Rant #2,564: Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying

Welcome back!
 
How was your New Year’s Eve?
 
Ours was dull, but dull is “in” right now.
 
We simply brought in some Chinese food, ate like it was 1999, I conked out pretty early but woke up in time to see the ball drop, and then I went to bed.
 
Simple as that.
 
But I was saddened to hear that we lost another one of our Baby Boomer icons this past weekend, a guy who had his couple of moments in the sun and kind of faded away, but left a lot of wonderful music behind as his ultimate legacy.

 
Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers fame passed away at age 78 of a heart infection, and while he was never high profile in America, in England he was a bit of a legend.
 
Marsden led his happy go lucky group to a couple of hit singles early on in the British Invasion, including “I Like It,” and two of the best ballads ever recorded during that era, “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” and “Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey.”
 
Like the Beatles, the band was managed by Brian Epstein and produced by George Martin.
 
Marsden was a long time friend of fellow Liverpudlian Paul McCartney, which kept him in and out of public view for many years, but In England, the Pacemakers’ version of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” became the ultimate version of that song, in particular for soccer fans, where during games that song is given great prominence.

 Marsden was also quite a humanitarian, and contributed to many causes that touched him.
 
I believe that the final time he had a chart single was 1989, as part of a charity song which included a number of prominent British musical performers, including McCartney.
 
They sang “Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey” in aid to those greatly impacted by the Hillsborough Disaster, where nearly 100 people were crushed to death during a football (soccer) match. The song reached No. 1 on the British charts, literally 25 years after the original reached No. 8 on those same charts.
 
Marsden had performed and recorded for more than 50 years after the Pacemakers’ heyday, and he officially retired in late 2018, but he occasionally came out of retirement during the past year or so, until his ill health caught up with him.
 
During the past several decades, Marsden became one of the true elder statesmen of British rock, and while he wasn’t held in the same high esteem in the states, his recording legacy pretty much speaks for itself.
 
And a few days prior to the end of 2020, we also lost Leslie West of Mountain fame.

 This Long Island native was considered one of the forefathers of heavy metal music, and their song “Mississippi Queen” remains on most rock stations’ play lists.
 
Prior to Mountain, he was in the Vagrants, one of the top Long Island based bands of the era. They recorded one of the earliest versions of Otis Redding’s “Respect,” but their rock version was eclipsed by Aretha Franklin’s classic soul version.
 
I do have a personal story about West.
 
Year ago, when a Vagrants “best of” album was released, I was supposed to interview West. I was told by his publicist to ask him what I wanted about the Vagrants, but to never use his real name in my article—the name LESLIE WEINSTEIN was not allowed, and I had to agree to that stipulation.
 
Well, it was all for naught, as he pulled out of the interview at the last minute for whatever reason, and I never got to speak to him.
 
I guess it was his loss, because I did some research on the band—not easy in those pre-Internet days—and I think it would be been a good interview.
 
So, how was your New Year’s?