Joe Cocker (1944 – 2014)

cocker

Joe Cocker, whose gruff, bluesy vocals and on stage mannerisms made him an fixture on the international rock scene for close to 50 years, passed away at his home in Colorado after a bout with cancer. He was 70 years old.

Joe Cocker wasn’t just a great singer, he was an outstanding student of blues, soul, jazz and rock n roll. He was also about to distinguish what made a song exceptional and spent his entire career mining that deep well of outstanding material. Like all great students, Cocker was able to absorb what he learned, put it through his own musical filter and find his own, unique voice.

And what a voice.

Joe Cocker never sang a lyric he couldn’t feel and in doing so, took the material to soaring new heights. Audiences saw that from jump with his version of ‘With A Help From My Friends’. Everything about that track is perfect: Steve Winwood’s straight out of church organ, Jimmy Page’s piercing lead guitar and a vocal that went from invitation to affirmation. His performance of the song in at Woodstock (captured marvelously in the film) signaled the arrival of the next great voice of rock n roll. Everything about it captured who he was: Passionate, compelling and completely into the lyric and the moment. The stage movements – shifting from air guitar to bandleader to almost shaman like bliss, came to define his work time and time again. Cocker singing a ballad was like hearing someone in confession – pure, raw, from the heart and yet remarkably beautiful. In lesser hands, ‘You Are So Beautiful’ is pure schmaltz, sappy and overtly sentimental. Cocker crushes it because again, like a true soul man, he’s feeling every second of the lyric. The last minute of the song reduces you to mist. It’s a tour de force performance and without question the definitive version of this now standard. Even as Cocker struggled with debt and alcoholism in the late 70s-early 80s, he managed to channel his pain into the work. Listen to his takes on Randy Newman’s ‘Marie’, Leon Russell’s ‘A Song For You’ and his Academy Award winning duet with Jennifer Warnes, ‘Up Where We Belong’. Sublime performances.

Cocker wasn’t just a songwriter’s best friend, he also had a great eye and ear for musicians. The legendary Mad Dogs & Englishman tour featured future stars Leon Russell (who wrote Cocker’s hit ‘Delta Lady’), Rita Coolidge and session great Jim Keltner. Cocker also recorded and toured with Stuff, a band of the top flight session musicians that worked with everyone from Aretha Franklin, John Lennon and Paul Simon. Cocker wore a Stuff T-shirt during his now legendary 1976 Saturday Night Live performance when he performed ‘Feelin’ Alright’ with long time Cocker impersonator and fan John Belushi. The Crusaders wrote the Grammy nominated song ‘I’m So Glad I’m Standing Here Today’ with Cocker in mind and he performed it on their 1982 album Standing Tall and on the Grammy broadcast. Cocker picked The Compass Point All-Stars, which included the premier rhythm section of Sly & Robbie to backed him on his 1982 album Sheffield Steel. Cocker’s influence even extended into hip hop. His 1972 hit, ‘Woman To Woman’ was the basis of the Tupac Shakur-Dr. Dre hit, ‘California Love’.

Universally loved by musicians and fans around the world, Joe Cocker left behind a body of work that will be talked about, long after his passing. He truly without question sang from the soul.

Rest easy Joe.

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Earl Douglas is a writer/photographer based in New York City. A frequent contributor to The Interrobang, Earl is also Executive Director for the New York chapter of The Black Rock Coalition. Earl worked in radio for nearly two decades at WNEW-FM and XM Satellite Radio, which included being the on-air producer for Carol Miller, Scott Muni and Ron & Fez, and a contributor to Opie & Anthony. Earl has also independently published a number of books including Black Rock Volume 1, Urban Abyss, Mobile Uploads, and For Shimmy. His latest project is the photojournalism magazine PRAXIS, which is available exclusively through Blurb.com.
Earl Douglas
Earl Douglas
Earl Douglas is a writer/photographer based in New York City. A frequent contributor to The Interrobang, Earl is also Executive Director for the New York chapter of The Black Rock Coalition. Earl worked in radio for nearly two decades at WNEW-FM and XM Satellite Radio, which included being the on-air producer for Carol Miller, Scott Muni and Ron & Fez, and a contributor to Opie & Anthony. Earl has also independently published a number of books including Black Rock Volume 1, Urban Abyss, Mobile Uploads, and For Shimmy. His latest project is the photojournalism magazine PRAXIS, which is available exclusively through Blurb.com.