October 2022 – According to The Kidd

BEFORE THEY REACH BOMBAY – Post 14. The Musicians Alphabetized

JOHN BONHAM OF LED ZEPPELIN, 1975
By Dina Regine, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8005266

This is part of a database of a thousand musicians who all died before they reached their life expectancy – beginning in 1994, putting this together at odd hours has been a welcome temporary distraction from the boring, unpleasant and daunting necessities of real life (I credit my wife for suggesting this wonderful method of distraction).

If you haven’t read Post 1 – Rethinking Mortality, which explains everything, then it’s probably a good idea to do so before reading this post – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/

NOTE – This first section, down to the blue line, can be found at the beginning of all the posts. If you have read it already you can skip ahead if you like.

Data on a thousand musicians were collected. The musicians all died before they were expected to die but the database isn’t interested in the age of the musicians when they died. That information would be of little importance despite what those who talk about the Twenty-Seven Club say. The idea of the Twenty-Seven Club is that if you are a great musician there’s a high probability that you will die at the age of 27, an idea that is nonsense. Instead the actual length of each musician’s life was compared with her / his life expectancy at birth. The percentage of the expected life span which each musician happened to complete was calculated. This gives a far more useful look at the phenomenon of early mortality among musicians. For example, though both Robert Johnson and Amy Winehouse died at the age of 27, Johnson (male African-American born in 1911) died having completed 80.09977% of his expected life span of 34.07 years but Winehouse (female Brit born in 1983) died having completed only 35.98811% of her expected life span of 77.4 years, two very different situations.

This database has been created at odd times over the past three decades after people began to talk nonsense about the Twenty-Seven Club when Kurt Cobain joined in 1994. It began as a quick survey of a hundred musicians chosen at random to see if more people died at the age of twenty-seven than at any other age. It evolved into an examination of a thousand musicians (in order to make the data more representative) to see how and why so many musicians died early. In the process a great deal of intriguing information about musical history was discovered (see Post 7 – Noteworthy Deaths, plus the sample musician profiles).

The title of the database comes from the line “And I laid traps for troubadours who get killed before they reach Bombay” from the Rolling Stones’ 1968 song ‘Sympathy For The Devil’. It refers to the Middle Eastern trade routes frequented by nomadic musicians during the Dark Ages.

Here are the relevant database posts:

Rethinking Mortality – An introduction to the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/
Percentages of expected life spans completed by musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-2-percentage-of-expected-life-spans/
Criteria for inclusion in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-3-database-inclusion/
Criteria for inclusion in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-4-birth-years-of-the-musicians/
The causes of death – Overview – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-5-causes-of-death-overview/
The causes of death – data on all of the musicians – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-6-the-cause-of-death-data-on-all-of-the-musicians/
Noteworthy deaths – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-7-noteworthy-deaths/
Demographics – the birthplaces, gender, ethnicities, nationalities and musical skills of database members – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-8-demographics/
Ages at death of musicians in general – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-9-ages-at-death/
The twenty-seven club discredited – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-10-the-27-club-discredited/
Sample musician profiles 1 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-11-sample-profiles-1/
Sample musician profiles 2 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-12-sample-profiles-2/
Sample musician profiles 3 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-13-sample-profiles-3/
An alphabetical list of the musicians in the database

—————————————–

NOTE:

The most well-known musicians are in boldface and italicized. The numbers in parentheses indicates the number of years short of the expected life span completed by the musician at death according to the following categories:

0 – 0 to 9.999 lost years
10 – 10.0 to 19.999 lost years
20 – 20.0 to 29.999 lost years
30 – 30.0 to 39.999 lost years
40 – 40.0 to 49.999 lost years
50 – 50.0 to 59.999 lost years

Aaliyah (Aaliyah Dana Haughton) (50), Johnny Ace(John Alexander Jr.) (20), Barbara Acklin (0), Chris Acland (30), Stuart Adamson (20), Cannonball Adderley (Julian Adderley) (0), Jean Adebambo (20), Carl Albert (30), Dave Alexander (30), Alexandra (Doris Nefedov) (40), Peter Allen (Peter Woolnough) (10), Rod Allen (0), G.G. Allin (30),Duane Allman (40), Vic Ames (Vic Urick) (10), Chrissy Amphlett (10), Jared Anderson (30), Melanie Appleby (30), Ron Asheton (0), Scott Asheton (0), Matthew Ashman (30), Astro (Terence Wilson) (0), Paul Atkinson (0), Chris Austin (40), Hoyt Axton (0), Packy Axton (20)
B (Jonas Bergvist) (50), Rebop Kwaku Baah (Anthony Kwaku Rebop) (0), Sammy Babitzin (Aleksandr Babitzin) (30), Baby Huey (James Ramey) (30), Guy Babylon (10), Chet Baker (0), Lefty Baker (Eustace) (30), Michael Baker (20), Terje Bakken (40), Florence Ballard (20), Paul Baloff (20), Bankroll Fresh (Trentavious White) (40), Chico Banks (Vernon X. Banks) (10), Darrell Banks (Darrell Eubanks) (10), Barbecue Bob (Robert Hicks) (0), Ray Barbieri (30), Peter Bardens (0), George Barnes (0), Carlton Barrett (20), Syd Barrett (0), Alexander Bashlachev (20), Robbie Basho (Daniel Robinson Jr.) (0), Stiv Bators (Steven Bators) (20), Simone Battle (40), Khalis Bayyan (Ronald Bell) (0), Ole Beich (20), Bix Beiderbecke (Leon Beiderbecke) (20), Chris Bell (30), Melissa Bell (10), John Belushi (30), Jesse Belvin (20), Benny Benjamin (William Benjamin) (0), Doug Bennett (10), Jay Bennett (20), Chester Bennington (20), René Berg (20), Wes Berggren (30), Michel Berger (Michel Jean Hamburger) (20), Bert Berns (20), Randall Bewley (10), The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson) (30), Big Hawk (John Hawkins) (20), Big L (Lamont Coleman) (30), Big Maybelle (Mabel Louise Smith) (0), Big Pun (Christopher Rios) (30), Gaylord Birch (0), Bill Black (10), Randy Black (John Morris) (20), Tommy Blake (Thomas Givens) (0), Alan Blakley (10), Marek Blizinski (20), Dave Blood (Dave Schulthise) (10), Bobby Bloom (30), Mike Bloomfield (20), Jimmy Blythe (0), Nicole Bogner (40), Marc Bolan (30), Tommy Bolin (40), Graham Bond (20), Ronnie Bond (Ronald Bullis) (10), John Bonham (30), Juke Boy Bonner (Weldon H. Bonner) (0), James Booker (0), Bored Nothing (Fergus Miller) (50), Adrian Borland (20), Boston Blackie (0), Gerry Boulet (20), Patrick Bourque (40), David Box (40), Tommy Boyce (0), Laura Branigan (20), Erik Brann (10), Lenny Breau (10), Jacques Brel (10), Gene Bricker (10), Shirley Brickley (20), Chuck Briggs (20), Dave Brockie (20), Jon Brookes (20), Bad News Brown (Paul Frappier) (10), Danny Joe Brown (10), David Brown (0), Jo Bruce (Jonas Bruce) (40), Jimmy Bryant (0), Roy Buchanan (10), Rob Buck (20), Jeff Buckley (30), Tim Buckley (30), Roy Budd (10), Norton Buffalo (0), Bugz (Kamail Pitts) (40), Bull City Red (George Washington) (0), Dorsey Burnette (10), Johnny Burnette (30), Bob Burns (0), Boz Burrell (Raymond Burrell) (0), Heinz Burt (10), Cliff Burton (40), Paul Butterfield (10), George Butterworth (20), Glen Buxton (10), David Byron (David Garrick) (20)
Stuart Cable (30), Randy California (Randy Wolfe) (20), Ronnie Caldwell (40), Tommy Caldwell (30), Camoflauge (Jason Johnson) (40), John Campbell (0), Jim Capaldi (0), Eric Carr (Paul Caravello)(20), Kevin Carpenter (30), Leroy Carr (0), Randy Carr (20), Jim Carroll (0), Dave Carter (10), Eva Cassidy (40), Randy Castillo (10), Cecilia (Evangelina Galanes) (40), Danny Cedrone (Donato) (20), Chas. Chandler (0), Harry Chapin (20), Bill Chase (20), Louis Chauvin (10), Jim Cherry (30), Bobby Chouinard (20), Charlie Christian (10), Dyke Christian (Arlester Christian) (20), John Cipollina (10), Gene Clark (10), Michael Clarke (20), Steve Clark (30), Josh Clayton-Felt (30),Patsy Cline (30), Odia Coates (0), Kurt Cobain (40), Ed Cobb (0), Eddie Cochran (40), Alma Cogan (30), Mick Cocks (10), Brian Cole (20), Nat ‘King’ Cole (0), Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (10), Allen Collins (20), Lyn Collins (Gloria Lavern Collins) (0), Rob Collins (30), John Coltrane (0), Ken Colyer (0), Amie Comeaux (50), Brian Connolly (10), Sam Cooke (Samuel Cook) (10), Sean Costello (40), Country Dick Montana (Daniel McLain) (20), Barry Cowsill (10), Vincent Crane (Vincent Cheesman) (10), Darby Crash (Jan Paul Beahm) (40), Linda Creed (30), Todd Crew (40), Jim Croce (30), Robbin Crosby (20), Nick Curran (30), Steve Currie (30), Benjamin Curtis (30),Ian Curtis (40), King Curtis (Curtis Montgomery) (10), John Curulewski (20), Johnny Cymbal (John Blair) (10)
Robert Dahlqvist (30), Rick Danko (0), Dennis Danell (20), Bobby Darin (Robert Cassotto) (20), Sahara Davenport (Antoine Ashley) (40), Cyril Davies (30), Geater Davis (Vernon Davis) (10), Jesse Ed Davis (10), Paul Davis (0), Tim Davis (10), D. Boon (Dennis Boon) (30), Dead (Per Ohlin) (50), Bobby Debarge (20), Dimebag Darrell (Darrell Abbott) (20), Don Decker (20), Eddie DeLang (Edgar Moss) (0), Rabon Delmore (10), Darryl DeLoach (10), Andy DeMize (Andrew Martinez) (40), Sandy Denny (Alexandra Denny) (40), John Denver (Henry Deutschendorf Jr.) (10), Derek B. (Derek Boland) (20), Paul Desmond (0), Tony Destra (30), James Dewar (0), Joe Diffie (0), Nate Dogg (Nathaniel Hale) (10), Divine (Harris Milstead) (20), Doe B. (Glenn Thomas ) (50), Dolla (Roderick Burton II) (50), Eric Dolphy (10), Patty Donahue (30), Ral Donner (20), Gord Downie (10), Nick Drake (30), Pete Drake (Roddis Drake) (0), Roy Draper (10), Gary Driscoll (20), Kevin DuBrow (10), John DuCann (John William Cann) (0), Christian Dudek (20), Tony Duhig (10), Roger Lee Durham (20), Ian Dury (0), Ronnie Dyson (10)
Eazy-Z (Eric Wright) (30), Jerry Edmonton (Jerry McCrohan) (10), Bernard Edwards (10), Richey Edwards (40), Mama Cass Elliot (Ellen Cohen) (30), Don Ellis (10), Jim Ellison (30), Sims Ellison (30), Ruby Pearl Elzy (0), John Entwistle (0), Epic Soundtracks (Kevin Godfrey) (30), Howie Epstein (10), Frank Esler-Smith (20), Bill Evans (0), Ean Evans (Donald Evans) (10), Tom Evans (20), Iosu Exposito (30)
John Fahey (0), Falco (Johann Holzel) (20), Richard Farina (30), Pete Farndon (30), Joe Farrell (Joseph Firrantello) (10), Fat Pat (Patrick Hawkins) (30), Irving Fazola (10), Thomas Fekete (40), Victor Feldman (0), Steve Ferguson (0), Mickey Finn (10), Rob Fisher (20), Flabba (Nkululeko Habedi) (10), Andy Fletcher (0), Zenon de Fleur (Zenon Hierowski) (30), Keith Flint (20), Dan Fogelberg (0), Tom Fogerty (10), Zac Foley (40), Mary Ford (Iris Summers) (0), Rhett Forrester (20), Ken Forssi (0), Leroy Foster (10), Buren Fowler (10), Carolyn Franklin (10), Freaky Tah (Raymond Rogers) (30), Carole Fredericks (10), Pete de Freitas (30), Kevin Fret (40), Marcelo Fromer (10), Jerry Fuchs (Gerhardt Fuchs) (30), Bobby Fuller (30), Tiki Fulwood (Ramon Fulwood) (10), Mike Furber (40), Billy Fury (Ronald Wycherley) (20)

MARVIN GAYE 1973
By Photograph by Jim Britt. Originally distributed by Motown Records. – Scan via NYTimes. Retouched by uploader., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=96235514

Fad Gadget (Frank Tovey) (20), Cassie Gaines (40), Steve Gaines (30), Rory Gallagher (10), El Gallo de Oro (Valentin Elizalde) (40), Cliff Gallup (0), Marge Ganser (20), Mary Ann Ganser (50), Don Gant (10), Jerry Garcia (10), Paul Gardiner (50), Judy Garland (Frances Gumm) (10), Sherman Garnes (10), Ronnie Garvin (30), Stephen Gately (30), Danny Gatton (10), Marvin Gaye (Marvin Gay) (0), Gidget Gein (Mark Bradley) (20), Lowell George (30), George Gershwin (Jacob Gershowitz) (0), Gervasio (Jose Gervasio) (20), Andy Gibb (30),Maurice Gibb (10), Robin Gibb (0), Mike Gibbins (10), Shane Gibson (30), Kevin Gilbert (30), Martin Gilks (20), Ray Gillen (30), John Glascock (30), Brian Roy Goble (10), Keith Godchaux (30), Dwayne Goettel (30), Glenn Goins (20), Jeff Golub (0), Steve Goodman (20), Paul Gordon (10), Glenn Gould (10), Ernie Graham (0), Les Gray (0), Mark Gray (0), Ric Grech (20), Grant Green (0), Kenny Greene (20), Howard Greenfield (10), Bryan Gregory (Gregory Beckerleg) (10), Charles Griffes (0), John Grimaldi (30), Christina Grimmie (50), Orish Grinstead (40), Craig Gruber (0), Vince Guaraldi (Vincent Dellaglio) (10), Slada Guduras (40), Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones) (10), Guru (Keith Elam) (10)
Paul Hackman (30), Malcolm Hale (30),Eddie Van Halen (0), Bill Haley (0), Half a Mill (Jasun Wardlaw) (30), Larry Hall (0), Bianca Halstead (30), Greg Ham (10), Pete Ham (30), Dan Hamilton (10), Roy Hamilton (0), Handsome Ned (Robin Maysk) (40), Wilbur Harden (0), Tim Hardin (20), Sarah Harding (30), Hagood Hardy (0),Slim Harpo (James Moore) (0), Addie ‘Micki’ Harris (10), Norman Harris (10), George Harrison (0), Alex Harvey (10), Bryan Harvey (10), Leslie Harvey (30), Donny Hathaway (20), Hoyt Hawkins (0), Nick Hawkins (30), Taylor Hawkins (10), Mickey Hawks (10), Tubby Hayes (Edward Hayes) (20), Ofra Haza (20), Eddie Hazel (10), Jeff Healey (20), Mark Heard (20), Heavy D (Dwight Myers) (20), Michael Hedges (10), Helno (Noel Rota) (40), Joe Henderson (20), Jimi Hendrix (James Marshall Hendrix) (30), Gregory Herbert (30), Paul Hester (20), Hide (Hideto Matsumoto) (40), Munetaka Higuchi (20), Z.Z. Hill (Arzell J. Hill) (0), Eddie Hinton (10), Bob ‘The Bear’ Hite (10), Randy Jo Hobbs (20), Jim Hodder (20), Buddy Holly (Charles Holley) (30), James Honeyman-Scott (40), Darla Hood (10), Earl Hooker (0), Shannon Hoon (30), Elmo Hope (St. Elmo Hope) (0), Doug Hopkins (30), Nicky Hopkins (10), Johnny Horton (20), Michael Houser (20), Whitney Houston (20), George Howard (10), Wee Gee Howard (0), Brian Howe (0), Keith Hudson (20), Alan Hull (10), Marc Hunter (20), Gordon Huntley (0), Roy Huskey Jr. (20), Michael Hutchence (30), Phyllis Hyman (10)
Icewood Blade (Darnell Lindsay) (40), Marv Ingram (Marvin Inabnett) (0), Marvin Isley (0), O’Kelly Isley Jr. (0), It (Tony Sarkka) (30)
Al Jackson Jr. (10), Johnny Jackson (0), Michael Jackson (10), Tony Jackson (0), Walter Jackson (0), Marcel Jacob (20), Beau Jacque (Andrus Espree) (20), Nat Jaffe (20), James Jamerson (0), Elmore James (Elmore Brooks) (0), Mickie James (Donald Eugene Jones) (10), Nicky James (Michael Nicholls) (0), Rick James (James Johnson Jr.) (0), Jimi Jamison (James Jamison) (0),Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell) (20), Tom Jans (20), John Jarrard (10), Duane Jarvis (10), Felton Jarvis (10), Matthew Jay (40), Paul Jeffreys (30), Joe C. (Joseph Calleja) (40), Jan Johansson (20), Little Willie John (William John) (10), Michael Johns (30), Hubert Johnson (10), Kelly Johnson (Bernadette Johnson) (20), Luther ‘Snake Boy’ Johnson (Lucious Brinson) (10), Osie Johnson (0), Robert Johnson (0), Billy Jones (20), Bobby Jones (0), Brian Jones (30), Linda Jones (30), Rob Jones (30), Jonghyun (Kim Jong-Hyun) (40), Janis Joplin (40), Bill Justis (0)
Israel Kamakawiweo’ole (20), Michael Kamen (10), Kami (Ukyo Kamimura) (40), Arthur Kane (10), Carlo Karges (20), Michael Karoli (10), Terry Kath (30), Speedy Keen (John Keene) (10), Kazuhiko Kato (0), Brian Keenan (20), Trish Keenan (20), Graeme Kelling (20), Wells Kelly (30), Wynton Kelly (0), Frankie Kennedy (20), Chris Kenner (0), Beverly Kenney (30), Johnny Kidd (Frederick Heath) (30), Kid Thomas (Louis Thomas Watts) (10), Tommy Kiefer (40), Killah P. (Pavlos Fyssas Craddock) (40), Freddie King (0), Little Jimmy King (Emmanuel Lynn Gales) (20), Pete King (30), Robbie King (10), Raahson Roland Kirk (Ronald Kirk) (0), Kenny Kirkland (10), Yuri Klinskikh (10), Keith Knudsen (10), Helmut Kollen (40), Krzysztof Komeda (Krzysztof Trzcinski) (20), Jim Korther (20), Paul Kossoff (40), Philip Taylor Kramer (20), Eddie Kurdziel (20), Andriy Kuzmenko (10)
Leah LaBelle (40), Martin Lamble (40), Lamya (Lamya Al-Mugheiry) (30), Jani Lane (20), Ronnie Lane (10), Shawn Lane (20),Mario Lanza (Alfred Cocozza) (10), Jonathan Larson (30), Nicolette Larson (20), Peter Laughner (40), Chris Ledoux (0), Arthur Lee (0), Jon Lee (30), Leonard Lee (10), Michael Lee (Michael Pearson) (30), Min Leibrook (Wilfred Leibrook) (0), Iry Lejeune (Ira Lejeune) (30), John Lennon (20), J.B. Lenoir (0), Dave Lepard (David Hellman) (0), James Leroy (30), Gerald Levert (20), Sean Levert (20), Alexandra Levy (0), Andy Lewis (30), Rudy Lewis (20), Lil Loaded (Dashawn Robertson) (40), Lil Peep (Gustave Ahr) (40), Lil Phat (Melvin Vernell III) (40), Lily T. (Lily Tembo) (20), Mark Linkous (20),Little Walter (Walter Jacobs) (10), Shorty Long (Frederick Long) (20), Ty Longley (30), Looloosh (Soroush Farazmand) (30), Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes (30), Ira Louvin (Ira Loudermilk) (10), Tomas Lowe (40), Peter Lucia Jr. (20), Mitch Lucker (40), Antoine Lundy (20), Billy Lyall (30), Frankie Lymon (20), Phil Lynott (20), Ken Lyons (0)
Kirsty MacColl (30), Mac Dre (Andre Hicks) (20), Bryan MacLean (10), Kenny MacLean (10), Daniel MacMaster (30), Magic Sam (Samuel Maghett) (10), Magnolia Shorty (Renetta Lowe-Bridgewater) (50), Liam Maher (30), Colin Manley (0), Richard Manuel (20), Bob Marley (20), Steve Marriott (20), Jack Marshall (0), Tommy Marth (30), Bobbi Martin (Barbara Martin) (10), Alice Martineau (Marguerite J. Pinder) (40), Timmy Matley (30), Sean Mayes (10), Bob Mayo (10), MCA (Adam Yauch) (20), MC Breed (Eric Breed) (20), Bob McBride (10), Danny McBride (0), Patti McCabe (10), Sean McCabe (40), Louis A. McCall Sr. (10), Allan McCarthy (30), Bobby McClure (0), David McComb (30), Van McCoy (10), Mindy McCready (20), Jimmy McCulloch (40), Butch McDade (David McDade) (10), MC Daleste (Daniel Pellegrine) (40), Guy McDonough (40), John McGeoch (20), Gerry McGhee (0), Sticks McGhee (Granville McGhee) (0), Harry McGilberry (0), Robbie McIntosh (40), Billy McKenzie (20), Brian McLeod (20), Harold McNair (10), Clyde McPhatter (0), Jimmy McShane (20), David McWilliams (0), Mejla (Milan Hlavsa) (10), Michelle Meldrum (20), Jonathan Melvoin (30), Mendonca (Marilia Dias Mendonca) (40), Freddie Mercury (Farrokh Bulsara) (10), Mercy Baby (Julius Mullins) (0), Bryn Merrick (10), Chris Michie (10), VL Mike (Michael Allen) (30), Ron Miles (0), Charles Miller (10), Glenn Miller (0), Jacob Miller (30), Mac Miller (40), Roger Miller (0), Mike Millward (30), Sal Mineo (20), Mitch Mitchell (John Mitchell) (0), Taylor Mitchell (Taylor Luciow) (50), Pierre Moerlen (10), Moses Molelekwa (10), Jason Molina (20), Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane Mortenson) (20), Matt Monroe (Terence Parsons) (0), Wes Montgomery (0), Keith Moon (30), Leroi Moore (10), Mooseman (Lloyd Roberts III) (20), Marc Moreland (20), Rushton Moreve (30), George Morgan (0),Lee Morgan (10), Mare Morgan (0), James Morrison (30), Sterling Morrison (10), Moskri (Davor Bobic) (30), Maury Muehleisen (40), Karl Mueller (20), Ted Mulry (Martin Mulry) (10), Hugh Mundell (40), Billy Murcia (30), Allan Murphy (30), Dee Murray (10), Don Murray (10), Vagif Mustafazadeh (0), Brent Mydland (20)

ROGER MILLER
By John Ascauaga’s Nugget (Casino) Reno, Nevada. – eBayfrontback, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36171507

Todd Nance (0), Joe Nanini (20), Mike Naumenko (10), Frank Navetta (20), Bobby Neal (20), Hatdain Neale (30), Jackie Neale (30), Meritxell Negre (20), Joe Negroni (20), Mercury Nelson (30), Rick Nelson (Eric Nelson) (10), Ethelbert Nevin (0), Herbie Nichols (0), Nico (Christa Paffgen) (10), Joachim Nielsen (30), Harry Nilsson (10), Cranford Nix (30), Jon Nodtveidt (40), Jerry Nolan (10), Klaus Nomi (Klaus Sperber) (20), Notorious B.I.G. (Chris Wallace) (40), Bradley Nowell (30), Laura Nyro (Laura Nigro) (20)
Berry Oakley (40), Phil Ochs (20), Brian O’Hara (0), Jonny O’Keefe (20), Ol’ Dirty Bastard (Russell Jones) (20), Criss Oliva Criss (Christoper Oliva) (30), Oliver (William Swofford) (10), Roy Orbison (0), Dolores O’Riordan (20), Benjamin Orr (10), Bryan Ottoson (40), Owley (William Owsley III) (20)
Augustus Pablo (10), Bruce Palmer (10), Robert Palmer (10), John Panozzo (10), Felix Pappalardi (10), Ricky Parent (20), Charlie Parker (10), Junior Parker (Herman Parker) (0), Sista Monica Parker (0), Avery Parrish (0), Gram Parsons (Ingram Connor III) (30), Jim Pash (10), Jaco Pastorius (20), Roger Patterson (40), Mike Patto (20), Brian Pendleton (0), Art Pepper (0), Luther Perkins (10), A.J. Pero (Anthony Jude Pero) (0), Dickie Peterson (0), El Petro (Rodrigo Bueno) (40), Oscar Pettiford (0), Charles Pettigrew (20), Jon Pettis (40), Dave Peverett (0), Tracey Pew (40), Kristen Pfaff (40), Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor) (10), Esther Phillips (Esther Mae Jones) (0), River Phoenix (40), Edith Piaf (Edith Gassion) (10), Kenny Pickett (0), Jeffrey Lee Pierce (20), Pigpen (Ron McKernan) (30), Rob Pilatus (30), Pimp C. (Chad Butler) (20), Lonnie Pitchford (10), Derrick Plourde (30), Bonnie Pointer (0), June Pointer (10), Rudy Pompilli (0), Pop Smoke (Bashar Jackson) (40), Jeff Porcaro (20), John Poulos (30), Billy Powell (0), Cozy Powell (Colin Trevor Flooks) (10), Chet Powers (Dino Valenti) (0), Jacqueline Du Pré (20), Elvis Presley (10), Irving Prestopnik (10), Steve Prestwich (10), Rod Price (10), Dickie Pride (30), Gary Primich (10), Prince (Rogers Nelson) (0), Prince Be (Attrell Cordes) (0), Proof (DeShaun Holton) (20), Rainer Ptacek (20)
Quorthon (Thomas Forsberg) (30)
Eddie Rabbitt (0), Krzystof Raczkowski (30), James Radcliffe (20), Carl Radle (20), Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin) (10), Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman) (10), Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) (10), Billy Rancher (30), Paul Raven (20), Razzle (Nicholas Dingley) (40), Mark Reale (10), Sharon Redd (10), Otis Redding (20), Dean Reed (10), Jim Reese (10), Django Reinhardt (Jean Reinhardt) (10), Keith Relf (30), Emily Remler (40), Nadine Renee (40), Herbert Rhoad (10), Randy Rhoads (40), Don Rich (Don Ulrich) (20), Dig Richards (Digby Richards) (20), Bill Rieflin (0), Ian Rilen (0), Minnie Riperton (20), RiSe (Kwon Rise) (50), Marty Robbins (0), Malcolm Roberts (0), Vicki Sue Robinson (10), Barbara Robison (10), Jimmie Rodgers (10), Gamble Rogers (0), Stan Rogers (30), Mick Ronson (10), Jack Rose (20), Jerry Ross (Jerrold Rosenberg) (20), Rana Ross (30), John Rostill (30), Stacey Rowles (10), Dave Rubinstein (30), David Ruffin (Davis Ruffin) (0), Rust Equipe (Charles Lopez) (30), Rusty Day (Russell Davidson) (20), John Rutsey (10), Paul Ryan (20), John Ryanes (10), Warren Ryanes (0)
Natasja Saad (30), Sabotage (Mauvo dos Santes) (30), Barry Sadler (10), Doug Sahm (0), Izumi Sakai (Sachiko Kamachi) (30), Kyu Sakamoto (10), Paul Samson (10), Gar Samuelson (20), Adan Sanchez (50), Steve Sanders (20), Mark Sandman (10), Fredo Santana (Derrick D. Colem), (40), Stefanie Sargent (50), John Baker Saunders (20), Taiji Sawada (30), Mike Scaccia (20), Joe Schermie (0), Adam Schlesinger (10), Chuck Schuldiner (30), Ingo Schwichtenberg (40), Bobby Scott (0), Bon Scott (Ronald Scott) (30), George Scott III (30), Phil Seamen (10), Lhasa de Sela (20), Selena (Selena Quintanilla-Perez) (40), Matthew Seligman (0), Dimitriy Selivanov (30), David Seville (Rostom Bagdasarian) (0), Phil Seymour (20), Del Shannon (Charles Westover) (0), Woody Shaw (Herman Shaw) (10), Iain Shedden (0), Bobby Sheehan (30), Allan Sherman (0), Jack Sherman (0), Gary Shider (0), Dave Shogren (10), Mort Shuman (0), Herman Sikumberg (20), Garnett Silk (30), John Siomos (10), Hillel Slovak (40), Elliott Smith (Steven Smith) (30), Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith (20), Greedy Smith (Andrew Smith) (0), Jerome Smith (10), Pinetop Smith (Clarence Smith) (0), Scott Smith (20), Toby Smith (Toby Grafftey-Smith) (20), Warren Smith (10), Smoke Dawg (Jahvante Smart) (50), Annette Snell (20), Zachary Sobiech (50), Rauli Somerjoki (20), Somniumi (Teemu Raimoranta) (40), Jimmy Soul (James McCleese) (0), Soulja Slim (30), Otis Spann (0), Pinetop Sparks (Aaron Sparks) (20), John Spence (40), Skip Spence (Alexander Spence) (10), Guy Speranza (10), Seymour Spiegelman (0), Jackson Spires (10),Dusty Springfield (Mary Isobel O’Brien) (10), Terry Stafford (0), Layne Staley (30), Frank C. Starr (20), Mike Starr (20), Ruby Starr (Constance Mierzwiak) (20), Wayne Static (Wayne Wells) (10), Margita Stefanovic (10), Doug Stegmeyer (20), Ray Stephens (20), Van Stephenson (10), B.W. Stevenson (Louis Charles Stevenson) (20), Billy Stewart (10), Gary Stewart (0), Ian Stewart (10), Jermaine Stewart (20), Buster Stiggs (Mark Hough) (0), Bob Stinson (30), Mark St. John (Mark Norton) (10), Jimmy Stokley (20), Rory Storm (Alan Caldwell) (20), Shirley Strachan (Graeme Strachan) (10), Lynn Strait (30), Stretch (Randy Walker) (40), Jud Strunk (10), Nikki Sudden (Adrian Godfrey) (20), Sudirman (Sudirman bin Haji Arshad) (20), Screaming Lord Sutch (David Sutch) (0),Stu Sutcliffe (40), Darrell Sweet (10), Edmund Sylvers (10), Stan Szelest (10)
Ron Tabak (30), Pepsi Tate (Hugh Smith) (20), Richard Tee (0), Miika Tenkula (30), Tammi Terrell (Thomasina Montgomery) (30), Joe Tex (Joseph Arrington Jr.) (0), Gary Thain (40), Jason Thirsk (30), Hughie Thomasson (10), Tony Thompson (10), Tony Thompson (30), Melanie Thornton (40), Billy Thorpe (0), Johnny Thunders (John Genzale) (20), Sandra Tilley (30), Georgeanna Tillman (20), Bobby Timmons (10), Radka Toneff (30), Tiny Topsy (Otha Lee Moore) (10), Dan Toler (0), Steve Peregrin Took (Stephen Porter) (30), Dave Torbert (30), Peter Tosh (Winston McIntosh) (10), Dave Tough (0), Nick Traina (Nicholas Toth) (50), Brian Travers (0), Trouble (Mariel Orr) (30), Chris Trousdale (Chris Pask) (30), Viktor Tsoi (20), Mick Tucker (10), Tupac Shakur (30), Roy Turk (0), Richard Twardzik (30), Conway Twitty (Harold Jenkins) (0), Rob Tyner (Robert Derminer) (10)
Gary Usher (10)
Ritchie Valens (Richard Valenzuela) (30), Chuck Valle (30), Luther Vandross (0), Randy VanWarmer (10), Jane Vasey (30), Stevie Ray Vaughan (30), R.J. Vealey (30), Carlos Vega (30), Beau Velasco (40), Mariska Veres (Marie Elizabeth Veres) (0), Henry Vestine (10), Sid Vicious (John Ritchie) (40), Gene Vincent (30), Dimiter Voev (30), Jane Vogel (20), Roger Voudouris (10)
Doreen Waddell (30), Steve Wahrer (10), Bruce Waibel (20), Freddie Waits (0), Steve Waller (10), Dinah Washington (Ruth Lee Jones) (20), David Wayne (10), Thomas Wayne (Thomas Wayne Perkins) (30), Scott Weiland (10), Brandi Wells (Marguerite J. Pinder) (20), Mary Wells (10), Peter Wells (0), Vince Welnick (10), Mikey Welsh (20), Dottie West (Dorothy Marie West) (0), Sandy West (Sandy Pesavento) (20), Clarence White (Clarence LeBlanc) (30), John Whitehead (10), Chris Whitley (20), Keith Whitley (30), Danny Whitten (30), Robert Keith Wiggins (30), Kevin Wilkinson (20), Leon Wilkinson (10), Dave Williams (30), Hank Williams (20), Lamar Williams (20), Larry Williams (0), Paul Williams (10), Rozz Williams (40), Tony Williams (10), Vesta Williams (10), Wendy O. Williams (10), Bruce Williamson (10), Sonny Boy Williamson (John Williamson) (0), Wesley Willis (20), Alan Wilson (30), B.J. Wilson (Barrie James Wilson) (20), Carl Wilson (10), Delroy Wilson (10), Dennis Wilson (20), Ricky Wilson (30), Ron Wilson (20), Amy Winehouse (40), Kurt Winter (10), Kate Wolf (Kathryn Allen) (10), John Wolters (10), Harry Womack (20), Wong Ka Kui (40, Andrew Wood (40), Chris Wood (20), Kyle Woodring (20), Pat Woodward (20), Allen Woody (20), Jimmy Wopo (Travon Smart) (40), O.V. Wright (30), Syreeta Wright (0), Tammy Wynette (Virginia Wynette Pugh) (10), Philippé Wynne (0)
XXXTentacion (Jahseh Onfroy) (40)
Zal Yanovsky (Zalman Yanovsky) (0), Anton Yelchin (50), Wally Yohn (Wallace Yohn) (30), Karen Young (30), Malcolm Young (0), Paul Young (10), Young Greatness (Theodore Jones III) (30), Geoffrey Yunupingu (20), Mandawuy Yunupingu (Tom Djambayang) (10)
Aamir Zaki (10), Townes van Zandt (10), Ronnie van Zant (30), Mia Zapata (40), Frank Zappa (0), Zeke Zettner (40), Warren Zevon (10)

