THEY ALSO SERVED
NASHVILLE recording engineer GLENN SNODDY (above, b.1922), a veteran of innumerable sessions, was working with Marty Robbins in 1961 when an amp blew, catchily distorting guitarist Grady Martin’s solo on the song Don’t Worry. The record was a Number 1, and the sound was in demand: Snoddy duly built a guitar pedal to replicate the effect, which the Gibson company bought and made into the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone, the first commercially available fuzzbox.
FRIGHTENED RABBIT vocalist, guitarist and songwriter SCOTT HUTCHISON (right, b.1981) founded the Glasgow-based indie rockers in 2003. They recorded five albums together, including the Top 20 entries Pedestrian Verse in 2013 and 2016’s Painting Of A Panic Attack. Upon hearing of his death, Frightened Rabbit co-producer Aaron Dessner of The National hailed Hutchison’s songs “which explore the depths of human despair with such poetry.”
PIANIST GÉRARD JOUANNEST (b.1933) played in the cabarets of Paris and for Jacques Brel’s arranger François Rauber before, in 1959, beginning his association with the great Belgian chansonnier. Their co-writing credits included Mathilde, Jacky and Amsterdam. After Brel dissolved their creative partnership in 1967, Jouannest became accompanist to Juliette Gréco, who he married in 1988. He returned to work with Brel on 1977’s farewell Les Marquises. He also composed for the theatre and television, and wrote for French singers Miossec, Benjamin Biolay and Abd Al Malik.
VOCALIST STEWART LUPTON (b.1975) fronted garage punks-with-organ Jonathan Fire*Eater, who formed in New York in 1993. An early rumble of the rekindling of NYC rock’n’roll, the band’s self-titled debut led to a bidding war won by the DreamWorks label, but 1997’s Wolf Songs For Lambs was not a success. Hamstrung by Lupton’s drug use, the group split in 1998; his bandmates formed The Walkmen, while Lupton studied poetry at university and formed The Child Ballads and The Beatings. On his passing, The Walkmen wrote: “He pushed us all to do something original and dangerous and to avoid being boring at all costs.”
DJ TONY WILLIAMS (b. unknown) cut his teeth in London’s clubs before playing the best in Jamaican music on his Reggae Rockers show from 1977 to 1988 on Radio London. As DJ and historian Greg Wilson revealed, Williams also used his knowledge of R&B and soul as a producer of Funk Masters’ Love Money in 1980, an influential dub/dance/rap track esteemed by NY DJs including Larry Levan and David Mancuso. He later founded the British Reggae Industry Awards.
JOE MEEK’s studio assistant PATRICK PINK (b. 1949) worked closely with the troubled producer and was present at the February 3 1967 murder/ suicide which ended his life. He was also the last singer Meek recorded, when he sang True To You at a February 2 session. Pink, who changed his name by deed poll to the Meek alias Robbie Duke, also produced Jet Harris, released a strange prison-themed solo single Sing Sing Barbara in 1978, and was displeased by the 2009 Meek biopic Telstar, which he described as “shite”.
SINGER AND MANAGER ABI OFARIM (b.1937) achieved success in a duo with his wife Esther in the late ’60s, with their version of novelty song Cinderella Rockefella reaching UK Number 1 in February 1968. The pair divorced in 1970; thereafter Abi Ofarim moved into writing and band management through his company PROM. Among his clients were, incongruously, Can, who sued him to be released from contract. Ofarim released his last solo album in 2009.
GOSPEL VOICE CLARENCE FOUNTAIN (b.1929) co-founded vocal group legends The Blind Boys Of Alabama. Initially called The Happy Land Jubilee Singers, their first success came with I Can See Everybody’s Mother But Mine in 1948. Renamed by a promoter in New Jersey, they would later sing for Martin Luther King Jr as the fight for civil rights continued. After being rediscovered in the ’90s, the group sang at the White House, played with Lou Reed, Prince and Mavis Staples, and won five Grammys. Fountain retired from touring in 2007. Clive Prior