R.I.P Rock Heroes

This has not been a good year for rock musicians, in terms of death.

Last week we lost Arthur Lee, leader of Love. If you're not familiar with Forever Changes, their 1967 album, it's worth your while - if Sgt. Pepper was the lighter side of acid, Forever Changes got the darker side. Lee was lead singer and main composer, though Bryan McLean deserves more than a nod for his "Alone Again Or."

Anyway, here they are performing their first hit, a cover of Burt Bacharach's "My Little Red Book."



And last month Syd Barrett passed on. There are those who think that Pink Floyd was never the same after their crazy diamond took his own route. Here's Syd & the boys doing "Arnold Layne."



But the one that hit me hardest was Grant McLennan. He was the co-founder of the Go-Betweens (with Robert Forster), and he wrote some wonderful songs with them, with a later project called Jack Frost, and on his own solo records. Only 48 when he died, he still had fresh irons in the fire, and there's no telling what he would have gone on to say.

Far and away the song of his that mattered the most to me was "Cattle and Cane," from the Go-Betweens' second album Before Hollywood. This is one of those songs that's sad, but in a strangely invigorating way. It's got an airy flow to it, and simple lyrics that I'll never get to the bottom of.



Gentlemen, may all of you be at peace.