Prince, Bowie, Haggard: rough year for music

By David Bauder

AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK

It’s only April, and already 2016 is a terrible year for music.

That’s not to slight Kendrick Lamar, Sturgill Simpson, Beyonce or some unknown creator working in a basement to turn the sounds in their head into a file for everyone to hear and enjoy.

But any year that silences the voices behind “Sign o’ the Times,” “Space Oddity,” “Tequila Sunrise,” “Shining Star” and “The Bottle Let Me Down” can’t qualify as anything other than awful.

Prince’s stunning death Thursday adds to a tragic roll call that already included David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Maurice White and Merle Haggard. Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister beat the calendar’s turn to 2016 by a couple of days; Natalie Cole by mere hours.

“Running out of living musical heroes, those we measure everything against, emulate, know we won’t surpass but inspire us to try,” Carrie Brownstein, actress and Sleater-Kinney singer, tweeted Thursday.

While the circumstances behind Prince’s death remain unclear, most others were mundane, independent of rock ’n’ roll excess. Cancer. Diabetes. Intestinal disease. Pneumonia. Parkinson’s Disease. Bowie and Frey kept their conditions private, so few outside family saw them coming.

Haggard was 79, not cheated of life, and White of Earth, Wind and Fire suffered a slow decline before dying at 74. Yet others were too young – 69 for Bowie, 67 for Frey, 45 for Malik Taylor, the founder of A Tribe Called Quest known as Phife Dawg.

And 57 for Prince, without any apparent signs of slowing down.

All of the deaths hit like a punch to the stomach. We weren’t through with them, nor they with us.

Bowie’s last album came simultaneously with his death, the song and video for “Lazarus” full of self-awareness and humor.

The Eagles, a band whose carcass Frey once left by the side of the road, was back together and an ongoing creative force before he died. The band that once brought country influences into rock ’n’ roll was bringing rock ’n’ roll to country in its later years.

Even if he took it a little easier, Haggard was still working in his final years and brought his music to younger generations at the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee.

Nothing could stop Prince, could it? The man was indefatigable in concert, a whirlwind who drilled his bands until they met his exacting standards. He released four albums in the past 18 months, and just announced he was writing his autobiography. He was in the midst of a “Piano and a Microphone” tour, which was just as it sounded – a rare chance to see an artist strip down his best songs to their essence. It was a must-have ticket.