The 2013 Off Topic Celebrity Dead Pool

[SlowwHand]

She's a cadaver. She's just too stubborn to quit breathing.

[BlackCat]

Oh dear.

(CNN) -- Musician JJ Cale, whose songs "Cocaine" and "After Midnight" were made famous by Eric Clapton, died Friday after suffering a heart attack, the president of his management agency said. His contemporaries considered him a legend, even if many fans weren't familiar with his name. He was 74.

"JJ Cale was loved by fans worldwide for his completely unpretentious and beautiful music," said Mike Kappus, president of the Rosebud Agency. "He was loved even more dearly by all those he came in contact with as the most real and down-to-earth person we all knew."

Lynyrd Skynyrd made Cale's song "Call Me The Breeze" famous, and bands including Santana, The Allman Brothers, Johnny Cash, and many others covered his songs.

He won a Grammy for his 2006 album with Clapton, called The Road to Escondido.

"He was incredibly humble and avoided the spotlight at all costs but will be missed by anyone touched by him directly or indirectly," Kappus said. "Luckily, his music lives on."

The singer-songwriter passed away at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, his official website said.

There were no immediate plans for funeral services, it said.

His official biography describes Cale as someone for whom music is all he's ever known.

"I remember when I made my first album, I was 32 or 33 years old and I thought I was way too old then," Cale said, according to his bio. "When I see myself doing this at 70, I go, 'What am I doing, I should be layin' down in a hammock.'"

He was living in Tulsa and had given up on making money in the record business when his career was suddenly made by Clapton's cover of "After Midnight."

That moment changed everything for the musician, his biography states. After Clapton picked up his song, Cale drove to Nashville to record his first album.

Other musicians who covered Cale's work include The Band, Chet Atkins, Freddie King, Maria Muldaur and Captain Beefheart, according to his biography, which also notes he was asked whether it bothered him that fellow musicians considered him a legend while many fans did not even know his name.

"No, it doesn't bother me," Cale said. "What's really nice is when you get a check in the mail."

The older posters will miss him.

I just found out today and think you could have done better by creating a thread about this instead of this miserably notice in a thread noone reads

[Wezil]

The Dead Pool players read the thread.

Get in on the game if you want to be better informed.

[ColdWizard]

Dead Pool has helped me find some good music (and learn that Slowhand looks funny with only one W).

[Donegeal]

Closing in on 16,000 views. So, yeah, nobody reads the Dead Pool thread.

[-Jrabbit]

RIP to keyboardist/composer/master of funk George Duke...



This video features jazz vocalist Rachelle Farrell fronting George Duke and his band at Montreux Jazz Festival, 1997. Chosen because I was in attendance -- my first and only time meeting the gracious, humble Mr. Duke. It was a memorable night.

http://www.eurweb.com/2013/08/we-remember-george-duke-dies-at-67/

[-Jrabbit]

Actress Karen Black has succumbed to cancer. RIP.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/karen-black-five-easy-pieces-nashville-dies-431637

[Tuberski]

"I've been waiting for you... Ben."

RIP

ACK!

[-Jrabbit]

RIP to Eydie Gormé, 84...

Eydie Gormé, the popular nightclub vocalist and half of the longtime musical partnership Steve & Eydie, died in a Las Vegas hospital Saturday after an undisclosed illness. She was 84 years old.

Together with her husband Steve Lawrence, Gormé was known for a breezy, easy listening style that merged well with the adult contemporary pop sound of the time. As a solo performer, she performed the Grammy-nominated 1963 hit "Blame It on the Bossa Nova," which was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. (Listen below).

Gormé -- who was born to Sephardic Jewish parents in New York City -- also earned fame for Spanish language recordings, including the 1964 collection of standards "Amor," which was recorded with the Mexican group Trío Los Panchos.

Gormé's big break happened as she joined the cast of the Steve Allen's New York television show in 1953, which is also where she first began working with Lawrence in musical and comedy segments. The collaboration continued as the Allen show became "The Tonight Show," and the two married in 1957.

Eventually billed as Steve and Eydie, the duo won a Grammy in 1960 for best performance by a vocal group and became known for a repertoire of nightclub-ready standards that included songs by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Rogers and Hammerstein. The duo continued to perform together for decades up until Gormé's retirement from performing in 2009.

Gormé is survived by her husband Lawrence, her son David and a granddaughter.

[SlowwHand]

Old school cool. R.I.P.

[Wezil]

Dutch Prince Johan Friso has died after a year and a half in a coma following an accident at an Austrian ski resort, officials say.

Prince Friso, who was 44, was moved from hospital in London back to the Netherlands last month, but had since suffered complications.

He was hit by an avalanche in February 2012 and buried for 15 minutes.

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima are said to be on their way home from a holiday in Greece.

"Prince Friso has died of complications related to the hypoxic brain injury, which he suffered as the result of his skiing accident in Lech, Austria on 17 February 2012," a royal palace statement said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23669317#TWEET853565

The Prince was 44 and a Unique Pick for Robert Plomp (6)

= (171 - 6) + (100 - 44) + 25

= 246 points

[Robert]

I can't see how all of you missed him!

[Tuberski]

We never heard of him, we don't live there.

ACK!

[regexcellent]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/15/showbiz/lisa-robin-kelly-dead/?hpt=hp_c2

Lisa Robin Kelly of 'That '70s Show' dead at 43

Checked into rehab and didn't check out. Can't say I'm surprised.

[-Jrabbit]

Sad. RIP.