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INTRODUCTION
This is the Rest in Playlist for Friday, May 31st, 2024, featuring recording artists from around the world who passed away recently.
Thanks for joining us for this week’s Reaper’s Rotation, featuring our headliner, the man whose song gave us one of the longest drum solos in rock history, Doug Ingle. We’ve got one half of the songwriting duo who penned beloved movie songs from the 1960s and two men who were pioneers in American punk and Brazilian rock, respectively. We’ll jet set to Italy to visit Locale Musicale, then to the Country Bunker with artists from Canada and Ireland. In the House of Blues, you’ll meet two Americans who were each a part of longtime collaborations, then to our newest stage, Samförstånd, for the unexpected arrival of a formerly married Finnish couple. We’ll conclude at Utendaji for some music from Senegal and Algeria.
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:
[25 May 2024] Richard M. Sherman, 95, American film songwriter (Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), Oscar winner (1965).
Opening the show today is one-half of a pair of brothers who were responsible for more motion picture musical song scores than any other songwriting team in film history. Richard M. Sherman, who died on May 25th and is our oldest performer this week at age 95, is joining his brother Robert, who passed a dozen years ago. Together, they wrote music that appeared in The Parent Trap, The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Aristocats, Snoopy, Come Home, Charlotte’s Web, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and more. But their best known composition is one that’s considered the most publicly-performed song in the world, “It’s a Small World.”
The Disneyland Children’s Chorus – It’s a Small World
Headliner:
[24 May 2024] Doug Ingle, 78, American musician (Iron Butterfly) and songwriter (“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida“).
The last surviving original member of the psychedelic late-60s rock band Iron Butterfly has gone. Doug Ingle, who left us on May 24th, was the founder, lead singer, songwriter, and organist of the group that formed in San Diego in 1966. It was the title track for their sophomore album in 1968 that shot them to the top 40, a song Ingle wrote while drunk on a gallon of wine. Ingle was so drunk that when he sang the song for drummer to write down the lyrics, “In the Garden of Eden” was slurred to become forever known as “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”
Iron Butterfly – In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (single version)
Main Stage:
[30 May 2024] Doug Dagger, 56, American punk rock singer (The Generators).
On May 30th, Doug Dagger, lead singer for the Los Angeles punk band The Generators, joined us in the great beyond. Formed in 1997, the band performed and recorded through 2019 with some changes in the lineup backing Dagger. In 2022, the original lineup reunited and played together for the next two years, until Dagger’s battle with cancer forced him to the sidelines. Here are The Generators with “Somewhere in the Rain.”
The Generators – Somewhere in the Rain
[28 May 2024] Gustavo Mullem, 72, Brazilian guitarist (Camisa de Vênus, Raul Seixas), complications from lung cancer.
Our next artists started as the founding drummer for one of Brazil’s biggest rock bands, then later switched to lead guitar. Gustavo Mullem, who departed on May 28th, formed his band in 1982 and named it Camisa de Vênus, after a Portuguese slang for condom. The band was quite risqué for Brazil in the 80s, touching on sensitive topics, such as this track, “Eu Não Matei Joana d’Arc,” or “I Didn’t Kill Joan of Arc,” which alludes to free love and lesbianism.
Camisa de Vênus – Eu Não Matei Joana d’Arc
Locale Musicale:
[27 May 2024] Ghigo Agosti, 87, Italian singer-songwriter.
Setting the stage at Locale Musicale this week is Ghigo Agosti, and Italian singer-songwriter who passed away on May 27th. Agosti was active from the 50s to the 90s, known for his Italian covers of James Brown, Led Zeppelin, Sam & Dave, Procol Harum, Wilson Pickett, and Ray Charles. Here we feature Agosti with an original tune from 1960 about a ladybug, or in Italian, “Coccinella.”
Ghigo Agosti – Coccinella
[13 May 2024] Enrico Musiani [it], 86, Italian singer.
One of Agosti’s contemporaries also graces Locale Musicale this week. Just one year younger, Enrico Musiani passed away on May 13th. His discography is huge, with over 1,500 recorded songs. This is “Sarà Perché Ti Amo,” or “It must be because I love you.”
Enrico Musiani – Sarà Perché Ti Amo
Country Bunker:
[29 May 2024] Cayouche, 75, Canadian singer-songwriter, cancer.
