Another great, and a piece of the soundtrack of my life, has
gone on to his reward. The native of England, who remained in England after his
touring days ended, and who used to FAX his
contributions to his collaborators, passed recently. Rod Temperton was the
keyboardist, and composer for one of the best groups to come out of the 70s,
HEATWAVE. Go listen to Always and
Forever (with the unbelievable voice of the late Johnnie Wilder, Jr.) and I dare you not to
wish you’d been there with flares on!
He worked for the rest of his life creating music with and
for others. You might know some of these gorgeous songs:
For his group, HEATWAVE: Always and Forever; Grooveline
George Benson: Gimme
the Night
Michael Macdonald: Yammo
Be There
Michael Jackson: Rock
Wit You; Thriller
Lionel Ritchie: Say
You, Say Me (from the movie White Nights)
And it goes on and on.
Generous, original, prolific, tempered talented as opposed
to just grinding out “hamburger” because another 3-minute-long something was
due a record company, he left his distinct mark on 70s funk and 80s ballads.
Justin who? Robin who?
R. I. P. Mister Temperton
No comments:
Post a Comment