I will try to not get too depressing today, but three people that I have worked with passed away in the last two weeks.
About a month ago, I shot my third CD cover for Michael Burks, and Arkansas blues guitar player on Alligator. A nicer man you would never meet. He put up with anything we threw at him (including lighting about 50 sticks of incense in a bowl behind him to simulate a smoke machine). The last one was him standing in one position for about 2 hours playing guitar. He never complained! After our shoot, he left the next week for a European tour. When he returned from Europe, he collapsed and passed away from a heart attack.
Early last week word came from Japan that Donald “Duck” Dunn had passed away on tour. He was the backbone of Booker T and the MG’s for many years, played bass for the Blues Brothers Band in the 1980’s, and recently spent a lot of time touring with Neil Young. During one of those Neil tours, my friend Dan, the owner of Lakland Guitars brought him over to my house for a shoot. Most of the shoot was spent telling stories about people we all new (and he pretty much knew everyone) and a little time was spent on actual photography!
Later this last week brought the news of the passing of Donna Summer. I photographer her a few times, once in the early 1980’s, and once a few years ago. Her voice was amazing, and her stage presence was outstanding. I don’t think she ever got her due- she was always pegged as a disco singer, although I always thought of her as a great soul singer (in the same league as Chaka Kahn and others).
If more people thought of her that way, I think her career would have gone in a better direction