William Hurt was an American actor known for his parts in Ken Russell’s drug epos Altered States (1980), the gay epic Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), the cyberpunk classic Dark City (1998) and Cronenberg’s A History of Violence (2005).
Hurt’s death has made me curious about Dark City, which I should have seen already but I have not.
Mikey Chung (1950 – 2021) was a Jamaican musician who played keyboards, guitar and percussion instruments.
Here with a cover of “Breezin'” (1970) by Bobby Womack.
“Breezin'” (1970) is a musical composition by Bobby Womack, originally released with Gabor Szabo on Blue Thumb Records as a seven inch single.
On the b-side was “Azure Blue”. The song was later released on Gabor’s album High Contrast.
This happened in 2018, but I only found out today.
Wah Wah Watson was an American guitarist who was a member of The Funk Brothers, the studio band for Motown Records.
This track from Elementary (1976), his only solo album, reminds me somehow of “Rapper Dapper Snapper” (1980) by Edwin Birdsong.
Patrick Juvet was a Swiss singer-songwriter who had a string of hit records in France (“Où sont les femmes?”) during the seventies.
He found international success with disco compositions such as “I Love America” (1978) which was his biggest record and was included on the compilation A Night at Studio 54 (1979).
Also in 1979, he wrote the soundtrack to Laura by David Hamilton.
By the early eighties, after the death of disco, his five minutes of fame were over.
Daria Nicolodi was an Italian actress known for her collaborations with Mario Bava.
Thomas Jefferson Byrd was an American actor who worked several times with director Spike Lee.
CP Lee, was a British musician, author, broadcaster and lecturer from Manchester, England.
He was co-author of the witty composition “Gerry and the Holograms” (1979) which shows similarities with “Blue Monday” (1983) but then without the nagging tone which makes the latter nearly impossible to listen to in full.
CP Lee was also an authority on Dylan, a Dylanologist one might say. His comments after Dylan received the Nobel Prize were both deep and sharp.
He also contributed marginally to Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape (2010), an insightful documentary on the video nasty phenomenon.
Bonnie Pointer was an American singer, part of the The Pointer Sisters.
The Pointer Sisters also did background vocals on “God Make Me Funky” (1975) by The Headhunters, the American jazz-funk fusion band led by Herbie Hancock.
Mory Kanté was a Guinean vocalist and player of the kora harp best known for his 1987 hit song “Yé ké yé ké“.
Genesis P-Orridge was and English musician and founding member of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV.
I first learned of P-Orridge in the late 1980s during the acid house period. I remember some of their Psychic TV material from the radio shows by Luc Janssen. However, I can’t seem to find the tracks that I heard at the time.
Where to begin? There is so much. Let’s start with the exceptional single “United/Zyklon B Zombie” (1978).
And let us add the album 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979) also by Throbbing Gristle.
There was a time when I actually thought that these were jazz-funk tracks.
New listener, do not fear, it’s very experimental but actually not that hard on the irritation scale.