BEFORE THEY REACH BOMBAY – Post 13. Sample Profiles 3.

JOHN LENNON, MBE 1967
By UK Government – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79067525

NOTE – This first section, down to the blue line, can be found at the beginning of all the posts. If you have read it already you can skip ahead if you like.

Here are the relevant database posts:

Rethinking Mortality – An introduction to the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/
Percentages of expected life spans completed by musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-2-percentage-of-expected-life-spans/
Criteria for inclusion in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-3-database-inclusion/
The birth years of musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-4-birth-years-of-the-musicians/
The causes of death – Overview – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-5-causes-of-death-overview/
The causes of death – data on all of the musicians – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-6-the-cause-of-death-data-on-all-of-the-musicians/
Noteworthy deaths – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-7-noteworthy-deaths/
Demographics – the birthplaces, gender, ethnicities, nationalities and musical skills of database members – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-8-demographics/
Ages at death of musicians in general – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-9-ages-at-death/
The twenty-seven club discredited – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-10-the-27-club-discredited/
Sample musician profiles 1 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-11-sample-profiles-1/
Sample musician profiles 2 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-12-sample-profiles-2/
Sample musician profiles 3
An alphabetical list of the musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-14-the-musicians-alphabetized/

______________________________

These are examples of the profiles created for every musician in the database. Acronyms:

A – Arranger
C – Composer
CN – Conductor
D – Music Director
L – Leader (Bandleader, Group Leader)
I – Instrumentalist
P – Producer
V – Vocalist
na – not applicable

Musicians profiled: John Lennon, Pete Ham, Maurice Gibb, Marc Bolan, Jimi Hendrix, Chas Chandler, George Harrison, Richard Manuel, John Entwistle and Keith Moon.

PROFESSIONAL NAME: John Lennon
BACKGROUND: He was the founder and the de facto leader of the greatest, most successful and influential music group in history, The Beatles. The group broke many records in terms of unit sales, they made many technological advancements in the recording studio, and they basically invented rock music evolving from rock and roll, and pop music. Lennon and band-mate Paul McCartney were also the greatest most successful songwriting partnership in musical history. Lennon also published groundbreaking works of prose and poetry, and was a film actor. As a solo artist he was also a high profile peace activist. He was shot down in New York City at the age of forty.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1940, YEAR OF DEATH: 1980
AGE AT DEATH: 40.16438 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 64.2
LOST YEARS: 24.03562
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 62.56135
CAUSE OF DEATH: Murder. Gunned down.
SKILLS: C I L V
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, ukelele, maracas, glockenspiel, Jew’s harp, harmonica, harpsichord, tambourine, clavioline, mellotron, harmonium, organ, piano, drum and banjo
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: England
CITY OF BIRTH: Liverpool
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the UK Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and was made a Member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. At one point The Beatles held the Number One, Number Two, Number Three, Number Four and Number Five spots at the same time on the American record charts.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Pete Ham
BACKGROUND: He was the lead vocalist and composer in the Apple band Badfinger. After initial success, including an appearance at George Harrison’s famous Concert For Bangla Desh, things went constantly wrong with the band as Apple Corps, the Beatles’ music business, unravelled. As a result Ham took his own life out of desperation, hanging himself. He was twenty-seven. The band’s bassist, Tom Evans, also killed himself, also by hanging. He was thirty-six. A third band member, Mike Gibbins, the drummer, died of a brain aneurysm at the age of fifty-six.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1947, YEAR OF DEATH: 1975
AGE AT DEATH: 27.99178 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 65.59
LOST YEARS: 37.59822
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 42.67690
CAUSE OF DEATH: Suicide by hanging
SKILLS: C I V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, piano
BIRTH NAME: same ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Wales
CITY OF BIRTH: Swansea

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Maurice Gibb
BACKGROUND: As a member of The Bee Gees he was known for intricate harmonies sung with his brothers Robin and Barry, and a range of musical styles. The Bee Gees sold over 200 000 000 units worldwide. Maurice was multi-talented, and also knew his way round the recording studio. He suffered from alcoholism but eventually managed to get clean and stay clean until his death. His twin brother, Robin, also of the Bee Gees, died of cancer at the age of sixty-two. His brother Andy, also a successful professional singer, died of myocarditis at the age of thirty.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1949, YEAR OF DEATH: 2003
AGE AT DEATH: 53.05753 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 67.81875
LOST YEARS: 14.76122
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 78.23431
CAUSE OF DEATH: Intestinal twisting
SKILLS: C I P V
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, keyboards, bass
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Isle of Man
CITY OF BIRTH: Douglas
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association’s Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the UK Music Hall of Fame. He was also awarded with The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his contributions to music.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Marc Bolan
BACKGROUND: Marc Bolan was a British singer who is credited with creating the Glam Rock movement in 1971. He was also highly influential on punk, post-punk, new wave, indie rock and Britpop. He had a friendly rivalry with David Bowie and he was the lead singer of the band T.Rex. All the other members of T.Rex (Mickey Finn, Steve Currie, and Steve Peregrin Took) all died before their time.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1947, YEAR OF DEATH: 1977
AGE AT DEATH: 29.96164 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 65.59
LOST YEARS: 35.62836
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 45.68020
CAUSE OF DEATH: Traffic accident
SKILLS: C I V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, keyboards
BIRTH NAME: Mark Feld ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: England
CITY OF BIRTH: London
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Jimi Hendrix
BACKGROUND: He was prominent at the same time as famous guitarists such as Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) and Eric Clapton (Cream). However, many consider him to be the best of the lot because, more than the others, he changed the direction of rock itself. His rendition of the American national anthem ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock is famous, and symbolic on many levels.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1942, YEAR OF DEATH: 1970
AGE AT DEATH: 27.80822 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 63.25
LOST YEARS: 35.44178
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 43.96556
CAUSE OF DEATH: Barbiturate overdose
SKILLS: C I V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar
BIRTH NAME: John Allen Hendrix
ETHNICITY: Non-Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA
CITY OF BIRTH: Seattle, Washington
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame.

JIMI HENDRIX 1967
By Original photographer unknown – e24.se, attributed to Scanpixtrelleborgsallehanda.se, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19443013

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Chas. Chandler
BACKGROUND: He was the British manager of an unknown guitarist who was unable to break into the music industry in the United States so he moved to England. The guitarist was Jimi Hendrix and Chandler was instrumental in his subsequent success. He is in the database, however, because before he managed Hendrix he was the bass player in the highly successful British blues rock band The Animals.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1938, YEAR OF DEATH: 1996
AGE AT DEATH: 57.58082 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 63.8
LOST YEARS: 6.21918
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 90.25207
CAUSE OF DEATH: Aortic aneurysm
SKILLS: I, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Bass
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: England
CITY OF BIRTH: Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Animals.
NOTE – Noel Redding was the third member of The Jimi Hendrix Experience and he died at the age of fifty-seven, also short of his life expectancy, but he is not in the database.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: George Harrison
BACKGROUND: He was the lead guitarist in the most successful, influential musical group in history, The Beatles. He was also the youngest member of the group (for more details see the John Lennon profile). He also had a successful solo career, and he revived the failing British film industry single-handedly. He was a devout follower of Hinduism and he studied under the great sitar master Ravi Shankar. He was also a member of The Travelling Wilburys with Roy Orbison and Tom Petty.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1943, YEAR OF DEATH: 2001
AGE AT DEATH: 58.76164 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 66.65625
LOST YEARS: 7.89461
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 88.15624
CAUSE OF DEATH: Lung cancer
SKILLS: C I L P V
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, sitar, swarmandal, bass guitar, harmonica, tambourine, organ, maracas, tambura, guiro and violin
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: England
CITY OF BIRTH: Liverpool
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the UK Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was also made a Member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. At one point The Beatles held the Number One, Number Two, Number Three, Number Four and Number Five spots at the same time on the American record charts.

==============================

RICHARD MANUEL 1971
By Heinrich Klaffs – originally posted to Flickr as The Band 2005710045, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12198649

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Richard Manuel
BACKGROUND: He was a member of The Band, the greatest rock group produced by Canada. The Band had three lead singers and he was the best of them. He also used alcohol, heroin and cocaine. He was so well-respected by other musicians that several songs were released in tribute to his passing.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1943, YEAR OF DEATH: 1986
AGE AT DEATH:42.91781 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 64.73
LOST YEARS: 21.81291
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 66.30281
CAUSE OF DEATH: Suicide by hanging
SKILLS: C I V
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Piano, drums, clavinet, lap steel guitar, electric piano
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Canada
CITY OF BIRTH: Stratford, Ontario
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: John Entwistle
BACKGROUND: Going by the nickname The Ox, he was one of the best bassists in the business and was one of the original members of The Who.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1944, YEAR OF DEATH: 2002
AGE AT DEATH: 57.71507 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 67.04375
LOST YEARS: 9.32868
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 86.08568
CAUSE OF DEATH: Heart attack induced by cocaine use
SKILLS: C I V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Bass
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: England
CITY OF BIRTH: London
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, and the UK Music Hall of Fame.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Keith Moon
BACKGROUND: Known as Moon the Loon, he was famous as a flamboyant groundbreaking drummer full of energy and mischief, prone to destroying hotel rooms when The Who were on tour. He used to end a set by detonating explosives that destroyed his drum kit. He passed out onstage during concerts more than once due to drug use. He also killed his chauffeur, Neil Boland, while under the influence of drugs, running over the man in his car. He was a founding member of The Who, and was also a competent actor. He died at the age of thirty in the same flat (Harry Nilsson’s London flat) as Mama Cass Elliot (of The Mamas and Papas) died in, also aged thirty, four years earlier.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1946, YEAR OF DEATH: 1978
AGE AT DEATH: 32.03836 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 65.39
LOST YEARS: 33.35164
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 48.99580
CAUSE OF DEATH: Overdose of heminevrin
SKILLS: C I P V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Drums
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: England
CITY OF BIRTH: Wembley
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, and the UK Music Hall of Fame.

BEFORE THEY REACH BOMBAY – Post 12. Sample Profiles 2.

BRITISH SOLDIERS MOVING UP TO THE ATTACK DURING THE SOMME OFFENSIVE IN WORLD WAR ONE, SEPTEMBER 25, 1916. APPROXIMATELY ONE MILLION DIED OR WERE WOUNDED DURING THE OFFENSIVE. BRITISH COMPOSER, AND SOLDIER, GEORGE BUTTERWORTH WAS KILLED DURING THE ACTION.
By Ernest Brooks – http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//228/media-228650/large.jpgThis is photograph Q 1308 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63297108

NOTE – This first section, down to the blue line, can be found at the beginning of all the posts. If you have read it already you can skip ahead if you like.

Here are the relevant database posts:

Rethinking Mortality – An introduction to the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/
. Percentages of expected life spans completed by musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-2-percentage-of-expected-life-spans/
Criteria for inclusion in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-3-database-inclusion/
The birth years of musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-4-birth-years-of-the-musicians/
The causes of death – Overview – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-5-causes-of-death-overview/
The causes of death – data on all of the musicians – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-6-the-cause-of-death-data-on-all-of-the-musicians/
Noteworthy deaths – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-7-noteworthy-deaths/
Demographics – the birthplaces, gender, ethnicities, nationalities and musical skills of database members – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-8-demographics/
Ages at death of musicians in general – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-9-ages-at-death/
The twenty-seven club discredited – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-10-the-27-club-discredited/
Sample musician profiles 1 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-11-sample-profiles-1/
Sample musician profiles 2
Sample musician profiles 3 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-13-sample-profiles-3/
An alphabetical list of the musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-14-the-musicians-alphabetized/

______________________________

These are examples of the profiles created for every musician in the database. Acronyms:

A – Arranger
C – Composer
CN – Conductor
D – Music Director
L – Leader (Bandleader or Group Leader)
I – Instrumentalist
P – Producer
V – Vocalist
na – not applicable

Musicians profiled: Glenn Gould, Tupac Shakur, Ritchie Valens, George Gershwin, George Butterworth, Viktor Tsoi, Michael Hutchence, Jeff Healey, Gord Downie, Bob Marley and Brian Jones.

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Glenn Gould
BACKGROUND: Gould had an international reputation for his superlative interpretations of Bach and his technical expertise. He was also a music educator, contributed to music journals, and produced three musique concrete radio documentaries. He was the first Western artist to tour the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He also played modern composers. He hated concertizing and loved recording and was a great fan of the Moog synthesizer. He learned to read music before he could read words, and he had perfect pitch. He was a very private person and was unapologetically eccentric. He left his considerable fortune to charity.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1932, YEAR OF DEATH: 1982
AGE AT DEATH: 50.02466 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 62.42
LOST YEARS: 12.39534
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 80.14203
CAUSE OF DEATH: Stroke
SKILLS: C CN I, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Piano
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Canada, CITY OF BIRTH: Toronto
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: 2Pac / Tupac Shakur
BACKGROUND: He was one of the most influential, and most successful, of rappers. His raps were about the horrors and racism of life in the inner cities, and he was an activist against inequality. Both of his parents were active in the Black Panther Party. He also acted in six films. Earlier in his life he was shot five times in a New York City recording studio but survived. He also spent time in jail convicted of sexual abuse. He was only twenty-five when he died and his murder remains unsolved. Some conjecture that there is a connection between his death and the death of Notorious B.I.G. a year later (see the profile of Notorious B.I.G.).
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1956, YEAR OF DEATH: 1982
AGE AT DEATH: 25.24384 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 60.98
LOST YEARS: 35.73616
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 41.39691
CAUSE OF DEATH: Murder. Drive-by shooting.
SKILLS: V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: na
BIRTH NAME: Lesane Parish Crooks
ETHNICITY: Non-Caucasian Males
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA, CITY OF BIRTH: New York City
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Ritchie Valens
BACKGROUND: He was the forefather of Chicano Rock. He had a hit with his song ‘Donna’ (about his girlfriend Donna Ludwig) but his biggest hit was ‘La Bamba’, selling over a million units, a song adapted from a Mexican folk song. Part of the song is in Spanish, which was also unheard of at the time. The first song he recorded, ‘Come On, Let’s Go’, featured legendary session musician Carol Kaye. Both of Ritchie’s parents were born in Mexico and he grew up hearing mariachi music and flamenco guitars. He was a self-taught musician who often played popular songs but added new improvised lyrics and riffs to the songs.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1941, YEAR OF DEATH: 1959
AGE AT DEATH: 17.72877 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 52.33
LOST YEARS: 34.60123
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 33.87878
CAUSE OF DEATH: Plane crash
SKILLS: C I V
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, trumpet and drums
BIRTH NAME: Richard Valenzuela
ETHNICITY: Non-Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA
CITY OF BIRTH: Pacoima, California
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
EXPLANATION: Ritchie Valens had to change his name from Richard Valenzuela because back in the day in the United States being non-Caucasian .restricted one to non-Caucasian music. Various other Latino musicians also had to anglicize their names in order to achieve success playing anything besides Latino music. Peter Hernandez became Bruno Mars. Rockabilly / country singer Freddy Fender’s real name was Baldemar Garza Huerta. Singer Florencia Vicenta de Casillas-Martinez Cardona had to change her name to Vikki Carr in order to achieve the success that she did. Nancy Alfaro is the real name of singer Nancy Ames (her grandfather Ricardo Joaquin Alfaro was the president of Panama in the 1920’s). Enrique Morales became Ricky Martin. Lucille Ball had to fight the suits in order to get them to green light I Love Lucy because Desi Arnaz was not Caucasian. Apparently whenever the Desi Arnaz band did a number as part of the plot on the old ‘I Love Lucy’ shows, people in Latino neighbourhoods watched intently, with pride, because there was no other Latino presence in mainstream culture in the United States. The same process of having to anglicize Mexican names also happened with actors Anthony Quinn (Antonio Oaxaca), Rita Hayworth (Margarita Cansino), Martin Sheen (Ramon Estevez) and his son Charlie Sheen (Carlos Estevez).

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: George Gershwin
BACKGROUND: He was arguably the greatest American composer of the twentieth century. He composed classical, pop, theatrical and Third Stream music. His ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ continues to be played frequently a century after it was composed and his ‘Concerto in F’ is one of the masterpieces of twentieth century music.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1898, YEAR OF DEATH: 1937
AGE AT DEATH: 38.78904 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 47.08
LOST YEARS: 8.29096
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 82.38964
CAUSE OF DEATH: Malignant brain tumor
SKILLS: C I, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Piano
BIRTH NAME: Jacob Gershowitz
ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA, CITY OF BIRTH: New York City
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: George Butterworth
BACKGROUND: He was a composer, an ethnomusicologist and a teacher. He began composing as a child, and also played the organ for services at his preparatory school. He went to Oxford where he became friends with British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Sir Adrian Boult who later became conductor of both the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Butterworth was a collector of folk songs as early as 1907, and he became a professional folk dancer, particularly morris dancing. He joined the British Army when World War One broke out, and was awarded the Military Cross for his exemplary service during the Battle of the Somme, but he didn’t live to receive the award. As the fighting continued, and the German forces attempted to regain lost ground, Butterworth was killed by a German sniper.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1885, YEAR OF DEATH: 1916
- AGE AT DEATH: 31.06575 years,
- LIFE EXPECTANCY: 55.41875
- LOST YEARS: 24.35300
- % OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 56.05640
- CAUSE OF DEATH: International conflict. He was killed in action as a British soldier in World War One defending a trench during the Battle of the Somme.
- SKILLS: A C, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Piano
- BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
- COUNTRY OF BIRTH: England
- CITY OF BIRTH: London

===============================

VIKTOR TSOI
By Processed by Andrei Sdobnikov – Personal collection, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2807096

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Viktor Tsoi
BACKGROUND: He was a pioneer of Russian rock and was the founder of the highly influential band Kino and he still has an avid following years after his death in a car crash. In 2012 the remaining members of Kino recorded the song ‘Ataman’ using vocals recorded by Tsoi and recovered from the crash that killed him. Shortly after that the group’s drummer also died.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1962, YEAR OF DEATH: 1990
AGE AT DEATH: 28.50137 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 55.05
LOST YEARS: 26.54863
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 51.77361
CAUSE OF DEATH: Automobile crash
SKILLS: C V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: na
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: The Soviet Union
CITY OF BIRTH: Leningrad

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Michael Hutchence
BACKGROUND: He was the charismatic lead singer of INXS, as well as an actor. INXS sold over 75 million units worldwide and Hutchence was often in the celebrity press reported as having a string of affairs with prominent models, singers and actors. In 1992 he suffered a brain fracture in an altercation with a taxi driver which left him with a loss of smell and taste and he became far more aggressive even threatening his band-mates with weapons. He also had an affair with Paula Yates who was married to Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats at the time, and Hutchence and Yates had a daughter named Hiraani Tiger Lily. While on tour Hutchence had planned to visit with his daughter Tiger Lily but Geldof took legal action and prevented the visit. Hutchence became very upset with this and killed himself.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1960, YEAR OF DEATH: 1997
AGE AT DEATH: 37.83288 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 71.45
LOST YEARS: 33.61712
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 52.95014
CAUSE OF DEATH: Suicide by hanging under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.
SKILLS: C I V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Australia
CITY OF BIRTH: Crows Nest

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Jeff Healey
BACKGROUND: Healey went blind at the age of one from retinal cancer and both eyes had to be removed but when he was only three he began playing guitar. He was obviously highly skilled musically and as a teenager he formed his first band. Later, after gaining a reputation as a musical expert on his own radio show, he founded The Jeff Healey Band. He also appeared in the Patrick Swayze film ‘Road House’. He came to the attention of established guitarists Stevie Ray Vaughan (who is also in the database) and Albert Collins which led to a record deal, and top ten hits in Canada. When George Harrison of The Beatles heard his dramatic and highly original version of Harrison’s famous composition ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ Harrison laid down a guitar contribution of his own that was added to the track. Later Healey formed the group Jeff Healey’s Jazz Wizards in which he played trumpet touring and recording. Over his lifetime Healey toured across North America and Europe. He also sat in or recorded with B.B. King, Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, Buddy Guy, and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple. In 2007 the cancer returned and in 2008 he died of cancer in his lungs and his legs. He was forty-one.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1966, YEAR OF DEATH: 2008
AGE AT DEATH: 41.93699 years
LIFE EXPECTANCY: 68.9 LOST YEARS: 26.963.01
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 60.86645
CAUSE OF DEATH: Lung cancer and cancer in his leg
SKILLS: C I L V
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, piano and trumpet
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Canada, CITY OF BIRTH: Toronto
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Terry Fox Hall of Fame and the Mississauga Music Hall of Fame.

JEFF HEALEY 2002
By Processed by Andrei Sdobnikov – Personal collection, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2807096

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Gord Downie
BACKGROUND: He was the lead vocalist of the band The Tragically Hip, and was also a writer and activist for Indigenous Rights. He and the band were so popular in Canada that the band’s final concert on their final tour, as Downie’s cancer accelerated, pulled in 12 million people, an incredible number given Canada’s population. The band sold millions of units in Canada but they were so Canadian that they remained unknown outside Canada.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1964, YEAR OF DEATH: 2017
AGE AT DEATH: 53.69315 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 68.7
LOST YEARS: 15.00685
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 78.15597
CAUSE OF DEATH: Brain cancer
SKILLS: C V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: na
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Canada
CITY OF BIRTH: Amherstview
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

===============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Bob Marley
BACKGROUND: He was a reggae singer and composer, but more than that he was an icon of international proportions preaching revolution. His backing group, The Wailers, included Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. His wife Rita Marley, and their son Ziggy Marley, were also both successful professional musicians.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1945, YEAR OF DEATH: 1981
AGE AT DEATH: 36.74247 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 59.5
LOST YEARS: 22.75753
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 61.75204
CAUSE OF DEATH: Malignant brain tumour
SKILLS: C V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: na
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Non-Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Jamaica, CITY OF BIRTH: Nine Mile
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Music Hall of Fame and the UK Music Hall of Fame.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Brian Jones
BACKGROUND: He was the one, not Mick Jagger or Keith Richard, who originally put The Rolling Stones together and gave the group its name. He was able to play many musical instruments but the only composing he did was on the few tracks credited to all five of the Stones under the name Nankar Phelge. He had a series of illegitimate children but he did not financially support any of them or their mothers. He was also physically abusive toward his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg so she left him for Keith Richards. Jones was very heavily into drugs, so much so that he was kicked out of the Stones shortly before he died.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1942, YEAR OF DEATH: 1969
AGE AT DEATH: 27.34247 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 64.6
LOST YEARS: 37.25753
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 42.32580
CAUSE OF DEATH: Drowning, possibly under the influence of drugs.
SKILLS: C I
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, piano, organ, sitar, marimbas, zither, dulcimer, saxophone, harmonica, trombone, trumpet, tuba, recorder, oboe and mellotron
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: England
CITY OF BIRTH: Cheltenham
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

==============================

BEFORE THEY REACH BOMBAY – Post 11. Sample Profiles 1.

HARRY NILSSON
By RCA Victor – Billboard, page 9, 19 August 1967, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26948281

NOTE – This first section, down to the blue line, can be found at the beginning of all the posts. If you have read it already you can skip ahead if you like.

