Where's Phil Spector?

The ten most dangerous

Graeme Thomson lists the musicians you wouldn't want to meet on the mean streets .... then goes into hiding

Sunday November 11, 2007
The Observer

1. GG Allin
Unlike many in our ten he never actually killed anyone, but a decade of bloody, violent, shit-strewn gigs made the notorious 'scum punk' music's most consistent and confrontational threat. The man born Jesus Christ Allin in1956 rewrote the rule-book on audience participation, punching onlookers, defecating onstage, threatening suicide and demanding fellatio. Jailed several times, in 1989 he was arrested for the rape and torture of a woman; he was eventually found guilty of assault and jailed for 15 months. This deprived him of the chance to keep his promise to kill himself on stage in 1990. Allin proved to be a marginally bigger danger to himself than to anyone else. At a gig in New York in 1993, in which he knocked a photographer unconscious and then hurled himself through a glass door, he had to leave pursued by an angry mob. That night he died of a heroin overdose in friend Johnny Puke's apartment.

2. Leadbelly
First jailed as a teen for assaulting a 'truculent Dallas prostitute', Huddy Leadbetter shot and killed a man in 1918. Although later pardoned by a sympathetic prison governor, he was jailed again in 1930 - for assault with intent to murder - and 1939.

3. Bertrand Cantat
The front man of Noir Desir and perhaps France's most famous rock star, Cantat was released last month after serving half of an eight-year sentence for killing his mistress. Actress Marie Trintignant died after he punched her repeatedly while 'out of control.'

4. Big Lurch
The West Coast rhymer raised the rap 'n' violence stakes in 2002 when he was convicted of murdering Tynisha Ysais in her apartment and eating parts of her face and lungs while high on PCP. Currently serving a life sentence. Which is a relief.

5. La Musica Della Mafia
Specialis ts in ancient tarantelle describing the blood-soaked history of 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian Mafia; spokesman Francesco Sbano describes these scarily well-connected gents only as 'men of honour'. Let's leave it there, shall we?

6. Spade Cooley
'The king of western swing', star of his own 1950s TV show and a regular in B-westerns , Cooley killed his wife in 1961 by 'stomping her to death' in front of his 14-year-old daughter, after learning she wanted a divorce. He died soon after of a heart attack.

7. Hugh Whitaker
The Housemartins' innocuous looking drummer was banged up in 1993 for firebombing the house of a business associate and, according to Paul Heaton, 'hitting the guy straight on the head with an axe'. That'll do it every time...

8. Jah Cure
Jamaica's baddest reggae star was sentenced to 15 years in 1999 for raping a woman at gunpoint. Released on parole in July, Cure was due to play in the UK last month but was refused an entry visa due to his criminal conviction.

9. Varg Vikerns
The man behind black-metal Norsemen Burzum enjoys church burning and is currently doing time for murdering Mayhem's Oystein Aarseth in 1993. Due for release next year, despite escaping - briefly - with enough firearms to 'pass for a commando.'

10 Jim Gordon
Q: Which member of Derek and the Dominoes and co-writer of 'Layla ' murdered his mother with a hammer and knife in 1983, believing she was Satan? A: Not Eric Clapton. Psychiatrically disturbed drummer Gordon remains locked up.

http://music.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,2206916,00.html

Ted Nugent??

Axl Rose?

Ted is undoubtedly dangerous to certain wildlife, but I don't think he's killed any people.

Big Black, The Cramps or Butthole Surfers need to write a song about ole Big Lurch

Depending on who you believe, Sam Cooke.

Michael Jackson

Only if you're a little boy...

Or a chimp. LOL!

But Michael actually titled one of his albums "Dangerous"...

<10 Jim Gordon
Q: Which member of Derek and the Dominoes and co-writer of 'Layla ' murdered his mother with a hammer and knife in 1983, believing she was Satan? A: Not Eric Clapton. Psychiatrically disturbed drummer Gordon remains locked up.>

I can prove that's not me! Here's why:

1.) I play trumpet, not drums.
2.) My mom's still alive.
3.) She's a saint, not Satan.
4.) Psychiatrically disturbed? Perhaps. Locked up? No.

Jim

No Sid Vicious?

Larry Williams ("Slow Down," "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," "Bad Boy," "Bony Moroney") was supposedly a man with whom you did NOT tangle. He died in 1980 from a gunshot wound, which was deemed a suicide, but in light of his many non-music-related "business dealings" (particularly, narcotics and pimping) it is often speculated that he was actually murdered. I've actually spoken with a couple people who knew him and they confirmed that he was a very dangerous man.

These things always bug me; full of stupid inaccuracies. I count at least four of these musicians where this journalist got the details wrong. Here's one:


6. Spade Cooley
'The king of western swing', star of his own 1950s TV show and a regular in B-westerns , Cooley killed his wife in 1961 by 'stomping her to death' in front of his 14-year-old daughter, after learning she wanted a divorce. He died soon after of a heart attack.

Actually, he went berserk because he was goaded into believing she was having an affair with Roy Rogers (and she may have been, apparently.) Also, she was into "free-love" according to many who knew her, and Spade just couldn't handle this fact; he was a paranoid guy to begin with.
He had a heart attack during the trial, but survived and lived in jail for EIGHT YEARS, and was allowed out of jail to perform charity events. After one of these, he died backstage.

The list caught my eye because I had just heard one of the Christmas songs produced by Phil Spector. I had also been thinking about Jim Gordon after hearing "Bell Bottom Blues". I just posted it because I thought some people here might want to see it.

I do find it interesting that I appreciate and relate to music and other art forms created by people that I might dislike, and that some of those artists have done horrible things. I don't get any morbid pleasure out of listening to someone that might have committed murder. I actually feel some discomfort knowing about Leadbelly's background. And now there is the Phil Spector incident.

Jerry Lee Lewis is another one that might make some lists.

Many of the early blues performers had brushes with the law.Son House did time for murder, although it may have been in self-defense, Bukka White did time, and Sonny Boy Williamson allegedly had to flee the country after stabbing a man. A lot of those guys did bad things, did their time, and lived decent lives the rest of their time.

I always felt bad for Gordon(his mother too). He was a real talented guy, and mental illness got the best of him in a big way

I was actually considering going to that show! Instead I wound up going to the Mets game at Shea Stadium that afternoon... if memory serves me right that was the game where Mets pitcher Anthony Young set or broke a record for most consecutive losses.

Truth be told, I probably would have been scared out of my wits if I had gone to see GG; although I had seen "Hated" (the then-recent documentary about GG, which included concert footage), I don't think I'd have been prepared to experience the man in person. I'd like to get ahold of the DVD of that final performance, to see what I missed (from the safety of my own home, of course... ).

David slayed tens of thousands and played a mean harp.

Yes, but David slayed in the name of the Lord, which let him off the hook(except, of course, for the Uriah the Hittite incident).

Still --- one dangerous musician!

Amy Winehouse sounds pretty dangerous to me.

And I have nightmares about Celine Dion. She scares me.