He was 56 years old. The band’s guitarist was diagnosed with cancer in 2007. He wrote “Thousands Were Sailing,” among others.
Category Archives: obit
RIP Alan Myers
From the New York Times:
“Mr. Casale told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Devo would never have reached the heights it did without Mr. Myers, whom he called the best drummer he had ever played with.
“We were mostly in basements and garages writing songs. It was Alan that brought everything to life,” Mr. Casale said. “That was the catalyst where everything clicked.”
“People watching him thought we were using a drum machine,” he added. “Nobody had ever drummed like that.””
Walk Don’t Run Down a Hall of Mirrors
There’s an obit in the New York Times today for Johnny Smith, the guitarist who wrote the song “Walk, Don’t Run.” Smith’s recording of the song didn’t hit, but a few years later Chet Atkins covered it and that led to the Ventures version in 1959, which became a massive hit. Here’s Smith’s version:
The Venture’s version was so big, however, that Robert Stone used the sound of it wafting down New Orleans alleyways as a unifying thread through his great hallucinatory first novel, A Hall of Mirrors