Here are the relevant database posts:

Rethinking Mortality – An introduction to the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/
Percentages of expected life spans completed by musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-2-percentage-of-expected-life-spans/
Criteria for inclusion in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-3-database-inclusion/
The birth years of musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-4-birth-years-of-the-musicians/
The causes of death – Overview – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-5-causes-of-death-overview/
. The causes of death – data on all of the musicians – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-6-the-cause-of-death-data-on-all-of-the-musicians/
Noteworthy deaths – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-7-noteworthy-deaths/
Demographics – the birthplaces, gender, ethnicities, nationalities and musical skills of database members – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-8-demographics/
Ages at death of musicians in general – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-9-ages-at-death/
The twenty-seven club discredited – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-10-the-27-club-discredited/
Sample musician profiles 1 –
Sample musician profiles 2 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-12-sample-profiles-2/
Sample musician profiles 3 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-13-sample-profiles-3/
An alphabetical list of the musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-14-the-musicians-alphabetized/

______________________________

These are examples of the profiles created for every musician in the database, the first of three sets of examples. The original data set contains data to thirteen decimal places but I have truncated them to five here. Acronyms:

A – Arranger
C – Composer
CN – Conductor
D – Music Director
L – Leader (Bandleader or Group Leader)
I – Instrumentalist
P – Producer
V – Vocalist
na – not applicable

The profile subjects: Judy Garland, Freddie Mercury, Prince, Paul Desmond, Harry Nilsson, Marilyn Monroe, Robert Johnson, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Roy Orbison and Marvin Gaye

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Judy Garland
BACKGROUND: She was an expressive, powerful singer as well as an excellent actor, vaudevillian and dancer; as a teenager she was the star of the iconic film Wizard of Oz in which she sang Over the Rainbow. She was the first female to win a Grammy for Album of the Year and had Oscar and Emmy nominations. Under studio pressure she became addicted to amphetamines, and her drug and alcohol problems later led to her early death. Garland suffered several nervous breakdowns, was institutionalized more than once, made several suicide attempts and underwent shock therapy for depression. She was abused by her husband Sid Luft and she lost millions of dollars to dishonest managers. She was phenomenally popular in Europe, however, and her daughters Liza Minelli and Lorna Luft were also professional singers and actors.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1922, YEAR OF DEATH: 1969
AGE AT DEATH: 47.03288 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 59.05
LOST YEARS: 12.01712
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 79.64924
CAUSE OF DEATH: Accidental barbiturate overdose
SKILLS: V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: na
BIRTH NAME: Frances Gumm
ETHNICITY: Caucasian Female
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA
CITY OF BIRTH: Grand Rapids, Minnesota
OFFICIAL HONOURS: She was inducted into The Minnesota Music Hall of Fame

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Freddie Mercury
BACKGROUND: He was the lead singer with Queen and was one of rock’s greatest vocalists with a four octave range. Queen’s 1985 LIVE AID set is considered to be one of the greatest sets in rock history. He co-wrote the anthemic Bohemian Rhapsody and his 2018 biopic is the highest grossing musical biopic to date. He was one of the earliest high profile individuals to die of AIDS.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1946, YEAR OF DEATH: 1991
AGE AT DEATH: 45.78082 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 56.44
LOST YEARS: 10.65918
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 81.11414
CAUSE OF DEATH: AIDS
SKILLS: C I P V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Piano, guitar
BIRTH NAME: Farrokh Bulsara
ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Zanzibar (now Tanzania)
CITY OF BIRTH: Stone Town
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the UK Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
EXPLANATION: When Mercury was born in Zanzibar male life expectancy was 38.04 and he died at age 45 so he should be excluded from the database. However he spent most of his life in Great Britain where his life expectancy would have been considerably more than 45 years, and he was such a prominent figure in music history, he has been included in the database. Also, the usual World Bank life expectancy data extrapolated to 1946 Zanzibar gives him a life expectancy of 12.325, obviously incorrect, so a second more relevant life expectancy data source was used here.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Prince
BACKGROUND: With an incredibly charismatic, energetic stage presence, he was a great vocalist and under-rated as an instrumentalist (he played 27 instruments on his debut album). He could play funk, rhythm and blues, new wave, soul, pop and jazz and he composed at least five hundred compositions. He also acted in the film Purple Rain. He was alone in an elevator when he died and he died in the same year as David Bowie, George Michael and Leon Russell.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1958, YEAR OF DEATH: 2016
AGE AT DEATH: 57.87123 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 60.28
LOST YEARS: 2.40877
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 96.00404
CAUSE OF DEATH: Accidental overdose of fentanyl
SKILLS: A C I P V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, bass drums etc.
BIRTH NAME: Rogers Nelson
ETHNICITY: Non-Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA
CITY OF BIRTH: Minneapolis, Minnesota
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, UK Music Hall of Fame and Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Paul Desmond
BACKGROUND: A member of the iconic classic Dave Brubeck Quartet, Desmond composed the quartet’s most famous track ‘Take Five’ which was the first jazz recording to sell a million units despite being in 5 / 4 time and featuring a complex drum solo. It appeared on the CD ‘Time Out’ which many musicologists describe as a revolutionary recording in the history of jazz. He was famous for economy of style knowing what notes to play and what notes not to play; he was also brilliant at improvising in unusual time signatures and playing contrapuntally with Brubeck. He was very well-read but was a heavy smoker and user of alcohol and illegal hallucinogens, and was fatalistic about his early death.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1924, YEAR OF DEATH: 1977
AGE AT DEATH: 52.50959 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 57.38
LOST YEARS: 4.87041
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 91.51201
CAUSE OF DEATH: Lung cancer
SKILLS: A C I L
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Alto saxophone, clarinet, violin
BIRTH NAME: same
ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA,
CITY OF BIRTH: San Francisco, California

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Harry Nilsson
BACKGROUND: His likeable mischievous personality and incredible vocal range allowed him to sell millions of records without tours and interviews. He wrote complex highly creative vocal arrangements he overdubbed himself. He was born into poverty in Brooklyn and his father abandoned the family when Harry was three; he later worked as a computer programmer in a bank until The Beatles extolled his talents and he embarked on a music career. Despite earning millions, late in life his manager absconded with most of it leaving Harry penniless and greatly in debt. Extensive drug and alcohol use also shortened his life.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1941, YEAR OF DEATH: 1994
AGE AT DEATH: 52.58630 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 62.81
LOST YEARS: 10.22370,
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 83.72281
CAUSE OF DEATH: Heart failure
SKILLS: C I V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Keyboards
BIRTH NAME: same, ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA
CITY OF BIRTH: New York, New York

==============================

MARILYN MONROE 1953
By Studio publicity still – Full page covereBay, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82844065

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Marilyn Monroe
BACKGROUND: She spent her childhood in foster homes and orphanages but carved out a modelling and acting career; her natural acting ability was extolled by other great actors such as Laurence Olivier but she remained insecure. It turns out that she was also a more than competent singer as well. She married a baseball hero (Joe DiMaggio) and a playwright (Arthur Miller) and had an alleged affair with President Kennedy. She remains a well-known, much-analysed iconic figure sixty years after her death.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1926, YEAR OF DEATH: 1962
AGE AT DEATH: 36.17534 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 61.014
LOST YEARS: 24.83866
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 59.29023
CAUSE OF DEATH: Barbiturate overdose
SKILLS: V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: na
BIRTH NAME: Norma Jeane Mortenson
ETHNICITY: Caucasian Female
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA
CITY OF BIRTH: Los Angeles, California

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Robert Johnson
BACKGROUND: He was a mediocre musician who disappeared for awhile and reappeared with impressive musical skills and this led to the belief that he had been to The Crossroads where he made a deal with Satan trading his great musical talent for his soul. His death is shrouded in mystery but one story has it that Johnson was killed by the owner of the Three Forks pub when he found out that Johnson was having an affair with his wife. Johnson is considered to be the greatest of the blues musicians.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1911, YEAR OF DEATH: 1938
AGE AT DEATH: 27.27397 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 34.05
LOST YEARS: 6.77603
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 80.09977
CAUSE OF DEATH: Probably poisoning
SKILLS: C I V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, harmonica
BIRTH NAME: same
ETHNICITY: Non-Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA
CITY OF BIRTH: Hazelhurst, Mississippi
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame, the Blues Hall of Fame, the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Buddy Holly
BACKGROUND: A central figure in the rise of Rock and Roll, he was unusual in that he composed many of his own hits, a fact that inspired John Lennon and Paul McCartney to compose their own songs together and becoming the most successful songwriting team in history as a result. Holly’s backing band was called The Crickets and that inspired The Beatles to come up with their own insectile group name as well. One of the most successful of the British Invasion groups alongside The Beatles was The Hollies who named themselves after Buddy Holly. Holly is the central figure of the lengthy highly popular enigmatic song ‘American Pie’ composed and recorded by Don McLean. Buddy Holly’s death in a plane crash at the age of twenty-two, alongside seventeen-year -old Ritchie Valens, is legendary.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1936, YEAR OF DEATH: 1959
AGE AT DEATH: 22.40822 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 61.43
LOST YEARS: 39.02178
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 36.47765
CAUSE OF DEATH: Plane crash
SKILLS: C I L P V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar
BIRTH NAME: Charles Holley
ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA
CITY OF BIRTH: Lubbock, Texas
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame and the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Eddie Cochran
BACKGROUND: Able to play guitar, piano, bass and drums, he was also an earlier exponent of multi-track recording, distortion techniques and overdubbing as early as the 1950’s. At the end of his British tour, in April 1960, near midnight, the driver in the car Cochran was travelling in was going excessively fast and lost control and the car crashed into a concrete lamp. Cochran threw himself in front of his fiancée, Sharon Sheeley, saving her life but as a result he was thrown from the car and died instantly. He was twenty-one years old. Rock and roller Gene Vincent was also in the car.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1938, YEAR OF DEATH: 1960
AGE AT DEATH: 21.53425 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 62.35
LOST YEARS: 40.81575, % OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 34.53769
CAUSE OF DEATH: Car crash.
SKILLS: C I V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, piano, bass, drums
BIRTH NAME: same
ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA
CITY OF BIRTH: Albert Lea, Minnesota
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Gene Vincent
BACKGROUND: A pioneer of both rock and roll and rockabilly, he died overweight and destitute at the age of thirty-six. His backup band was called The Blue Caps and in his early promising years he was compared favourably with Elvis Presley. In 1955 while riding his motorcycle he was hit by a drunk driver and his left leg was shattered. The doctors wanted to amputate but he refused, and spent the rest of his life with chronic pain and a limp, wearing a permanent steel sheath around his leg. In the car crash that killed Eddie Cochran in 1960 Vincent was also in the car, and he broke several ribs and a collarbone, and further damaged his leg in the crash. In 1962 he shared a bill with an up and coming group that hardly anyone had heard of at the time called The Beatles. Paul McCartney remembers an incident in which Vincent pointed a gun at his girlfriend Margaret Russell and threatened to kill her. He ended up in court as a result of the altercation.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1935, YEAR OF DEATH: 1971
AGE AT DEATH: 36.66575 years
LIFE EXPECTANCY: 66.93
LOST YEARS: 30.26425, % OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 54.78224
CAUSE OF DEATH: Ruptured stomach ulcer
SKILLS: I L V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar
BIRTH NAME: Vincent Eugene Craddock
ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA
CITY OF BIRTH: Norfolk, Virginia
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

==============================

ROY ORBISON 1965
By Jack de Nijs for Anefo – Nationaal Archief, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33391187

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Roy Orbison
BACKGROUND: Orbison was known for his complex song structures, and a vocal range of several octaves. When he toured with The Beatles they were astounded by the fact that Orbison could quietly sit centre stage and perform hardly moving and still get screams and ovations. He was given fourteen standing ovations in Glasgow. He was a better singer than such rock and roll peers as Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. Later he formed The Travelling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. Orbison led a tough life, having to wear thick corrective eyeglasses from childhood. His wife Claudette died in a car crash (not her fault), his house burned down in 1968 killing both of his sons, and he had a triple coronary bypass himself.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1936, YEAR OF DEATH: 1988
AGE AT DEATH: 52.62192 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 61.43
LOST YEARS: 8.80808, % OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 85.66159
CAUSE OF DEATH: Heart attack
SKILLS: C I V, INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Guitar, harmonica
BIRTH NAME: same
ETHNICITY: Caucasian Male
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA
CITY OF BIRTH: Vernon, Texas
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

==============================

PROFESSIONAL NAME: Marvin Gaye
BACKGROUND: He was a major Motown star with a string of hits. He could play and sing rhythm and blues, soul, jazz, funk and pop. His song ‘What’s Going On’ about racism and police brutality was an immense hit. Unfortunately he was also addicted to cocaine and re-located to Europe to avoid paying taxes. He had several hits with Tammi Terrell but when she died of a brain tumour at the age of twenty-four he threatened suicide.
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1939, YEAR OF DEATH: 1984
AGE AT DEATH: 44.99726 years, LIFE EXPECTANCY: 52.33
LOST YEARS: 7.33274
% OF EXPECTED LIFE LED: 85.98750
CAUSE OF DEATH: Murder. He had been physically abused by his father as a child, and a few hours before his 45^th birthday Gaye and his father argued and his father shot him, killing him.
SKILLS: C I P V,
INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Keyboards, drums, synthesizer
BIRTH NAME: Marvin Gay
ETHNICITY: Caucasian
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: USA
CITY OF BIRTH: Washington, D.C.
OFFICIAL HONOURS: He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame.

BEFORE THEY REACH BOMBAY – Post 10. The 27 Club Discredited

BRIAN JONES OF THE ROLLING STONES, 1965
By Olavi Kaskisuo / Lehtikuva – https://d3gg7gh6znnt6d.cloudfront.net/thumbnail/34544015.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80897385

NOTE – This first section, down to the blue line, can be found at the beginning of all the posts. If you have read it already you can skip ahead if you like.

Here are the relevant database posts:

Rethinking Mortality – An introduction to the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/
Percentages of expected life spans completed by musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-2-percentage-of-expected-life-spans/
Criteria for inclusion in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-3-database-inclusion/
The birth years of musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-4-birth-years-of-the-musicians/
The causes of death – Overview – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-5-causes-of-death-overview/
The causes of death – data on all of the musicians – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-6-the-cause-of-death-data-on-all-of-the-musicians/
Noteworthy deaths – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-7-noteworthy-deaths/
Demographics – the birthplaces, gender, ethnicities, nationalities and musical skills of database members – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-8-demographics/
Ages at death of musicians in general – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-9-ages-at-death/
The twenty-seven club discredited
Sample musician profiles 1 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-11-sample-profiles-1/
Sample musician profiles 2 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-12-sample-profiles-2/
Sample musician profiles 3 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-13-sample-profiles-3/
An alphabetical list of the musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-14-the-musicians-alphabetized/

______________________________

Shortly after the deaths of Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones in 1969, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin in 1970, then James Morrison of The Doors in 1971, people started talking about The Twenty-Seven Club. All four of these people died at the age of twenty-seven. Though I was heavily into the music of these people at the time I was also heavily into Mathematics, and I knew that there was nothing unusual about coincidences so I dismissed the idea as nonsense. It just so happened that four twenty-seven year old prominent musicians died close together in time. If they had been more spread out in time no one would have noticed.

It also occurred to me that one can draw no conclusions unless one checked the biographies of say a hundred musicians at random to see at what age the greatest number of musicians died at. But then again, one would have to choose the musicians you’re checking carefully. If I checked the death ages of a hundred musicians and included twenty-five rappers, the average would probably be more like 23 or 24 not 27. If one only chose musicians from affluent backgrounds in safe areas (rather than war zones, or areas periodically plagued by hurricanes, or poverty-stricken areas), then the average death age would probably be higher and so, probably, would the most frequent death age.

It might make a difference, too, whether one was sampling American Caucasians or American Non-Caucasians in the early twentieth because the life expectancies of those two groups were significantly different. In 1901 the average American Caucasian Male could expect to live to the age of 48.23 years but the average American Non-Caucasian Male could expect to live to the age of only 32.54 years. If one just sampled Caucasians one would expect the most frequent death year to be different, most likely higher, than if one just sampled Non-Caucasians. Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin were both American Caucasians. If one was trying to draw some conclusions about short-lived musicians one would have to do representative sampling, a very difficult task.

JANIS JOPLIN 1969
By Albert B. Grossman Management (personal manager), New York. – eBay itemphoto frontphoto back, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21497927

The people championing the idea of the Twenty-Seven club also talked about prominent musicians dying at the age of twenty-seven. Joining Jones, Joplin, Morrison and Hendrix in the club were Robert Johnson, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse, amongst others. But what is meant by prominent? Jimi Hendrix was probably the most groundbreaking guitarist of his day, but there were other guitarists who were prominent contemporaries of his (e.g. Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour) all of whom are still alive. Also, there were equally groundbreaking guitarists at other periods of time who did not die at the age of twenty-seven (e.g. Les Paul and Charlie Christian). Janis Joplin was a great singer but one could argue that Edith Piaf, Whitney Houston, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland and others were as good as or better than Joplin or Winehouse, and none of them died at the age of twenty-seven. Brian Jones was fairly important but two other members of the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richard, were more important given that they composed most of the group’s hits. None of the members of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, U2, Duran Duran, The Band, Public Enemy, the Spice Girls, the Benny Goodman Orchestra, Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, the Miles Davis Quartet (and so on) have died at the age of twenty-seven. Prominent individuals such as Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Jenny Lind and J.S.Bach all died at ages other than twenty-seven.

People have also tended to turn the members of the twenty-Seven Club into heroes when in fact they were flawed like the rest of us. They were, in fact, prone to the incredible power of peer pressure, they had easy access to dangerous drugs, and their deaths can often be attributed to rather ignoble causes. Janis Joplin, a regular heroin user, died when she was given heroin that was stronger than her system could handle. Jimi Hendrix died choking on his own vomit after taking barbiturates. James Morrison died in his bathtub most probably of a heart attack after leading a life of alcohol dependence and drug use. Brian Jones was a heavy user of drugs, so much so that he was contributing very little to Rolling Stone recordings, so he was kicked out of the band. He also abused his girlfriend, at one point hitting her in the face so hard that he injured his hand. Not exactly hero material.

MUG SHOT OF JIM MORRISON AFTER HE WAS ARRESTED FOR INDECENT BEHAVIOUR AND PROFANITY – AN UNJUSTIFIED ARREST
By Dade County Public Safety Department – http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/celebrity/music/jim-morrison, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9386765

The more data one collects the more accurate the result. Having gathered data on approximately a thousand short-lived musicians for this database, the data were supplemented with data from two hundred more musicians not included in the database, many of whom lived longer than they were expected to live. This was an attempt to use a more representative sample from the group of people labelled prominent musicians. It turns out that in that expanded sample the most frequent age at which prominent musicians died was not twenty-seven but forty-nine. Twenty-seven wasn’t even the second most frequent age of death. Forty-five was.

Others have done similar studies with similar results. One study found several ages to be more deadly than twenty-seven. The most common age of death for the musicians in the study was fifty-six. Here is a link to a description of that study – https://www.fiveaa.com.au/show/27-club-debunked/ . Another study used a database of 1046 musicians and found that though prominent musicians tended to die young they were not more likely to die at the age of twenty-seven – https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/12/21/3394834.htm

BEFORE THEY REACH BOMBAY – Post 9. Ages at Death

GLENN GOULD
By Don Hunstein – e-mail from Katie Babcock, Marketing Associate for the Royal Conservatory of Music, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15024091

NOTE – This first section, down to the blue line, can be found at the beginning of all the posts. If you have read it already you can skip ahead if you like.

Here are the relevant database posts:

Rethinking Mortality – An introduction to the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/
Percentages of expected life spans completed by musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-2-percentage-of-expected-life-spans/
Criteria for inclusion in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-3-database-inclusion/
The birth years of musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-4-birth-years-of-the-musicians/
The causes of death – Overview – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-5-causes-of-death-overview/
The causes of death – data on all of the musicians – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-6-the-cause-of-death-data-on-all-of-the-musicians/
Noteworthy deaths – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-7-noteworthy-deaths/
Demographics – the birthplaces, gender, ethnicities, nationalities and musical skills of database members – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-8-demographics/
Ages at death of musicians in general
The twenty-seven club discredited – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-10-the-27-club-discredited/
Sample musician profiles 1 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-11-sample-profiles-1/
Sample musician profiles 2 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-12-sample-profiles-2/
Sample musician profiles 3 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-13-sample-profiles-3/
. An alphabetical list of the musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-14-the-musicians-alphabetized/

______________________________

All musicians in the database fell short of their life expectancies, and the ages at which they died are indicated below. In order to use a more representative sample, two hundred other musicians of varying life spans were added to those in the database and the ages at which they died are also noted below. Most of the new musicians lived longer than their life expectancies making them ineligible for the database. It was found that more musicians died at the ages of both forty-nine and forty-five (not twenty-seven) than at any other age. This will be discussed in more detail in the Twenty-Seven Club Discredited post here ( xxx ).

People often find patterns in data when no such patterns have any significance (this is called data mining), which is why the Twenty-Seven Club emerged. Given enough data one can almost always come up with seemingly important coincidences that are in fact meaningless. It would be unusual if there wasn’t anything unusual given a large enough database. For example, here are some amazing facts about the musicians in this database:

Meet the Forty-Two Club. The King himself, Elvis Presley, died at the age of forty-two, but so did the king of British Rock and Roll, Billy Fury. The great reggae star Peter Tosh, Richard Manuel who was the most talented member Canada’s greatest band (The Band), and the noted classical composer Modest Mussorgsky all died at the age of forty-two as well. Coincidence? I think not.
Or you could take this approach. Is it not amazing that the following four musicians from different parts of the world still seemed to share an uncanny commonality? Jimi Hendrix (from the United States) was 27 years 295 days old when he died, Cecilia (from Spain) was 27 years 296 days old when she died, El Gallo de Oro (from Mexico) was 27 years 297 days old when he died and Lily T. (from Zambia) was 27 years 298 days when she died. Not only that but all four used stage names rather than real names. Johnny Allen Hendrix was the real name of Jimi Hendrix. Evangelina Galanes was the real name of Cecilia, Valentin Elizalde was the real name of El Gallo de Oro, and Lily T.’s real name was Lily Tembo. Both Hendrix and Lily T. died in September, both Hendrix and Cecilia died by accident (as did El Gallo’s father) and both released only three albums (and Lily T. Was working on her third when she died). Truly amazing.

In the death data that follow the age of death for the database musicians is given in years and days, and the age at death for the additional musicians is given in years only but the years of their births and deaths are also given. A summary of the data:

61 musicians died at the age of 49
60 musicians died at the age of 45
58 musicians died at the age of 27
46 musicians died at the age of 42
33 musicians died at the ages of 36, 39 and 56
32 musicians died at the ages of 37 and 47
31 musicians died at the age of 34
30 musicians died at the age of 46
29 musicians died at the ages of 28 and 38
28 musicians died at the ages of 35, 40 and 44
26 musicians died at the ages of 41, 43, 48 and 53
25 musicians died at the age of 29
24 musicians died at the ages of 32 and 52
23 musicians died at the ages of 30 and 31
22 musicians died at the ages of 33, 55 and 57
21 musicians died at the ages of 24 and 51
17 musicians died at the ages of 25, 50, 58 and 59
15 musicians died at the ages of 21 and 54
14 musicians died at the ages of 26 and 64
12 musicians died at the age of 63
11 musicians died at the age of 60
9 musicians died at the age of 65
8 musicians died at the ages of 22, 61 and 75
7 musicians died at the age of 23 and 62
6 musicians died at the ages of 19, 74 and 76
5 musicians died at the ages of 69, 71, 73, 77 and 94
4 musicians died at the ages of 79, 82 and 86
3 musicians died at the ages of 18, 20, 66, 68, 80, 81, 87 and 92
2 musicians died at the ages of 67, 78, 85, 88, 89 and 90
and 1 musician died at the ages of 17, 70, 72, 83, 84, 91, 95, 96, 97 and 103.

EDDIE COCHRAN IN 1957
By Liberty Records – http://www.eddiecochran.info/Biography/Biography.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25577662

The data on the age of which the musicians died:

