Lead singer and main songwriter for my favorite straight-out rock and roll band, The Smithereens.  They never did much on the charts, topping out at #37 on the Billboard Top 100 with "Too Much Passion," off 1992's A Date With The Smithereens.  But it was their earlier albums, Especially For You, Green Thoughts, and particularly 1989's 11 that made them their fans.

My favorite Smithereens moment was when the band was accused by Rolling Stone magazine as "sounding too much like the Beatles."  Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but from where I come from, sounding like the Beatles is a compliment, not a pejorative.  However, I disagree that they sound all that much like the Fab 4, if only because they're better instrumentalists.

Their tunes routinely showed up on movie soundtracks, and "Blood And Roses" was used in an episode of Miami Vice, would you believe?  Sadly, I never got to see them perform live, thought the opportunity appeared twice.  The first time was up in Minnesota; they were playing in Minneapolis at First Avenue, but I had a cast on my foot from an unfortunate incident involving gravity and a loading dock.  The second time was when they played at Duckford's annual music festival, On The Waterfront.  Sadly, the radio station I worked for was broadcasting live from the event and they wanted their best board operator at the controls.  Since she wasn't available, they asked me to do it.  Of course I said yes.  In a way though, it was okay... the Mobile Boombox (yes, really) was positioned near the rock stage, and I could hear 'em through the microphone feed back to the station.

When the band was... um... "on record label hiatus", he had a small solo career, but they never stopped touring together.  Of late, he had been suffering from ill health, and passed away earlier today.  He was 62.  And I'm bummed out.

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