play the cabaret circuit three years later; however, following one such show, the singer was discovered robbed, stabbed and bludgeoned to death in his car on the Long Island Expressway. Sheppard was known to be heavily in debt at the time, and his killers were most likely loan sharks who had been tailing him for months.
Saturday 31
Slim Harpo
(James Isaac Moore - Lobdell, Louisiana, 11 January 1924)
James Moore, orphaned in tenth grade, dropped out of school to follow a familiar blues path working the juke joints and picnics until he’d cemented a reputation as the fastest-rising guitarist/harmonicaplayer in Baton Rouge. By his twenties, and under the guidance of wily bluesman Lightnin’ Slim, Moore’s languid style had garnered him the attention of Nashville-based Excello Records boss, Jay Miller. (At this time, he was known as ‘Harmonica Slim’, a name that had to be dropped in favour of ‘Slim Harpo’, as it already had an owner.) Miller saw the young musician as ideal accompaniment to Lightnin’ Slim, later recording his own single, ‘I’m a King Bee’, in 1957. Flirting with rock ‘n’ roll, Slim Harpo scored an unexpected US Top Forty entry with ‘Rainin’ in My Heart’ (1961); returning the favour on this hit was none other than Lightnin’ Slim. Playing together, the pair enjoyed a string of R & B hits, while a number of Harpo songs were later covered by blues-influenced white British acts such as The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things and, naturally, The Rolling Stones.
Slim Harpo had been a hale and healthy man all his life, somehow juggling a music career with his own trucking business during the sixties. His inexplicable, untimely death from a heart attack at forty-six saddened many.
FEBRUARY
Tuesday 24
Darrell Banks
(Darrell Eubanks - Mansfield, Ohio, 25 July 1937)
(Various acts)
Brought up in Buffalo, New York, Darrell Banks’s gospel training nurtured the rounded vocal increasingly associated with the Northern soul genre. His first secular groups were little-known club acts The Daddy B Combo and Grand Prix, his dominant voice and presence enough to encourage manager Doc Murphy – who was also Eubanks’s dentist – to take a chance on the singer. All appeared to be going well for the newly renamed Banks when his first single for the Revilot label, ‘Open the Door to Your Heart’ (1966), achieved an R & B number two and a very respectable twenty-seven in the national pop charts. His following 45s would be equally competent, but in his search for consistent success, Banks was to be disappointed.
Just weeks after Darrell Banks’s final record release (and his final stab at stardom), he was to find himself in the middle of a grim domestic scenario in his then home town, Detroit. A patrolman named Aaron Bullock had just dropped his girlfriend, barmaid Marjorie Bozeman, at her home, when Banks – who, it transpired, had also been seeing her – emerged from a stationary car and grabbed Bozeman by her coat, stating angrily that they ‘needed to talk’. According to the many witnesses present, Bullock then made himself known as an officer of the law and ordered Banks to release Bozeman. At this point, Banks produced a .22 revolver from his jacket; Bullock responded as per his police training by ducking, pulling his own gun and shooting Banks – fatally – in the neck and chest. Darrell Banks died at 12.10 pm at the New Grace Hospital, his distraught lover explaining that she had been trying to end the relationship with the patrolman in order to settle down with the singer. Although Banks’s death certificate declares a ‘homicide’, no case was ever brought. Banks – who was divorced and survived by a son and a daughter – was interred at the Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery. His grave remained unmarked for over thirty years until a group of fans financed a headstone in his honour in July 2004.
MARCH
Saturday 14
Mary Ann Ganser
(Queens, New York, 4 February 1948)
The
Saturday 31
Slim Harpo
(James Isaac Moore - Lobdell, Louisiana, 11 January 1924)
James Moore, orphaned in tenth grade, dropped out of school to follow a familiar blues path working the juke joints and picnics until he’d cemented a reputation as the fastest-rising guitarist/harmonicaplayer in Baton Rouge. By his twenties, and under the guidance of wily bluesman Lightnin’ Slim, Moore’s languid style had garnered him the attention of Nashville-based Excello Records boss, Jay Miller. (At this time, he was known as ‘Harmonica Slim’, a name that had to be dropped in favour of ‘Slim Harpo’, as it already had an owner.) Miller saw the young musician as ideal accompaniment to Lightnin’ Slim, later recording his own single, ‘I’m a King Bee’, in 1957. Flirting with rock ‘n’ roll, Slim Harpo scored an unexpected US Top Forty entry with ‘Rainin’ in My Heart’ (1961); returning the favour on this hit was none other than Lightnin’ Slim. Playing together, the pair enjoyed a string of R & B hits, while a number of Harpo songs were later covered by blues-influenced white British acts such as The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things and, naturally, The Rolling Stones.
Slim Harpo had been a hale and healthy man all his life, somehow juggling a music career with his own trucking business during the sixties. His inexplicable, untimely death from a heart attack at forty-six saddened many.
FEBRUARY
Tuesday 24
Darrell Banks
(Darrell Eubanks - Mansfield, Ohio, 25 July 1937)
(Various acts)
Brought up in Buffalo, New York, Darrell Banks’s gospel training nurtured the rounded vocal increasingly associated with the Northern soul genre. His first secular groups were little-known club acts The Daddy B Combo and Grand Prix, his dominant voice and presence enough to encourage manager Doc Murphy – who was also Eubanks’s dentist – to take a chance on the singer. All appeared to be going well for the newly renamed Banks when his first single for the Revilot label, ‘Open the Door to Your Heart’ (1966), achieved an R & B number two and a very respectable twenty-seven in the national pop charts. His following 45s would be equally competent, but in his search for consistent success, Banks was to be disappointed.
Just weeks after Darrell Banks’s final record release (and his final stab at stardom), he was to find himself in the middle of a grim domestic scenario in his then home town, Detroit. A patrolman named Aaron Bullock had just dropped his girlfriend, barmaid Marjorie Bozeman, at her home, when Banks – who, it transpired, had also been seeing her – emerged from a stationary car and grabbed Bozeman by her coat, stating angrily that they ‘needed to talk’. According to the many witnesses present, Bullock then made himself known as an officer of the law and ordered Banks to release Bozeman. At this point, Banks produced a .22 revolver from his jacket; Bullock responded as per his police training by ducking, pulling his own gun and shooting Banks – fatally – in the neck and chest. Darrell Banks died at 12.10 pm at the New Grace Hospital, his distraught lover explaining that she had been trying to end the relationship with the patrolman in order to settle down with the singer. Although Banks’s death certificate declares a ‘homicide’, no case was ever brought. Banks – who was divorced and survived by a son and a daughter – was interred at the Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery. His grave remained unmarked for over thirty years until a group of fans financed a headstone in his honour in July 2004.
MARCH
Saturday 14
Mary Ann Ganser
(Queens, New York, 4 February 1948)
The
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