There is a road, no simple highway / Between the dawn and the dark of night / And if you go, no one may follow / That path is for your steps alone. | | | | Nipsey Hussle at a Warner Bros. Grammy party, Los Angeles, Feb. 7, 2019. He was murdered seven weeks later.
(Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "There is a road, no simple highway / Between the dawn and the dark of night / And if you go, no one may follow / That path is for your steps alone."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// The musicmakers we lost in 2019 include giants who changed the course of music, cult figures whose artistic ripples caused waves in unexpected places, behind-the-scenes players who performed miracles in the shadows, and way too many bright lights extinguished way too soon. What they all share, and what they all leave behind, are songs, whether they wrote them, like ROBERT HUNTER, ALLEE WILLIS and BUSBEE; played on them, like HAL BLAINE; rapped on them, like BUSHWICK BILL, or lived them, like RIC OCASEK, JUICE WRLD and DAVID BERMAN. Some, like PEDRO BELL (and VAUGHN OLIVER, who died Sunday), showed us what those songs look like. Others, like rock manager ELLIOT ROBERTS, moved the mountains that needed to be moved because they were in the songs' way. The 28 stories below chronicle some of the year's most notable passings. For further reading, here's our much longer, alphabetical list of more than 400 music-related deaths in 2019. May they all rest in peace, and may the mountains no longer be in their way. | | | - Matty Karas, curator | | | | | | | who's gonna drive you home tonight? | |  | Complex | | Nipsey Hussle was an ambassador of Los Angeles, an eternal figure who embodied the true spirit of the city. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | The New Wave icon was always an enigmatic presence, and the cool detachment that fueled his hits with Cars came from a very real sense of aloneness. | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | The great American opera star Jessye Norman had a voice that commanded the psyche and a mesmerizing presence that could turn silence into meaning. | | | |  | The New York Times | | The death of the 21-year-old rapper, which comes after those of Lil Peep and XXXTentacion, marks the unsatisfying, rapid conclusion of the decade's most promising musical movement. | | | |  | Vulture | | One of Austin's strangest, most endearing, and most misunderstood musical icons died this week. His music and his message will continue to greet the dispossessed and depressed, those unable to say how they are feeling or even what they are feeling. | | | |  | The Guardian | | A rare concert in 1998 was a chance to see the great musical pioneer emerge from hiding - and why his glorious talent lifted him beyond pop fads. | | | |  | The Washington Post | | One song in particular captured the city's pain and hope after Hurricane Katrina. | | | |  | NPR Music | | The gifted songwriter and singer wasn't a born superstar -- but became something of a sleeper hit on the strength of his singing, songwriting and history-making collaborations. | | | | | NPR Music | | Robert Hunter was more than another gear spinning within the perpetual motion machine of the Grateful Dead - his songwriting helped define the group's narratives and bloom its philosophies. | | | | | Rolling Stone | | The music industry giant who ran three major labels left a legacy of not only forging legendary record deals, but dealing with legendary egos. | | | | | | | true love will find you in the end | |  | The New Yorker | | Blaine, who passed away this week, is so peerless, so unquestionably essential to the last half century of American popular music, that it almost feels as though his face should be on currency. | | | |  | Pitchfork | | Remembering the surf-rock pioneer, who died this weekend at the age of 81. | | | |  | Stereogum | | Bushwick Bill died so many times. Some of those deaths were theatrical. At some Geto Boys concerts, there was a mid-show stunt they did at least once. Bill would clutch his chest and collapse. Scarface and Willie D, the two other Geto Boys, would scream for help. Paramedics would swarm the stage. Then Bill would lurch up, grab a microphone, and keep rapping. | | | | | Pitchfork | | Remembering the songwriter-poet behind Silver Jews and Purple Mountains, who saw dark humor and strange beauty in almost anything. | | | | | The Guardian | | The drummer fought his bandmates, alienated his children and lived a life of turmoil - but had an utterly new vision for what rock music could be. | | | | | The New York Times | | She also wrote or co-wrote "Neutron Dance" for the Pointer Sisters, "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" for the Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield, and other hits. | | | |  | Billboard | | Much of the Nashville music community -- and particularly Nashville's songwriters -- spent midday at City Winery, sorting through an appropriately complex mix of joy and sorrow during a celebration of life for songwriter-producer Michael Ryan, aka busbee, whose legacy is filled with contradictions. | | | | | Los Angeles Times | | Keith Flint physically embodied the anarchic spirit of the rave, with a charisma that kicked off a revolution in pop music. | | | |  | The FADER | | Roky Erickson, the psychedelic pioneer and 13th Floor Elevators frontman who died last Friday, was the greatest alien left stranded in our midst. | | | |  | Chicago Reader | | The underappreciated genius behind many of Funkadelic's most famous album covers died last month after nine years in a nursing and rehab center. | | | |  | The Undefeated | | It's an all-too-common story: A fabulous black musician redefines a genre of music. He's adored and emulated by other musicians, including famous white acts. But the financial rewards, for complicated reasons, don't match up. | | | |  | The Quietus | | Pop or rock artists aren't meant to make their greatest works 40-odd years into their careers. Ben Graham looks back at a career in which the man born Noel Scott Engel created one of the great mythic figures in musical history. | | | | | Los Angeles Times | | Doris Day was one of the great voices of the 20th century, though, as with her acting, the apparent ease with which she performed could hide that fact. | | | | | Billboard | | From forward-thinking views on politics, women's rights and sexuality, the late Sulli (real name Choi Jin-ri) can be a symbol of changing times in Korea. | | | | | Vulture | | It's impossible to imagine what the likes of Radiohead, Spiritualized, Sigur Rós, Slowdive, Explosions in the Sky, and generations of post-rock bands and 21st century producers would sound like without Hollis's meticulous and transcendent example. | | | |  | Slate | | An icon of romantic angst. | | | |  | Yahoo Music | | "She was just like, 'We're making a record. We're finishing it. That's it. Disease be damned.' She never once felt sorry for herself." | | | |  | Neil Young Archives | | Never one to think about himself, he put everyone else first. That's what he did for me for over fifty years of friendship love and laughter, managing my life, protecting our art in the business of music. That's what he did. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | Masters at Work feat. James Ingram | | | | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group | | |
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