Meat Loaf - d. January 20th 2022

I see you cavort with jailbait,

sweat-soused in frilly shirt,

leering and pleading, heart

pulsing at the bottom of a pit

- in hell, in heaven. The light

above the dashboard goes out.

I could weep, but I won't do that.

Read about Meat Loaf here

Hardy Krüger - d. January 19th 2022

Ich singe ein Marschlied für
der gute Deutsche, spielend
Anstand aus der Erinnerung,
Ehre ohne Befehle,
die gelebte Vergangenheit bringen
in die ungeschriebene Gegenwart,
weil jemand musste.

I sing a marching song for

the good German, playing

decency from memory,

honour without orders,

bringing the lived past

to the unscripted present,

because somebody had to.

Read about Hardy Krüger here

Ronnie Spector - d. January 12th 2022

Girls like you can tell what girls like,
what boys like, how to turn heads
every place they go, how yearning
and joy are chords from the same song,
how heartbreak is just a chorus away.

Read about Ronnie Spector here

Peter Bogdanovich - d. January 6th 2022

All I know of small towns

is that they are not small; 

they fill screens and spill

through the cracked lens

of themselves, endlessly

showing and reshowing 

where we have been, 

where we are going.

Read about Peter Bogdanovich here

Sidney Poitier - d. January 7th 2022

To you, with love, Mister Tibbs;

a life that needed to be lived 

before it could find a marquee.

A soft-hard voice speaks dignity

tough yet warm as Mississippi sun,

not a man of colour, but a man.

Read about Sidney Poitier here

Richard Leakey - d. January 2nd 2022

There is a gorge, 
home to a grave 
wherein remains are laid.
One body, five species:
Homo Audax
Homo Gravis 
Homo Curiosus 
Homo Elephantinum
Homo Humanus

Read about Richard Leakey here

Janice Long - d. December 25th 2021

We spent so many nights together,

two conspirators plotting via ether,

you spinning me to my own revolution,

me in awe of each sonic revelation.

In the darkness, a voice. Is that you?

I like this one. You might like it too.

Read about Janice Long here

Desmond Tutu - d. December 26th 2021

True strength is kindness,

beyond evil and its noise,

to form a better argument,

not just to raise your voice,

to know that forgiveness

is a grace and not a choice.

Read about Desmond Tutu here

Sally Ann Howes - d. December 19th 2021

I knew your look, your voice,

before and beyond the adult

I reluctantly became, and yet

even now my heart beats 

so unruly at the possibilities 

of love, song and silly stories.

Read about Sally Ann Howes here

Thomas ‘Mensi’ Mensforth - d. December 10th 2021

Give me the honest upstart

who lives what others only sing,

who knows the fascists in town

and calls them out. It isn’t art

but it’s a start, to shout a warning,

in song and not be shouted down.

Read about Mensi and the Angelic Upstarts here

Anne Rice - d. December 11th 2021

Like all your species,

you smelled the fears

that filled our veins.

You alone wrote them

in a haemovore's hand,

humanised the inhuman,

breathed pity into undeath.

Read about Anne Rice here

Mike Nesmith - d. December 10th 2021

All men must have someone,

have someone to pretend to be,

someone deep in the shallows,

someone quiet amid the hoopla,

someone tender in a tapioca world.

Read about Mike Nesmith here

Robbie Shakespeare - d. December 8th 2021

Every cloud shakes: no speaker is safe

And no blues party bluer. A bass rumble

Deeper than Dawkins Pond tells the people:

God's riddim section is mashing up Babylon.

Read about Robbie Shakespeare here

Steve Bronski - d. December 9th 2021

A train is coming, clanking

out a perfect beat, stopping 

at even the smallest towns.

A young man steps aboard,

cheap synth under his arm,

looks for a seat. He's come

so far, but still so far to go.

Read about Bronski Beat here

Stephen Sondheim - d. November 26th 2021

They dim the lights

as you make your exit

with your usual flair,

note-perfect, 

sure of your lines,

the sum of all song.

Read about Stephen Sondheim here

 

Mick Rock - d. November 18th 2021

The past is a fast-blurring photo,

a radio slowly drifting off-station.

My shelves heave with long-

players, your covers a peepshow,

your images rock's bright blazon,

bending white light around song.

Read about Mick Rock here

Wilbur Smith - d. November 13th 2021

My father quartered the veldt

at your side, shot at big game, 

missed, dug for diamonds, 

found none, searched for 

the place where the lion feeds, 

lived the hard fiction of real men.

Read about Wilbur Smith here

Gerald Sinstadt - d. November 10th 2021

Resist cliché. Find ways 

to say what we see 

but don’t see:

the art in technique, 

the beauty in graft, 

the game as theatre, 

the sport as life.

Read about Gerald Sinstadt here

Clifford Rose - d. November 6th 2021

We knew it was only an act, 

but oh how you breathed life 

into death, banality into evil,

smiling that unsmile, a study 

in terrible duty, quiet horror.

Read about Clifford Rose here

Andrew Barker - d. November 6th 2021

We follow 

your state ritual: 

kick drum boom,

low-pass filter,

white noise snare,

hi-hat skitter, claves,

squelch, handclaps,

and the joy of acid.

Read about 808 State here