Rock And Roll Heaven - Finally Back Online!! Tribute To Joplin, Vandross And Zevon

A few hours after mysteriously disappearing from the internet, Sebastian Prooth’s amazing video of Alan O’Day’s number one hit “Rock And Roll Heaven”, which he updated, is back on line! If you haven’t seen or heard this little masterpiece just click onto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2cijNKu9qc

Now to continue with part three of “R.I.P.- Rock In Perpetuity” my series of personal recollections of Stars who’ve passed away.

Janis Joplin
I met Janis Joplin through my friends at Columbia, Allan Rinde and Michael Ochs. The four of us were sitting in a booth at the Whiskey opening night for Pollution ,a new group that featured Dobie Gray, Tata Vega and my long time friend, guitarist James “Smitty” Smith.

It was a great night…Janis turned me on to Southern Comfort for the first time…and I tried to pitch her an old Ashford /Simpson song “Let’s Go Get Stoned” that had been a hit for Ray Charles.

She laughed and said, “I don’t do that anymore”….Ironically four days later she died of an overdose.

Luther Vandross
I was also deeply affected by the passing yesterday of my friend Luther Vandross. Everyone thought he was recovering from a stroke so nicely…but it’s all in Gods hands.

I became friendly with Luther when he was a loyal customer at Allan Rindes’ Genghis Cohen, a Chinese restaurant and Hollywood hangout, which I named and hosted. Luther would come in, sit and eat a couple of Peking ducks for dinner (by himself) and order one of my hand painted shirts for dessert. Sometimes he’d bring in old music buisness pals of Allan and mine and we’d all have a good old time!

I was impressed with Luthor’s artistry from his first album, which my friend, Jerome Gasper, who signed Luther to Epic played me. He wrote most of the
material he recorded and hit the heart everytime out. I told him, with every new album release how much I admired him maintaining an evolving level of musical excellence, while the R and B genre all around us was all but disappearing.

Just as Luthor Vandross’ music has transcended generations…I’m sure it will continue to emotionally influence us for years to come.

Warren Zevon
In the early 70s, when I ran the professional dept. at Warner Brothers Music, part of my responsibility was to get cover records for David Geffen’s songwriter/artists. I just had a top ten record in the UK with Michael Jackson on Jackson Browne’s “Doctor my Eyes”…and Browne was excited for me to hear his freind Geffen just signed.
After a Troubador show, Jackson took me over to the old Tropicana hotel on Santa Monica B’lvd, and introduced me to Warren Zevon. For the rest of the night, with his Pignose amp blasting, Warren mesmerized me with song after great song!! Although I tried for a couple of years, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any of his songs covered….probably because they were so ahead of their time.

I always admired him because he never gave up. I was thrilled when Linda Rondstat recorded, “Poor Pitiful Me” and his career as an artist took off!! I was sad to hear of his passing….but I was glad that he was recognized within his lifetime…for being the genius that he was!

R.I.P. “Rock In Perpetuity”- Janis…Luther…Warren.

You can reach Sebastian Prooth at http://sebrt.com
Alan O’Day at http;//alanoday.com
Spectropop at http://spectropop.com
Artie Wayne at http://artiewayne.com

To learn how to “channel someone from the other side…click on to http://artiewayne.com/channel.html