R.I.P. Col. Bruce Hampton

Collapsed onstage during the encore at his own 70th birthday tribute concert and expired. I guess that's as good a way to go as any - did Sib Heshian one better by checking out onstage at his own party.

[consequenceofsound.net]

The closest I come to liking a jam band would be Television or the Velvet Underground when they would perform 40 minute long versions of "Sister Ray," (i.e., not very close at all), so I have no connection to Hampton's music at all. But I did like him very much in the role of Warren the evil genius houseplant on Space Ghost Coast to Coast.



Post Edited (05-02-17 14:41)

Who else has died onstage?

Philippé Wynne (singer for the Spinners, and later for P-Funk)
Dimebag Darrell
Country Dick Montana (Beat Farmers)
Judge Dread
Les Harvey (guitarist, Stone the Crows)
Ty Longley (guitarist, Great White)
Johnny "Guitar" Watson
Tiny Tim
Mike Scaccia (guitarist, Ministry/RevCo)
Mark Sandman (Morphine)
Nick Menza (drummer, Megadeth)

Hey, from the Hampton Grease Band! Great stuff on that Dada-esque Beefheart-inspired album, their only one I believe. One of the song's "lyrics" are sung from a Canadian tourist brochure. Way too much tedious guitar wankery on that album, tho. Still, if any "jam band" would be of interest to TPers, that would be the one.

That Hampton Grease Band "Music To Eat" record -- a double-LP debut -- was long-rumored to be the worst selling record Columbia ever released. Maybe Brendan O'Brien reissuing it on his short-lived SONY imprint in the mid-'90s moved it up the list a few steps....

I don't buy that line about Television being a 'jam band.' They just have long instrumental passages. They never went for Dead-like meanderings, You had a sense that they knew exactly what they were doing. Sonic Youth were far more 'jammy,' but in that avant/noise/free-jazz inspired sense that the Velvets were.

I echo McFab's spirited defense of Television. I saw Television in 2013 and was not bored for a secondin spite of the long instrumental passages of which he spoke.



Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

I did specify that liking Television was "not very close" to liking a jam band at all. But back in the 70s they did get a lot of Grateful Dead comparisons.

Plenty of my friends have tried to turn me on to the jam bands, from Saint Dave on down (or the Grateful Dead on up).

My response to them all usually is the same: "Yeah, these guys can play well, and the singer's good too ... and this is a pretty good song. But it could've ended 15 minutes ago, and I would've been fine with it." Unless it's the Dead, in which case my response is more like, "These guys had no business pushing brooms across a stage, much less playing music on it."

Ugh. Jam bands. Any musical form that relies on drugs for effect [see: house, techno as well] is D.O.A. with me. Drugs don't enhance creativity. They make musicians sloppy and self-satified. There is plenty of music that does not require of its listeners to ingest weird chemicals.



Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

What does a Deadhead say when he comes down from his high?

"Who IS this band? They suck!"

Not a musician but "Carry On" actor Sid James dies onstage during a play. He was sitting in a chair and they didn't realise for a while apparently.

I saw Television a few years ago, and the show didn't include many drawn-out passages at all. In fact, they stuck pretty close to the "templates" of the records. Not that I'm complaining.

my bad, i thought Bruce Hornsby died.