David Bowie

His latest album released Friday on his 69th birthday - dead on Sunday from cancer:

Rock-and-roll legend David Bowie died Sunday after a secret battle against cancer, his publicist confirmed early Monday.

He had turned 69 on Friday.

The singer-songwriter, whose decades of hits redefined rock music and whose gender-bending alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, became a pop-culture icon, passed away at his London home, his loved ones at his bedside.

“David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer,” read a statement on his Web site.

“While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.”

Bowie had just released an album, “Blackstar,” and was in New York last month for the opening of an Off-Broadway show based on his music, “Lazarus.”

He had released two albums in the last year or so after not releasing anything for a long time, but did no publicity work around them, no shows, no interviews.

It seemed odd, but Bowie was an odd fellow (and I mean that in a good way) so I just thought maybe that was how he wanted to do things.

Alas with the cancer, it seems that may have been how he had to do things.

I am very saddened to hear this news.

So many good memories with Bowie's music - here's one, with Bowie and Ronson:

Tommy Ramone

And so the last surviving original member of The Ramones has died:

Drummer Tommy Ramone, the last member of the original 1970s punk band the Ramones, died Friday of cancer, according to Variety. He was 62.

The Ridgewood, Queens, resident had been in hospice and suffering from bile duct cancer, the trade publication reported.

Ramone, born in Budapest, Hungary, was a drummer and producer who performed on the groundbreaking band’s first three albums, Variety said.

Those first three albums are far and away the best Ramones albums.

I would argue they're also three of the finest rock n' roll albums ever.

The Ramones had all these influences - Spector's girl groups, Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, 60's surf music, Elvis, The Beatles, The Who, The Stones, Arthur Lee's Love and the Jefferson Airplane, great glam bands like T. Rex & Slade, The Stooges and VU - and they put them all into their 1:59 songs and made rock n' roll perfection.

Tommy Ramone co-produced all three of those albums and helped craft that perfect sound.

If you want to hear the work that Tommy did, get the Rhino Records remasters of the first three Ramones albums and listen to the demos on them as well as the live songs, then listen to the albums themselves.

He also produced the fourth Ramones album, Road to Ruin and the eighth, Too Tough To Die.

Each has their moments.

But the first three albums are really perfect and you should go and listen to all three, back-to-back.

RIP Tommy.

Mandela

The Guardian puts his death in perspective:

The death of Mandela will send South Africa deep into mourning and self-reflection nearly 20 years after he led the country from racial apartheid to inclusive democracy.

But his passing will also be keenly felt by people around the world who revered Mandela as one of history's last great statesmen, and a moral paragon comparable with Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

It was a transcendent act of forgiveness after spending 27 years in prison, 18 of them on Robben Island, that will assure his place in history. With South Africa facing possible civil war, Mandela sought reconciliation with the white minority to build a new democracy.

He led the African National Congress (ANC) to victory in the country's first multiracial election in 1994. Unlike other African liberation leaders who cling to power, such as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, he then voluntarily stepped down after one term.

Mandela, often affectionately known by his clan name, Madiba‚, was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1993.

At his inauguration a year later, the new president said: "Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another ... the sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement. Let freedom reign. God bless Africa!"

I can add nothing to those words above.