Tag Archives: 2021

RIP William Shelby (1954 – 2021)

“I Don’t Want To Be A Freak (But I Can’t Help Myself) ” (1979)

William Shelby was an American musician known for his work with Dynasty and Lakeside.

Dynasty is best known for their musical composition “I Don’t Want To Be A Freak (But I Can’t Help Myself) ” (1979).

“I Don’t Want To Be A Freak (But I Can’t Help Myself) ” (1979)

Lakeside is best known for their musical composition “Fantastic Voyage” (1980).

I did not have time to research if Shelby was involved with these two recordings.

However, while researching “I Don’t Want To Be A Freak (But I Can’t Help Myself) ” (1979) I stumbled upon these other specimina of African-American musical compositions from the 1970s and 1980s that feature the word “freak” in their title: “I Want’a Do Something Freaky To You” (1975) is by Leon Haywood; “Le Freak” (1978) by Chic; “Super Freak” (1981) by Rick James and “I Need a Freak” (1983) by Sexual Harassment.

RIP Alan Hawkshaw (1937 – 2021)

Alan Hawkshaw (1937 – 2021) was a British composer and musician, particularly of library music, working extensively for the KPM production music company in the 1950s to the 1970s, composing such songs as “Grange Hill”.

“Grange Hill“

With the studio group Love De-Luxe he scored a number 1 single on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart with “Here Comes That Sound Again” in 1979.

“Here Comes That Sound Again”

In the 1970s, he worked for Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg as a musical director, arranger and pianist, including on L’homme à tête de chou (1976).

L’homme à tête de chou (1976)

One of his best-known compositions is “Blarney’s Stoned” which was used as the theme tune for Dave Allen’s television shows.

“Blarney’s Stoned”

In 1977, he composed “New Earth Parts 1 & 2” for Hank Marvin’s Guitar Syndicate (1977) LP project.

“New Earth Parts 1 & 2”

This was subsequently sampled over 30 years later by Jay-Z for his song “Pray”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymcKJCBEuHE&ab_channel=TheMusicBarProjections
music from  Barbara Broadcast (1977)

Also, during the late 1970s, music by Hawkshaw appeared in several films by Radley Metzger, including Barbara Broadcast (1977) and Maraschino Cherry (1978).

music from Maraschino Cherry (1978)

RIP Olivier Libaux (1964 – 2021)

Olivier Libaux was a French record producer and musician best known for his work with the cover band Nouvelle Vague. The band was known for its bossa nova covers of new wave songs.

“Ils Sont Marrant les Gens”

In his solo career he released songs such as “Ils Sont Marrant les Gens” on the album Imbécile (2007), which means “people are funny”.

Question: did Olivier Libaux commit suicide?

RIP Melvin Van Peebles (1932 – 2021)

Melvin Van Peebles was an American writer, actor and film director best known for his film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971).

I would advise against watching that movie since it’s historically significant but just not very good.

 Classified X (1998)

Instead, I advise to watch Classified X (1998), a film on African-American cinema and the African-American representation in Hollywood.

RIP Sylvano Bussotti (1931 – 2021)

‘Five Piano Pieces for David Tudor’ (1959) detail of ‘sheet music’ as found in ‘A Thousand Plateaus’ (1980).

Sylvano Bussotti was an Italian composer and poet known for such pieces as Five Piano Pieces for David Tudor (1959).

A piece of the “sheet music” of that composition is reproduced in A Thousand Plateaus (1980).

5 Piano Pieces for David Tudor