17 years – Ritchie Valens (266 days).
18 years – Zachary Sobiech (17 days), John Spence (321 days) and Ronnie Caldwell (348 days).
19 years – Taylor Mitchell (61 days), Nick Traina (142 days), MC Daleste (250 days), Martin Lamble (257 days), Lil Phat (317 days) and Adan Sanchez (347 days).
20 years – XXXTentacion (145 days), Pop Smoke (214 days) and Lil Loaded (303 days).
21 years – Lil Peep (14 days), Amie Comeaux (17 days), O.V. Wright (38 days), David Box (73 days), Hugh Mundell (122 days), Bugz (136 days), Jimmy Wopo (156 days), Camoflauge (161 days), Dolla (174 days), Eddie Cochran (195 days), Smoke Dawg (224 days), Sid Vicious (268 days), Billy Murcia (280 days), Stu Sutcliffe (280 days) and Todd Crew (319 days).
22 years – Mary Ann Ganser (38 days), Darby Crash (72 days), Dead (82 days), Christina Grimmie (90 days), Buddy Holly (149 days), Doe B. (198 days), Aaliyah (221 days) and Roger Patterson (289 days).
23 years – RiSe (22 days), River Phoenix (69 days), Melanie Appleby (191 days), Bobby Fuller (269 days), Ian Curtis (308 days) and Selena (349 days). Plus William Baines (1899 – 1922).
24 years – Razzle (6 days), Mike Furber (13 days), Stefanie Sargent (26 days), Andrew Wood (70 days), Robbie McIntosh (140 days), Richard Twardzik (174 days), Glenn Goins (208 days), Berry Oakley (221 days), Cliff Burton (229 days), Maury Muehleisen (250 days), Big L (261 days), Pinetop Smith (277 days), Sammy Babitzin (292 days), Notorious B.I.G. (292 days), Mike Millward (302), Peter Laughner (304 days), Tammi Terrell (321 days), Kevin Fret (342 days), Duane Allman (343 days) and Matthew Jay (350 days). Plus Marie-Juliette Boulanger (1893 – 1918).
25 years – B (4 days), Chris Austin (20), Dimitriy Selivanov (28 days), Somniumi (30 days), Zeke Zettner (48 days), Simone Battle (802 days), 2Pac (89 days), Randy Rhoads (103 days), Tommy Bolin (125 days), Terje Bakken (133 days), Frankie Lymon (150 days), Johnny Ace (199 days), Charlie Christian (216 days), James Honeyman-Scott (224 days), Dave Lepard (237 days), Paul Gardiner (279 days) and Andy DeMize (306 days).
26 years – Joe C. (7 days), Baby Huey (72 days), Hillel Slovak (73 days), Soulja Slim (78), Otis Redding (92 days), Mendonca (106 days), Jimmy McCulloch (115 days), Nick Drake (159 days), Paul Kossoff (187 days), Mac Miller (232 days), Bored Nothing (251 days), George Scott III (293 days), Gram Parsons (318 days) and Iry Lejeune (346 days).
27 years – Looloosh (11 days), Louis Chauvin (13 days), Kristen Pfaff (21 days), El Petro (31 days), Bryan Ottoson (32 days), Kurt Cobain (44 days), Mia Zapata (49 days), Jesse Belvin (53 days), Fat Pat (61 days), Alan Wilson (61 days), Helmut Kollen (62 days), Alexander Bashlachev (66 days), Tomas Lowe (70 days), Alexandra (73 days), Linda Jones (91 days), Alexandra Levy (98 days), Robert Johnson (100 days), Anton Yelchin (100 days), Dimiter Voev (107 days), Slada Guduras (112 days), Brian Jones (125 days), Kami (140 days), Dickie Pride (156 days), Roger Lee Durham (163 days), Malcolm Hale (166 days), Pigpen (181 days), Joe Henderson (183 days), Zenon de Fleur (189 days), Fredo Santana (199 days), James Morrison (207 days), Gary Thain (207 days), Wally Yohn (212 days), Nat Jaffe (216 days), Leslie Harvey (233 days), Stretch (236 days), Dave Alexander (252 days), Jonghyun (254 days), Janis Joplin (258 days), D. Boon (266 days), Rudy Lewis (271 days), Dyke Christian (273 days), Moskri (274 days), Sean McCabe (289 days), Sahara Davenport (289 days), Nicole Bogner (290 days), Jimi Hendrix (295 days), Cecilia (296 days), El Gallo de Oro (297 days), Lily T. (298 days), Moses Molelekwa (302 days), Amy Winehouse (312 days), Pete de Freitas (316 days), Freaky Tah (318 days), Orish Grinstead (323 days), Jacob Miller (324 days), Thomas Fekete (335 days), Chris Bell (349 days) and Pete Ham (362 days).
28 years – Chuck Valle (7 days), Mitch Lucker (12 days), Shannon Hoon (25 days), Pete King (29 days), Steve Gaines (36 days), Blade Icewood (36 days), Bobby Bloom (44 days), Magnolia Shorty (81 days), Tim Buckley (85 days), Ellison Sims (88 days), Big Pun (89 days), Bradley Nowell (95 days), The Big Bopper (102 days), Bix Beiderbecke (149 days), John Grimaldi (177 days), Viktor Tsoi (183 days), John Glascock (199 days), Wes Berggren (207 days), Bankroll Fresh (215 days), Jason Thirsk (217 days), Garnett Silk (251 days), Guy McDonough (253 days), Harry Womack (257 days), Jon Pettis (281 days), Beverly Kenney (290 days), Dave Rubinstein (301 days), Tracy Pew (323 days), Robert Keith Wiggins (353 days) and Sean Costello (364 days)
29 years – Helno (28 days), Ingo Schwichtenberg (29 days), Brian Cole (37 days), Clarence White (38 days), Barbecue Bob (40 days), Shorty Long (40), Richard Farina (53 days), Mercury Nelson (77 days), Hank Williams (106 days), Pinetop Sparks (167 days), Rob Jones (168 days), Kevin Gilbert (180 days), Danny Whitten (194 days), Lefty Baker (216 days), Handsome Ned (220 days), Jo Bruce (242 days), Jerry Ross (248 days), Tommy Kiefer (249 days), Billy Rancher (277 days), Ronnie van Zant (279 days), Cassie Gaines (285 days), Sabotage (296 days), Marc Bolan (351 days) and Patrick Bourque (363 days). Plus Jehan-Ariste Alain (1911 – 1940).
30 years – Andy Gibb (5 days), Jimmy Blythe (25 days), Leroy Carr (33 days), Chris Acland (40), Johnny Burnette (111 days), Radka Toneff (118 days), Dave Williams (167 days), Tommy Caldwell (171 days), Patsy Cline (178 days), Little Willie John (193 days), Jeff Buckley (193 days), Criss Oliva (197 days), Eazy-E (200 days), Jim Croce (253 days), Gregory Herbert (257 days), Steve Clark (260 days), Alice Martineau (271 days), Half a Mill (272 days), Johnny Kidd (288 days), Pete Farndon (306 days), Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes (333 days), Jim Cherry (339 days) and Lynn Strait (339 days).
31 years – Wong Ka Kui (20 days), George Butterworth (24 days), Thomas Wayne (24 days), Zac Foley (25 days), Beau Velasco (43 days), Jim Ellison (63 days), Bobby Sheehan (69 days), Ron Tabak (91 days), Steve Peregrin Took (91 days), Sandy Denny (105 days), Leah LaBelle (145 days), John Rostill (163 days), Ty Longley (169 days), Dwayne Goettel (204 days), Iosu Exposito (206 days), Minnie Riperton (246 days), Tony Thompson (272 days), Jared Anderson (293 days), Jon Nodtveidt (319 days), Cyril Davies (351 days) and Terry Kath (357 days). Plus Charles Naginski (1909 – 1940) and Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828).
32 years – Keith Godchaux (4 days), Annette Snell (13 days), Keith Moon (14 days), James Leroy (37 days), Packy Axton (37 days), Guitar Slim (59 days), VL Mike (92 days), John Bonham (117 days), Tony Destra (141 days), Rob Collins (149 days), Proof (191 days), Ricky Wilson (207 days), Emily Remler (228 days), Florence Ballard (237 days), Rushton Moreve (237 days), Doug Hopkins (238 days), Josh Clayton-Felt (246 days), Nadine Renee (296 days), Sam Cooke (323 days), Karen Carpenter (339 days), Pimp C. (340 days), Steve Currie (343 days) and Danny Cedrone (362 days). Plus Göte Carlid (1920 – 1953).
33 years – Jon Lee (28 days), John Belushi (40 days), Keith Relf (53 days), Cranford Nix (54 days), Donny Hathaway (104 days), Hide (140 days), Tommy Marth (141 days), Derrick Plourde (164 days), Stan Rogers (186 days), Stephen Gately (207 days), Lee Morgan (224 days), Bon Scott (225 days), Natasja Saad (236 days), Andy Lewis (241 days), Eva Cassidy (273 days), Bad News Brown (279 days), Rob Pilatus (298 days), Sam Cooke (323 days), Pimp C (340 days), Steve Currie (343 days) and Danny Cedrone (362 days). Plus Dinu Lipatti (1917 – 1950).
34 years – Lamar Williams (7 days), Young Greatness (40 days), Paul Williams (46 days), Keith Whitley (53 days), Sonny Boy Williamson I / John Williamson (63 days), Elliott Smith (76 days), Lowell George (77 days), Tiny Topsy (86 days), Mac Dre (119 days), Rozz Williams (145 days), Alma Cogan (160 days), Killah P. (161 days), Dave Torbert (183 days), Melanie Thornton (195), Charlie Parker (195 days), Luther ‘Snake Boy’ Johnson (200 days), Ray Gillen (203 days), Wells Kelly (205 days), Trouble (213 days), Chuck Schuldiner (214 days), Jonathan Melvoin (219 days), Layne Staley (226 days), Krzystof Raczkowski (243 days), Rory Storm (265 days), Jerry Fuchs (312 days), Miika Tenkula (349 days), Antoine Lundy (349 days) and Chris Trousdale (356 days). Plus Alejandro Caturia (1906 – 1940), Hugo Distler (1908 – 1942) and Chick Webb (1905 – 1939).
35 years – Nick Curran (6 days), Matthew Ashman (18 days), Shane Gibson (53 days), Bob Stinson (63 days), Lamya (70 days), Michael Johns (80 days), Benjamin Curtis (97 days), Phil Ochs (112 days), Leroy Foster (119 days), Pat Woodward (124 days), Sandra Tilley (126 days), Ruby Pearl Elzy (127 days), Tiki Fulwood (159 days), Johnny Horton (189 days), Charles Griffes (204 days), Jimmie Rodgers (260 days), Ray Barbieri (288 days), Kid Thomas (289 days), Jaco Pastorious (294 days), Ray Stephens (294 days), Stevie Ray Vaughan (328 days), Georgeanna Tillman (334 days), Allan Murphy (335 days), Yuri Klinskikh (342 days), Jonathon Larson (355 days) and Ol’ Dirty Bastard (363 days). Plus Robert Kurka (1921 – 1957) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)
36 years – Rabon Delmore (1 day), Rust Equipe (9 days), Eric Dolphy (9 days), Joachim Nielsen (39 days), Tom Jans (45 days), Timmy Matley (52 days), Steve Goodman (57 days), Marilyn Monroe (64 days), Herman Sikumberg (85 days), Mike Patto (94 days), Irving Fazola (100 days), Carlton Barrett (121 days), Mike Naumenko (131 days), Phil Lynott (137 days), Rusty Day (156 days), Big Hawk (167 days), Tom Evans (171 days), Graham Bond (192 days), Bianca Halstead (224 days), Doreen Waddell (234 days), Gene Vincent (243 days), Billy Lyall (250 days), James Radcliffe (251 days), Sherman Garnes (263 days), Bob Marley (271 days), Ole Beich (290 days), G.G. Allin (303 days), Paul Jeffreys (312 days) and David McComb (350 days). Plus Walter Leigh (1905 – 1942), Peter Warlock (1894 – 1930), Georges Bizet (1838 – 1875) and Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695).
37 years – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (17 days), Allan McCarthy (31 days), Sal Mineo (33 days), R.J. Vealey (45 days), Ronnie Garvin (50 days), Jan Johansson (54 days), Little Walter (76 days), Mindy McCready (79 days), Lhasa de Sela (96 days), Rhett Forrester (122 days), Linda Creed (125 days), John Curulewski (133 days), Flabba (143 days), MC Breed (163 days), King Curtis (187 days), Allen Collins (188 days), Mike Bloomfield (202 days), Bobby Darin (220 days), Little Jimmy King (227 days), Brent Mydland (238 days), Jackie Neale (246 days), Jane Vogel (256 days), Sudirman (273 days), Jeffrey Lee Pierce (278 days), Jam Master Jay (282 days), Michael Hutchence (304 days), Jimmy McShane (310 days), Charles Pettigrew (329 days), Oscar Pettiford (343 days), Carl Radle (346 days), Komeda Krzysztof (361 days) and Joe Negroni (361 days).
38 years – David Byron (30 days), Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (37 days), Bob ‘The Bear’ Hite (38 days), Bert Berns (52 days), J.B.Lenoir (55 days), Mooseman (60 days), Bobby Timmons (72 days), Ethelbert Nevin (84 days), Quorthon (107 days), Darrell Dimebag (110 days), Jeff Porcaro (126 days), Tubby Hayes (129 days), Bobby Neal (165 days), B.W. Stevenson (206 days), Harry Chapin (221 days), Epic Soundtracks (227 days), Paul Hackman (234 days), Keith Hudson (241 days), Mario Lanza (249 days), Dennis Danell (249), Eddie Kurdziel (254 days), Johnny Thunders (282 days), George Gershwin (288 days), Jack Rose (292 days), Randy Black (310 days), Rebop Kwaku Baah (333 days) and Frankie Kennedy (354 days). Plus Luciano Gallet (1893 – 1931) and Amadeo Roldan (1900 – 1939).
39 years – Michael Lee (5 days), Tim Hardin (6 days), Chris Wood (18 days), Dennis Wilson (24 days), Gidget Gein (26 days), Bill Black (34 days), Haydain Neale (53 days), Karen Young (56 days), Dinah Washington (107 days), Harold McNair (122 days), Wynton Kelly (131 days), Rauli Somerjoki (137 days), Bobby Debarge (143 days), Norman Harris (157 days), Van McCoy (181 days), Sean Levert (184 days), Marcelo Fromer (192 days), Jermaine Stewart (192 days), Klaus Nomi (194 days), Jim Korthe (201 days), Clyde McPhatter (211 days), Michelle Meldrum (236 days), Junior Parker (236 days), Daniel MacMaster (249 days), Vagif Mustafazadeh (275 days), Jason Molina (289 days), Sarah Harding (292 days), Bill Chase (293 days), Billy McKenzie (301 days), Brian McLeod (304 days), Al Jackson Jr. (307 days) and Peter Lucia Jr. (338 days). Plus Frederic Chopin (1810 – 1849).
40 years – Stuart Cable (19 days), John Lennon (60 days), Wesley Willis (82 days), Roy Hamilton (95 days), Earl Hooker (96 days), Izumi Sakai (110 days), Chuck Briggs (111 days), Leonard Lee (116 days), Gerald Levert (120 days), Min Leibrook (141 days), Ronnie Dyson (158 days), Mikey Welsh (161 days), Country Dick Montana (175 days), Hubert Johnson (178 days), Shawn Lane (189 days), Luther Perkins (210 days), Michael Houser (216 days), Stiv Bators (225 days), Mark Heard (233 days), Nick Hawkins (249 days), Patty Donahue (255 days), Roy Huskey Jr. (263 days), Frank C. Starr (271 days), Glenn Miller (290 days), Robert Dahlqvist (291 days), John Coltrane (297 days), Otis Spann (331 days) and Falco (352 days).
41 years – Charles Miller (12 days), Don Decker (30 days), Martin Gilks (32 days), Gary Driscoll (51 days), Ral Donner (56 days), Ira Louvin (60 days), Kirsty MacColl (69 days), Liam Maher (95 days), Chester Bennington (122 days), Eric Carr (135 days), Adrian Borland (141 days), John Campbell (145 days), Gar Samuelson (146 days), Rana Ross (180 days), Carlo Karges (191 days), George Howard (203 days), Nate Dogg (208 days), Dave Tough (227 days), Bull City Red (238 days), Carlos Vega (244 days), Paul Baloff (283 days), Karl Mueller (325 days), Kevin Wilkinson (329 days), Jeff Healey (342 days) and Marek Blizinski (360 days). Plus Silvestre Revueltas (1899 – 1940).

PETER TOSH (LEFT) WITH ROBBIE SHAKESPEARE 1978
By TimDuncan – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3895761

42 years – Roy Draper (90 days), Barbara Robison (91 days), Phil Seymour (93 days), Ofra Haza (96 days), Trish Keenan (108 days), Freddie King (116 days), Ronald Raahson Kirk (120 days), Addie ‘Micki’ Harris (139 days), Divine (140 days), Rob Buck (140 days), Dennis Browns (149 days), Dig Richards (158 days), Jim Hodder (170 days), Pepsi Tate (191 days), Kyle Woodring (212 days), Philip Taylor Kramer (215 days), Elvis Presley (220 days), Gervasio (243 days), Geater Davis (244 days), Brian Keenan (250 days), Eddie Hazel (257 days), Christian Dudek (263 days), Jacqueline Du Pré(266 days), Frank Esler-Smith (269 days), Billy Fury (286 days), Roy Turk (294 days), Jimmy Stokley (298 days), Robbin Crosby (306 days), Avery Parrish (320 days), Peter Tosh (327 days), Richard Manuel (335 days) and Rob Fisher (397 days). Plus Franz von Vecsey (1893 – 1935), Adolf Jensen (1837 – 1879), Modest Mussorgsky (1839 – 1881), Hans Steigleder (1593 – 1635), William Smith (1603 – 1645), Josef Reicha (1752 – 1795), Nicolas Isouard (1775 – 1818), Josef Lanner (1801 – 1843), Albert Prince-Consort of England (1819 – 1861), Josef Strauss (1827 – 1870), Hugo Wolf (1860 – 1903), Leopold Stern (1862 – 1904) and Franz von Vescey (1890 – 1935).
43 years – Lenny Breau (7 days), Osie Johnson (30 days), Lonnie Pitchford (31 days), Kenny Kirkland (45 days), Philippé Wynne (102 days), Django Reinhardt (113 days), Felix Pappalardi (118 days), Ric Grech (136 days), Sticks McGhee (145 days), Margita Stefanovic (170 days), Bernard Edwards (170 days), B.J. Wilson (204 days), Grant Green (239 days), Kyu Sakamoto (245 days), Doug Stegmeyer (246 days), Stuart Adamson (249 days), Bobby Chouinard (255 days), Jonny O’Keefe (260 days), Benny Benjamin (269 days), Jesse Ed Davis (275 days), Elmo Hope (326 days), James Booker (326), Michael Hedges (336 days) and Carolyn Franklin (347 days). Plus William Busch (1901 – 1945) and Leo Kauffmann (1901 – 1944).
44 years – Paul Ryan (36 days), Ricky Parent (52 days), Owsley (55 days), It (55 days), Marc Moreland (64 days), Herbert Rhoad (68 days), Steve Marriott (80 days), Herbie Nichols (109 days), Don Ellis (114 days), John Baker Saunders (114 days), Larry Williams (124 days), Woody Shaw (137 days), Paul Butterfield (138 days), Gerry Boulet (140 days), Don Gant (142 days), Wilbur Harden (161 days), Heavy D (168 days), Allen Woody (227 days), Mike Starr (238 days), Michel Berger (247 days), Tim David (295 days), Derek B. (305 days), Marc Hunter (313 days), Kate Wolf (317 days), Ron Wilson (320 days), Jon Brookes (326 days), Augustus Pablo (331 days) and Marvin Gaye (364 days).
45 years – Taiji Sawada (5 days), Bruce Waibel (55 days), Michael Baker (57 days), Billy Jones (79 days), Walter Jackson (93 days), Wes Montgomery (101 days), Elmore James (114 days), Jud Strunk (116 days), Phife Dawg (122 days), Gene Bricker (129 days), Van Stephenson (135 days), Randy Jo Hobbs (136 days), Robbie Basho (150 days), Nicolette Larson (152 days), Marcel Jacob (172 days), Louis A. McCall Sr. (179 days), Eddie DeLang (182 days), Warren Ryanes (184 days), Jay Bennett (190 days), Fad Gadget (207 days), Randy Carr (226 days), Rick Nelson (237 days), Jerry Nolan (252 days), Joe Nanini (253 days), Steve Sanders (266 days), Vincent Crane (269 days), Chris Whitley (284 days), Freddie Mercury (285 days), Dee Murray (286 days), Scott Smith (290 days), Jimmy Soul (305 days), John Cipollina (309 days), Beau Jacque (313 days), Randy California (316 days), Ruby Starr (320 days), Vicki Sue Robinson (331 days), Nat ‘King’ Cole (335 days), Slim Harpo (354 days) and Phyllis Hyman (359 days). Plus Nikolaos Skalkottas (1904 – 1949), Leonard Lambert (1905 – 1951), Hely-Hutchinson (1901 – 1947), Garcia Moncayo (1912 – 1958), Clarence Satchell (1940 – 1995), Colleen Paterson (1950 – 1996), William Clarke (1951 – 1996), Vic Chestnutt (1964 – 2009), Francesco Canova (1497 – 1543), Johann Michael Bach (1648 – 1694), Richard Mudge (1718 – 1763), Aaron Williams (1731 – 1776), Michael Arne (1740 – 1786), Johann Friedrich Edelmann (1749 – 1794), Daniel Kuhlau (1786 – 1832), Alice Mary Smith (1839 – 1884), Johann Strauss (1804 – 1849), Frantisek Picka (1873 – 1918), Karl Hoyer (1802 – 1936), William Flanagan (1923 – 1969) and Jimmie Lunceford (1902 – 1947).
46 years – Chris Kenner (31 days), Prince Be (33 days), Phil Seamen (46 days), Felton Jarvis (49 days), Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith (51 days), Paul Hester (77 days), Juke Boy Bonner (99 days), Dolores O’Riordan (131 days), Roy Budd (146 days), Delroy Wilson (152 days), Rainer Ptacek (159 days), Toby Smith (164 days), Andriy Kuzmenko (169 days), Geoffrey Yunupingu (184 days), Gene Clark (188 days), Sharon Redd (195 days), Jean Adebambo (198 days), Freddie Waits (205 days), Frank Navetta (239 days), Chico Banks (271 days), Paul Raven (277 days), Rob Tyner (279 days), Mark Sandman (282 days), Dorsey Burnette (295 days), Cannonball Adderley (327 days), Mick Ronson (338 days), Leroi Moore (345 days) and Alex Harvey (364 days). Plus William Flanagan (1923 – 1969) and Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856).
47 years – Joe Tex (5 days), Judy Garland (12 days), Jerry Edmonton (35 days), Jerome Smith (40 days), Steve Wahrer (60 days), Graeme Kelling (67 days), Sandy West (103 days), Rory Gallagher (104 days), David Wayne (129 days), Ian Stewart (147 days), René Berg (155 days), Mike Scaccia (162 days), Dave Blood (176 days), Mercy Baby (182 days), James Jamerson (185 days), Mark Linkous (185 days), Jani Lane (191 days), Michael Clarke (199 days), Vince Guarldi (204 days), Darla Hood (217 days), Howie Epstein (217 days), Guy Speranza (241 days), Dean Reed (264 days), Big Maybelle (266 days), MCA (272 days), Edith Piaf (295 days), John Panozzo (300 days), Brandi Wells (315 days), Edmund Sylvers (319 days) and Warren Smith (358 days). Irving Fine (1914 – 1962) and Art Tatum (1909 – 1956).
48 years – Joe Farrell (25 days), Scott Weiland (37 days), Johnny Cymbal (41 days), O’Kelly Isley Jr. (96 days), Peter Allen (129 days), Marge Ganser (174 days), Whitney Houston (186 days), John McGeoch (192 days), Dan Hamilton (205 days), Z.Z. Hill (210 days), Roger Voudouris (217 days), Esther Phillips (228 days), Ean Evans (232 days), John Jarrard (270 days), Randy VanWarmer (288 days), Meritxell Negre (296 days), Guru (306 days), Wendy O. Williams (313 days), Roy Buchanan (325 days), Steve Waller (338 days), Stan Szelest (343 days), Allan Sherman (355 days), Tom Fogerty (361 days), Wayne Static (361 days) and Tony Thompson (362 days). Plus Dorian Le Gallienne (1915 – 1963).
49 years – Carole Fredericks (2 days), Barry Sadler (5 days), Kelly Johnson (25 days), Danny Gatton (30 days), Mickey Hawks (45 days), Tony Duhig (54 days), Aamir Zaki (55 days), Dave Shogren (63 days), Paul Samson (66 days), Mary Wells (74 days), Nikki Sudden (111 days), Leon Wilkinson (116 days), Gary Primich (156 days), Keith Flint (168 days), Laura Nyro (172 days), Jacques Brel (184 days), Odia Coates (187 days), Ronnie Bond (193 days), Patti McCabe (195 days), Joey Ramone (231 days), Wee Gee Howard (235 days), Shirley Strachan (239 days), Boston Blackie (247 days), Bryan Harvey (248 days), Mejla (260 days), Nico (275 days), Richard Tee (293 days), Jim Reese (323 days), Bryan Gregory (324 days), Dave Carter (340 days), Munetaka Higuchi (342 days), Bruce Williamson (343 days), Glen Buxton (343 days) and Howard Greenfield (354 days). Plus Eunio Porrino (1910 – 1959), Thomas Jefferson Scott (1912 – 1961), Johan Bjorling (1911 – 1960), Lester Young (1909 – 1959), Gary Farr (1944 – 1994), Jak Airport (1955 – 2004), James Woolley (1966 – 2016), Jason Slater (1971 – 2020), Michael Praetorious (1571 – 1621), Jean-Baptiste Loeillet (1680 – 1730), Mark Gräfin Wilhelmine (1709 – 1758), Friedrich Schwindl (1737 – 1786), Jakub Golabek (1739 – 1789), Christian Gottlob Neefe (1748 – 1798), Pierre Dupont (1821 – 1870), Edward Sydney Smith (1839 0 – 1889), Carl Cornelius (1824 – 1874), Peter Heise (1830 – 1879), Jose Montero (1832 – 1881), Victor Nessler (1841 – 1890), Nikolai Galkin (1856 – 1906), Lucien Magnard (1865 – 1914), Miguel Sandoval (1903 – 1953), Jackie Wilson (1934 – 1984), Roy Hargrove (1969 – 2018), Violetta Parra (1917 – 1967) and Bruce Fairburn (1949 – 1999).
50 years – Glenn Gould (9 days), Gaylord Birch (35 days), Taylor Hawkins (36 days), Cozy Powell (66 days), Sean Mayes (117 days), David Ruffin (134 days), Don Murray (135 days), Nicky Hopkins (195 days), Dave Brockie (205 days), Bobby McClure (206 days), Alan Hull (239 days), Dee Dee Ramone (261 days), Michael Jackson (300 days) and Johnny Jackson (363 days). Plus Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911), Jelly Roll Morton (1890 – 1941) and Joe Strummer (1952 – 2002).
51 years – George Morgan (9 days), Bill Evans (30 days), Eddie Hinton (43 days), Mark St. John (58 days), Tony Williams (73 days), Randy Castillo (98 days), Bobby Jones (127 days), Brian Connolly (128 days), Gary Usher (162 days), Duane Jarvis (222 days), Kurt Winter (256 days), Rudy Pompilli (295 days), Jack Marshall (301 days), Bob McBride (301 days), Ronnie Lane (301 days), John Wolters (316 days), Carl Wilson (318 days), Darrell Sweet (349 days) and Barry Cowsill (349 days). Plus Karl-Birger Blomdahl (1916 – 1968) and Billy Strayhorn (1915 – 1967).
52 years – Kevin DuBrow (21 days), Laura Branigan (54 days), Bryan MacLean (91 days), June Pointer (101 days), Paul Gordon (122 days), Adam Schlesinger (153 days), Pierre Moerlen (162 days), Paul Desmond (186 days), Harry Nilsson (214 days), Roy Orbison (227 days), Vic Ames (253 days), Guy Babylon (256 days), Butch McDade (278 days), Henry Vestine (299), Townes van Zandt (300 days), Kenny MacLean (320 days), Brian Pendleton (348 days), Erik Brann (348 days), Doug Bennett (350 days), David Seville (354 days), Mort Shuman (355 days) and Skip Spence (363 days). Plus Bernd Zimmermann (1918 – 1970) and Robert Evett (1922 – 1975).
53 years – Sterling Morrison (1 day), Jerry Garcia (8 days), Maurice Gibb (21 days), Benjamin Orr (25 days), Paul Young (28 days), Victor Feldman (35 days), Mary Ford (85 days), John Denver (110 days), Melissa Bell (176 days), Chrissy Amphlett (178 days), Bob Mayo (182 days), Danny Joe Brown (198 days), David Brown (201 days), Michael Karoli (202 days), Randall Bewley (215 days), Jackson Spires (238 days), Gord Downie (253 days), Bobby Scott (280 days), Vesta Williams (295 days) and Ted Mulry (364 days). Bruno Maderna (1920 – 1973), Seymour Shifrin (1926 – 1979), Tadeusz Baird (1928 – 1981), Alexander Borodin (1833 – 1887), Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893) and George Michael (1963 – 2016).
54 years – Stacey Rowles (55 days), Matt Monro (68 days), Alan Blakley (70 days), Tommy Blake (101 days), Terry Stafford (116 days), Hoyt Hawkins (206 days), Mick Tucker (212 days), Robert Palmer (249 days), Gambler Rogers (252 days), Buren Fowler (252 days), Ken Forrsi (280 days), Luther Vandross (293 days), Ernie Graham (317 days), Mick Cocks (345 days) and Oliver (355 days).
55 years – Darryl DeLoach (21 days), Hughie Thomasson (26 days), Del Shannon (40 days), Tommy Boyce (60 days), Chris Michie (74 days), A.J. Pero (157 days), Arthur Kane (161 days), Michael Kamen (186 days), Jimmy Bryant (201 days), Mickey Finn (222 days), Vince Welnick (268 days), Barbara Acklin (272 days), Bill Justis (274 days), John Rutsey (292 days), Pete Drake (295 days), John Whitehead (305 days), Tammy Wynette (336 days), Johnny Ramone (342 days) and Rick Danko (346 days). Plus Anton Heiller (1923 – 1979), Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918) and Erroll Garner (1921 – 1977).
56 years – Joe Schermie (42 days), George Barnes (50 days), Art Pepper (56 days), Dan Fogelberg (125 days), Kenny Pickett (129 days), Seymour Spiegelman (135 days), Robbie King (144 days), Bobbi Martin (155 days), Jim Pash (157 days), Eddie Rabbitt (161 days), John Siomos (170 days), Rick James (187days), David McWilliams (188 days), Mike Gibbins (206 days), Bill Haley (218 days), Warren Zevon (226 days), Mark Reale (232 days), Billy Powell (239 days), Mandawuy Yunupingu (258 days), Mickie James (262 days), Lyn Collins (273 days), Henry McGilberry (291 days), Marvin Isley (292 days), Dave Peverett (296 days), Roger Miller (297 days), Steve Prestwich (317 days), Gary Shider (327 days), Bryn Merrick (335 days), Speedy Keen (348 days), Keith Knudsen (355 days) and Colin Manley (358 days). Plus Albert Garant (1929 – 1986) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827).
57 years – Ian Dury (15 days), Chet Powers (34 days), Brian Pendleton (42 days), Marty Robbins (73 days), Gordon Huntley (78 days), Larry Hall (86 days), Rod Price (120 days), Peter Bardens (195 days), Chris Ledoux (207 days), Chas. Chandler (212 days), Mare Morgan (235 days), Heinz Burt (257 days), Brian O’Hara (258 days), John Entwistle (261 days),Prince (318 days), Les Gray (318 days), Norton Buffalo (336), Brian Roy Goble (337 days), Syreeta Wright (337 days) and Zal Yanovsky (359 days). Plus William Mathias (1934 – 1992) and Noel Redding (1945 – 2003).

