“Sunglasses At Night”, “Boy In The Box”, “Never Surrender”,
“Can’t Help Falling In Love” – all successful hits for Montreal native Corey
Hart. Now, after his final performance
at the Bell Centre in Montreal June 3rd, he’s packing it in. Forget freedom 55, Corey’s retiring at 52. So that got me to wondering, how many other
music stars have actually left the entertainment scene behind voluntarily? And that’s the focus of our 5 questions this
week. Rock or pop stars who, for one
reason or another, have gone away, dropped out, walked off into the sunset, vacated
the premises, put the ‘Gone Fishing’ sign up on the door, fell off the face of
the earth, closed up shop, hit the road….OK, I’ll stop now. Have fun!
QUESTIONS
1. This performer ran away
as opposed to retiring. He left the
popular British group that he had co-founded in 1968, not long before they
became megastars. His ‘dark side’ began
to take over his life and he was even hospitalized for a time. He created a few solo musical projects – the
last one was released in 1970. He
remained a recluse until his death in 2006, although he did enjoy gardening. His former band mates, on their 1975 album
“Wish You Were Here”, wrote and recorded a tribute song called “Shine On You
Crazy Diamond”. Who was this influential,
experimental, psychedelic guitarist?
2. This shoot-from-the-lip woman first became
famous as lead singer for a super successful ‘60’s psychedelic San Francisco
group (say that phrase three times fast).
In a 1998 VH1 interview, she said that “All rock and rollers over the age of 50 look stupid and should retire.”
Her group went through several name changes over the years, but each
time, they continued to have hits. Their
first Top Ten chart success happened in 1967, although they didn’t actually get
to # 1 until the 1980’s. She went on to
have a modest solo career that included her 1981 album, “Welcome To The
Wrecking Ball”. Can you ‘grace’ us with
her name?
3. The bass player for this
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group basically ‘retired’ after the lead singer died
in 1991. He wrote several of the groups’
hits, including “You’re My Best Friend”, “I Want To Break Free” and “Another
One Bites The Dust”. He was the last
member of this rock quartet to join after he auditioned for the other three at London’s
Imperial College in 1971 and became part of rock royalty. He’s not a man of the cloth, although his
last name is the term for one. Who is
he?
4. His former band has continued
on for several decades after this rock and roll bass player ‘retired’ in 1993. He initially joined them in December of
1962. He was the first member of this
group to release a solo record (“Monkey Grip”) in May of 1974. He’s the owner of ‘Sticky Fingers’ restaurant
in London. He still performs with his
own group The Rhythm Kings and has upcoming gigs scheduled in England during
June and July. Why man, I’ll bet you
already know his name…so what is it already?
5. This Canadian songbird first hit Billboards’
Hot 100 chart in 1970. She continued
with hit after hit for several decades. She
was the first Canadian female solo singer to make it to # 1 on the U.S. singles charts. Her albums have sold more than 50 million
copies and she’s won 4 Grammy Awards, 24 JUNOs and multiple other awards. She’s been inducted into the Canadian Country
Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame (aka The JUNO Hall of
Fame). This singing superstar has a star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as well as one on Canada’s Walk of Fame and
Canada Post issued a stamp with her picture on it in 2007. She retired from performing in 2008 and was
one of 8 Canadians chosen to carry the Olympic flag at the opening ceremony for
the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Who is she? Ann…your answer is?
ANSWERS
1. Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett later life
was quite complicated. In Junior School
in England, one of his teacher’s was Roger Waters’ mother. Later in high school, he was in the same
class with Roger. He met David Gilmour
in the art department of the Cambridge Technical College. Pink Floyd evolved through various groups and
names including The Abdabs, The Screaming Abdabs, and The Tea Set (never to be
confused with the 1970 Dutch group The Tee Set whose only Top Ten hit was “Ma
Belle Amie”). At one gig, Barrett’s band
was on the same bill as another band with the same name. Syd instantly came up with The Pink Floyd
Sound, which eventually became Pink Floyd.
The group had several minor British chart hits with Syd – “Arnold Layne”
and “See Emily Play”. After seriously
experimenting with drugs (most notably LSD), Barrett left Pink Floyd (or they
left him) in April 1968. He recorded
several solo albums, both in 1970 – “The Madcap Laughs” and “Barrett”, plus a
single “Octopus”, before retreating to his painting and gardening. Syd Barrett died on July 7, 2006.
2. Remember Grace Slick, the lead singer of
Jefferson Airplane? They first charted
on Billboards’ Hot 100 in 1967 with two Top Ten songs, “Somebody To Love” (# 5)
and “White Rabbit”(# 8). In the early
1970’s, after a few personnel changes, they renamed the group Jefferson Starship and had two more
Top Ten single hits, “Miracles (# 3 in 1975) and “Count On Me” (# 8 in
’78). After one more name change in the
1980’s to Starship, they finally hit # 1 with “We Built This City” in ’85. That same year, “Sara” topped the singles
chart. 1987’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us
Now” was the final # 1 for Starship. Grace
Slick left the group in 1988 and continued a solo career that included the .
3. John
Deacon has steadfastly refused to participate in any Queen reunion for the
past 14 years. While Queen’s former bass
player did participate in the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS
Awareness in 1992, a charity concert in ’93 and, in ’97, joined Queen guitar
player Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor (along with Elton John) for the Bejart
ballet in Paris of “The Show Must Go On”, he did not attend Queen’s Rock and
Roll induction ceremony in 2001, nor was he a part of the Queen + Paul Rodgers
tour. Deacon also didn’t participate in
Queens’ performance during the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics and
he is not a part of the current Queen + Adam Lambert collaboration.
I think we can safely say that,
as of this moment in time, Roger Deacon is indeed ‘retired’ (although he
remains a part of the Queen business empire).
4. Bill
Wyman left The Rolling Stones officially in 1993, although he actually
wrapped it up after The Stones Steel Wheels Tour in 1989-1990. They seem to have done alright for themselves
following his departure. Wyman was born
William George Perks on October 24th, 1936 and took the last name
Wyman from a pal with whom he’d served in the Royal Air Force from 1955 to ’57. A few years after he left The Stones, Bill
formed The Rhythm Kings and continues to perform with them. Bill Wyman’s written several books on the
history of The Rolling Stones, including 1997’s “Stone Alone – The Story of a
Rock’n’Roll Band”, “Rolling With The Stones” (2002) and “Bill Wyman’s Blues
Odyssey: A Journey to Music’s Heart & Soul” (2001)
5. It’s Anne Murray of course. Her final public concert was at Toronto’s
Sony Centre on May 23, 2008. After
retiring from performing and recording, Anne wrote her autobiography “All of
Me” in 2010. Anne is a companion of the
Order of Canada and was honoured with the Order of Nova Scotia in 2002. Anne and Leonard Cohen received the Legacy
Award from the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (even though Ann is not a
songwriter). Murray was cited for her
support of Canada’s songwriters through her performances and recordings. Anne Murray is an avid golfer and is a
longtime supporter of environmental charities.
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