Written by: Alex Green
Prince’s death this week was nothing short of an emotional suckerpunch that’s left his fans reeling.
Falling somewhere between Hendrix, Mozart and James Brown, Prince was the kind of rare musical genius who was in complete control of that genius. A craftsman, a perfectionist and an idiosyncratic artist who was ferocious, sexy, improvisational, preternaturally gifted and fascinatingly enigmatic, he was one of the most singular and unforgettable talents to ever roam the earth.
But there’s more:
Lonnie Mack: Considered to be a rock god pioneer who brought the electric guitar into the mainstream by way of technically astounding solos, the Indiana-born Mack played his instrument with verve and skill. His muscular solos influenced everyone from Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan and not only that, he was a marvelous blues singer as well, his voice a perfect blend of fire and soul. “In all, it is not an exaggeration to say that Lonnie Mack was well ahead of his time,” Brown & Newquist wrote of the musician in the Legends of Rock Guitar. They go on to write: “His bluesy solos pre-dated the pioneering blues-rock guitar work of Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Mike Bloomfield by nearly two years. Considering that they [were] ‘before their time’, the chronological significance of Lonnie Mack for the world of rock guitar is that much more remarkable.” Mack died of natural causes on Thursday (April 21). He was 74.
Michelle McNamara: A graduate of Notre Dame and the University of Minnesota, McNamara was the founder of True Crime Diary, a site that focused on crime stories, both old and new. McNamara was an incisive and brilliant crime writer and she had a knack for finding arcane details that were able to shed new light on unsolved murders. Her essays on the Golden State Killer and the murder of Melanie Howell, a nurse who was killed in 1976, are particularly riveting. A native of Oak Park, Illinois, McNamara married comic Patton Oswalt in 2005. McNamara is survived by Oswalt and their 7-year-old daughter Alice. Although no cause of death has been determined, her publicist revealed the writer died in her sleep. She was 46.
Victoria Wood: A wry, brilliant and unreasonably hilarious comic voice, Victoria Wood was a force to be reckoned with. A writer, a comic, a musician, and an actor, Wood was in possession of one of the strongest observational eyes around. Her series Victoria Wood As Seen On TV remains one of the greatest comedy shows of all time. But not only was she funny–her dramatic turn in Housewife 49 landed her two BAFTA Awards. Wood had been battling cancer for sixth months. She was 62.
Pete Zorn: A musician who tenured for years as part of Richard Thompson’s backing band, Zorn is perhaps best known for being a member of Steeleye Span. A talented player, the Pennsylvania-born Zorn was skilled on a number of instruments, including flute, acoustic guitar, mandolin and saxophone. The brother of avant-garde hero John Zorn, Pete landed in the UK Top Ten in 1979 on the song “Car 67.” Zorn died of cancer at the age of 65.
Richard Lyons: An experimental musician who brought a subversive element to everything he did, Lyons is best known as the founder of Negativland. The band’s 1987 record Escape From Noise is considered to be a modern classic. Lyons was fond of playing with cultural perceptions and how those perceptions can influence society in such a way that a hoax can become a fact in minutes. For example, he propagated the idea through a self-generated press release that the band’s song “Christianity Is Stupid” caused 16-year-old David Brom to murder his entire family. This stunt caused the F.B.I. to not only investigate the band, the hoax received widespread attention and was taken at face value. He died of complications linked to nodular melanoma on his 57th birthday.