GEORGE HARRISON OF THE BEATLES 1968
By Apple Records – Billboard magazine, 14 December 1968, p. 17, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29102401

58 years – Gerry McGhee (10 days), Doug Sahm (12 days), Paul Atkinson (13 days), Bruce Palmer (22 days), Cliff Gallup (114 days), Chet Baker (142 days), Sista Monica Parker (165 days), Greg Ham (205 days), Screaming Lord Sutch (218 days), Todd Nance (273 days), George Harrison (278 days), Ron Miles (303 days), Malcolm Roberts (313 days) and Dottie West (328 days). Plus Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842 – 1900), Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915 – 1973) and Fela Kuti (1938 – 1997).
59 years – Ken Lyons (3 days), Jim Carroll (41 days), Mariska Veres (62 days), Bill Rieflin (176 days), Gary Stewart (202 days), James Dewar (216 days), Jeff Golub (261 days), Conway Twitty (277 days), Peter Wells (279), Ian Rilen (286 days), Hagood Hardy (311 days), Dusty Springfield (320 days) and Ken Colyer (325 days). Plus Gustave Holst (1874 – 1934), Erik Satie (1866 – 1925), Little Eva (1943 – 2003) and Rachid Taha (1958 – 2018).
60 years – Paul Davis (1 day), Boz Burrell (51 days), Ron Asheton (173 days), Jim Capaldi (179 days), Syd Barrett (192 days), Marv Ingram (221 days), Iain Shedden (283 days), Steve Ferguson (320 days), Andy Fletcher (322 days) and Billy Thorpe (336 days). Plus Mahalia Jackson (1911 – 1972).
61 years – Joe Diffie (92 days), Mitch Mitchell (126 days), Arthur Lee (149 days), Ed Cobb (206 days), Hoyt Axton (216 days) and John Fahey (359 days). Plus Sergei Prokofiev (1891 – 1953) and Hazel Scott (1920 – 1981)
62 years – Robin Gibb (150 days), Brian Travers (196 days) and Kato Kazuhiko (210 days). Plus Antonin Dvorak (1841 – 1904), Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937), Johnny Hodges (1907 – 1970) and Adam Faith (1940 – 2003).
63 years – Jimi Jamison (8 days), Dickie Peterson (30 days), Buster Stiggs (30 days), Tony Jackson (33 days), Danny McBride (245 days), Rod Allen (274 days), Greedy Smith (320 days) and Craig Gruber (324 days). Plus Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897), Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976), Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741) and Johhny Ray (1927 – 1990)
64 years – Mark Gray (39 days), Bob Burns (130 days), Astro (135 days), Dan Toler (155 days), Nicky James (189 days), Scott Asheton (211 days), Jack Sherman (213 days), Matthew Seligman (278 days) and Malcolm Young (316 days). Plus Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 – 1908), Bela Bartok (1881 – 1945), Edvard Grieg (1843 – 1907), Thelonious Monk (1917 – 1982) and Gene Krupa (1909 – 1973).
65 years – John DuCann (112 days) and Eddie Van Halen (223 days), Plus J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750), Hector Berlioz (1803 – 1869), Giacomo Puccini (1958 – 1924), Victor Herbert (1859 – 1924), Miles Davis (1926 – 1991), Howlin’ Wolf (1910 – 1976) and John Phillips (1935 – 2001).
66 years – Brian Howe (288 days). Plus Denny Doherty (1940 – 2007) and Oscar Levant (1906 – 1972).
67 years – Harry James (. – 1983) and Jenny Lind (1820 – 1887).
68 years – Khalis Bayyan (312 days). Plus Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975) and Lesley Gore (1946 – 2015).
69 years – Bonnie Pointer (332 days). Plus Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883), Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 – 1943), Louis Armstrong (1901 – 1971) and David Bowie (1947 – 2016).
70 years – Muddy Waters (1913 – 1983).
71 years – Mary Lou Williams (1910 – 1981), Jon Lord (1941 – 2012), Keith Emerson (1944 – 2016), Jack Bruce (1943 – 2014) and Johnny Cash (1930 – 2003).
72 years – Mary Travers (1936 – 2009).
73 years – Cole Porter (1891 – 1964), Lil Hardin (1848 – 1971), Teddy Wilson (1912 – 1986), Bunny Wailer (1947 – 2021) and Slam Stewart (1914 – 1987).
74 years – Phil Everly (1939 – 2014), Leon Russell (1942 – 2016), George Frederic Handel (1685 – 1759), Woody Herman (1913 – 1987), Ray Manzarek (1939 – 2013) and Bing Crosby (1903 – 1977).
75 years – Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886), Charles Gounod (1818 – 1893), Dizzy Gillespie (1917 – 1993), Ray Brown (1926 – 2002), Myra Hess (1890 – 1965), Duke Ellington (1899 – 1974), Alan Cartwright (1945 – 2021) and Slim Gallard (1916 – 1991).
76 years – Clara Schumann (1819 – 1896), Gary Brooker (1945 – 2022), Edward Elgar (1857 – 1934), Gioachino Rossini (1792 – 1868), Aretha Franklin (1942 – 2018) and Link Wray (1929 – 2005).
77 years – Richard Rodgers (1902 – 1979), John Philip Sousa (1854 – 1932), Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809), Benny Goodman (1909 – 1986) and Paul Robeson (1989 – 1976).
78 years – Dean Martin (1917 – 1995) and Van Cliburn (1934 – 2013).
79 years – Ed Thigpen (1930 – 2010), Ella Fitzgerald (1917 – 1996), Count Basie (1904 – 1984) and Tony Allen (1940 – 2020).
80 years – Charlie Watts (1941 – 2021), Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860 – 1941) and Ginger Baker (1939 – 2019).
81 years – Darius Milhaud (1892 – 1974), Kenny Rogers (1938 – 2020) and Nancy Wilson (1937 – 2018).
82 years – Oscar Peterson (1925 – 2007), Joe Morello (1928 – 2011), Frank Sinatra (1915 – 1998) and Leonard Cohen (1934 – 2016).
83 years – Cesar Cui (1835 – 1918).
84 years – Don Everly (1937 – 2021).
85 years – Ralph Vaughan Williams (18722 – 1958) and Horace Silver (1928 – 2014).
86 years – Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 – 1921), Carl Orff (1895 – 1982), Vladimir Horowitz (1903 – 1989) and Cab Calloway (1907 – 1994).
87 years – Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901), Little Richard (1932 – 2020) and Ali Akbar Khan (1922 – 2009).
88 years – Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971) and Les Brown (1912 – 2001).
89 years – Andre Previn (1929 – 2019) and Stephane Grappelli (1908 – 1997).
90 years – Chuck Berry (1926 – 2017) and Marlene Dietrich (1901 – 1992).
91 years – Victor Borge (1909 – 2000).
92 years – Lena Horne (1917 – 2010), Dave Brubeck (1920 – 2012) and Ravi Shankar (1920 – 2012).
94 years – Lionel Hampton (1908 – 2002), Artie Shaw (1910 – 2004), Charles Aznavour (1924 – 2018),Les Paul (1915 – 2009) and Pete Seeger (1919 – 2014).
95 years – Marian McPartland (1918 – 2013).
96 years – Eubie Blake (1887 – 1983).
97 years – Eugene Wright (1923 – 2020).
103 years – Vera Lynn (1917 – 2020).

BEFORE THEY REACH BOMBAY – Post 8. Demographics

CHARLIE PARKER 1947
By William P. Gottlieb – https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/4843755786/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20705291

NOTE – This first section, down to the blue line, can be found at the beginning of all the posts. If you have read it already you can skip ahead if you like.

Here are the relevant database posts:

Rethinking Mortality – An introduction to the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/
Percentages of expected life spans completed by musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-2-percentage-of-expected-life-spans/
Criteria for inclusion in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-3-database-inclusion/
The birth years of musicians in the database- https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-4-birth-years-of-the-musicians/
The causes of death – Overview – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-5-causes-of-death-overview/
The causes of death – data on all of the musicians – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-6-the-cause-of-death-data-on-all-of-the-musicians/
Noteworthy deaths – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-7-noteworthy-deaths/
Demographics – the birthplaces, gender, ethnicities, nationalities and musical skills of database members
Ages at death of musicians in general – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-9-ages-at-death/
The twenty-seven club discredited – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-10-the-27-club-discredited/
Sample musician profiles 1 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-11-sample-profiles-1/
Sample musician profiles 2 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-12-sample-profiles-2/
Sample musician profiles 3 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-13-sample-profiles-3/
An alphabetical list of the musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-14-the-musicians-alphabetized/

______________________________

Here is a demographic breakdown of the musicians included in the database:

Gender Breakdown
International Breakdown
Places of Birth overview
Musical Skills
Bands Represented overview
Honours
Places of Birth in detail
Bands Represented in detail

GENDER BREAKDOWN

Number of Caucasian females: 70
Number of Non-Caucasian females: 47
Number of Caucasian males: 657
Number of Non-Caucasian males: 226

INTERNATIONAL BREAKDOWN

Number of musicians in the database by country:

United States – 653
United Kingdom – 167 (England 138, Scotland 17, Wales 7 Northern Ireland 5)
Canada – 33
Australia – 22
Jamaica – 12
Germany – 10 (also see East Germany, and West Germany)
Japan and Sweden – 9
Brazil, France and the Soviet Union – 5
Finland – 4
Belgium, Eire, Norway, Poland and Spain – 3
Austria, Denmark, Isle of Man, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Serbia and South Africa – 2
Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, British Hong Kong, Bulgaria, Colombia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, East Germany (also see West Germany, and Germany), Ghana, Greece, Haiti, Hong Kong (see British Hong Kong), Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Tanzania (see The Sultanate of Zanzibar), Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, Uruguay, West Germany (also see East Germany, and Germany), Zambia, Zanzibar (now Tanzania) – 1

This breakdown would look a lot different, most likely, if it was being done by someone in Nigeria, Australia or Japan. My choice of musicians for inclusion, and the nature of the sources I have access to and are familiar with, would be different from those of people elsewhere. Since the database only includes musicians whose lives have been cut short, who died before they reached their life expectancies, these data may also reflect to a certain extent the dangerous nature of the music industry in the nations dominating this list.

CARNEGIE HALL, NEW YORK CITY
By Cheburashka007 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=112122692

PLACES OF BIRTH

One may hypothesize that one’s place of birth may affect the likelihood of dying young. Does an urban upbringing breed those more reckless than their rural counterparts? Are some countries more liable to produce short-lived people than others? It turns out that musicians in the database come from all over the world, and all over the United States. They come from both great metropolitan centres and small country villages. They come from all the continents.

More musicians in the database were born in New York City (69) than in any other city in the world, by far. The city with the second greatest number of musicians is London, England. Cities with ten or more musicians are as follows: New York City, USA (69), London, England (46), Chicago, USA (26), Los Angeles, USA, (21), Philadelphia, USA (18), Detroit and Memphis, USA (14), New Orleans and Washington D.C., USA, and Toronto, Canada (10). Musicians in the database come from many places internationally, including Amsterdam, Canberra, Dublin, East Berlin, Glasgow, Kyoto, Leningrad, Mombasa, Prague, Sao Paulo, Sofia, Stockholm, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Vancouver, Vienna and Warsaw.

167 musicians came from the United Kingdom with 46 from London, 9 from Liverpool, 6 from Glasgow, 5 from both Manchester and Birmingham, and 3 from both Belfast and Croydon. Two musicians came from each of these places – Circencester, Thornton Heath, Wolverhampton, Cheltenham, Leicester, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Dundee and Edinburgh. That’s more than the number coming from Sheffield, Bournemouth, Oxford or Cardiff. 33 musicians came from Canada including 10 from Toronto, 3 from Winnipeg, and 2 from Ottawa, Montreal and Hamilton. They come from six of the ten provinces.

In the United States the birthplaces are distributed in the different states as follows: New York (98), California (79), Texas (38), Mississippi, Pennsylvania (32), Illinois (31), Michigan (27), Ohio (27), Tennessee (24), New Jersey, Louisiana (20), Florida, Georgia (18), Alabama, Washington (15), North Carolina (12), Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Virginia (11), Washington D.C. (10), Indiana, Kentucky (9), Maryland, Minnesota (8), South Carolina (6), Iowa (5), Missouri, Wisconsin (4), Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, New Mexico (3), Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, West Virginia (2), Arkansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota (1).

There are 79 musicians from California but that includes Los Angeles (21) and San Francisco (9). Those musicians come from 41 different cities, more than any other state. Musicians come from 32 different cities in Mississippi, second on the list, but none of those cities have given us more than two musicians. Memphis, Tennessee has produced 14 musicians, the same as Detroit, and more than New Orleans, Dallas, Houston, Cleveland or Pittsburgh. Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Dallas all produced more musicians than Nashville. Several small little known places (e.g. Como and Clarksdale in Mississippi, Durham in North Carolina, Hamilton in Ohio) each produced just as many musicians as Boston, and more musicians than San Diego, Denver or Kansas City.

At the end of this post is a complete list of the places that the musicians in the database came from.

MUSICAL SKILLS

The musicians in the database possessed a wide variety of musical skills. 398 of them were composers, 3 were musical directors, 8 were conductors, 34 were musical arrangers, 81 of them were producers of musical recordings as well as performing musicians, and 72 were either big band leaders or the de facto leaders of small musical groups and combos. An amazing 640 of them were also noteworthy vocalists.

One might imagine that someone playing an instrument associated with classical music (e.g. viola) would be more sensible, mature and careful than someone playing guitar in a punk or death metal band. However, the database includes short-lived musicians capable of playing a wide variety of instruments in a wide variety of genres. It’s also true that different instruments were popular at different points in time. At the height of the jazz era the most popular instrument was a trumpet. When rock and roll came along the saxophone and guitar became the most popular instruments amongst musicians and their fans. When rock came along the electric guitar became the most popular instrument. Keyboards and drums have been pretty popular across all the changes in instrumentation. In all cases the information concerning instruments played comes from instruments listed on official recordings.

Amongst all the musicians in the database, 353 played guitar (acoustic, electric, six-string, twelve-string, slide, lap steel, pedal steel, dobro), 156 played bass guitar, 152 played drums, 105 played piano and 62 played keyboards (the type of keyboard was not specified on the recordings), 35 played harmonica, 29 played saxophone (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone), 16 played trumpet, 14 played flute, 14 played organ, 13 played clarinet, 10 played violin, 9 played cello, 8 played mandolin, 7 played banjo, 7 played fiddle, 7 played vibraphone, 6 played synthesizer and 5 played cornet.

A BAJO SEXTO
By Emma dusepo – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14534503

Accordians, harmoniums, tubas and ukeleles each were played by three musicians in the database. Flugelhorns, cors anglais, maracas, melodicas, recorders, tambourines, trombones and violas each were played by two musicians. At least one musician played one of the following instruments: euphonium, bajo sexto, kalimba, tambura, swarmandal, bagpipes, didgeridoo, manzello, guiro, stritch, bass clarinet, bass harmonica, autoharp, clavinet, clavioline, synclavier, harpsichord, glockenspiel, Jew’s harp, marimbas, nose flute, penny whistle, tin whistle, talk box, unitar, tritar, washboard, xylophone and zither.

It is interesting if a musician is listed as playing both piano and organ on a recording. It is more impressive if they are listed as playing, say, both piano (a percussion instrument) and clarinet (a woodwind instrument). Brian Jones and Garth Hudson are particularly impressive as multi-instrumentalists but the most impressive multi-instrumentalist is Prince. These people all died before their time. What a waste. Here are people who have officially mastered seven or more instruments:

PRINCE – guitar, piano, drums and so on; he played 27 different instruments on his first album
JOHN LENNON – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, ukelele, Jew’s harp, harmonica, bass harmonica, piano, electric piano, mellotron, clavioline, harmonium, recorder, penny whistle, percussion (claves, maracas, cowbell, timpani, hand shake bell)
GEORGE HARRISON – electric guitar (six-string and twelve-string), acoustic guitar, slide guitar, bass guitar, sitar, tambura, tambourine, guiro, swarmandal, harmonica, bass harmonica, violin, Hammond organ and maracas.
BRIAN JONES – guitar, piano, organ, sitar, marimbas, zither, dulcimer, saxophone, harmonica, trombone, trumpet, tuba, recorder, oboe and mellotron.
RORY GALLAGHER – bass, mandolin, sitar, saxophone, electric guitar, banjo, harmonica, dulcimer, slide guitar and ukelele
JAY BENNETT – piano, organ, mellotron, guitar, banjo, bass, drums, harmonica and synthesizer
GREG HAM – saxophone, synthesizer, flute, organ, piano, guitar and harmonica
ELLIOTT SMITH – guitar, harmonica, cello, clarinet, piano, drums and bass
Terje Bakken, Bored Nothing (Fergus Miller), Jeff Buckley, Bobby Darin, Joe Farrell, James Radcliffe, Doug Sahm, Mark Sandman, Peter Tosh and Frank Zappa all officially played either five or six instruments.

BLIND FAITH. LEFT TO RIGHT: STEVE WINWOOD OF THE BAND TRAFFIC, RIC GRECH OF THE BAND FAMILY, GINGER BAKER AND ERIC CLAPTON OF THE BAND CREAM
By Island Records – eBay itemphoto frontphoto back, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34176558

BANDS REPRESENTED

An attempt was made to make the database as representative as possible. A wide range of genres are included. Members of the following bands are included in the database: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Foo Fighters, Blind Faith, Pink Floyd, The Band, A Tribe Called Quest, Procol Harum, The Yardbirds, The Dave Matthews Band, Cold Chisel, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull, Queen and The Who. The following lesser known bands are also represented: Doug and the Slugs, Camel, Bow Wow Wow, Crowded House, Yothu Yindi, Death, Echo and the Bunnymen, Joy Division, Moby Grape, Three Dog Night and X. A complete listing of all the bands represented in the database can be found at the end of this post.

HONOURS

118 members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 25 members of The Australian Recording Industry Association’s Hall of Fame, 16 members of the UK Music Hall of Fame, 31 members of The Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame, 15 members of the Blues Hall of Fame and 25 members of the Songwriters Hall of Fame are in the database. Members of the following are also included in the database: The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, The Alabama Music Hall of Fame, The Canadian Music Hall of Fame, The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, The Colorado Music Hall of Fame, The Country Music Hall of Fame, The Dance Hall of Fame, The Georgia Music Hall of Fame, The Iowa Music Hall of Fame, The Irish Music Hall of Fame, The Kentucky Music Hall of Fame, The Long Island Music Hall of Fame, The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, The Memphis Music Hall of Fame, The Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, The Mississippi Music Hall of Fame, The New Jersey Music Hall of Fame, The North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, The Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, The Rockabilly Music Hall of Fame, The Texas Country Music Hall of Fame and The Vocal Group Hall of Fame, The Mississauga Music Hall of Fame, The Hip-Hop Hall of Fame and the Terry Fox Hall of Fame.

THE AUSTRALIAN RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION’S HALL OF FAME
By Mandy Hall – originally posted to Flickr as The ARIA Hall of Fame, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5994267

IN MORE DETAIL:

BIRTHPLACES

ARGENTINA (Cordoba). AUSTRALIA (Bendigo, Bondi Junction, Brisbane, Canberra, Crows Nest, Dunedoo, Tenterfield, Malvern, Mount Eliza, and 2 from Elcho Island, Geelong, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney). AUSTRIA (Styria and Vienna). AZERBAIJAN (Baku). BELGIUM (Huy, Liberchies, and Schaerbeek). BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (Banja Luka). BRAZIL (Cristianopolis, and 4 from Sao Paulo ). BULGARIA (Sofia). CANADA (Edmonton in Alberta; Vancouver and Burnaby in British Columbia; Halifax in Nova Scotia; 3 from Winnipeg in Manitoba; Malartic, Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu and two from Montreal all in Québec; Amherstview, Barrie, Blayney, Oshawa, Stratford, St. Thomas, Windsor, two each from Hamilton and Ottawa, and 10 from Toronto, all in Ontario). COLOMBIA (Bogota). CYPRUS (Nicosia). CZECHOSLOVAKIA (Prague). DENMARK (Copenhagen and Esjberg). EAST GERMANY (East Berlin). EIRE (Ballybricken, Cork and Dublin). FINLAND (Muhos, Somera, and two from Helsinki). FRANCE (Bordeaux, Colmar, Neuilly-Sur-Seine, Plascassier and Paris). GERMANY (Detmold, Gelsenkirchen, Heydekrug, Immenstadt, Straubing, and two from Hamburg, Köln and Munich). GHANA (Konongo). IRAN (Tehran). ISLE OF MAN (two from Douglas). ISRAEL (Haifa and Tel Aviv). JAMAICA (Grange Hill, Manchester, Nine Mile, St. Andrew Parish, Trench Town, two from Mandeville and four from Kingston). JAPAN (Fukushima, Hiratsuka, Ibaraki, Ichikawa, Kawasaki, Kyoto, Nara, Sayama and Yokosuka). KENYA (Mombasa). MALAYSIA (Temerich). MEXICO (Navojoa). MYANMAR (Yangon). THE NETHERLANDS (Amsterdam and The Hague). NEW ZEALAND (Christchurch and Taumaruhui). NORWAY (Two from Oslo). POLAND (Ketrzyn, Poznan and Warsaw). THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (Leningrad). SERBIA (Belgrade). SPAIN (Barcelona, Madrid and Santurce). SOUTH AFRICA (Orlando West and Tembisa). SOUTH KOREA (Seoul). THE SOVIET UNION (Cherepovets, Novosibirsk, Voronezh and two from Leningrad). ZANZIBAR (now TANZANIA) (Stone Town). SWEDEN (Finspang, Soderhamn, Stromstad; Visby and four from Stockholm). TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (Port of Spain). UKRAINE (Sambir). URUGUAY(Cerro Largo). WEST GERMANY (also see GERMANY) (Zweibrucken). ZAMBIA (Kabwe).

UNITED KINGDOM. ENGLAND (Andover, Ascot, Batley, Birkenhead, Bournemouth, Bromley, Burton-Upon-Trent, Cambridge, Chapel Allerton, Cheshunt, Cinderford, Cuffley, Darlington, Denham, Epping, Evesham, Gillingham, Great Yarmouth, Grimsby, Harold Wood, Harrow, Hayes, Hereford, Holbeach, Hove, Kent, Kingston-Upon-Hull, Kingswinford, Lancaster, Luton, Mill Hill, Newbury, Nottingham, Oldham, Oxford, Pebmarsh, Perivale, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Reading, Redditch, Richmond, Romford, Rowley Regis, Royal Leamington Spa, Sheffield, Staffordshire, St. Alban’s, Stoke-on-Trent, Stourbridge, Stratford, Surrey, Tipton, Warrington, Wembley, West Bromwich, two from Cheltenham, Cirencester, Leicester, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Thornton Heath and Wolverhampton, three from Croydon, five from Birmingham and Manchester, nine from Liverpool, and forty-six from London). NORTHERN IRELAND (Ballyshannon and Derry, and three from Belfast). SCOTLAND (Dumbarton, Forfar, Greenock, Lanark, Ochitree, Paisley and Pittenweem, two from Edinburgh and Dundee, and six from Glasgow). WALES (Aberdare, Barry, Blackwood, Dinas Powys, Newport and Swansea).

UNITED STATES:

ALABAMA (Elkmont, Mount Olive, Panola, Section, Troy, two from Tuscaloosa, three from Montgomery and six from Birmingham). ARIZONA (Glendale, and two from Phoenix). ARKANSAS (Ozark). CALIFORNIA (Alameda, Anaheim, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Castro Valley, Columbia, Compton, El Monte, Fresno, Gardena, Glendale, Glendora, Goleta, Hacienda Heights, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, La Jolla, Manhattan Beach, Montebello, Napa, Orange, Oxnard, Pacoima, Pomona, Riverside, San Bernadino, San Bruno, San Diego, San Jose, San Pedro, Simi Valley, Stockton and West Colvina, two from Berkeley, Long Beach, Sacramento, Santa Monica and Torrance, six from Oakland, nine from San Francisco and twenty-one from Los Angeles). COLORADO (Denver, Indian Hills). CONNECTICUT (Danbury, Hartford and New Haven). FLORIDA (Bradenton, Fort Myers, Gainesville, Hollywood, Melbourne, New Plantation, Port Richey, Pensacola, Tampa, Winter Haven and Winter Park, and three from Miami, and four from Jacksonville). GEORGIA (Athens, Augusta, Columbus, Davisboro, Dawson, Decatur, Gainesville, Leesburg, Macon, Moultrie, Richland, Savannah, Tucker and Walnut Grove, and four from Atlanta). HAWAII (two from Honolulu). ILLINOIS (Chicago Heights, Oak Park, Pekin, Peoria and Rolling Meadows, and twenty-six from Chicago). INDIANA (Angola, Connersville, Lafayette and Winchester, and two from Indianapolis, and three from Gary). IOWA (Burlington, Clarinda, Davenport, LeMars and Sioux City). KANSAS (El Dorado, Kansas City and Olathe). KENTUCKY (Ashland, Covington, Jenkins, Paducah, Richmond and South Keene, and three from Louisville). LOUISIANA (Baton Rouge, Bernice, Brusly, Duralde, Houma, Kenner, Lobdell, Marksville, Pointe Noire and Shreveport, and ten from New Orleans). MAINE (Auburn, Biddeford and Lewiston). MARYLAND (New Windsor, Oxon Hill and Takoma Park, and five from Baltimore). MASSACHUSETTS (Arlington, Brockton, Danvers, Everett, Malden, Newton, Somerville, Springfield and Squantum, and two from Boston). MICHIGAN (Flint, Garden City, Grand Rapids, Highland Park, Inkster, Kansas City, Mason, Muskegon, Taylor and Whitmore Lake, and three from Ann Arbor, and four from Detroit). MINNESOTA (Albert Lea, Grand Rapids, St. Paul and Waconia, and four from Minneapolis.) MISSISSIPPI (Algoma, Biloxi, Bobo, Columbus, Durant, Forrest County, Friars Point, Greenwood, Grenada, Gulfport, Hazelhurst, Humphreys County, Lexington, Monticello, Pontotoc, Quitman County, Richland, Sturgis, Tremont and Whynot, and two from Clarksdale, Como, Jackson, Meridian, Tupelo and Vicksburg. MISSOURI (Clarksdale and Tipton, and two from St. Louis). MONTANA (Butte and Helena). NEBRASKA (Two from Las Vegas). NEW HAMPSHIRE (Lancaster). NEW JERSEY (Englewood Cliffs, Harrison, Jersey City, Livingston, Mariton, Morristown, Pompton Lakes, Pompton Plains, Summit, Teaneck and Trenton, and two from Passaic, three from Plainfield, and four from Newark). NEW MEXICO (Albuquerque, Carlsbad and Roswell). NEW YORK (Babylon, Bethpage, Big Indian, Brewster, Canarsie, Cortland, Dunkirk, East Meadow, Elmira, Ithaca, Jamesville, Long Island, Manhasset, Mount Pleasant, Oceanside, San Juan Hill, Seneca Falls, Staten Island, Syracuse, Webster and Williamsburg, and two from Jamestown and White Plains, four from Buffalo and sixty-nine from New York City). NORTH CAROLINA (Greenville, Hamlet, Laurinburg, North Wlkesboro, Thomasville and Weldon, and two from Raleigh, Boone and Durham). NORTH DAKOTA (Grand Forks). OHIO (Bay Village, Canton, Copley Township, Coshocton, Lakewood, Mansfield, Oberlin and Toledo, and two from Akron, Columbus and Hamilton, and three from Youngstown, four from Cincinnati and six from Cleveland). OKLAHOMA (Duncan, Enid, Leedey, Norman, Oklahoma City, Okmulgee and Yale, and two from Miami and Tulsa). OREGON (Astoria and Eugene). PENNSYLVANIA (Allentown, Edgeworth, LeHigh Valley, Norristown, Ridley Park, Sharon and South Coatesville, and two from Chester, five from Pittsburgh and eighteen from Philadelphia). RHODE ISLAND (two from Newport). SOUTH CAROLINA (Bamberg, Indiantown, Spartanburg and Walterboro, and two from Charleston). TENNESSEE (Chattanooga, Jackson, Knoxville, Madison County, Waverly and McMinnville, and four from Memphis, and fourteen from Nashville). TEXAS (Arlington, Baytown, Bellville, Bonham, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Galveston, Gilmer, Lake Jackson, Lenow, Lubbock, Naples, Rogers, Sulphur Springs, Vernon and Waco, Kountze, and two from Amarillo, three from Port Arthur and San Antonio, four from Fort Worth and Houston and five from Dallas). VIRGINIA (Arlington County, Buchanan, Charlottesville, Danville, Fort Lee, Fredericksburger, Richmond, Roanoke and Winchester, and two from Norfolk). WASHINGTON (Kirkland, Olympia, Renton, Tacoma and Yakima, and two from Aberdeen, and Spokane, and six from Seattle). WEST VIRGINIA (Charleton and Harts Creek). WISCONSIN (Beloit and Madison, and two from Milwaukee). Ten from WASHINGTON, D.C.

