NOTEWORTHY DEATH

Bass guitarist on ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’

Lee Dorman, a bass guitarist for the psychedelic rock band Iron Butterfly, who played on one of the genre’s most recognizable songs, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” died Friday in Laguna Niguel, Calif. He was 70.

Dorman was found dead in his car outside his home about 10 a.m., said Gail Krause, a spokesman for the Orange County sheriff’s office. A coroner ruled that the death was of natural causes, Krause said. Dorman had heart problems and was on a transplant list, Martin Gerschwitz, one of the current members of Iron Butterfly, said in an interview.

Iron Butterfly, a four-man group originating in San Diego, signed its first record contract with Atco, a division of Atlantic Records, in 1967, according to the band’s website. “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” complete with its thumping bass riff, was released in July 1968. It stayed on the national sales charts for two years and became a Top 40 radio hit.

The track has been featured in a number of films and television shows, including an episode of The Simpsons.

According to Gerschwitz, Dorman was born in St. Louis on Sept. 15, 1942.

“He developed this style,” Gerschwitz said, “where the bass did not just function as a bass; it was an equal instrument with the others.” He added that Dorman was fond of noting that in 1968, Led Zeppelin opened for Iron Butterfly.

Dorman founded another band, Captain Beyond, in the 1970s. He continued touring with Iron Butterfly until recently. The band has replaced a number of musicians over the decades.

Gerschwitz, who had known Dorman for many years and joined the band in 2005, said Dorman did not have any immediate survivors.

Larry Reinhardt, a guitarist from the band who was known as Rhino, died earlier this year. Erik Braunn, who also played guitar for the group, died in 2003.

Blues legend, composer of ‘The Walk’THE NEW YORK TIMES

Jimmy McCracklin, a blues singer and pianist who by his count composed nearly a thousand songs and recorded hundreds, including the 1950s hit “The Walk,” died Thursday in San Pablo, Calif. He was 91.

His daughter, Sue McCracklin, confirmed his death.

McCracklin’s music spanned decades and eras of rhythm and blues, from up-tempo jump blues of the 1940s to soul of the 1960s and ’70s. Though his music eventually reached a national audience, he was most identified with the West Coast blues scene.His best-known record is probably “The Walk,” a jubilant dance number he recorded for Checker Records while he and his band, the Blues Blasters, were in Chicago. The song was his first national hit after more than a decade of recording. It reached No. 7 on the Billboard pop chart in 1958.

McCracklin released more than 20 albums and wrote and recorded popular tunes such as “Think,” “Just Got to Know,” “Shame, Shame, Shame” and“My Answer.”

But he never recorded his most lucrative song, “Tramp.” The song cracked the pop charts in 1967 when it was recorded by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas.

McCracklin was born James David Walker on Aug. 13, 1921, in Helena, Ark., and was given the name McCracklin when his stepfather, Berry McCracklin, adopted him. His family soon moved to St. Louis, where the blues performer Walter Davis taught him to sing and to play the piano.

McCracklin enlisted in the Navy in 1941 and took up competitive boxing while in the service. Honorably discharged in 1944, he moved to Los Angeles and boxed semiprofessionally for a time.

In the late 1950s he married Beulah Fayson, who died in 2008. He lived in Richmond, Calif., before moving to a nursing facility in San Pablo.

Besides his daughter, he is survived by a stepdaughter, Patricia Croner; four stepsons, Larry and Mike Collins, Willie Trader and Walter McAlpine; and two grandchildren.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 16 on 12/23/2012

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