Genesis, so he’s out for the Pete Best Award this week. Next up, we have Australia’s Colin Burgess, who passed away on December 16th. Colin was the drummer for a popular late 60s band called The Masters Apprentices. Then, in November 1973, a couple of brothers named Young invited him to form a new band called AC/DC. He was fired just four months later for being drunk onstage, having only recorded one Australian single, a version of “Can I Sit Next to You Girl” sung by Dave Evans, the singer before Bon Scott. Boy, I wish I could find that track. Instead, here is The Masters Apprentices with “Because I Love You.”
The Masters Apprentices – Because I Love You
[16 Dec 2023] Manny Martínez, 69, American drummer (The Misfits).
Okay, so Colin Burgess was in AC/DC for four months but was out of the band before the first album, High Voltage, hit in 1974. His competition for the Pete Best Award is American Manny Martinez, who departed on December 16th. He was the drummer on the first single for punk rock legends The Misfits, back in 1977 before they had a guitar player and vocalist Glenn Danzig played electric piano. He was out of the band by 1978 as they recorded their first album Static Age. This is that single, “Cough / Cool.”
The Misfits – Cough / Cool
Festival Stage:
[07 Dec 2023] Ramón Ayala, 96, Argentine poet, singer and writer, pneumonia.
We open the Festival Stage in Argentina, with our oldest performer, 96-year-old Ramon Ayala, who died on December 7th. He was a poet, singer, and writer who developed his own style of music known as “Gualambao,” a style of syncopated polka rhythms popular in his northern region. Here is Ayala performing “Muchacha Bonita.”
Ramón Ayala – Muchacha Bonita
[16 Dec 2023] Carlos Lyra, 90, Brazilian singer and composer (“Maria Ninguém“).
Next, we dip over to Brazil where we meet singer and composer Carlos Lyra, who passed away on December 16th. He is considered, along with Antônio Carlos Jobim, to be among the founders of bossa nova in the 1950s. He wrote the music and lyrics and performed this next piece entitled “Maria Ninguém.”
Carlos Lyra – Maria Ninguém
[07 Dec 2023] Teresa Silva Carvalho [pt], 88, Portuguese singer.
Now, for more music in Portuguese, we head across the Atlantic to the source, Portugal, and singer Teresa Silva Carvalho, who left us on December 7th. She began her singing career at age 18 in 1953, then spent the 1950s and 1960s as a music teacher before recording her first album in 1969. She spent the 1970s and 1980s recording and touring before retiring in the 1990s. Here she is singing “Amar.”
Teresa Silva Carvalho – Amar
International Stage:
[04 Dec 2023] Vlado Pravdić, 73, Bosnian keyboardist (Bijelo Dugme).
Opening the international stage, we have the keyboardist for the greatest Yugoslavian rock band of all time. Vlado Pravdic, who died on December 4th, played for Bijelo Dugme, which formed in Sarajevo in 1974. Not only did they influence nearly every Eastern European rock band that came after, but they also even got name checked by Nirvana when they toured Europe. Here is Bijelo Dugme with “Durdevdan Je, A Ja Nisam S Ono.”
Bijelo Dugme – Durdevdan Je, A Ja Nisam S Ono
[28 Nov 2023] Queenzy Cheng, 37, Malaysian actress and singer.
Next, we meet Queenzy Cheng from Malaysia. Born in 1986, she began singing in public at age 5 and quickly crafted a successful career, releasing Chinese New Year albums beginning at age 9, then forming and leading a successful pop girl group called M-Girls at age 15, recording more than an album a year and acting in nineteen films until her sudden death from a brain aneurysm on November 28th.
Queenzy Cheng –
[28 Nov 2023] Mohamed Bousmaha [ar], 34–35, Algerian singer, traffic collision AND Amine La Colombe, Algerian musician, traffic collision.
Our youngest performers on the Reaper’s Rotation this week are an Algerian duo who punched their ticket to the afterlife in the same car crash. Boushama Mohamed and Amine La Colombe were ages 34 & 35, respectively. This is their collaboration, “Allo Gatli Nsano.”
Bousmaha Mohamed, Amine La Colombe – Allo Gatli Nsani
Encore:
[16 Dec 2023] Pete Lucas, 73, British singer and guitarist (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, The Troggs).
The Main Stage is pretty crowded this week, so we’ve got a trio of encores for you. First up, we have Britain’s Pete Lucas, a bass player who died on December 16th. His first break was with the beat rock group Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, but it was with the garage rock group The Troggs where he had the greatest fame, from 1984 to 2022. Here they are with their 1989 re-working of their 1966 hit, “Wild Thing.”
The Troggs – Wild Thing (1989)
[15 Dec 2023] Bob Johnson, 79, British guitarist, singer and songwriter (Steeleye Span).
We have another Brit for you, Bob Johnson of the folk-rock group Steeleye Span, who passed away on December 15th. Johnson played guitar and sang for the group from 1972 to 2001. Johnson also studied and became a licensed psychologist. Here he is with Steeleye Span performing “All Around my Hat” from 1975.
Steeleye Span – All Around My Hat
[16 Dec 2023] Tim Norell, 68, Swedish musician and songwriter (Norell Oson Bard), cancer.
We close the show with a tribute to the fighting forces of Ukraine produced by Tim Norell, a Swedish musician and producer. Norell, who died on December 16th, was part of the songwriting trio Norell Oson Bard that was behind some of the biggest Swedish dance hits of the 1980s and 1990s. Here he is with Secret Service on the track “Together We Stand.”
Tim Norell & Secret Service – Together We Stand
Closing:
And that’s the Rest in Playlist for Friday, December 22nd, 2023. Join us here next week for our two-hour tribute to the top artists to pass away in 2023. Catch up on every year of Rest in Playlist back to 2016 on Spotify and RadicalRuss.com. For Rest in Playlist, I’m “Radical” Russ Belville reminding you to seize the day, it may be your last.