BANDS REPRESENTED

D12, .38 Special, 8-Eyed Spy, 213, 702, 10 000 Maniacs, AC / DC, Abruptum, Adam and The Ants, Afro Celt Sound System, Agnostic Frost, Air Supply, The Alan Parsons Project, Alice Cooper’s band, Alice in Chains, The Allman Brothers Band, Alton, The Amazing Rhythm Aces, The Amboy Dukes, American Head Charge, The Ames Brothers, Angels, Anal Blast, The Animals, The Associates, The Association, The Ataris, Atheist, The Atlanta Rhythm Section, Atomic Rooster, Australian Crawl, Avenue Blue, The Average White Band, The B-52s, Bad Company, Badfinger, Baltimore, The Band, Band of Gypsies, Bankrupt and the Borrowers, BAP, Bathory, The Bay City Rollers, The Beach Boys, Beastie Boys, The Beat Farmers, The Beatles, The Bee Gees, The Benny Goodman Orchestra, The Benny Goodman Sextet, Berurier Noir, Beyond, Big Audio Dynamite, Big Country, Big Star, The Bill Black Combo, Billy Joel’s band, Billy Squier’s band, The Birthday Party, Blackfoot, Blackhawk, Black Sabbath, Blind Faith, Blind Melon, Bloodstone, Blue Cheer, The Blues Brothers, Blues Incorporated, Blues Traveler, The Bobby Fuller Four, Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers, Bo Diddley’s band, Body Count, Bonham, Booker T. And the MGs, Bow Wow Wow, Boyzone, Branford Marsalis’ band, Brighton Rock, Broadcast, Bruce Springsteen’s band, The Buckaroos (Buck Owens’ band), The Buckinghams, Buddy Rich’s Band, Buffalo Springfield; The Byrds, Cactus, Camel, Can, Canned Heat, The Cannonball Adderley Quintet, The Carpenters, The Cars, Chic, The Chamber Brothers band, The Charlatans, Chase, Chicago, Chilliwack, China Crisis, Christian Death, Chuck Berry’s band, Cinderella, The Coasters, Cobra, Cockney Rebel, Cold Chisel, Bill Haley and The Comets, Concrete Blonde, Con Funk Shun, Connie and the Blu-Beats, The Contours, Conway Twitty’s band, The Count Bishops, The Cowsills, The Cramps, The Cranberries, Crashdiet, Crazy Horse, Crazy Town, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, The Creation, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Crowded House, Czterech, D12, Damageplan, The Damned,The Dave Brubeck Quartet, The Dave Matthews Band, David Bowie’s band, The Dead Boys, The Dead Milkmen, Death, The Death Set, Debarge, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, The Delmore Brothers, Depeche Mode, Derek and the Dominoes, The Descendants, Dissection, The Divinyls, The Doobie Brothers Band, The Doors, Double Trouble, Doug and the Slugs, The Downchild Blues Band, Dragon, The Dramatics, Dream Blue, Dream Street, The Drifters, Dr. Hook, Drivin’ ‘N’ Cryin’, Drowning Pool, Duke Ellington’s band, The Dwight Tilley Band, Dyke and the Blazers, Echo and the Bunnymen, Eddie Duchin’s Band, Edgar Winter’s band, Eire Apparent, Ekatarina Velika, The Elmore James band, Elton John’s band, Elvis Presley’s band, Emerson Drive, EMF (Epsom Mad Funkers), EmmyLou Harris’ band, Enuff Z’nuff, Eskorbuto, The Everly Brothers’ band, Exile, Exodus, Fabian’s band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Faces, Fairport Convention, Family, Feeder, Finntroll, Firehouse, A Firm Handshake, Flowered Up, The Flys, Foghat, The Folk Crusaders, The Foo Fighters, The Fortunes, For Vicious Rumors, Fotheringay, Fountains of Wayne, The Fourmost, The Four Preps, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Free, The Funk Brothers, Gang Starr, Gary Numan’s band, The Gene Krupa Orchestra, Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps, The Germs, The Gerry Mulligan Quartet, The Gin Blossoms, Ginger Baker’s Air Force, Girls Aloud, Girlschool, The Gits, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Gong, The Graham Bond Organization, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, The Grateful Dead, Grazhdanskaya Oborona, Great White, GRL, The Guess Who, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Gwar, The Halifax Three, Halloween, The Hammerheads, Lionel Hampton’s band, Hanoi Rocks, Hate Eternal, Heathen, Heavy D and the Boyz, Heitmeiser, Helix, The Hellacopters, Herbie Hancock’s band, The Hi-Five Quintet, The Hilltoppers, Hines’ band, Hirax, Hole, The Hollywood Killers, House of Freaks, Humble Pie, The Hurricanes, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, Ink and Dagger, Inner Circle, Intro,INXS, Iron Butterfly, The Isley Brothers, Jackie Wilson’s band, The Jackson Five, Jacksoul, Jade Warrior, James Brown and the Famous Flames, The James Gang, James Taylor’s band, Jamiroquai, The Jazz Couriers, The Jazz Messengers, The Jeff Beck Group, Jefferson Airplane, The Jeff Healey Band, Jetboy, Jethro Tull, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jimmie Rodgers’ band, John Mellencamp’s band, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Johnny Winter’s band, Jokke and the Valentineme, The Jordanaires, Joy Division, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Kenny Baker’s band, The Killers, Killing Joke, King Crimson, Kino, Kiss, KLF and T-Funk, Kool and the Gang, Korn, Krokus, Ladies’ Code, Led Zeppelin, Level 42, Levert, Lifelover, Lighthouse, Lindisfarne, Link 80, Linkin Park, Little Feat, The Little River Band, Live Squad, Loudness, The Louvin Brothers, Love, Loverboy, The Lovin’ Spoonful, LSG, Lucrate Milk, Ludachrist’s band, Lush, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mad Season, The Malakas, Malfunkshun, Malice Mizer, The Mamas and The Papas, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Manic Street Preachers, The Marcels, Marilyn Manson’s band, The Mar-Kays, The Marshall Tucker Band, Martha Reeves and the Mandellas, The Marvelettes, Material Issue, Matthews’ Southern Comfort, The Maynard Ferguson Band, The McCoys, McFadden and Whitehead, The MC Five, Megadeth, Mel and Kim, Meldrum, Melomani, Men at Work, Mental as Anything, Men Without Hats, Metal Church, Metallica, The Metrosquad, MFSB, Mike and the Mechanics, Mike Furber and the Bowery Boys, Mike Oldfield’s band, The Miles Davis Quintet, The Miles Davis Sextet, Milli Vanilli, The Minute Men, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, Moby Grape, The Models, Molly Hatchet, The Monotones, Morbid Angel, Morphine, Mother Love Bone, The Mothers of Invention, Motley Crue, Mountain, Mud, Muddy Waters’ band, The Mugwumps, The Mynah Birds, Naked Eyes, The Nat King Cole Trio, Los Naufragos, Nazareth, Les Negresses Vertes, Nekromantix, Nena, The Neon Philharmonic, The New York Dolls, The New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, The Nicky James Movement, NRBQ (The New Rhythm and Blues Quartet), The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Nirvana, Nova Generacia (i.e. The New Generation), No Doubt, Novalis,N.W.A., The Oakridge Boys, Offenbach, Ophthalamia, The Orions, Orleans, The Outlaws, The Overtones, Ozzy Osbourne’s band, Pantera, Pariah, Parliament / Funkadelic, Paul and Barry Ryan, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Paul Whiteman Orchestra, Peaches and Herbs, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, Pelt, Pennywise, Pere Ubu, The Persuasions, Phantasm, Phantom Blue, The Phunklawds, Pink Floyd, Planet Soul, The Plasmatics, Plastic People of the Universe, The Platters, P.M. Dawn, The Pointer Sisters, The Pony-Tails, Power Station, The Pretenders, The Pretty Things, Prime, Prism, Procol Harum, The Prodigy, Prti Bee Gee, Pulley, Pylon, Queen, Quicksilver Messenger Service; Quiet Riot, Rainbow, The Ramones, Ratt, Reagan Youth, Reba, Redd Kross, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., The Remo Four, The Replacements, Reverend, The Revolution, Rich Kids on LSD, Rick Nelson’s band, Rigor Mortis, Riot, Robin Trower’s Band, The Rock and Roll Trio, The Rolling Stones, Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, The Ronnie Scott Quintet, Rose Tattoo, Roy Orbison’s band, The Ruby Jones Band, The Runaways, Run DMC, Rush, The Saints, Sam Cooke’s band, Samson, Santana, Savatage, School of Seven Bells, The Scratch, Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages, School of Fish, Screwed Up Click, The Searchers, Secret Machines, Sektor Gaza, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Sentenced, The Serendipity Singers, Seventeen, Seven Year Bitch, The Sex Pistols, Shadow Gallery, The Shadows, Sha Na Na, The Shangri-Las, Shelly Manne And His Men, The Shirelles, Shirley and Lee, Shocking Blue, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Skinny Puppy, Skryabin, Skwatta Kamp, Skyhooks, Skylark, Small Faces, Smashing Pumpkins, Snot, Social Distortion, Social Distraction, Sodom, Sonny and Cher’s band, Soul II Soul, Soul Asylum, Soul Explosion, The Soul Stirrers, Soul II Soul, The Sound, South Pacific, Spanky and Our Gang, Sparklehorse, The Spencer Davis Group, The Spinners, Spirit, Split Enz, Squeeze, Stan Kenton’s band, Static-X, Steppenwolf, The Stereophonics, The Steve Miller Band, The Stone Canyon Band, Stone Temple Pilots, Stone the Crows, The Strangers, Strawbs, The Street Lords, Strung Out, Styx, Sublime, Suicide Silence, Suicide Twins, The Supremes, The Surfaris, Surfer Blood; Survivor, Sweet, Swell Maps, The Sylvers, Taj Mahal’s band, Talisman, Target, Taste, The Temptations, The Tennessee Three, The Texas Tornadoes, The Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra, Them, Thin Lizzy, The Thompson Twins, Three Dog Night, Thunderclap Newman, Tigertailz, Titas, TLC, Todd Rundgren’s Band, Tommy James and the Shondells, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Tom Tom Club, The Tornadoes, Toto, Traffic, The Tragically Hip, The Trashmen, The Travelling Wilburys, The Tremeloes, T. Rex, A Tribe Called Quest, The Triffids, Tripping Daisy, Triumvirat, The Troggs, Tubeway Army, Turing Machine, The Turtles, Twisted Sister, UB40, The Underground Kingz, The Unreal Gods, Uriah Heep, Vader, The Valentinos, Van Halen, Vasterhaninge, The Velvelettes, Velvet Revolver, Velvet Underground, Vic Lewis’ band, The Village People, Viola Beach, Vision, Visions of Atlantis, Vixen, Vondur, The Wailers, The Waitresses, Wall of Voodoo, War, Warrant, Weather Report, Weezer, The Whitlams, The Who, Widespread Panic, Wilco, Windir, Wings, The Wonder Stuff, Woody Herman’s Herd, Wu-Tang Clan, Wynton Marsalis’ band, X, Xjapan, The Yardbirds, The Yellow Dogs, Yngwie Malmsteen, Yothu Yindi, Zard, Zero Down; The Zombies, Zoopark

BEFORE THEY REACH BOMBAY – Post 7. Noteworthy Deaths.

JAMES BOOKER 1978 – “THE BEST BLACK, GAY, ONE-EYED JUNKIE PIANO GENIUS NEW ORLEANS HAS EVER PRODUCED”
By Lionel decoster – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15835160

If you haven’t read Post 1 – Rethinking Mortality which explains everything, then it’s probably a good idea to do so before reading this post – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/

NOTE – This first section, down to the blue line, can be found at the beginning of all the posts. If you have read it already you can skip ahead if you like.

Here are the relevant database posts:

Rethinking Mortality – An introduction to the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/
Percentages of expected life spans completed by musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-2-percentage-of-expected-life-spans/
Criteria for inclusion in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-3-database-inclusion/
The birth years of musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-4-birth-years-of-the-musicians/
The causes of death – Overview – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-5-causes-of-death-overview/
The causes of death – data on all of the musicians – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-6-the-cause-of-death-data-on-all-of-the-musicians/
Noteworthy deaths
Demographics – the birthplaces, gender, ethnicities, nationalities and musical skills of database members – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-8-demographics/
Ages at death of musicians in general – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-9-ages-at-death/
The twenty-seven club discredited – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-10-the-27-club-discredited/
Sample musician profiles 1 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-11-sample-profiles-1/
Sample musician profiles 2 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-12-sample-profiles-2/
Sample musician profiles 3 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-13-sample-profiles-3/
An alphabetical list of the musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-14-the-musicians-alphabetized/

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In Post 5 the causes of death of all thousand musicians in the database were identified and discussed – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-5-causes-of-death-overview/

Most people are aware that John Lennon was shot down in New York at the age of forty but there have also been some rather unusual and tragic deaths of musicians whose circumstances are not quite so well known. Here are brief descriptions of the unusual deaths of the following people included in the database.

THE LIZARD KING – James Morrison
EARTH-SHAKING AND INVISIBLE – Stu Sutcliffe
SELF-SACRIFICE – Eddie Cochran
THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED – Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper
LITTLE GIRL BLUE – Janis Joplin
TEARS OF RAGE – Richard Manuel
GUNPLAY – Johnny Ace
DEATH BAND – Badfinger
DEATH AT CHRISTMAS – Tommy Blake
STREET DEATH – Avery Parrish
USA! USA! USA! – Grant Green
UNMARKED GRAVE – Otis Spann
EMPRESS – Bessie Smith
DEATH IN THE WATER – Gamble Rogers
THE KING SENDS CONDOLENCES – Roy Hamilton
WHAT’S GOING ON? – Marvin Gaye
SWAN SONG – Glenn Miller
COLLATERAL DAMAGE? – Pinetop Smith
JUNKIE PIANO GENIUS – James Booker
RED BEANS AND RICE – Ray Draper
DEADFALL – Chet Baker
THE KING IS DEAD – LONG LIVE THE KING – King Curtis
ROUGH JUSTICE – Kid Thomas
DYING FOR NOTHING – Eric Dolphy
COLD BETRAYAL – Lee Morgan
MISSING YOU – Paul Williams
TRAVELIN’ MAN – Ricky Nelson
THE VOICE – Whitney Houston
PROGRESSIVE DRUMS – B.J. Wilson
MASS MURDER VICTIM – Bryan Harvey
FRIENDS TO THE END – Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington
THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON – Keith Moon
RAGS TO RICHES – Doreen Waddell
BREATHTAKING – Anton Yelchin
WAR, COYOTES AND WHITE SUPREMACISTS – 11 people

1. THE LIZARD KING – JAMES MORRISON (1943 – 1971). The son of a celebrated admiral, Morrison was the charismatic lead singer of The Doors which was a ground-breaking sixties jazz rock group with very dark overtones. Extremely innovative, he sang songs that lasted eleven minutes and performed with an energy and power that made Elvis Presley and Mick Jagger look tame. The Doors also recorded ground-breaking tracks such as ‘Horse Latitudes’ and Morrison was a talented poet who went by the name of The Lizard King. He died in a bathtub in Paris of a heart attack.
2. EARTHSHAKING AND INVISIBLE – STU SUTCLIFFE (1940 – 1962). Born in Scotland, Stu was a talented, highly-praised artist who also happened to be the first bass player in a band called The Beatles. He and John Lennon both attended Liverpool College of Art, and shared a flat, and Lennon looked up to him so much so that it made his band-mate Paul McCartney jealous. Knowing Stu helped Lennon get over the sudden early death of his mother Julia. It was also Sutcliffe who gave the band its name. Among early supporters of The Beatles when they played Hamburg, Germany, was a young photographer named Astrid Kirchherr, and she and Stu were engaged to be married when Sutcliffe began suffering from excruciating head pain, and soon after he died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of twenty-one.
3. SELF-SACRIFICE – EDDIE COCHRAN (1938 – 1960). He was a teenage sensation with several hits in the 1950’s. He was also one of the first to experiment with multi-track recordings, distortion techniques and overdubbing, and he played the guitar, piano, bass and drums as well as singing. On April 16, 1960, during a tour of Britain, Cochran was in a car whose teenage driver was driving too fast and they crashed into a concrete lamppost. Cochran threw himself in front of his fiancée, the twenty-year old songwriter Sharon Sheeley, saving her life but killing him. Rock and roller Gene Vincent was also seriously injured in the crash. Cochran was twenty-one when he died.
4. THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED – BUDDY HOLLY (1936 – 1959). RITCHIE VALENS (1941 – 1959), and THE BIG BOPPER (1930 – 1959). In the Rock and Roll era Presley was king but others were more talented. Buddy Holly sang and recorded a string of hits that he composed himself, unusual at the time. This ability inspired teenage Holly fanboy John Lennon to start composing songs with Paul McCartney. On February 3, 1959, Buddy Holly (Charles Holley), Ritchie Valens (Richard Valenzuela) and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) took off on a chartered plane on a bitterly cold winter night in rough weather, on their way to their next show in Moorhead Minnesota. Shortly after midnight the plane crashed killing all three singers. Holly was twenty-two. Valens was seventeen and The Big Bopper was twenty-eight.
5. LITTLE GIRL BLUE -JANIS JOPLIN (1943 – 1970). Raised in a conservative family in a conservative community Joplin was taunted and bullied growing up because she was a non-conformist. When she became passionate about African-American music she was called a “nigger lover”. She blew the crowd away at the Monterrey Pop festival, she went on to record powerfully emotional music with unreserved joy, and she began to use hard drugs and died of a heroin overdose at the age of twenty-seven.
6. TEARS OF RAGE -RICHARD MANUEL (1943 – 1986). This Canadian singer was in The Band which featured three lead singers of which Manuel was considered to be the best. He could also play both drums and keyboards, and was a composer (one of his songs was ‘Tears of Rage’) in a group which many consider to be the best rock group to come out of Canada. Manuel was also an alcoholic and heroin addict and in the early morning hours of March 4, 1986, he hanged himself.
7. GUNPLAY – JOHNNY ACE / JOHN MARSHALL ALEXANDER JR. (1929 – 1954). It has been widely reported that rhythm and blues singer / musician Johnny Ace killed himself playing Russian Roulette on Christmas Day 1954 but those reports are false. Several witnesses report that Ace, who loved playing with guns, was waving a gun around, pointing it at people, and when told to be careful he assured everyone that it was safe because he knew which chamber had the bullet in it. To prove his point he aimed the gun at himself, pulled the trigger, and died from the resulting gunshot wound. Twenty-four years later Terry Kath of the band Chicago died pulling the trigger on a gun pointed at his own head, a gun that he thought was empty.
8. DEATH BAND – BADFINGER
Three of the four members of this Apple band died before their time. The band was signed up by The Beatles for their new record company Apple and Paul McCartney composed the song ‘Come And Get It’ for them, which was a big hit, and featured in the Ringo Starr film ‘The Magic Christian’. However, thanks in part to a rather unscrupulous New York business man, the group suffered a series of financial setbacks. In the end lead singer / lead guitarist / composer PETE HAM committed suicide at the age of twenty-seven. Rhythm guitarist TOM EVANS committed suicide eight years later at the age of thirty-six. Later drummer MIKE GIBBINS died of a brain aneurysm at the age of fifty-six.
9. DEATH AT CHRISTMAS – TOMMY BLAKE (1931 – 1985). He was successful writing hit songs for others but he led a terrible personal life. He never knew his father, had no relationship with his mother, did prison time on a rape charge, lost an eye in the Marines, was an alcoholic, suffered from depression and drug abuse and was murdered by his wife on Christmas Eve.
10. STREET DEATH – AVERY PARRISH (1917 – 1959). This jazz pianist, composer and arranger was injured in a car crash in 1942 but survived, but then a year later he was permanently paralysed in a bar fight ending his career as a performer. In 1959, while he was working as a porter in Harlem, he was discovered in bad shape lying in the street. He died five days later at the Harlem Hospital.
11. USA ! USA ! USA! – GRANT GREEN (1935 – 1979). Called the Father of Acid Jazz, he was a pioneer of jazz guitar, and recorded with jazz legends Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner. He was also a heroin addict who spent most of 1978 in hospital. He left the hospital against doctor’s orders because he was living in the United States so he had to go on tour to get money to pay his considerable hospital bills. On tour he suffered a heart attack and died.
12. UNMARKED GRAVE – OTIS SPANN (1930 – 1970), the greatest of the postwar Chicago blues pianists, Spann died and was buried in an unmarked grave for twenty-nine years. Steve Salter publicized this fact asking for donations to mark the grave and blues fans responded generously. A tombstone was finally erected in 1999.

BESSIE SMITH 1936
By Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964, photographer. – American Memory from the Library of Congress, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=417457

13. EMPRESS -BESSIE SMITH (1894 – 1937) was born into extreme poverty but her talent allowed her to become the highest paid black entertainer of her day and she was dubbed ‘Empress of the Blues’. Some of the greatest musicians of the day played on her records. Smith died in 1937 in a car crash that almost severed her right arm and crushed her entire right side. Her grave remained unmarked until August 7, 1970 when a tombstone was paid for and erected by the great blues singer Janis Joplin, and Juanita Green who as a child had done housework for Smith. Less than two months later Joplin, only twenty-seven, was also dead.
14. DEATH IN THE WATER – GAMBLE ROGERS (1937 – 1991). Rogers was an artist, author, actor, screenwriter and member of The Serendipity Singers. He was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame and the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. While Rogers was camping in Florida a young girl approached him desperately saying her father was in trouble in rough water nearby. Though he suffered from spinal arthritis which had worsened since childhood Rogers quickly took an air mattress and made a rescue attempt. Both Rogers and the girl’s father unfortunately died in the water.
15. THE KING SENDS CONDOLENCES – ROY HAMILTON (1929 – 1969). He had several hit records combining classical music with gospel music, and he was also a gifted artist, electronics technician, and a boxer. However he also died in poverty and his widow had to ask for public help just to pay for his burial. Elvis ‘The King’ Presley, B.B.King and Mahalia Jackson all sent condolences. I don’t know whether any of them sent money as well.
16. WHAT’S GOING ON? – MARVIN GAYE / MARVIN GAY (1939 – 1984). Marvin Gaye was a major Motown star with a string of hits who could sing and play rhythm and blues, soul, jazz, funk and pop. His song ‘What’s Going On?’ about racist police brutality was an immense hit. He had his demons, however, perhaps in part because he was repeatedly beaten by his father when he was growing up. A few hours before his 45^th birthday he and his father had an argument, and his father took out a gun and murdered him.
17. SWAN SONG – GLENN MILLER (1904 – 1944). Miller was a phenomenally successful trombonist and big band leader with seventeen number one hits over the course of his shortened career. During World War Two he led a band overseas entertaining the troops and became a Major in the U.S. Army. At one point he took off in a plane during the fighting setting off across the English Channel and was never seen again. It is probable that he died when his plane went down in bad weather.
18. COLLATERAL DAMAGE? – PINETOP SMITH / CLARENCE SMITH (1904 – 1929). Smith was a boogie-woogie blues pianist. His 1928 hit ‘Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie’ was the first time the term ‘boogie woogie’ was used on a recording and the hit foreshadowed rock and roll. Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson count Smith as an influence, and Bing Crosby, Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie all recorded ‘Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie’. Smith died at the age of twenty-four when a gunfight broke out in the Chicago dance hall where he was playing and he was killed by a stray bullet. Whether or not he was the intended target is uncertain.
19. JUNKIE PIANO GENIUS – JAMES BOOKER (1939 – 1983). He was very talented and described by boogie-woogie pianist Dr. John as “the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced”. He played stride, blues, gospel and Latin music but could also play works by Bach and Chopin, and he recorded with Ringo Starr, Aretha Franklin and Little Richard among others. He could also play the guitar and the drums. Several highly talented well-known pianists who heard him play are on record as saying that what he did was brilliant, ground-breaking and impossible (Listen to his amazing recording of ‘Please Send Me Someone to Love’ if you want evidence). He died in a wheelchair in the Emergency Room of Charity Hospital in New Orleans waiting for medical attention for his heroin addiction. He was forty-three.
20. RED BEANS AND RACE – RAY DRAPER (1940 – 1982). Miles Davis is credited with recording the ground-breaking first jazz rock fusion record but musicologists point out that in fact Ray Draper’s recording ‘Red Beans and Rice’ was the first jazz rock fusion record and it appeared two years earlier. Draper’s heroin use messed his career up, he worked in California and London unsuccessfully for awhile but then moved back to New York, kicked his heroin addiction and got his life on track again. One fine day outside a bank in Harlem, having just withdrawn some money, Draper was stopped by a gang of street kids who demanded money from him. Though he gave them money the gang’s leader, who was thirteen years old, shot him repeatedly killing him.
21. DEADFALL – CHET BAKER (1929 – 1988). This brilliant jazz trumpeter played with Charlie Parker and Stan Getz, and was a member of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. He was a heroin addict with an enlarged heart and was expelled from both the UK and Germany on drug offences. He was found dead in an Amsterdam street below his hotel room with heroin and cocaine in his system.
22. THE KING IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE KING – KING CURTIS / CURTIS MONTGOMERY (1934 – 1971). King Curtis led his own group as well as playing on the records of many others, including John Lennon. He could play alto, tenor and soprano saxophone as well as the trumpet, and was a member of Lionel Hampton’s band for awhile. He could play jazz, rock, funk and rhythm and blues effortlessly. At one point he got into an argument with two drug dealers he encountered outside his apartment and one of them stabbed him to death. Stevie Wonder played at his funeral, and Aretha Franklin, Duane Allman and Cissy Houston were in attendance.
23. ROUGH JUSTICE – KID THOMAS / LOUIS THOMAS WATTS (1934 – 1970). Thomas was a well-known harmonica player who played with Elmore James, Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley, among others. While driving his truck Thomas hit and killed a young boy and was charged with manslaughter however the charges were dropped from lack of evidence. Outside the courthouse immediately afterwards the boy’s father confronted Thomas and fatally shot him.
24. DYING FOR NOTHING – ERIC DOLPHY (1928 – 1964). Dolphy was a member of The Chico Hamilton Quintet and also recorded with jazz greats Charles Mingus and John Coltrane as well as leading his own group. He played alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, soprano clarinet, flute and piccolo. As a player and composer he explored hitherto uncharted areas of free jazz. While touring overseas he fell ill in Berlin and the doctors assumed, given he was a young African-American jazz player, that he was suffering from a drug overdose and they left him untreated so the drugs could run their course. Dolphy, however, had never smoked and was a teetotaller, and had been drug free his entire life. He went into a diabetic coma and died.
25. COLD BETRAYAL – LEE MORGAN (1938 – 1972). While still a teenager Morgan so impressed the dominant jazz legends of his time that he started playing with John Coltrane, Art Blakey and others. He was breaking new ground while still very young but he soon became addicted to heroin and his life fell apart. He wasn’t getting work and before long he was penniless and homeless. A woman named Helen Moore became his lover and put his life together both emotionally and pragmatically, and he was soon working again. But despite all her hard work for him Morgan began to cheat on Moore. One cold winter night she confronted him when he was performing at a club in New York, took out a gun, and ended his life.
26. MISSING YOU – PAUL WILLIAMS (1939 – 1973). A founding member of the highly successful Temptations, Williams suffered from sickle-cell anemia and depression, among other things. He drank heavily and as his health declined he had to use an oxygen tent, and other interventions, and he could no longer perform though The Temptations continued to pay him as if he was. He was only thirty-four when he killed himself with a gun. He was one of the people mentioned by Diana Ross in her music video ‘Missing You’.
27. TRAVELIN’ MAN – RICK NELSON (1940 – 1985). Rick Nelson’s father, Ozzie Nelson, was a highly successful bandleader and his wife Harriet was the band’s singer. The Nelsons also had a radio show which continued as a television series which also starred young Rick. Rick as a teenager became a very successful teen idol with a string of hits (including ‘Travelin’ Man’) but later as an adult when he put together the Stone Canyon Band and attempted to record more serious music he had a hard time putting his teen idol persona behind him. He was under-rated as a professional musician. On New Years Eve 1985, travelling to a concert, the plane he was on crashed killing Nelson and several others. Nelson was forty-five.
28. THE VOICE – WHITNEY HOUSTON (1963 – 2012)
Whitney Houston was one of the most successful singers of all time, with an incredibly powerful voice (she came to be known as ‘The Voice’). She was found dead, drowned in a bathtub, and her atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use contributed to her death. Houston had a history of heavy drug use and diphenhydramine, alprazolem, cannabis and cyclobenzaprine were also found in her system after her death. She was forty-eight. Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, also died from drowning in a bathtub, in 2015, three years after her mother died. Bobbi Houston had marijuana, alcohol, benzoylecgonine (a cocaine metabolite), benzodiazepines and morphine in her system. She was twenty-two.
29. PROGRESSIVE DRUMS – B.J. WILSON (1947 – 1990)
This virtuoso performer was the original drummer with the symphonic rock band Procol Harum, one of the first of the Progressive Rock groups. Wilson so impressed Jimmy Page that he was the original first choice for drummer with Led Zeppelin but Wilson turned them down. Years later Wilson attempted to commit suicide with a drug overdose but ended up in a coma in a vegetative state for three years before dying.
30. MASS MURDER VICTIM – BRYAN HARVEY (1956 – 2006). Bryan Harvey, guitarist and singer with the band House of Freaks, was a victim of the serial killer known as The Richmond Spree Murderer. Harvey, along with his wife Kathryn, and his two daughters Stella (age 9) and Ruby (age 4) were all attacked with a claw hammer then had their throats slit.
31. FRIENDS TO THE END – CHRIS CORNELL (1964 – 2017) and CHESTER BENNINGTON (1976 – 2017). On May 18, 2017, Chris Cornell, the musical powerhouse behind Soundgarden and Audioslave, committed suicide by hanging at the age of fifty-two. Chester Bennington, lead vocalist with Stone Temple Pilots and Linkin Park, was a very close friend of Cornell. When he heard of Cornell’s death he said he couldn’t imagine a world without Cornell. Two months later, on what would have been Cornell’s 53^rd birthday, Bennington also killed himself, also by hanging.

KEITH MOON 1975
By Keith_Moon_4_-_The_Who_-_1975.jpg: Jim Summariaderivative work: MachoCarioca (talk) – Keith_Moon_4_-_The_Who_-_1975.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11353239

32. THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON – KEITH MOON (1946 – 1978). Moon (also known as Moon the Loon), the eccentric and flamboyant drummer with The Who, was also known for his self-destructive use of alcohol and drugs (sometimes passing out on stage during concerts). He introduced innovative drum techniques, but he also had a reputation for physically destroying his drum kit on stage, and destroying hotel rooms on tour. In 1970, while drunk, he also killed his friend, driver and bodyguard Neil Boland, running over him in Moon’s Bentley. Moon died at the age of thirty while staying at the London flat of singer Harry Nilsson. Mama Cass Elliot of The Mamas and Papas had also died in that same flat, at the same age of thirty, four years earlier.
33. RICHES TO RAGS – DOREEN WADDELL (1965 – 2002). Waddell had some considerable success as a member of Soul II Soul, and a few other groups, but eventually fell on hard times. Living in poverty as a single mother, one morning she shoplifted some clothes for her four-year-old son but she was caught. In a panic she ran out of the store’s fire exit and across a busy highway outside and died after being hit by three different cars. She was thirty-six.
34. BREATHTAKING – ANTON YELCHIN (1989 – 2016). Yelchin was born in Russia but grew up in the United States. He soon established a reputation as an actor who had major roles in several high profile projects. On the side he played guitar in a punk band called The Hammerheads. One evening he stopped his car outside a locked security gate and he left his car to check his mail. His car began to roll down the driveway, which was on a steep incline, and the car pinned Yelchin between a brick pillar gate post and a security fence. Yelchin, who was born with cystic fibrosis, died of asphyxiation. He was twenty-seven.
35. WAR, COYOTES AND WHITE SUPREMACISTS. GEORGE BUTTERWORTH (1885 – 1916), a British composer, ethnomusicologist and music teacher, died as a soldier fighting as part of the Somme Offensive during World War One. Teenager TAYLOR MITCHELL (1990 – 2009) was killed by two coyotes while hiking. SOMNIUMI / TEEMU RAIMORANTA (1977 – 2003) died when he fell off of the Kaisaniemi Bridge in Helsinki. DONNY HATHAWAY (1945 – 1979) killed himself by jumping out of a window on the fifteenth floor of the Essex House Hotel in New York City. RICHEY EDWARDS (1967 – 1995) disappeared in 1995 and is presumed dead. KILLAH P. / PAVLOS FYSSAS CRADDOCK (1979 – 2013) was stabbed to death by a group of thirty white supremacists who were members of Golden Dawn. KEITH RELF (1943 – 1976) and LESLIE HARVEY (1944 – 1972) were both electrocuted. JERRY FUCHS (1974 – 2009) tried to escape from a stuck elevator and ended up falling down the elevator shaft. Blues legend SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON / JOHN WILLIAMSON (1914 – 1948) was robbed, beaten and stabbed to death with an ice pick. GARNETT SILK (1966 – 1994) died in an attempt to save his mother trapped inside a burning house.
Requiescat in pace.

