DEATH BY ROCK & ROLL MISADVENTURES
In the 1960's, Texas rocker Bobby Fuller championed the old schol of the Rock & Roll values of artists like Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. With his group, the Bobby Fuller Four, Bobby enjoyed a brief moment in the sun, scoring three hits in 1965 and 1966, Let Her Dance, the classic I Fought the Law, and a cover of Buddy Holly's Love Made a Fool of You.
The 23-year-old musical genius and front-man for The Bobby Fuller Four was on the brink of superstardom when he was found inexplicably burned and bruised in the front seat of his mom's car.
In the early afternoon of July 18, 1966, Lorraine Fuller returned to the parking lot of her apartment building in Los Angeles. Ever since that morning, both her car and her son Bobby Fuller had been missing. She kept checking the lot as she became more anxious by the minute. But there was no sign of her vehicle — or her beloved son inside it.
The mother of two boys, Lorraine Fuller constantly worried about her family. Her eldest son Jack had been murdered in a robbery back in 1961 and her fear for her remaining sons kept her up at night.
Perhaps that was why she’d followed her children to Los Angeles in the first place even though both boys were members of a famous band, the eponymous Bobby Fuller Four.
According to The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars…the bruised burned and bloddied body of the fallen star was taken to a local hospital after e was found.
Soon thereafter the cause of Bobby Fuller's death was listed as asphyxia due to the inhalation of gasoline. Multiple newspapers heavily implied that he did by suicide and the police seemed satisfied enough with thatexplanation too — despite his family's protests.
But even the coroner couldn't be sure what or who really killed Bobby Fuller, and left two question marks beside the boxes for suicide and accident.
Bobby Fuller was laid to rest in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills. He is marked simply as a “beloved son.”
In the years since Bobby Fuller's inexplicable death, changing times and tastes have reduced the Rock & Roll King of the Southwest and I Fought the Law writer to something of a footnote…but back in early 1966, even The Beatles' George harrision described The Bobby Fuller Four as his most listened to group.
JOHNNY THUNDERS
New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders passed away on April 23, 1991.Though many rumors surrounded Thunders' death, it was ruled that he died of drug related causes. Johnny Thunders had been staying at the St. Peter House in New Orleans and by the time he was discovered, rigor mortis had set in.
The apartment had been ransacked with some of Thunders' possesions missing and the musicians body was discovered uderneath a coffee table in an unnatural state. Eyewitnesses reported that he was bent “like a pretzel,” while neighbor Willy DeVille stated that when the body bag came out, it was in a U shape. An autopsy later concluded that the level of drugs in his system was not fatal, but it also revealed that he was suffering from advanced leukemia.
Johnny Thunders died under extramely mysterious circumstances. On April 23, 1991, Thunders was found in a “ransacked” New Orleans building with his body twisted and a “significant” — yet arguably not fatal.
It had been speculated among fans and acquaintances alike that his death was the result of foul play. According to his biography, Lobotomy: Surviving The Ramones, Dee Dee Ramone took a call the next day from Stevie Klasson, Johnny's rhythm guitar player, who told him the tragic news. “They told me that Johnny had gotten mixed up with some bastards who ripped him off for his methadone supply,” Ramone said. “They had given him LSD and then murdered him. He had gotten a pretty large supply of methadone in England, so he could travel and stay away fro those creeps — the drug dealers, Thunders imitators, and losers like that.”
WENDY O. WILLIAMS
To be considered one of the “wildest” women in punk, you's probably have to earn the title with notoriety. Just like Ozzy Osbourne once claimed to be the “conductor of mayhem.” Wendy O. Osbourne always saw mucic as a conduit for aggression towards the right people. “Give me money or give me action and I'll take the action and adventure every time,” she once said.
But Williams was never out to wreak havoc for the sake of it. Like many punk pioneers, her anger and frustration stemmed from the feeling of powerlessness against authority, systems, and anything that oppressed people without a voice. to her, defining “violence” in a manner that held the right people accountable was what it meant to be punk, not earning the title for shouting where it counts.
“I'm an excessive person,” she once explained. “Talk about violence, what's going on in Nicaragua? What's going on in El Salvador? That's violent. What are they doing to the planet with chemicals and acid rain? That violent. I'm strikng out at an icon that has no life. There's a big difference between what has life and what doesn't. I mean I've been a vegetarian for 16 years.”