Country music has spread worldwide, and nobody exemplifies that better than Canadian singer-songwriter Cayouche, who expired on May 29th. Cayouche is credited with creating Acadian French country music, a dialect of French spoken by one particular Atlantic maritime region northeast of New Brunswick. He was a motorcycle enthusiast and backpacker, and still the only Acadian French country star to sell over 100,000 records. Here’s one of his most popular ballads, “La châine de mon tracteur,” of “the chain of my tractor.”
Cayouche – La châine de mon tracteur
[04 May 2024] Ron Kavana, 73, Irish singer-songwriter.
Now to Ireland, where our next artists could be at home on many different stages and genres. Ron Kavana joined the hereafter on May 4th, following a career that began in the R&B band The Wizards, evolved through touring with blues acts like Frogman Henry, Dr. John, Gatemouth Brown, and Memphis Slim, and culminated in work with Elvis Costello, The Pogues, and Shane MacGowan. Here he is performing a cover of the Harry Belafonte classic, “Man Smart, Woman Smarter.”
Ron Kavana – Man Smart, Woman Smarter
House of Blues:
[18 May 2024] John Koerner, 85, American songwriter and guitarist (Koerner, Ray & Glover), bile duct cancer.
Our next artist was the last surviving member of a folk blues trio that David Bowie said “showed how [folk vocalizations] should be done. John “Spider” Koerner died on May 18th and was one-third of Koerner, Ray & Glover, whose first album John Lennon called one of his favorites. Koerner was the first musician Bob Dylan met in Minneapolis and became a huge influence of his. Here’s Koerner, Ray & Glover singing “Linin’ Track.”
Koerner, Ray & Glover – Linin’ Track
[07 May 2024] Phil Wiggins, 69, American blues musician (Cephas & Wiggins), cancer.
Next, we have harmonica player Phil Wiggins, who was part of an acoustic blues duo with guitarist John Cephas that performed internationally in the 90s under the sponsorship of the US State Department. Both members of Cephas & Wiggins were honored by the National Endowment for the Arts for their contributions to folk and blues music. Cephas, 24 years Wiggins’ senior, passed in 2009, and Wiggins died on May 7th. Here they are performing “No Ice in my Bourbon.”
Cephas & Wiggins – No Ice In My Bourbon
Samförstånd:
[25 Apr 2024] Kaisa Korhonen, 82, Finnish theatre director, actress, and singer.
Our newest stage to inaugurate this week is Samförstånd, from the Swedish word for “concert.” It’s a double-shot from Finland for our Scandinavian stage, with Kaisa Korhonen joining us on April 25th. She was a theater actor, director, and singer whose career spanned five decades. She was a symbol of leftist politics in the 60s and 70s, earning her praise from some and condemnation from others. Here she is singing “Uralin pihlaja,” or “Rowan of the Urals.”
Kaisa Korhonen – Uralin pihlaja
[20 Apr 2024] Kaj Chydenius, 84, Finnish musician and composer.
I think this may be the first time on the program we’ve had former spouses share the stage. Finland’s Kaj Chydenius was a musician and composer who died on April 20th, just five days before his ex-wife Kaisa Korhonen. Together they formed KOM-teatteri, or “Commie Theater,” which was the center for the Finnish left-wing musical production in the 1970s. Here he is with the track “Ole Rohkea, Sydän,” or “Be Brave, Heart.”
Kaj Chydenius – Ole Rohkea, Sydän
Utendaji:
[29 May 2024] Mansour Seck, 69, Senegalese singer and musician.
Back to Africa for the second week in a row. This time to the West African country of Senegal, where the blind singer and musician Mansour Seck has gone beyond on May 29th, leaving behind his lifelong friend and musical collaborator, Baaba Maal. The two of them performed together from 1982 until this year. Here they are performing “Salminanam.”
Baaba Maal, Mansour Sack – Salminanam
[01 May 2024] Hasna El-Bacharia, 74, Algerian musician.
Now to Algeria in North Africa on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where singer and musician Hasna El-Bacharia expired on May 1st. She was born in 1950 and had a career spanning three decades, performing on the electric guitar, lute, banjo, and sinter. Here she is with her rendition of “Koul chi al Oualadine” or “Say something to Al-Din.”
Hasna El-Bacharia – Koul chi al Oualadine
Encore:
It seems almost sacrilegious to salute Doug Ingle, the composer of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” with the short radio edit of the song, so now, here’s as much of the long version as I can fit into the end of the show.
Closing:
And that’s the Rest in Playlist for Friday, May 31st, 2024. Join us here next week as we chronicle the latest musicians, singers, and songwriters to join the Great Gig in the Sky. 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.
