Jahfin Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 From Spinner: Sky Saxon, lead singer and bassist of '60s garage rockers the Seeds, died Thursday in an Austin, Texas hospital. He had been in the ICU since Monday suffering from an undisclosed illness -- doctors suspected an internal organ infection -- until his wife, Sabrina, announced his passing via Facebook. Influenced heavily by the Rolling Stones, Saxon -- born Richard Marsh -- founded the Seeds in 1965 in California. The next year, the psychedelic rockers released two albums, 'The Seeds' and 'A Web of Sound,' and had hits with 'Can't Seem to Make You Mine' and 'Pushin' Too Hard,' their most successful song. In 1967, the band released two more albums: 'Future,' a psychedelic rock album, and 'A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues,' which was credited to the Sky Saxon Blues Band and featured liner notes by the legendary Muddy Waters. After some lineup changes and a few more commercially unsuccessful albums, Saxon dissolved the band in the early '70s. He joined a California commune, the Source Family, adopted the name Sunlight and occasionally performed with their trippy house band, the Ya Ho Wa 13. In 1989, Saxon reformed the Seeds to tour with other '60s acts like Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Arthur Lee and Love. They toured again in 2003, and Saxon kept busy musically, releasing an album last year, and recording with the Smashing Pumpkins. Though he fell ill last Thursday, Saxon still managed to play a short gig on Saturday night at Austin rock club Antone's. Earlier today, Sabrina Sherry Smith Saxon wrote on her Facebook page, "Sky has passed over and YaHoWha is waiting for him at the gate. He will soon be home with his Father. I'm so sorry I couldn't keep him here with us. More later. I'm sorry." No other announcements have been made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zosodude13 Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 The Seeds, quite literally, planted the seeds for punk and garage rock. They started the job that the MC5 and Stooges would build from to perfect proto punk, leading to punk. A sad death for an extremely influential, and overlooked group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swede Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 Really sad news, I love Sky and The Seeds.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternal light Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 I saw him perform live once. Rest in peace. This is really the day. So many have passed today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninelives Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 I saw him perform live once. Rest in peace. This is really the day. So many have passed today. It is a terribly sad day in history Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ally Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmHTyLBIZ1g Pushing Too Hard : The Seeds Remember this song like it was yesterday RIP Sky Saxon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L 7 Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmHTyLBIZ1g Pushing Too Hard : The Seeds Remember this song like it was yesterday RIP Sky Saxon Thanks. I remember this song as well. I really loved the 60s pop music TV shows but don`t recall this one. Did he say Sha-bang? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swede Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 I saw him perform live once. Rest in peace. This is really the day. So many have passed today. Cool. He played in Sweden a couple of years ago, unfortunatly I never had the chance to go see him. Many of my friends did though, they thought he was great! Sure wish I would've been there now... Here's two favs of mine with the Seeds: Mr. Farmer (Great color vid!) Can't Seem To Make You Mine (Awesome tune!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternal light Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 Cool. He played in Sweden a couple of years ago, unfortunatly I never had the chance to go see him. Many of my friends did though, they thought he was great! Sure wish I would've been there now... Here's two favs of mine with the Seeds: Mr. Farmer (Great color vid!) Can't Seem To Make You Mine (Awesome tune!!) Thank you for those. When I saw him he performed with the Seeds, and Sonny and Cher at the Hollywood Palladium. Sonny autographed a cigarette for my girlfriend that day. She could not find any paper so she asked someone for their cigarette and asked Sonny Bono to sign it. Cher was standing nearby. They were just starting to become well-known in those days. Skye Saxon appears in this TV episode that features Pushing Too Hard, in the How Not To Manage A Rock Group episode of the Mothers-In-Law in 1967. You can see actress Eve Arden in the video also. Here they are performing "Pushin' Too Hard" on the TV series The Mothers-In-Law in 1967. Apparently, they landed right smack in squaresville. Note the expressions on the faces of the adults (Eve Arden, Kaye Ballard and husbands) while the band doesn't even attempt to lip synch. Sky leaps around spastically while wearing a weird serape cape, and the drummer is in a Dracula outfit. Of course, the teen girl on the premises is doing the frug or some such thing. Hilarious. thecriticalcondition.com/2009/06/26/tpp-saxon/ imdb.com/title/tt0651504/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jahfin Posted June 27, 2009 Author Share Posted June 27, 2009 NELS CLINE ON SKY SAXON: “MY FIRST ROCK IDOL” Guitarist Nels Cline (spotted most recently with Wilco) grew up in the shadow of the Seeds and Sky Saxon and later went on to perform and record with Sky himself. He takes some time today to send L.A. RECORD these thoughts: I am truly saddened to learn of the death of Sky Saxon. As a boy growing up in Los Angeles, Sky Saxon was my first rock idol of sorts. The Seeds’ music was important to me, sure, but Sky’s amazing charisma—as he appeared rather ubiquitously on TV shows like “Boss City” and “The Groovy Show” around 1966—was galvanizing. I would stare in disbelief as he—clad in shiny satin Nehru shirts bedazzled with some gaudy brooch—would gyrate around lasciviously, holding the microphone in every cool way imaginable. He seemed from another planet. I thought he was amazing. Years later, in the late ’70s, Sky became known as “Sunlight,” and manifested a few eccentric and quite acid-soaked (or so they sounded) recordings that led credence to the rampant stories of his decaying mind and artistry. He came into the record store I worked at for years and—with his face covered in a long mane of hair, massive beard, and shades—went silently through the stacks with wraith-like fingers. I was dismayed and a bit freaked out by this creature—the former beautiful god of rock ‘n’ roll otherness. Click here to read the rest of Nels' remembrance of Sky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternal light Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 I do not recall him as being lascivious. I just remember that he rocked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jahfin Posted June 27, 2009 Author Share Posted June 27, 2009 I do not recall him as being lascivious. Apparently Nels does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquamarine Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 Just saw this news--how terribly sad. I can't believe all these passings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jahfin Posted June 27, 2009 Author Share Posted June 27, 2009 HONOR THY FATHER: SKY SAXON, R.I.P. By Jonny Whiteside Almost lost amongst the lurid media tumult over Jacko and Farrah's passing, the death on Thursday morning of Seeds frontman Sky Sunlight Saxon was the day's genuine stop-the-presses newsflash, a gloomy finale that closed the book on one of rock & roll's most influential and misunderstood figures. While a nasty bolt from the blue -- Saxon had performed a show last Saturday and had just been admitted to an Austin Texas hospital on Monday for an "undetermined infection of the internal organs," it was nonetheless somewhat miraculous that he made it this far. Saxon, born Richard Marsh in Salt Lake City Utah on an apparently indeterminable date, was in myriad senses the most genuine of rock stars -- such an unhinged contrarian that not long after the Seeds initial burst of success most of his peers were compelled to deny him, an unhappy necessity dictated by Saxon's own notorious gimme-gimme appetites and thoroughly unpredictable behavior. To read the remainder of the obituary click here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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