R.I.P.

It is with a heavy heart that I must report that one of the true “Queens Of The Blues”, the great Koko Taylor (born Cora Walton) has passed on at the age of 80. She died the afternoon of June 3rd while recovering from surgery to repair gastrointestinal bleeding.

In 1966, she struck blues gold with the incredible “Wang Dang Doodle”, which was released by Chess’ Checker imprint and hit a stunning #4 on the R&B; charts. Since then, she’s toured constantly, helping to keep the classic brassy female blues singing style alive. Though she never had another hit single, she had many successful LPs on both Chess and Alligator labels.

She was born in Memphis on September 28, 1928 and earned her nickname “Koko” over her love for chocolate. Her mother died when she was just ten years old, so Koko and her brothers and sisters had to help their father work the fields to support the family. She started singing in the church and didn’t turn professional until after she moved to the South Side of Chicago in 1953. She met Chess Records A&R; man, Willie Dixon in 1962 and he signed her to Checker, a Chess subsidiary. Willie sang the harmony on and wrote Koko’s 1966 classic “Wang Dang Doodle”, which sold over one million copies and hit #4 on the R&B; Charts and an impressive #58 on the pop chart.

Koko was nominated for a Grammy Award for her debut album for Alligator records, “I Got What It Takes” in 1975. Her final album, “Old School” was issued by Alligator in 2007.

There aren’t many women today who sing in the classic style of Bessie Smith and Big Mama Thornton and we have now lost another. Koko Taylor was certainly a Force Of Nature and will be greatly missed.

Here is a clip of Koko performing her hit, “Wang Dang Doodle” live with Little Walter on harp.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxCa16-nxtM]

–MTC

Larry Glick

Dies at 87

I am shocked and saddened to hear the news today, that one of my radio idols had died. Larry Glick, who graced the Boston AM radio airwaves for over 25 years passed away Thursday after receiving open heart surgery in Boca Raton, FL. He was 87 years old. I’ve always been a night owl and Larry Glick was a night owl’s best friend. Most of his shows aired in the wee small hours of the morning over clear channel powerhouse, WBZ-AM 1030 and WHDH-AM 850, up until he retired from radio in 1992. I used to stay up and listen to Larry on headphones while my younger brother, Mark, slept in a twin bed just a few feet from me. Sometimes, I would laugh out loud and that was OK, because as we always said in my family, “Mark could sleep through a nuclear blast”.

Larry’s late night talk show hit all 38 states of WBZ’s clear channel signal from the late 1960s to 1987. He then moved to WHDH from 1987 until he retired to Florida in 1992. In Boca Raton, he was a greeter at the local Legal Seafood restaurant. I know this is true, because from my studio up in the XM satellite one night, I phoned that Legal Seafood and they confirmed that Larry Glick did indeed work there.

When Larry would take a phone call on the air, the caller would always ask, “Hey Larry, how ya doin’?” and Larry would always, say, “Lemme check” and then he’d whistle. Whenever a caller started mumbling nonsense or the call was dragging, Larry would “shoot them off the air” with the sound effect of a gun going off. It was always very funny, because as a listener, you’d find yourself anticipating the gunshot.

Larry Glick was a HUGE influence on me, because of his rapport with his radio audience. We called ourselves Glicknicks and we all felt like one giant family. Of course he had his regular callers. No radio show is complete without its regular “drunk” call (ie The Real George on The Night Prowl Show) and Larry had quite the cast of goofy regulars. I couldn’t wait to get to bed, strap on my big ol’ Radio Shack headphones and listen to The Larry Glick Show. I really feel like the Night Prowl Show achieved the same kind of “family” feeling that I got while listening to Larry Glick and that’s how I knew that MY radio program was a success.

A few years ago, I was walking with Cross Country Kelly through the narrow cobblestone streets of Boston, from Faneuil Hall to the Waterfront. I wanted to show her the famous statue of Christopher Columbus that stands in Columbus Park. Etched on the bottom of that statue are a few names of famous Italians. At the bottom of that list is “Lorenzo Glickiano”, a Jewish radio host who was accepted by every community in Boston as one of their own.

Larry was also very famous for his hypnosis act. He would put on shows at various local venues, hypnotizing audience members with great success. As I’d listen to him talk about his act AND sometimes hypnotize people on the air, I’d think about how much I’d like Larry to hypnotize me. Unfortunately, I never made it to one of his hypnosis events. He used to give away “Glick University” T-shirts while on WBZ and later on WHDH. I won a T-shirt by calling in one night and correctly identifying The Capitols as the group who sang the classic soul record “Cool Jerk”. That was the only time I ever called or spoke to the great Larry Glick. He used to say, “now keep it clean”, whenever he’d give a T-shirt away and I still have my “Glick University” shirt and it is still relatively clean.

Batista’s Hole In The Wall Italian Restaurant in Las Vegas used to advertise quite frequently on Larry Glick’s program. Occasionally, Larry would have Batista on the air and they always made the food sound so good. I’ve been to vegas FOUR times, but have never been by Batista’s. Kelly and I are headed to Vegas in a few weeks and I hope to finally be able to try out this restaurant that Larry Glick loved so much.

So, although many of you Prowlers have never heard of Larry Glick, I felt this piece was necessary to print, because if there was no Larry Glick on MY radio, there may not have been any ME on YOUR radio. He was a first class broadcaster in ever sense of the word and to an industry that is increasingly blind to what makes radio great, I’m sure his death will generally be ignored. But to millions who tuned him in across the country on WBZ’s clear channel signal, you know what we’re missing. Larry Glick connected with his audience in a way that fully utilized this very person medium of radio. A day doesn’t go by where I don’t think about and appreciate what Larry Glick means to me and my radio career. Thank you, Larry and goodnight.

Please check out Larry Glick on the following links.

Here is Larry doing a TV commercial with WBZ morning man, Dave Maynard

Steve Cichon’s Larry Glick Page With Pics and Sounds

-Matt The Cat

3/27/09