Curran was 35-years-old when cancer took him just a few weeks ago. He
played a type of music that geeks might call jump blues, but he really
was in a category of his own. He melded blues, punk, garage, and
I support
Keep New Times Free.
rockabilly into a hybrid of ass-kicking rock 'n' roll, and wasn't one bit
afraid to cite an influence others might think uncool.
Angus Young/B.B. King cocktail. Curran recorded five solo albums in
addition to residencies with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Ronnie Dawson, and Kim Lenz. Anyone that saw him play live won't soon forget him.
4. Adam Yauch
have guessed he was also in his 30s, he was a Beastie Boy for that long. Yauch made it to 47 before succumbing to cancer.
white rappers in the '80s couldn't have been easy. And street cred was a
little bit tougher to come by in New York. As simple as it would have
been to sell a few rap albums and be a footnote in the rap craze history book, the Beastie Boys hit their high water mark for me in 1994
with their single "Sabotage."
3. Hubert Sumlin
guitarists is remembered, in a modern context, for shilling dick pills. But that is Hubert Sumlin's guitar riff that you have stuck in your
head everytime you see an ad for Cialis. The song is called "Smokestack
Lightning" by Howlin' Wolf, released on the Chess label in 1956. Sumlin
played for Wolf his whole career and was still playing live up to his
death at age 80.
