The Deaths of Ronnie Montrose and Robert Sherman

I wanted to mention a couple of notable deaths in the music world yesterday, of two men who had very little in common.

First, and in no particular order, the great Disney songwriter Robert Sherman, who, along with his brother Richard Sherman, wrote some of the most beloved movie tunes of all time. I am gonna throw out three for you: "It's A Small World," "Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious," and "Spoonful Of Sugar." There, at least one of those is now stuck in your head! Amazingly,  he was still active and working on a new Disney film at the time of his death at the age of 86. Quite a run for this little known but gifted tunesmith. Here's a cool Sherman Brother's tune from the popular Merlin Jones series of films in the 60's. The title tune from "The Monkey's Uncle" featuring Annette and The Beach Boys. Sadly, Annette herself was stricken with MS sometime ago and rumor has it that she is no longer able to speak.

Another notable musical figure to pass from the scene was Ronnie Montrose. Ronnie is probably best well-known for starting the band "Montrose" after leaving the Edgar Winter Group, and discovering a young Sammy Hagar who was his first lead singer.  The first Montrose album was really a genre classic and is sadly overlooked on today's (mostly awful) classic Rock Radio. Ronnie could shred, as he demonstrated below on this Montrose classic with Sammy on vocals "Bad, Motor Scooter."

Ronnie had more than one  arrow in his guitar "quiver." He was capable of playing with great melodic restraint, as demonstrated to such fine effect on many records with Edgar Winter and, especially the two albums he cut with Van (The Man) Morrison, "St. Dominic's Preview" and "Tupelo Honey".  Here is Ronnie backing up Van Morrison on a classic tune by the Cranky Old Bastard.

Farewell Robert and Ronnie! You made your marks on our little world of music and will be remembered for a long time!