BEFORE THEY REACH BOMBAY – Post 6. The Cause of Death – Data on All of the Musicians

DOLORES O’RIORDAN 2001
By Roger Woolman – Imported from 500px (archived version) by the Archive Team. (detail page), CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74048733

It would also be a very good idea to read Post 5 – The Causes of Death – Overview – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-5-causes-of-death-overview/

NOTE – This first section, down to the blue line, can be found at the beginning of all the posts. If you have read it already you can skip ahead if you like.

Here are the relevant database posts:

Rethinking Mortality – An introduction to the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/
Percentages of expected life spans completed by musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-2-percentage-of-expected-life-spans/
Criteria for inclusion in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-3-database-inclusion/
The birth years of musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-4-birth-years-of-the-musicians/
The causes of death – Overview – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-5-causes-of-death-overview/
The causes of death – data on all of the musicians
Noteworthy deaths – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-7-noteworthy-deaths/
Demographics – the birthplaces, gender, ethnicities, nationalities and musical skills of database members – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-8-demographics/
Ages at death of musicians in general – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-9-ages-at-death/
The twenty-seven club discredited – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-10-the-27-club-discredited/
Sample musician profiles 1 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-11-sample-profiles-1/
Sample musician profiles 2 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-12-sample-profiles-2/
Sample musician profiles 3 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-13-sample-profiles-3/
An alphabetical list of the musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-14-the-musicians-alphabetized/

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Here is the complete list of the short-lived musicians in the database noting how each one had ended their life:

A. ACCIDENTS:

AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT – Aaliyah / Aaliyah Dana Haughton, Chris Austin, The Big Bopper / Jiles Perry Richardson, David Box, Ronnie Caldwell, Bill Chase, Patsy Cline, Jim Croce, Steve Currie, John Denver / Henry Deutschendorf Jr., Cassie Gaines, Steve Gaines, Keith Godchaux, Buddy Holly / Charles Holley, Paul Jeffreys, Mendonca / Marilia Dias Mendonca, Maury Muehleisen, Bobby Neal, Rick Nelson / Eric Nelson, Otis Redding, Randy Rhoads, Kyu Sakamoto, Annette Snell, Shirley Strachan / Graeme Strachan, Melanie Thornton, Ritchie Valens / Richard Valenzuela, Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Wayne, Pat Woodward, Wally Yohn / Wallace Yohn and Ronnie van Zant
AUTOEROTIC ASPHYXIATION – Kevin Gilbert.
AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT – see MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT
CRUSHED BY A BULLDOZER – Jerome Smith
DROWNING – Ole Beich (swimming while using heroin and alcohol), Jeff Buckley, Johnny Burnette, Randy California / Randy Wolfe, Barry Cowsill, Jim Hodder, Whitney Houston, Brian Jones, Alan Murphy, Dolores O’Riordan, Gamble Rogers (trying to rescue a swimmer in trouble in rough water), Herman Sikumberg (during the 2018 tsunami) and Dennis Wilson (alcohol related)
ELECTROCUTION – Lesley Harvey (while tuning up for a show he touched an ungrounded microphone and his electric guitar simultaneously) and Keith Relf (his guitar short-circuited during tuning while he was practising)
FALLING – Chet Baker (falling from his hotel window), Danny Cedrone / Donato Cedrone (falling downstairs), Sandy Denny / Alexandra Denny (falling downstairs), Roger Lee Durham (falling off of a horse), Jerry Fuchs (falling down an elevator shaft attempting to exit from a stalled elevator), Matthew Jay (falling from his seventh floor flat), Timmy Matley (falling thirteen floors off of a balcony under the influence of crystal meth) and Somniumi / Teemu Raimoranta (falling off of the Kaisaniemi Bridge in Helsinki while intoxicated).
FIRE – Ty Longley (he died in the Station Nightclub fire), Steve Marriott (after a night of drinking Marriott went to sleep while smoking and died in the ensuing house fire), Luther Perkins (badly burned when sleeping while smoking), Jon Pettis, Stan Rogers (died in a fire on an Air Canada flight) and Garnett Silk (he died attempting to save his mother from inside a burning house)
FIREARMS – Johnny Ace / John Alexander Jr. (he pointed a gun at his head and pulled the trigger thinking the gun wasn’t loaded), Bobby Bloom (he killed himself while cleaning his gun), Terry Kath (he pointed a gun at his head and pulled the trigger thinking the gun wasn’t loaded), Mooseman / Lloyd Roberts III (drive-by shooting – he was not the intended target), Mercy Baby / Julius Mullins and Pinetop Smith / Clarence Smith
HEAD INJURY – Krzysztof Komeda / Krzysztof Trzcincki (hitting his head during a friendly rough and tumble) and Dave Tough (hitting his head during an epileptic fit)
HYPOTHERMIA – Terje Bakken
MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT – Duane Allman, Richard Farina, Pete de Freitas, Marcelo Fromer, Martin Gilks, Mitch Lucker, Berry Oakley, Don Rich / Donald Ulrich and Frank C. Starr (hit by a drunk driver)
MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT – Carl Albert, Alexandra / Doris Nefedov, Vic Ames, Sammy Babitzin / Aleksandr Babitzin, Stiv Bators / Steven Bators, Chris Bell, Jesse Belvin, Marc Bolan, Bob Burns, Cliff Burton (bus crash), Tommy Caldwell, Cecilia / Evangelina Galanes, Harry Chapin (possibly caused by a heart attack), Eddie Cochran, Rob Collins, Amie Comeaux, D. Boon / Dennis Boon, Andy DeMize / Andrew Martinez, Tony Destra, Jerry Edmonton / Jerry McCrohan, Falco / Johann Holzel (his car collided with a bus), Slada Guduras, Paul Hackman, Bianca Halstead, Michael Hedges, Johnny Horton ( a drunk driver hit his car), Jan Johansson, Johnny Kidd / Frederick Heath, Andriy Kuzmenko, Leah LaBelle, Martin Lamble (van crash), Iry Lejeune / Ira Lejeune, J.B. Lenoir, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, Ira Louvin / Ira Loudermilk (killed by a drunk driver), Tomas Lowe, Jacob Miller, Rushton Moreve, Criss Oliva / Christopher Oliva (not his fault), Roger Patterson, Cozy Powell / Colin Trevor Flooks, El Petro / Rodrigo Bueno, Razzle / Nicholas Dingley, RiSe / Kwon Rise, Stacey Rowles, Natasja Saad, Adan Sanchez, Lynn Strait, Viktor Tsoi, Thomas Wayne / Thomas Wayne Perkins, Dottie West / Dorothy Marie West and Clarence White / Clarence LeBlanc (killed by a drunk driver)
WATERCRAFT ACCIDENT – Don Gant, Shorty Long / Frederick Long, Kirsty MacColl and Scott Smith

B. DISEASES:

AIDS – Peter Allen / Woolnough, Randy Black / John Morris, Chuck Briggs, Bobby Debarge, Eazy-E / Eric Wright, Iosu Exposito / Jesus Exposito Lopez, Tom Fogerty, Ray Gillen, Kenny Greene, Howard Greenfield, Ofra Haza, Billy Lyall, Sean Mayes, Allan McCarthy, Jimmy McShane, Freddie Mercury / Farrokh Bulsara, Jerry Nolan, Klaus Nomi / Klaus Sperber, Layne Staley, Lonnie Pitchford, Sharon Redd, Margita Stefanovich, Ray Stephens, Jermaine Stewart and Ricky Wilson
AMERICAN FLU, THE (aka The Spanish Flu) – Charles Griffes
AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS (aka LOU GEHRIG’S DISEASE) – Antoine Lundy and Dan Toler
ANOREXIA NERVOSA – Karen Carpenter
ASTHMA – Jo Bruce / Jonas Bruce and John Cipollina
BRAIN TUMOUR – Bill Black, Jon Brookes, Ken Forssi, George Gershwin / Jacob Gershowitz, Bill Haley, Nicky James / Michael Nicholls, Min Leibrook / Wilfred Leibrook, Bob Marley, Ted Mulry / Martin Mulry, Junior Parker / Herman Parker, Steve Prestwich, Rainer Ptacek and Tammi Terrell / Thomasina Montgomery
BRONCHIECTASIS – Jerry Ross
CANCER (see below)
CARDIOMYOPATHY – Dave Williams and Michael Johns (dilated cardiomyopathy)
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE – Norman Harris, Danny McBride and Marty Robbins
CIRRHOSIS OF THE LIVER (Note – often but not always caused by excessive alcohol abuse) – Packy Axton, Lefty Baker / Eustace Baker, Juke Boy Bonner / Weldon H. Bonner, Bill Evans, Tony Jackson, James Jamerson, Charlie Parker, Bonnie Pointer and Delroy Wilson
COELIAC DISEASE – Joe C. / Joseph Colleja
CONGENITAL HEART CONDITION – Jim Cherry
CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE – Elmo Hope / St. Elmo Hope, Kenny Kirkland, Jim Pash and Syreeta Wright
COVID 19 – Joe Diffie, Adam Schlesinger, Matthew Seligman, Chris Trousdale / Chris Pask and Bruce Williamson
CROHN’S DISEASE – Nicky Hopkins and Mark Reale
CUSHING’S SYNDROME – Randy Carr and Dan Hamilton
CYSTIC FIBROSIS – Alice Martineau / Marguerite J. Pinder
DIABETES – Matthew Ashman, Melissa Bell, Tim Davis, Eric Dolphy, Mary Ford / Iris Summers, Marvin Isley, Linda Jones, Big Maybelle / Mabel Louise Smith, Frank Navetta, Phife Dawg / Malik Taylor, Prince Be / Attrell Cordes and John Rutsey
EMPHYSEMA – Bobby Jones and Allan Sherman
ENDOCARDITIS – Cyril Davies (alcohol-related)
EPILEPSY – Robert Dahlqvist, Wynton Kelly, Michael Lee / Michael Pearson and Tracy Pew
GASTRITIS – Lily T. / Lily Tembo
HEART DISEASE – Paul Gordon and Vesta Williams
HEPATITIS – Bill Evans (and peptic ulcer, cirrhosis of the liver, bronchial pneumonia and cocaine)
KIDNEY DISEASE – Mandawuy Yunupungu
KIDNEY BREAKDOWN / INFECTION – Carl Radle and James Radcliffe
LIVER DISEASE – Paul Atkinson, Rob Buck, David Byron / David Garrick, Mick Ronson, Roger Voudouris and Steve Waller
LOU GEHRIG’S DISEASE – see AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS
LUNG DISEASE – Pete Drake / Roddis Drake
MARFAN SYNDROME – Jonathan Larson
MENINGITIS – Jimmy Blythe
MOTOR NEURON DISEASE – Heinz Burt
MYOCARDITIS – Andy Gibb
NEUROSYPHILITIC SCLEROSIS – Louis Chauvin
PANCREATITIS – Freddie King and Peter Laughner
PNEUMONIA – Barbara Acklin, Melanie Appleby, Barbecue Bob / Robert Hicks, Ray Barbieri, Glen Buxton, Allen Collins, Bernard Edwards, Frank Esler-Smith, Bill Evans (bronchial pneumonia, and peptic ulcer, cirrhosis of the liver, hepatitis and cocaine), Guitar Slim / Eddie Jones, Trish Keenan, Keith Knudsen, Phil Lynott (and heart failure), Guy McDonough, LeRoi Moore, Dave Shogren, Sudirman / Sudirman bin Haji Arshad, Samuel Taylor-Coleridge, Freddie Waits and Chris Wood
POLYCYTHEMIA VERA – Ron Miles
PRIMARY BILLARY CHOLANGITIS – Pigpen / Ron McKernan
PROGRESSIVE SUPRANUCLEAR PALSY – Jeff Golub
RHEUMATIC FEVER – Billy Fury / Ronald Wycherley
SARCOIDOSIS – Sean Levert
SICKLE CELL ANEMIA – Georgeanna Tillman
TUBERCULOSIS – Charlie Christian, Earl Hooker and Jimmie Rodgers
ULCER – Bill Evans (Peptic ulcer), Gene Vincent / Vincent Eugene Craddock (Stomach Ulcer) and Karen Young
VIRAL INFECTION – Oscar Pettiford
UNDISCLOSED DISEASE – Nicole Bogner

LHASA DE SELA 2005
By Vonvon – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6789208

C. CANCER:

BILE DUCT – Chris Ledoux
BLADDER – Ian Rilen and Butch McDade / David McDade
BLOOD – MULTIPLE MYELOMA – Buster Stiggs / Mark Hough
BLOOD – MYELOMA – Guru / Keith Elam
BLOOD – NON-HODGKIN LYMPHOMA – Sterling Morrison
BONE – Eva Cassidy (and lung cancer)
BRAIN – Gord Downie, Luther ‘Snake Boy’ Johnson / Lucious Brinson, Brian McLeod, Chuck Schuldiner and Brian Travers
BREAST – Chrissy Amphlett, Odia Coates, Linda Creed, Carolyn Franklin, Marge Ganser, Sarah Harding, June Pointer, Minnie Riperton, Lhasa de Sela, Dusty Springfield / Mary Isobel O’Brien and Brandi Wells / Marguerite J. Pinder
COLON – Gerry Boulet, Ian Dury, George Howard and Duane Jarvis
GALL BLADDER – Mariska Veres / Marie Elizabeth Veres
HEART – Eric Carr / Paul Caravello
HEPATITIS B – Geoffrey Yunupingu
HODGKINS LYMPHOMA – Glenn Goins
INTESTINES – Robin Gibb
KIDNEY – Dave Peverett, Billy Rancher (and liver cancer) and Tony Thompson
LARNYX – Mary Wells
LEG – Jeff Healey (as well as retinal cancer and lung cancer)
LEUKEMIA – Arthur Kane, Ed Cobb, Steve Goodman, Arthur Lee, Mike Millward, Herbie Nichols, Johnny Thunders / John Genzale, Mick Tucker, Randy VanWarmer and Kate Wolf / Kathryn Allen
LIVER – Rod Allen, Mick Cocks, John Coltrane, Darryl DeLoach, Munetaka Higuchi, James Mickie / Donald Eugene Jones, Matt Monro / Terence Parsons, Dickie Peterson, Billy Rancher (and kidney cancer), Mort Shuman, Otis Spann, Jane Vasey and John Wolters
LUNG – Peter Bardens, Jacques Brel, Jimmy Bryant, Norton Buffalo, Eva Cassidy (and bone cancer), Nat ‘King’ Cole, Rabon Delmore, Paul Desmond, Ral Donner, Ean Evans / Donald Evans, George Harrison, Jeff Healey (as well as retinal cancer, and cancer in his leg), Keith Hudson, Roy Huskey Jr., Sticks McGhee / Granville McGhee, Harold McNair, Mejla / Milan Hlavsa, Roger Miller, Haydain Neale (though he was a non-smoker), Sista Monica Parker, Brian Pendleton, Rudy Pompilli, Eddie Rabbitt, Paul Ryan, Bobby Scott, Gary Shider, Skip Spence / Alexander Spence, Ruby Starr, Edmund Sylvers, Gary Usher, Sandy West / Sandy Pesavento, Chris Whitley, Lamar Williams, Carl Wilson and Warren Zevon
LYMPHATIC – Hagood Hardy, Joey Ramone / Jeffrey Hyman and Oliver / William Swofford
MYELODYSPLASTYIC SYNDROME – Joe Farrell / Joseph Firrantello
MYELOGENOUS LEUKEMIA – Wesley Willis
ORAL – Nick Curran
OVARIAN – Alma Cogan and Laura Nyro / Laura Nigro
PANCREAS – Syd Barrett, Michael Houser, Graeme Kelling, Benjamin Orr, Pepsi Tate / Hugh Smith, Dig Richards / Digby Richards and Guy Speranza
PROSTATE – Dan Fogelberg, Craig Gruber, Johnny Ramone / John Cummings, Richard Tee, Peter Wells and Frank Zappa
RETINA – Jeff Healey (as well as lung cancer, and cancer in his leg)
SALIVARY GLAND – MCA / Adam Yauch
SKIN – Marek Blizinski, Randy Castillo, Chris Michie (Melanoma), Dee Murray and Van Stephenson
SPINE – Kelly Johnson / Bernadette Johnson
STOMACH – Jim Capaldi, Ken Colyer and Tiki Fulwood / Ramon Fulwood
T-CELL LYMPHOBLASTIC LYMPHOMA – Benjamin Curtis
TESTICULAR – Josh Clayton-Felt and Pete King
THROAT – Gene Clark, Les Gray, Eddie Van Halen, Marc Hunter, Robbie King, Karl Mueller, Mike Patto and Steve Wahrer
UNSPECIFIED – Gaylord Birch, Alan Blakley, Thomas Fekete, Steve Ferguson, Larry Hall, Gordon Huntley, Bill Justis, Michael Karoli, Frankie Kennedy, Colin Manley, Bobbi Martin, Patti McCabe, Gerry McGhee, Bryn Merrick, Meritxell Negre, Ricky Parent, Charles Pettigrew, Bill Rieflin, Paul Samson, Phil Seymour, Toby Smith / Toby Graffney-Smith and Dimiter Voev

FLORENCE BALLARD OF THE SUPREMES
By Jac. de Nijs, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37937520

D. MEDICAL EVENTS:

ANEURYSM – Laura Branigan (cerebral), Chas. Chandler, John Curulewski (cerebral), Dennis Danell, Mike Gibbins, Herbert Rhoad, Iain Shedden, Jackson Spires, Sandra Tilley (cerebral), Conway Twitty / Harold Jenkins and Ron Wilson (cerebral aneurysm)
AORTIC RUPTURE – Rust Equipe / Charles Lopez
BLOOD CLOT ON A CORONARY ARTERY – Florence Ballard
BLOOD CLOT (BRAIN) – Ron Tabak
BLOOD CLOT DISORDER – Shane Gibson
BRAIN HAEMORRHAGE – Rebop Kwaku Baah / Anthony Kwaku Baah, Roy Budd, Joe Nanini, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Stu Sutcliffe
CARDIAC ARREST – Erik Brann, Mark Heard, Michael Jackson, Paul Kossoff and Jeff Porcaro (as a reaction to pesticides)
CARDIAC ARRHYTHMIA – Lyn Collins, Elvis Presley and Tammy Wynette / Virginia Wynette Pugh
CARDIAC / PULMONARY FAILURE – Dennis Browns, Rick James / James Johnson Jr. and Henry Vestine
CARDIOMEGALY – Divine / Harris Milstead
CEREBRAL HAEMORRHAGE – Cannonball Adderley / Julian Adderley, Roy Hamilton, Walter Jackson, Wong Ka Kui, Mike Naumenko, Joe Negroni and Tiny Topsy / Otha Lee Moore
CHOKING – John Bonham (choking on his own vomit), Stuart Cable (choking on his own vomit while asleep), Rudy Lewis, Sean McCabe, Billy Murcia (he suffered a drug overdose onstage and when he was given coffee to revive him he died of asphyxiation), Stephanie Sargent, Zachary Sobiech, Steve Peregrin Took (choking on a cocktail onion) and Anton Yelchin
COMPLICATIONS AFTER CHILDBIRTH – Nadine Renee / Nadine Shamir
COMPLICATIONS DURING BOWEL CANCER SURGERY – Rob Fisher
COMPLICATIONS DURING BRAIN SURGERY – Chet Powers / Dino Valenti
COMPLICATIONS DURING A CORONARY BYPASS – John Fahey
COMPLICATIONS FROM A LIVER TRANSPLANT – Rory Gallagher
COMPLICATIONS FROM HEART SURGERY – Bobby Darin / Bobby Cassotto
COMPLICATIONS FROM SURGERY FOR A FAULTY HEART VALVE – Chico Banks / Vernon X Banks
COMPLICATIONS FROM SURGERY TO REMOVE A BENIGN TUMOUR – Ruby Pearl Elzy
COMPLICATIONS FROM ULCER SURGERY – Don Murray
CYSTIC GROWTH ON THE BRAIN – Michelle Meldrum
DEMENTIA EFFECTS – Malcolm Young
GASTROINTESTINAL HAEMORRHAGE – John Panozzo
HEART ATTACK – Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, Hoyt Axton, Baby Huey / James Ramey, Guy Babylon, Michael Baker, George Barnes, Jacque Beau / Andrus Espree, Michel Berger / Michel Jean Hamburger, Randall Bewley, Big Pun / Christopher Rios, Dorsey Burnette, Boz Burrell / Raymond Burrell, John DuCann / John William Cann, Jim Carroll, Dave Carter, Bobby Chouinard, Country Dick Montana / Daniel McLain, Johnny Cymbal / John Blair, Rick Danko, Paul Davis, Derek B. / Derek Boland, Patty Donahue, Zenon de Fleur / Zenon Hierowski, Lowell George, John Glascock, Nick Hawkins, Rob Jones, Lamya / Lamya Al-Mugheiry, Peter Lucia Jr., James Morrison, Mercury Nelson, Emily Remler, Jack Rose, Miika Tenkula, Dave Torbert, R.J. Vealey, Tony Williams, O.V. Wright, Philippé Wynne, Zal Yanovsky / Zalman Yanovsky, Paul Young and Aamir Zaki
HEART FAILURE – Bert Berns, Paul Butterfield, John Campbell, Mama Cass Elliot / Ellen Cohen, Sahara Davenport / Antoine Ashley, Bryan Gregory / Gregory Beckerleg, Randy Ronnie Dyson, Jo Hobbs, Darla Hood, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (and respiratory failure), Speedy Keen / John Keene, Phil Lynott (and pneumonia), Kenny Maclean, Bob McBride, Harry Nilsson, Gram Parsons / Ingram Connor III, John Poulos, Quorthon / Thomas Forsberg, Krzystof Raczkowski, Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith and Townes van Zandt
HEART THROMBOSIS – Alan Hull
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE – Nat Jaffe
INTESTINAL TWISTING – Maurice Gibb
KIDNEY FAILURE – Danny Joe Brown, Orish Grinstead, Osie Johnson, MC Breed / Eric Breed, Woody Shaw / Herman Shaw and Kurt Winter
LIVER FAILURE – Christian Dudek, Eddie Hazel, Carlo Karges, Nicolette Larson, Rana Ross, Gar Samuelson, Fredo Santana / Derrick D. Colem, Jimmy Stokley and Terry Strafford
LIVER AND KIDNEY FAILURE – David Brown, Mickey Finn, Marc Moreland and Esther Phillips / Esther Mae Jones
LUNG COMPLICATIONS / COLLAPSE – Shawn Lane and Augustus Pablo
PETECHIAL HAEMORRHAGES – Bobby Fuller
PULMONARY EDEMA – Dave Alexander
PULMONARY EMBOLISM – Heavy D / Dwight Myers and Mario Lanza / Alfred Cocozza
RESPIRATORY FAILURE – John Jarrard and Israel kamakawiwo’ole (and heart failure)
SLEEP APNEA – Pimp C / Chad Butler
STAPH INFECTION – B.W. Stevenson / Louis Charles Stevenson
STREPTOCOCCUS INFECTION – Daniel MacMaster
STROKE – Paul Baloff, Robbie Basho / Daniel Robinson Jr., Benny Benjamin / William Benjamin, James Dewar, Nate Dogg / Nathaniel Hale, Glenn Gould, Felton Jarvis, Raahson Roland Kirk / Ronald Kirk, Bobby McClure, Art Pepper, Django Reinhardt / Jean Reinhardt and Luther Vandross
SUBARACHNOID HAEMORRHAGE – Kami / Ukyo Kamimura
TOXIC SHOCK POISONING – Barbara Robison

E. SUBSTANCE ABUSE

NOTES:

a) Some people have used powerful illegal drugs knowing that they were potentially lethal but thinking that they could use the drugs without dying. Those who did so and ended up dead were guilty of abusing substances even though they were not suicidal. These deaths are not really genuine accidents because the substance users knew that the risk of death was high.

b) Cirrhosis of the liver is often but not always caused by excessive alcohol abuse.

c) Some musicians used more than one drug when they died so it is difficult to assign the cause of death to just one specific drug.

d) Also see SUICIDE – DRUGS

AMY WINEHOUSE 2007
By Rama – cropped version from, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9542840

ALCOHOL – Bix Beiderbecke / Leon Beiderbecke, René Berg, Leroy Carr, Steve Clark (and codeine, morphine and valium), Michael Clarke, Brian Connolly, Todd Crew (and heroin), Ernie Graham, Ric Grech, Chris Kenner, Mitch Mitchell / John Mitchell, Jason Molina, Ethelbert Nevin, Edith Piaf / Edith Gassion, Bon Scott / Ronald Scott, Rauli Somerjoki, Wayne Static / Wayne Wells (and xanax), Bob Stinson, Bobby Timmons, Keith Whitley, Hank Williams (and chloral hydrate) and Amy Winehouse
AMOBARBITAL – Dinah Washington / Ruth Lee Jones (and secobarbital)
AMPHETAMINES – Sean Costello (and chlordiazepoxide and heroin)
BARBITURATES – Judy Garland / Frances Gumm, Jimi Hendrix / James Marshall Hendrix, Marilyn Monroe / Norma Jeane Mortenson, Jonny O’Keefe and Alan Wilson
BENZODIAZEPINES – Taylor Hawkins (and tricyclic antidepressants, opioids, THC and six other substances)
CHLORAL HYDRATE – Hank Williams (and alcohol)
CHLORDIAZEPOXIDE – Sean Costello (and heroin and amphetamine)
CHLORODIFLUOROMETHANE – Tony Thompson
COCAINE – John Belushi (and heroin), Wes Berggren (and morphine), James Booker, Kevin DuBrow, Bill Evans (and peptic ulcer, cirrhosis of the liver, bronchial pneumonia and hepatitis), Zac Foley (and heroin), Lowell George, James Honeyman-Scott (and heroin), Shannon Hoon, Wells Kelly (and heroin), Brent Mydland, Ol’ Dirty Bastard / Russell Jones (and tramadol), River Phoenix (and heroin), David Ruffin / Davis Ruffin, Bobby Sheehan (and heroin) and Robert Keith Wiggins
CODEINE – Steve Clark (and alcohol, morphine and valium) and Mac Miller / Malcolm McCormick (and promethazine)
DARVOCET – Gerald Levert (and vicodin, percocet and xanax)
ETHANOL – Tim Buckley (and heroin and morphine)
FENTANYL – Jay Bennett, Lil Peep / Gustave Ahr (and xanax) and Prince / Rogers Nelson
HEMINEVRIN – Keith Moon
HEROIN – A.A. Allin / Jesus Christ Allin, John Belushi (and cocaine), Mike Bloomfield, Tommy Bolin, Dave Brockie, Tim Buckley (and morphine and ethanol), Brian Cole, Sean Costello (and chlordiazepoxide and amphetamine), Darby Crash / Jan Paul Beahm, Todd Crew (and alcohol), Robbin Crosby, Jesse Ed Davis, Howie Epstein, Pete Farndon, Zac Foley (and cocaine), Mary Ann Ganser, Paul Gardiner, Dwayne Goettel, Handsome Ned / Robin Maysk, Tim Hardin, Tubby Hayes / Edward Hayes, Helno / Noel Rota, Gregory Herbert, Bob Hite, James Honeyman-Scott (and cocaine), Janis Joplin, Wells Kelly (and cocaine), Eddie Kurdziel, Jani Lane, Frankie Lymon, Liam Maher, David McComb, Jimmy McCulloch, Robbie McIntosh (and morphine), Jonathan Melvoin, Moskri / Davor Bobic, Joachim Nielsen, Cranford Nix, Bradley Nowell, Kristen Pfaff, River Phoenix (and cocaine), Gary Primich, Dee Dee Ramone / Douglas Colvin, John Baker Saunders, George Scott III, Phil Seamen, Bobby Sheehan (and cocaine), Hillel Slovak, Gary Thain, Richard Twardzik, Sid Vicious / John Ritchie, Mikey Welsh, Danny Whitten, Andrew Wood and Zeke Zettner
METHAMPHETAMINES – Jimi Jamison, Mark St. John / Mark Norton
METHYLENEDIOXYAMPHETAMINE – Scott Weiland
MORPHINE – Wes berggren (and cocaine), Tim Buckey (and heroin and ethanol), Steve Clark (and valium, codeine and alcohol) and Robbie McIntosh (and heroin)
OPIOIDS – Taylor Hawkins (and benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, THC and six other substances)
PERCOCET – Gerald Levert (and vicodin, darvocet and xanax)
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – B / Jonas Bergvist, Bryan Ottoson and Mike Starr
PROMETHAZINE – Mac Miller / Malcolm McCormick (and codeine)
SECOBARBITAL – Dinah Washington / Ruth Lee Jones (and amobarbital)
THC -Taylor Hawkins (and opioids, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants and six other substances)
TRAMADOL – Ol’ Dirty Bastard / Russell Jones (and cocaine)
TRICYCLIC ANTIDEPRESSANTS (and opioids, benzodiazepines, THC and six other substances)
VALIUM – Steve Clark (and alcohol, codeine and morphine)
VICODIN – Gerald Levert (and percocet, darvocet and xanax)
XANAX – Gerald Levert (and vicodin, percocet and darvocet), Lil Peep / Gustave Ahr (and fentanyl) and Wayne Static / Wayne Wells (and alcohol)
UNSPECIFIED – Gidget Gein / Mark Bradley, Tom Jans and Harry McGilberry