Williams always knew what it meant to live on the edge, whether that meant literally as a means for survival or musically, with what she had to offer to the rest of the world. Running away from home at the young age of 16, music wasn't her initial choice when it came to expressing herself, and only crossed her path when it was suggested to her by her manager and then-partner, Rod Swenson, who unknowingly floated an idea that changed her life.
Her band, Plasmatics, were cut from the same cloth as many revolutionary forward-thinkers earning their start at the CBGB's, though earned a reputation not solely on the basis of sonic excellence but shock factor. Obviously, there was some proficiency there, too, but for the most part, Williams and her group took the anarchy of someof punk and rock & roll's biggest scandals and made a mockery out of it, sometimes taking things like chainsaws and sledgehammers on stage to blur the line between art and distruction.
Sometimes, this also included blowing up cars during performances. One particularly tone-changing moment was when kicking off their tour in the 1980's, Williams drove a cadillac towards the stage, jumping out just seconds before it exploded and destroying the equipment as a statement against capitalism and commodity fetishism. She apparently later focused on this sentiment, arguing that “it was worth it because it showed people shouldn't worship things.”
Williams nonchalance in the face of anarchy went on to inspire names like Debbie Harry, who once recalled how much of “a big deal” Williams was, because she “showed her tits and she blew up cars on stage and broke TVs”. She was her own conductor of mayhem with a purpose, bringing symbols of commercialism on stage just to show the world how ridiculous it was to buy into vanity, when you could have something better.
WENDY O. WILLIAMS DEATH & HER WEIRD LEGACY
Many punks of the 1980's will remember Wendy O. Willilams, she was an enigmatic star that lived the very essence of the punk life. Rather than searching for the genre, it seemed to seek her as its missing jigsaw piece.
For those who haven't hear of Wendy O. Williams, you may have seen her work in some form or another, being a model who was a subject of awe for many photographers, videographers, and other visual artists.
Her life, as well as artistic achievements, are interesting and titillating while her death is tragic and demonstrates how issues with identity itself can be extremely damaging to a person's mental health.
Wendy's first run-in with the law came at the age of 15 when she was caught sunbathing in the nude and was arrested. She attended school in New York for a period of time until she decided to run away from home only a year after her first arrest. She decided to run away from home only a year after her first arrest. She decided to hitchhike to Colorado making her way by selling crochet bikinis.
Wendy soon found her way to Europe where she entertained a few jobs such as a cook and a dancer, the latter something she had been doing since the age of 6.
During this personal pilgrimage, she was arrested many times for shoplifting and usig counterfeit money. It seems Wendy always had a penchant for the punk attitude.
The plasmatics were the brainchild of Rod Swenson who sex shows Wendy would regularly star in his shows. Swenson recruited her to join what would be The Pasmatis.
With a focus on visuals, Wendy would be the visual center which the band would form around and Swenson recruited Wes Beech to hold them muiscally.
Wes Beech would become the only permanent member besides Williams, appearing in all Plasmatics live shows and records.
The Plastics on-stage antics would genrally form much of their appeal to fans at the time and they could draw hordes of fans to their shows to see Wendy's performances. Williams' on-stage antics would generally form much of their appeal to fans at the time, and they could draw hordes of fans to their shows to see Wendy's performances. Williams on-stage antics and run-ins with the law grew, almost facing jail time as her public nudity chardes added up.
Williams would eventually go solo, a natural progression from the Plasatics, the latter mainy being centered around her. She recorded a duet cover of “Stand By Your Man” with Lemmy from Motorhead, as well as making her debut solo album W.O.W with the members of Kiss and even starred in a production of the rocky Horror Show for a period.
The later years of Wendy's life ere actually pretty normal, she moved to Connecticut in 1991 with longtime companion Swenson and worked in animal rehabilitation as well as a food co-op.
Williams had her own issues with mental health, while she was teetotal for many years and lived a relatively normal life in her later years, her feeling were already set in stone.
She first attempted suicide in 1993 by hammering a knife into her sternum but backed out and was taken to hospital, then again in 1997 by an overdose of ephedrine, which also failed.
Swenson found a package on his door filled with things he enjoyed and letters from Wendy which prompted him to search the woods surrounding their house where he found her body.
Wendy O. Williams fatally shot herself on April 6, 1998, aged 48. Swenson reports she had been feeding squirrels before her death.
NOVEMBER
HUZZAH!
COMPACT DISCS
BUMPER STICKERS
PICTURES OF ARTISTS
& MORE!