Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door: Notable Deaths in December 2024

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We note with sadness the following contributors to rock and pop music of the 50s through the 80s – the BEST music ever made! – who passed on last month:

December 13
Jon Camp / (Jonathan Camp) → Bass guitarist, occasional lead singer in the “classic” line-up of prog rock Renaissance from 1972 to 1985, including lead vocals on “Song Of Scheherazade” (1975), left to form prog-pop Cathedrale and do session work with Roy Wood, Robin George, former bandmate Annie Haslam and others, died from undisclosed causes on 12/13/2024, age 75.

December 14
George Cummings / (George H. Cummings, Jr.) → Founding member and steel guitarist for AM pop-rock Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show and eight big hits during the 70s, including “Sylvia’s Mother” (#5, 1972) and bass vocals on the satirical “The Cover Of The Rolling Stone” (#6, 1972), performed session work and lived largely out of the spotlight until dying at homer in New Jersey from undisclosed causes on 12/14/2024, age 86.

December 15
Zakir Hussain / (Zakir Hussain Allarakha Qureshi) → Indian composer, producer and percussionist known for bringing Hindustani classical music to a world audience through his tabla (drum) playing and multiple collaborations with George Harrison, Van Morrison, Bela Fleck, Mahavishnu John McLaughlin and many others, co-created the Grammy World Music winning album Planet Drum (1991) with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, composed soundtracks and orchestral works, received a National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship in 1998, appeared in music documentaries and several feature films, died from pulmonary fibrosis on 12/15/2024, age 73.

December 16
Anita Bryant / (Anita Jane Bryant) → Miss Oklahoma (1958) and Miss America runner-up, Florida citrus industry spokeswoman, frequent TV guest star and occasional host, and wholesome pop singer with 15 albums and 14 charting singles, mostly in the 60s, including “Paper Roses” (#5, 1960), suffered a spectacular, highly-publicized fall from grace beginning in 1977 for her outspoken condemnation of homosexuality, sparked widespread protest and suffered humiliation in all corners of American society, lost corporate sponsors and a lucrative performing career by the early 80s, attempted a comeback in 90s and spent her later years operating a Christian ministry in Oklahoma, died from cancer on 12/16/2024, age 84.
Steve Lewinson / (Steven Owen Lloyd Lewinson) → Bass guitarist and backing vocalist in a 30-year run with pop-soul Simply Red, starting in 1995 and covering six albums and 15 charting singles, including “Sunrise” (#5, UK #7, 2003), also played with Spice Girls, Eurythmics, George Michael and others over the years, died following a short illness on 12/16/2024, age 58.

December 17
Alfa Anderson / (Alfa Karlys Anderson) → College lecturer moonlighting as a session vocalist in the 70s, sang on the debut album by disco icons Chic (“Dance, Dance, Dance,” #6, Dance #1, 1977) and became co-lead vocalist with Luci Martin through 1983, sang on all of the band’s biggest hits during the disco craze, including “Le Freak” (#1, R&B #1, 1978) and “Good Times” (#1, R&B #1, 1979), following Chic’s dissolution in 1983 toured with Luther Vandross as a duet and backed Bryan Adams, Mick Jagger, Bryan Ferry and multiple other artists, returned to education, received a master’s degree and became a high school principal in New York City, all the while continuing to tour with her former Chic-mates through the 10s, released a solo album in 2017, died from undisclosed causes on 12/16, 2024, age 78.
Mike Brewer / (Charles Michael Brewer) → With Tom Shipley starting in the 60s, one half of the folk-rock duo Brewer & Shipley, their “One Toke Over The Line” (#10, 1971) was an unlikely hit during the Nixon-era attempts to censor drug-related songs and was banned from airplay at many non-progressive radio stations, the duo charted two other singles on the Top 100 in the 70s and continued to tour and perform for over four decades, released from a hospital following a short, undisclosed illness and died at home two days later on 12/17/2024, age 80.
David Mallett / (David B. Mallett) → Maine-based Americana singer and songwriter with 17 albums through 2016 and songs recorded by hundreds of artists, including Pete Seeger, John Denver, Alison Krause and many others, best known for his now folk standard “Garden Song” (1975), died after a long battle with cancer on 12/17/2024, age 73.

December 18
Slim Dunlap / (Robert Bruce Dunlap) → Lead guitar for garage punk then alt rock pioneers The Replacements (“I’ll Be You,” (Mainstream Rock #1, 1989) from 1987 to 1991, followed by a three-decade solo career with two 90s studio albums and a live album issued in 2020 but recorded in 2002, prior to suffering a severe stroke in 2012, died from continuing complications from the stroke on 12/18/2024, age 73.

December 19
Stanley Booth / (Irvin Stanley Booth Jr.) → Memphis-based, respected music journalist with a deep oeuvre of portraits of rock and blues artists, mostly with their heydays in the 50s and 60s, including Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, B. B. King, and Elvis Presley, best known for his book about The Rolling Stones (Dance With the Devil: The Rolling Stones and Their Times, chronicling his time with the band in 1969 and the early 70s, but not published until 1984) and an autobiography of Keith Richards released in 1995, appeared in several rock music documentaries and continued to publish articles and collections of hid works in the 90s and 00s, died in hospice on 12/19/2024, age 82.

December 20
Sugar Pie DeSanto / (Umpeylia Marsema Balinton) → R&B/soul and blues singer with Johnny Otis and the James Brown Revue in the 50s, followed by a decades long solo career that kicked off with three R&B Top 20 hits in the early sixties, including the raspy, double-tracked “I Want To Know” (R&B #4, 1960), and went on include duets with Etta James, songwriting collaborations, and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2024, died from congestive heart failure while in hospice care on 12/20/2024, age 89.

December 24

Richard Perry / (Richard Van Perry) → Self-described “song doctor,” highly-successful and respected record producer with fifteen gold discs, four of them platinum, and a host of 70s top albums, including those by Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, Barbra Streisand, and Harry Nilsson, founded his own label, Planet Records starting in 1978 and had hits with The Pointer Sisters (“Slow Hand,” #2, R&B #7, 1981), among others, sold Planet to RCA in 1983 and became an independent producer for the ensuing four decades, working on music by top artists as well as four of the Great American Songbook album series by Rod Stewart and the Broadway cast recording of Baby It’s You (2011), died in a Los Angeles hospital from cardiac arrest on 10/24/2024, age 82.


December 28
Josh White Jr. / (Joshua Donald White Jr.) → Son of 30s-40s blues-folk legend Josh White, singer and guitarist in the 60s folk revival scene in Greenwich Village in New York City with luminaries like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, carving his own identify while maintaining reverence for his father’s music, spent decades playing the college circuit and blues clubs in often smaller markets, generating critical acclaim but modest commercial success, performed in public for the last time at an April 2024 Americana music festival in Boston, announced his retirement from performing the day before dying at home from undisclosed causes on 12/28/2024, age 84.

December 31
Don Nix / (William Donald Nix) → Songwriter, musician, author, and low-key but integral member of the Stax Records production team in the 60s, saxophonist in the Stax house band The Mar-Keys (later Booker T. & The MG’s), later wrote the now blues-rock standard “Going Down”, worked with George Harrison on the Concert for Bangladesh (1971) and produced albums for Leon Russell, John Mayall, Eric Clapton and others, suffered from muscular degeneration in later years and died while asleep on 12/31/2024, age 83.

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