Such a shame that Henry Kissinger remains alive while we lost these two and hear me out on Lisa Marie.
First up is Jeff Beck who I will always regret failing to see live thanks to an ex-girlfriend in university. Back when I was a paid intern for a concert promoter, I received a free pair of tickets to see this awesome double-headlining tour of Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Sadly, SRV would die in a helicopter crash six months later and just when he had turn his personal life around, namely his excessive drinking. Meanwhile, Beck had legendary Terry Bozio on drums; he was in Missing Persons and played in Zappa’s numerous noodling. Due to Carrie dragging her ass, we were late so we completely missed Beck’s performance yet were in time to see SRV’s entire set. Now I’m not a humongous fan of all the material Beck did, I mainly respected his skill level, his contributions to Rock-Pop History and it may sound pretentious…I felt he had more integrity than the overrated Eric Clapton and pervy Jimmy Page. I want to emphasize the middle thing I listed. He introduced the world to Rod Stewart who is a huge star to this day. Jeff didn’t mind lending his guitar virtuosity to any singer or musician, making him classier than me.
Now comes the death of a fellow Gen Xer and it’s sad to lose Lisa Marie go this soon. Being the only child Elvis was probably difficult given his fan base which I fear is slowly dying off. She had little privacy growing up and worse, there were probably major expectations put on her to continue her father’s line of work…being a Pop Idol given how there’s some precedent via the Carter Family, Rosanne Cash, Nelson, etc. Lisa Marie didn’t exactly set the world on fire, especially with her sham marriage to Michael Jackson and what was she thinking when it comes to Nicolas Cage? Musically, she never made any serious dent despite getting help from Billy Corgan. Acting was more generous to her as she had a few memorable roles while dating overrated director Tim Burton: Vampira in Ed Wood and the Martian infiltrator in Mars Attacks! I only hope her four children succeed in avoiding the ugly traps their mother and grandfather were sucked into and find happiness on their own terms minus people measuring against Elvis.
Thanks for everything Jeff and Lisa Marie. You both will be missed greatly.