B.J. WILSON OF PROCOL HARUM, AND THE FIRST CHOICE AS DRUMMER FOR LED ZEPPELIN
By Fisle – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65209826

F. SUICIDE

CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING – Jim Ellison, Jonghyun / Kim Jong-Hyun, Malcolm Hale, Helmut Kollen, Jane Vogel and Bruce Waibel
DROWNING (INTENTIONAL) – Dean Reed
DRUGS – Dave Blood / Dave Schulthise (unspecified), Vincent Crane / Vincent Cheesman (Anadin), Nick Drake (amitriptyline), Phyllis Hyman (barbiturates), Beverley Kenney (seconal and alcohol), Billy McKenzie (barbiturates), Rob Pilatus (barbiturates), Dickie Pride (sleeping pills), John Rostill (barbiturates), Dave Rubinstein (anti-depressants), Rory Storm / Alan Caldwell (prescription pills and alcohol), Radka Toneff (sleeping pills), Nick Traina (lithium) and B.J. Wilson (unspecified)
FALLING – Alexander Bashlachev, Donny Hathaway (jumping from the 15^th floor of the Essex House Hotel in New York) and Izumi Sakai / Sachiko Kamachi (found dead at the bottom of a wheelchair access ramp)
FIREARMS – Tommy Boyce, Kurt Cobain, Dead / Per Ohlin, Sims Ellison, Ronnie Garvin, Danny Gatton, Doug Hopkins, Hubert Johnson (and poison), Billy Jones, Lil Loaded / Dashawn Robertson (shortly after being charged with the murder of teenager Khalil Walker), Mark Linkous (rifle), Mac Dre / Andre Hicks, Tommy Marth, Mindy McCready, Jon Nodtveidt, Derrick Plourde, Steve Sanders, Del Shannon / Charles Westover, John Spence, Doug Stegmeyer, Gary Stewart, Jason Thirsk, Carlos Vega, Larry Williams, Paul Williams and Wendy O. Williams
HANGING – Chris Acland, Stuart Adamson, Simone Battle, Chester Bennington, Roy Buchanan, Ian Curtis, Tom Evans, Keith Flint, Mike Furber, Gervasio / Jose Gervasio, Pete Ham, Paul Hester, Hide / Hideto Matsumoto, Michael Hutchence, Kazuhiko Kato, Tommy Kiefer, Jon Lee, Dave Lepard / David Hellman, Richard Manuel, Moses Molelekwa, Phil Ochs, Brian O’Hara, Dimitriy Selivanov, Screaming Lord Sutch / Dave Sutch, Kevin Wilkinson, Rozz Williams and Kyle Woodring
POISON – Hubert Johnson (and firearm)
SLIT THROAT – Vince Welnick
TRAIN – Adrian Borland (railway train), Graham Bond (subway train) and Ingo Schwichtenberg (subway train)
UNDISCLOSED / UNKNOWN – Jean Adebambo, Bored Nothing / Fergus Miller, Andrew Bourque, Marcel Jacob (after a cancer diagnosis), Andy Lewis, James Leroy, Owsley / William Owsley III

JAM MASTER JAY / JASON MIZELL, 1985
By Jeff Pinilla – https://vimeo.com/28163656, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117051064

G. HOMICIDE

ATTACK / BEATING – Bad News Brown / Paul Frappier, Jaco Pastorius and Taiji Sawada (died while in police custody officially registered as suicide though there is evidence that it was homicide)
COYOTES – Taylor Mitchell / Taylor Luciow (killed by two coyotes while out hiking)
FIREARMS – 2Pac / Tupac Shakur, Bankroll Fresh / Trentavious White, Darrell Banks / Darrell Eubanks, Carlton Barrett, Big Hawk / John Hawkins, Big L. / Lamont Coleman, Blade Icewood / Darnell Lindsay, Boston Blackie / Benjamin Houston, Tommy Blake, Shirley Brickley, Bugz / Kamail Pitts (and run over by a car), Camoflauge / Jason Johnson, Sam Cooke (ruled justifiable homicide), Darrell Dimebag / Darrell Abbott, Doe B. / Glenn Thomas (and run over by a car), Dolla / Roderick Burton II, Roy Draper, Fat Pat / Patrick Hawkins, Rhett Forrester (shot by a carjacker), Freaky Tah / Raymond Rogers, Kevin Fret, El Gallo de Oro / Valentin Elizalde, Marvin Gaye / Marvin Gay, Christina Grimmie, Half a Mill / Jasun Wardlaw, Jam Master Jay / Jason Mizell, Kid Thomas / Louis Thomas Watts, John Lennon, Lil Phat / Melvin Vernell III, Looloosh / Soroush Farazmand, Magnolia Shorty / Renetta Lowe-Bridgewater, Louis A. McCall Sr., MC Daleste / Daniel Pellegrine, Lee Morgan, Hugh Mundell, Jackie Neale, Notorious B.I.G. / Chris Wallace, Felix Pappalardi, Pop Smoke / Bashar Jackson, Proof / DeShaun Holton, Rusty Day / Russell Davidson, Sabotage / Mauvo dos Santes, Barry Sadler, Selena / Selena Quintanilla-Perez, Smoke Dawg / Jahvante Smart, Soulja Slim / James Tapp Jr., Stretch / Randy Walker, Peter Tosh / Winston McIntosh, (home invasion), Trouble / Mariel Orr (home invasion), V.L. Mike / Michael Allen, John Whitehead, Sonny Boy Williamson I (killed as an innocent bystander during a robbery), Jimmy Wopo / Travon Smart, XXXTentacion / Jahseh Onfroy (shot during a robbery) and Young Greatness / Theodore Jones III.
INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT – George Butterworth (killed fighting as a soldier during the Battle of the Somme in World War One)
POISON – Robert Johnson
RUN OVER BY A CAR – Bugz / Kamail Pitts (and shot) and Doe B. / Glenn Thomas (and shot)
STABBED – Flabba / Nkululeko Habedi, Johnny Jackson, Killah P. / Pavlos Fyssas Craddock (stabbed to death by a mob of white supremacist members of Golden Dawn), Charles Miller, Sal Mineo, Elliott Smith / Steven Smith, Chuck Valle and Harry Womack
STRANGULATION – Lenny Breau and Mia Zapata (raped, beaten and strangled)
STREET FIGHT – Little Walter / Walter Jacobs
THROAT SLIT – Bryan Harvey
UNDISCLOSED – Dyke Christian / Arlester Christian and Gary Driscoll

H. NATURAL CAUSES – Andy Fletcher, Jim Korthe, Pierre Moerlen and Leon Wilkinson

I. UNDISCLOSED – Jared Anderson, Astro / Terence Wilson, Khalis Bayyan / Ronald Bell, Doug Bennett, Ronnie Bond . Ronnie Bullis, Don Decker, Buren Fowler, Mark Gray, Wilbur Harden, Mickey Hawks, It / Tony Sarkka, Ken Lyons, Jack Marshall, Todd Nance, John Siomos, Nikki Sudden / Adrian Godfrey, Roy Turk, Beau Velasco and Allen Woody

J. UNKNOWN – Gene Bricker, Bull City Red / George Washington, Eddy DeLang / Edgar Moss, Epic Soundtracks / Kevin Godfrey, Al Jackson Jr., Yuri Klinskikh (possibly a heart attack or alcohol or drug abuse – no investigation was done), Philip Taylor Kramer, Alexandra Levy, Glenn Miller, Mare Morgan, Avery Parrish, John Ryanes, Warren Ryanes and Pinetop Sparks / Aaron Sparks

K. MISSING PRESUMED DEAD – Richey Edwards

BEFORE THEY REACH BOMBAY – Post 5. Causes of Death – Overview

THE ENORMOUSLY INFLUENTIAL PIANIST BILL EVANS WHOSE DEATH AT AGE 51 WAS ATTRIBUTED TO COCAINE USE, CIRRHOSIS OF THE LIVER, BRONCHIAL PNEUMONIA, A PEPTIC ULCER AND UNTREATED HEPATITIS
By Steve Schapiro – *Original source: Published as a publicity photo in 1961. A scan of the full original photo can be found via Timely-Atlas-Comics on Blogspot (direct link to image).Instant source: High-res scan via Twitter. Retouched by uploader; see upload history below for unretouched original., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99555222

If you haven’t read Post 1 – Rethinking Mortality, which explains everything, then it’s probably a good thing to do so before reading this post – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/

NOTE – This first section, down to the blue line, can be found at the beginning of all the posts. If you have read it already you can skip ahead if you like.

Here are the relevant database posts:

Rethinking Mortality – An introduction to the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-1-rethinking-musician-mortality/
Percentages of expected life spans completed by musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-2-percentage-of-expected-life-spans/
Criteria for inclusion in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-3-database-inclusion/
The birth years of musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-4-birth-years-of-the-musicians/
The causes of death – Overview
The causes of death – data on all of the musicians – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-6-the-cause-of-death-data-on-all-of-the-musicians/
Noteworthy deaths – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-7-noteworthy-deaths/
Demographics – the birthplaces, gender, ethnicities, nationalities and musical skills of database members – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-8-demographics/
Ages at death of musicians in general – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-9-ages-at-death/
The twenty-seven club discredited – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-10-the-27-club-discredited/
Sample musician profiles 1 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-11-sample-profiles-1/
Sample musician profiles 2 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-12-sample-profiles-2/
Sample musician profiles 3 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-13-sample-profiles-3/
An alphabetical list of the musicians in the database – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/before-they-reach-bombay-post-14-the-musicians-alphabetized/

______________________________

NOTES:

1. Many musicians took hard drugs and drank to excess but whether or not their substance abuse contributed to their death is hard to tell.

2. In some cases two or more contributing factors equally responsible for death are noted but in most cases there is only one factor, or at least only one primary factor at work.

3. When a musician goes by more than one name it will be alphabetized in one of two ways. If the name the person is known by, is obviously a pseudonym, it is alphabetized by the first letter of the name, e.g. Half a Mill is listed under H. If the pseudonym sounds like a real name then it is alphabetized by the first letter of the apparent surname, e.g. Peter Tosh (i.e. Winston McIntosh) is listed under T.

GEORGE GERSHWIN CIRCA 1935.
By Mishkin – RR Auctions, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18872323

The causes of the deaths of all of the musicians in the database are indicated in detail in a separate post (Post 6 – Data on all the musicians is in Post 6 – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/before-they-reach-bombay-post-6-the-cause-of-death-data-on-all-of-the-musicians/ ) but first here is a summary of the causes (with the number of musicians affected in each case in parentheses) along with some discussion of the data:

ACCIDENTS – Aircraft accident (31), autoerotic asphyxiation (1), crushed by a bulldozer (1), drowning (13), electrocution (2), falling (8), fire (6), firearms (6), head injury (2), hypothermia (1), motorcycle accident (9), motor vehicle accident (52) and watercraft accident (4).
DISEASES – AIDS (25), The American Flu i.e. the Spanish Flu (1), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease (2), anorexia nervosa (1), asthma (2), brain tumour (13), bronchiectasis (1), cancer (see below), cardiomyopathy (2), cardiovascular disease (3), cirrhosis of the liver (9), coeliac disease (1), congenital heart condition (1), congestive heart failure (4), Covid 19 (5), Crohn’s Disease (2), Cushing’s Syndrome (2), cystic fibrosis (1), diabetes (12), emphysema (2), endocarditis (1), epilepsy (4), gastritis (1), heart disease (2), hepatitis (1), kidney disease (1), kidney breakdown / infection (2), liver disease (6), Lou Gehrig’s Disease (see amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), lung disease (1), Marfan Syndrome (1), meningitis (1), motor neuron disease (1), myocarditis (1), neurosyphilitic sclerosis (1), pancreatitis (1), pneumonia (20), polycythemia vera (1), primary billary cholangitis (1), progressive supranuclear palsy (1), rheumatic fever (1), sarcoidosis (1), sickle cell anemia (1), tuberculosis (3), ulcer (3), viral infection (1), and an undisclosed disease (1).
CANCERS – bile duct (1), bladder (1), blood – multiple myeloma (1), blood – myeloma (1), blood – Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (1), bone (1), brain (5), breast (11), colon (4), gall bladder (1), heart (1), hepatitis (1), Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (1), intestines (1), kidney (3), larnyx (1), leg (1), leukemia (10), liver (13), lung (35), lymphatic (3), myelodysplastyic syndrome (1), myelogenous leukemia (1), oral (1), ovarian (2), pancreas (7), prostate (6), retina (1), salivary gland (1), skin (5), spine (1), stomach (3), t-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (1), testicular (2), throat (8) and unspecified (22).
MEDICAL EVENTS – aneurysm (11), aortic rupture (1), blood clot on a coronary artery (1), blood clot (brain) (1), blood clot disorder (1), brain haemorrhage (5), cardiac arrest (5), cardiac arrhythmia (3), cardiac pulmonary failure (3), cardiomegaly (1), cerebral haemorrhage (7), choking (9), complications after childbirth (1), complications during bowel cancer surgery (1), complications during brain surgery (1), complications during a coronary bypass (1), complications from a liver transplant (1), complications from heart surgery (1), complications from surgery for a faulty heart valve (1), complications from surgery to remove a benign tumour (1), complications from ulcer surgery (1), cystic growth on the brain (1), dementia effects (1), gastrointestinal haemorrhage (1), heart attack (43), heart failure (21), heart thrombosis (1), high blood pressure (1), intestinal twisting (1), kidney failure (6), lung complications / collapse (2), petechial haemorrhages (1), pulmonary edema (1), pulmonary embolism (2), respiratory failure (2), sleep apnea (1), staph infection (1), streptococcus infection (1), stroke (12), subarachnoid haemorrhage (1), toxic shock poisoning (1)
SUBSTANCE ABUSE – alcohol (22), amobarbital (1), amphetamines (1), barbiturates (5), benzodiazepines (1), chloral hydrate (1), chlordizepoxide (1), chlorodifluoromethane (1), cocaine (16), codeine (2), darvocet (1), ethanol (1), fentanyl (3), heminevrin (1), heroin (55), methamphetamines (2), methylenedioxyamphetamine (1), morphine (4), opioids (1), percocet (1), prescription drugs (3), promethazine (1), secobarbital (1), THC (1), tramadol (1), tricyclic antidepressants (1), valium (1), vicodin (1), xanax (3) and unspecified (3)
SUICIDE – carbon monoxide poisoning (6), drowning (intentional) (1), drugs (14), falling (3), firearms (26), hanging (27), poison (1), slit throat (1), train (3) and unknown / undisclosed (6)
HOMICIDE – attack / beating (3), coyotes (1), firearms (55), international conflict (1), poison (1), run over by a car (2), stabbed (8), strangulation (2), street fight (1), throat slit (1) and undisclosed (2).
NATURAL CAUSES (4)
UNDISCLOSED (10)
MISSING PRESUMED DEAD (1)

Misinformation:

It has been widely but falsely reported that Mama Cass Elliot died by choking on a ham sandwich. She died of heart failure.
It has been widely but falsely reported that Michael Hutchence died of autoerotic asphyxiation. He committed suicide by hanging himself.
It has been widely but falsely reported that Johnny Ace died while playing Russian Roulette. He died when he was playing with a gun loaded with one bullet thinking incorrectly that he knew which chamber the bullet was in. He put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger killing himself.

The top ten causes of deaths:

55 people – homicide using a firearm
55 people – heroin use
52 people – motor vehicle accident
43 people – heart attack
35 people – lung cancer
31 people – aircraft accident
27 people – suicide by hanging
26 people – suicide by firearm
25 people – AIDS
22 people – alcohol abuse

FREDERIC CHOPIN ABOUT 1849, SHORTLY BEFORE HE DIED
By Louis-Auguste Bisson – Ernst Burger: Frédéric Chopin. München 1990, S. 323, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113046

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

In order to get a handle on the apparent phenomenon of short-lived musicians over the last century we need a baseline. The great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart after all, was only 35 when he died. How unusual was that? What about Bach and Beethoven, Wagner and Liszt and the rest of them? We have little or no life expectancy data on most of the musicians from previous times, but we do have data on years of birth and death, and in some cases causes of death. Keep in mind too that we also know that life expectancy in general, in previous centuries, was shorter than it is now. What were the leading causes of death in previous centuries?

I wonder how many musicians died in aircraft accidents in the 1600’s? What about AIDS? 1853 is the earliest year in which a musician in the database died. Below are the names of well-known composers and performers all of whom were born before 1853, along with the ages at which they died, their years of birth and death, what they were famous for, and the cause of death.

FRANZ SCHUBERT, age 31 (1797 – 1828), composer; probably death caused by typhoid fever
MOZART, WOLFGANG AMADEUS, age 35 (1756 – 1791), composer and performer; death caused by a severe miliary fever. The cause of the fever is uncertain but the most probable causes are rheumatic fever, streptococcal infection, trichinosis, influenza, mercury poisoning and a kidney ailment.
GEORGES BIZET, age 36 (1838 – 1875), composer; death caused by a cardiac complication of acute articular rheumatism.
HENRY PURCELL, age 36 (1659 – 1695), composer; he died of tuberculosis.
FELIX MENDELSSOHN, age 38 (1809 – 1847), composer, pianist, organist and conductor; death caused by a series of strokes.
FREDERIC CHOPIN, age 39 (1810 – 1849), composer and performer; death caused by pericarditis aggravated by tuberculosis.
MODEST MUSSORGSKY, age 42 (1839 – 1881), composer (a member of The Five); he died of alcoholism.
ROBERT SCHUMANN, age 46 (1810 – 1856), composer and performer; the cause of death is uncertain but the most probable causes are syphilis, mercury poisoning or an intracranial mass.
MIKHAIL GLINKA, age 52 (1804 – 1957), composer; he came down with a cold and three weeks later he was dead as apparently the cold developed into pneumonia.
JOHANN PACHALBEL, age 52 (1653 – 1706), composer, organist and teacher; he died of unknown causes.
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY, age 53 (1840 – 1893), composer; his death was probably a suicide by poisoning (he intentionally drank from an unboiled glass of water during a cholera epidemic).
ALEXANDER BORODIN, age 53 (1833 – 1887), composer (a member of The Five); his cause of death is uncertain. During his lifetime he survived several heart attacks but one night he just fell over dead most probably of heart failure.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, age 56 (1770 – 1827), composer; death was caused by liver damage due to excessive alcohol consumption.
NICCOLO PAGANINI, age 57 (1782 – 1840), composer and violinist; he died from internal haemorrhaging.
ARTHUR SULLIVAN, age 58 (1842 – 1900), composer; he died of heart failure.
BEDRICH SMETANA, age 60 (1824 – 1884), composer; the cause of his death was syphilis.
JACQUES OFFENBACH, age 61 (1819 – 1880), composer, cellist and impresario; he died of acute gout.
ANTONIN DVORAK, age 62 (1841 – 1904), composer; cause of death unknown.
LUIGI BOCCHERINI, age 62 (1743 – 1805), composer and cellist; he died of unknown causes.
JOHANNES BRAHMS, age 63 (1833 – 1897), composer, pianist and conductor; death from liver cancer.
ANTONIO VIVALDI, age 63 (1678 – 1741), composer, violinist, impresario and teacher; he died of internal infection.
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, age 64 (1844 – 1908), composer (a member of The Five); he died from angina.
EDVARD GRIEG, age 64 (1843 – 1907), composer and pianist; he died of heart failure.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, age 65 (1685 – 1750), composer and musician; death was caused by complications from eye surgery carried out by a charlatan.
ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI, age 65 (1660 – 1725), composer; cause of death unknown.
HECTOR BERLIOZ, age 65 (1803 – 1869), composer and conductor; he died most probably of a stroke.
CÉSAR FRANK, age 67 (1822 – 1890), composer, pianist, organist and teacher; he died of pleurisy complicated by pericarditis.
GIUDITTA PASTA, age 67 (1797 – 1865), singer; cause of death unknown.
THOMAS ARNE, age 68 (1710 – 1778), composer; cause of death unknown.
RICHARD WAGNER, age 69 (1813 – 1883), composer, conductor and theatre director; he died of a heart attack.
DOMENICO SCARLATTI, age 71 (1685 – 1757), composer; cause of death unknown.
SAMUEL WESLEY, age 71 (1766 – 1837), organist and composer; he died of unknown causes.
GIACOMO MEYERBEER, age 72 (1791 – 1864), composer; he died of unknown causes.
MILY BALAKIREV, age 72 (1836 – 1910), composer, pianist and conductor; cause of death unknown.
CHRISTOPH GLUCK, age 73 (1714 – 1787), composer; he died of a heart arrhythmia.
FRANZ LISZT, age 74 (1811 – 1886), composer, pianist and teacher; he died of pneumonia.
GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL, age 74 (1685 – 1759), composer; his cause of death is uncertain but it was probably due to a the long term effects of a failed eye operation.
LOUIS SPOHR, age 75 (1784 – 1859), composer, violinist and conductor; cause of death unknown.
CHARLES GOUNOD, age 75 (1818 – 1893), composer; he died of a stroke.
GIOACHINO ROSSINI, age 76 (1792 – 1868), composer; death from colorectal cancer.
CLARA SCHUMANN, age 76 (1819 – 1896), pianist and composer; death from a stroke.
FRANZ VON SUPPÉ, age 76 (1819 – 1895), composer; he died of cancer.
GIUSEPPE TARTINI, age 77 (1682 – 1770), composer and violinist; he died of gangrene.
JOSEPH HAYDN, age 77 (1732 – 1809), composer; death caused by heart failure.
GABRIEL FAURÉ, age 79 (1845 – 1924), composer, organist, pianist, teacher; he died from pneumonia.
JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU, age 80 (1683 – 1764), composer and music theorist; he died suffering from a fever.
MUZIO CLEMENTI, age 80 (1752 – 1832), composer, pianist, conductor, teacher, music publisher, music editor, piano manufacturer; he died after a short illness of some kind.
CÉSAR CUI, age 83 (1835 – 1918), composer (a member of The Five); he died of cerebral apoplexy.
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS, age 86 (1835 – 1921), composer, organist, conductor and pianist; he died of a heart attack.
GIUSEPPE VERDI, age 87 (1813 – 1901), composer; he died of a stroke.

RECITATIVE FROM ST. MATTHEW PASSION HANDWRITTEN BY J.S. BACH
http://javanese.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/4/45/IMSLP26031-PMLP03301-Matthaeus-Passion2.pdf, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32189341

Despite consulting more than one biographical sources, it was impossible to ascertain any cause of death for a few of the composers listed here. In several other cases it was only possible to narrow things down to a probable cause, or a few probable causes. These fifty musicians are more or less representative, though I tried to give priority in my selection process to those who were more well-known, those whose biographies were more extensive and detailed.

Note that only six of the fifty died before reaching forty, and thirty-five of the fifty were sixty or older. Five were in their eighties, and this was in the 19^th, 18^th and 17^th centuries when everyone, on average, had considerably shorter life expectancies than those we enjoy presently. The average age of these fifty musicians is 63.66 years . The most common cause of death was a stroke. Nine died from heart problems. Two died unnecessarily from incompetent eye surgery performed by a charlatan. Two died from alcoholism, two from tuberculosis and two from syphilis. Three died from pneumonia and three from cancer. There was only one suicide (and that was only a probable cause). The rest died from individual causes such as rheumatism and gout. None died from homicide, heroin use, or car and aircraft accidents.

To return to the musicians in the database, about two thirds (65.89%) of the musicians were born in the United States where guns are far more common and far less regulated than the rest of the world. This would explain why homicide by firearm is at the top of the list, and why suicide by firearm also makes the top ten list. Substance abuse is also at the top (heroin) as well as further down (alcohol abuse). It is not clear whether alcohol or drugs played a part in the motor vehicle and aircraft accidents, the heart attacks, or the suicides. Many musicians were cigarette smokers as well, hence the appearance of lung cancer on the list.

Too many short-lived musicians have become admired folk heroes some fans obsess over. In fact, the musicians often led tortured and anything but admirable lives. People make pilgrimages to Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris, France. They write books suggesting that Brian Jones was murdered. The estates of Elvis Presley and John Lennon have made millions since their deaths merchandising their music and their life stories. One aim of the database is to put an end to the hero worship of self-destructive musicians and to examine objectively why they were apparently reckless and / or fatalistically hedonistic in the first place. Superficially happy musicians often lead tragic lives beneath the surface.

LEE MORGAN 1959
By Herbert Behrens / Anefo – Nationaal Archief, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30678307

Lee Morgan (1938 – 1972), dead at 33, was a jazz trumpet prodigy who, as a teenager, was able to hold his own with jazz legends of his day. He also became addicted to heroin and ended up homeless and unemployed. Helen Moore fell in love with him, welcomed him into her flat, lifted him out of his hopelessness emotionally and pragmatically, and he began working again. One of the first things he did when he was on his feet once more was to cheat on Helen with another woman. Charlie Parker (1920 – 1955), dead at 34, was a brilliant alto saxophone player / composer / bandleader who revolutionized jazz by inventing and developing bebop. He was also a heroin addict who at different times ended up in mental hospitals and in jail. He also attempted suicide twice. He married three times, two marriages ending in divorce because of his heroin addiction, and he abandoned his third wife. The messed up lives of Morgan and Parker could in part be explained by the prevalence of hard drugs in the musical communities of the time, and by the deep racism within society.

Kurt Cobain was a school bully. He suffered from alcoholism and solvent abuse, and used LSD and oxycodone. After his daughter Frances was born he was still a heroin addict and was taken to court charged with being an unfit parent due to his drug use. Yet he was also a Buddhist, and a vocal, outspoken opponent of homophobia and a supporter of women’s rights. He also created some great music. If a musician creates inspiring music is that music still not enjoyable and worthy of praise regardless of whether or not its creator is a rogue and peasant slave?

In a random collection of a thousand people, how many would have died of a heroin overdose? Not likely as many as 55. Would 43 have died from a heart attack? How many would have been killed by coyotes, or as a result of autoerotic asphyxiation? Musicians are atypical. What is it about their lives that result in so many of them dying before their expected life spans have passed in the first place? 52 died in motor vehicle accidents and 31 in aircraft accidents. In how many cases were the musicians at fault in those accidents?

EVANGELIST BILLY GRAHAM
By Warren K. Leffler – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsc.03261.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=905632

One often hears comedians talk about how they got into the business because they found they could make people laugh and the experience was energizing and addictive. Some theatrical actors talk about the high of moving large audiences to tears or laughter. I suspect many evangelical preachers and populist politicians are on the same ego trip.

So how did The Beatles feel on August 15, 1965, when they invented arena rock by performing at Shea Stadium in front of the largest crowd ever to have gathered for a musical performance? This was after years of performing for and greeting massive screaming adoring crowds week after week all over the world. After Shea Stadium sound systems improved and giant screens were introduced, and it became possible for even larger crowds to attend music concerts. Vasco Rossi performed in front of 220 000 people in 2017, the Japanese band Glay performed in front of 200 000 people in 1999, and Paul McCartney performed in front of 184 000 people in 1990. That was nothing compared to the 3 500 000 who attended Jean-Michel Jarre’s concert in Moscow in September 1997. Imagine how such adoration can work on one’s psychological outlook. It might inflate one’s ego, encourage self-confidence, it might make one think one was invincible and able to break the law with impunity. Such feelings are conducive to the taking of dangerous illegal drugs and other reckless behaviour.

THE BEATLES 1964
By Bernard Gotfryd – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID gtfy.00502.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107141335

Some musicians become self-destructive because they grew up in poverty, perhaps they were raised by a single mother over-worked and exhausted trying to make ends meet, willing but unable to come up with the constant extraordinary effort, care, patience and attention needed to raise a stable, happy child. Perhaps they were also surrounded by violence, drugs and gangs. At the other end of the spectrum some self-destructive musicians came from financially comfortable middle class families but such families are not always loving. Domestic abuse happens in families rich and poor. Successful parents in affluent families may also be obsessed with maintaining the affluence or simply focused on their own goals and interests so much so that they forget how much effort, care, patience and attention is necessary to parent a secure, well-balanced child. It takes a happy, stable individual to cope with early success, power, fame and money without turning to illegal drugs, without being swayed by peer pressure.

Unfortunately the behaviour of some poor self-destructive musicians can affect others. Too often the effect is enormous, and very negative. First of all these musicians may become role models for millions of fans. The fans who are themselves reasonably mature and sane will just ignore the negative behaviour of their idols and just concentrate on enjoying the music or the performances. But what about the others? More importantly, if your parents weren’t able or willing to raise you responsibly how are you going to know how to raise your own children? There is a long list of self-destructive or psychologically lost children of famous musicians. Musical superstars who are used to getting their own way, and who were brought up in a world in which spouse battering was ubiquitous, may also carry on that brutal tradition with their own spouses.

So lets celebrate the amazing music of the sane musicians out there.