Gloomy Tunes: Edwin Starr and Buddy Rich

Today marks the anniversaries of the deaths of two music greats: Edwin Starr, Agent Double-O-Soul, whose “War” was one of the toughest sounding songs to come out of the Motown his factory, who sang his last in 2003, and drummer Buddy Rich, who defined Big Band drumming  performing with Count Basie, Harry James, and Tommy Dorsey, and his  billing as “the world’s greatest drummer” was not hyperbole, hit the great bandstand in the sky in 1987.

Here’s a great clip of Rich and Gene Krupa from a 1966 episode of Sammy Davis, Jr.’s variety show, doing battle on “Swing, Swing, Swing,” followed by a short playlist of Edwin Starr.

Steven Mirkin

Steven Mirkin’s diverse career has taken him from politics to pop culture to high art, offering him a front row seat to some of the most fascinating events and personalities of our time: writing speeches, fundraising appeals and campaign materials for Ed Koch, John Heinz and independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson; chronicling the punk/new wave scenes in New York and London; interviewing musicians such as Elton John, John Lydon and Buck Owens; profiling modern masters Julian Schnabel, Paul Schrader and Jonathan Safran Foer; and writing for TV shows including 21, The Chamber, Let's Make A Deal, and Rock Star: INXS.

Leave a Reply

Notify of
avatar
1000
wpDiscuz