The RIP Famous Person Thread

[panama hat]

"dahling I love you but give me park avenue"




Nice show to watch as a kid!

[harrybarracuda]

Percy Sledge, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame R&B singer, has died at 73 after battling cancer, ABC News is reporting.



From his Hall of Fame bio:

Released on Atlantic in 1966, "When a Man Loves a Woman" topped the R&B and pop charts for multiple weeks and raised the bar for soul balladeering for all time. Yet Sledge's career didn't end with that momentous first single. Over the years he racked up a dozen hits at Atlantic, including "Warm and Tender Love," "It Tears Me Up," "Out of Left Field" and "Take Time to Know Her."

Sledge was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. His last album was released in 2013.

From the Associated Press:

Before he became famous, Sledge worked in the cotton fields around his hometown of Leighton in northwest Alabama and took a job in a hospital in nearby Sheffield. He also spent weekends playing with a rhythm-and-blues band called the Esquires. A patient at the hospital heard him singing while working and recommended him to record producer Quin Ivy.

In the 2013 documentary "Muscle Shoals," Sledge recalled recording the song: "When I came into the studio, I was shaking like a leaf. I was scared." He added that it was the "same melody that I sang when I was out in the fields. I just wailed out in the woods and let the echo come back to me."

The composition of the song has long been a mystery. Some thought that Sledge wrote it himself. Sledge said he was inspired by a girlfriend who left him for a modeling career after he was laid off from a construction job in 1965, but he gave the songwriting credits to two Esquires bandmates, bassist Calvin Lewis and organist Andrew Wright, who helped him with the song.

While identified with the Muscle Shoals music scene, Sledge spent most of his career living in Baton Rouge, La.

In April 1994, Sledge pleaded guilty in federal court to tax evasion involving income from concerts in the late 1980s. He was sentenced to six months in a halfway house, given five years of probation, and ordered to pay $96,000 in back taxes and fines. When he pleaded guilty, he told the judge, "I knew I owed more."

Sledge had surgery for liver cancer in January 2014 but soon resumed touring.

Percy Sledge, 'When a Man Loves a Woman' singer, dies at 73: reports | PennLive.com

[misskit]

Bared his soul in song.



Goodbye, Percy Sledge

[palexxxx]

RIP Percy.

[pompeysbroke]

RIP Percy...left a mark!

That's the end of an awesome era, all gone now, aren't they? Marvin, Otis, Bobby Womack, Teddy Pendegrass and the like.

[Davis Knowlton]

A great song that brings back a lot of memories! RIP.

[patsycat]

Me too. Up there with some of the best.

My fave was Barry White and Luther Vandross - Dance with my Father Again-

Just something about those guys and songs. Hopefully, we shall go on listening to them with joy and memories.

[Cujo]

A great song that brings back a lot of memories! RIP.

That'll be us soon, RIP.

[billy the kid]

thanks for the memory Otis. great great voice.

think the original words were ' why are you leaving me'
but Otis changed it to something he had in his mind.
when a man loves a woman.
what was going on in his life.

[palexxxx]

thanks for the memory Otis. great great voice.

think the original words were ' why are you leaving me'
but Otis changed it to something he had in his mind.
when a man loves a woman.
what was going on in his life.

Otis?? I thought this was about Percy.

[billy the kid]

right i'm racing here. Percy Sledge.

Otis , has he gone yet ?

[misskit]

^Otis Redding died in a plane crash back in the 60's.

[patsycat]

I thought, for a moment, that Otis was killed by his father. But then realised it was Marvin Gaye.

[Looper]

^Marvin Gaye killed Otis Redding?!

Was he the pilot?!

[harrybarracuda]

^Marvin Gaye killed Otis Redding?!

Was he the pilot?!

He was on the grassy knoll.

[panama hat]

^Marvin Gaye killed Otis Redding?!

Was he the pilot?!

He was on the grassy knoll.

Behind the grassy knoll, surely

[BaitongBoy]

He was on the grassy knoll.

Laughed out loud, I did, harry...

Think it was the dock at the bay...

[Latindancer]

Perhaps near the beach where we used to run ? She was twenty one.

[patsycat]

We shouldn't make fun of the dead!!

But sometimes it can't be helped.

[pompeysbroke]

I think you'll find that it was Al Green flying the plane

[patsycat]

And Lionel Ritchie was dancing on the ceiling.

[Dragonfly94]

Ought to be divided up into US dead and the rest, I never heard of half the US dead on here.

[harrybarracuda]

Ought to be divided up into US dead and the rest, I never heard of half the US dead on here.

Well don't read them then you dumb shit.

[BaitongBoy]

^Always that option...


Kinda scared me, up there patsy...

What happened to your face?...And your wingmen are gone...

[Sumbitch]

And Lionel Ritchie was dancing on the ceiling.

I saw Lionel Ritchie recently on T.V. at some kind of music award function in the U.K. He looked like he did in the '70s so you prolly won't have to mention his name again on this thread b/c this thread will prolly die before he does.

Ought to be divided up into US dead and the rest, I never heard of half the US dead on here.

Dead people are real easy to cut in half. So I don't think nationality matters. Well, on second thought, U.S. citizens are on avg. quite fat but tech has evolved so far that I'm sure that will present no problem. Therefore, I will not take back what I just said.