NEW YORK (AP) – Singer-songwriter Lloyd Price, an early rock ‘n roll star and permanent maverick whose hit films included up-tempo favorites such as “Lodie Miss Cladie,” “Personality” and semi-Forbidden “Stagger Lee,” Were. Dead. He was 88.
Price died on Monday at a long-term care facility in New Rochelle, New York, after his wife, Jacqueline Price, reported complications related to diabetes, The Associated Press reported Saturday.
Lloyd Price, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, was one of the last survivors of the post-World War II scene in New Orleans, anticipating a change in popular music and culture, which in the midst of the rise of rock Was leading to 1950s. With Fates Domino and David Bartholomew among others, Price fashioned a deep, pounding voice around the brass and swing of New Orleans jazz and blues, which ranked high on the R&B chart and ultimately to white audiences. Crossed for
“Very important part of rock history. He was before little Richard! “Rock singer and member of the E Street Band Steven Van Zandt said On twitter “Lodgy Miss Clody of 1952 makes a legal claim as the first rock hit….” Righteous cat. Immense talent. “
Price’s surname “Mr. Personality, “fitting for a performer with a warm smile and a tone for the match. But he was more than a charming entertainer. He was unusually independent for his time, with stars like Frank Sinatra taking on his publishing rights. He ran his record label before making a catch, and even serving as his own agent and manager. He often spoke of racial injustice that he missed, calling his memoir a “summary” and during his 2020s Black Lives Matter protested by writing on the Facebook page that behind his “sociable exterior” was “a man who was escaping.”
Born in Kenner, Louisiana, one of the 11 brothers, Price had been playing song and piano in the church since childhood. When he was in his late teens, “Lodie Miss Clody,” a local DJ’s favorite caphares, inspired him to write his boundary-breaking debut hit, which he worked with at his mom’s Fried Fish restaurant.
Featuring Domino’s trademark piano trills, “Lodgy Miss Cladie” hit number 1 on the R&B chart in 1952, sold over 1 million copies and became Rock Standard, covered by Elvis Presley and Little Richard. But Price had mixed feelings about the song’s widespread appeal, later recalling how local officials in Jim Crow South had opposed both blacks and whites joining his show.
Price was drafted and spent in military service in Korea in the mid-1950s. He began his career with the 1957 ballad “Just Seas”, and hit the top with Choli, the pop-oriented “Stagger Lee,” one of the most popular songs of all time, of a barroom murder It is recorded about
Written by Price, “Stagger Lee” was based on a 19th-century battle between two black men – Lee Shelton, sometimes known as Stag Lee and Billy Lyon – who shot Shelton and killed his rival Ended with The songs of the 1920s reflected their changing storylines, and inspired artists ranging from Woody Guthrie and Duke Ellington to Bob Dylan and Clash.
Price’s version was opened with a few spoken words about a crime novel: “The night was clear, the moon was yellow, and the leaves were down …” The band jumps and Price staggers. Plays on the story of Lee and Billy, who fights over a game of dice, ending with a shot from Stagger Lee’s 44, which passes through Billy and breaks the bartender’s glass. “Get Stagger Lee!” A chorus chanting throughout.
The song peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart in early 1959, but not everyone was entertained. Dick Clarke, the host of “American Bandstand”, was concerned that the song was too violent for his teen-centric show and pressed the price to revise it: Stagger Lee and some future listeners, “Bandstand” watchers and some future listeners Billy calmly resolved their dispute.
In 2013, Billboard stated, “I had to clarify some of the songs about Stagger Lee and Billy about a girl.” It was ridiculous. “
Price followed up with the top 10 hits “Personality” and “I’m going to get married” and the top 20 songs “Lady Luck” and “Question”. After the Beatles arrived in the US in 1964, they did no better than many of their contemporaries, but found their way into other professions through a wide range of friends and acquaintances. He lived for a time in the same Philadelphia apartment complex as Wilt Chamberlain and Joe Frazier and with boxing promoter Don King, in 1973 between Frazier and Muhammad Ali for “Thrilla in Manila” and in 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” Helped in staging the championship. Battle between Ali and George Foreman. He was also a home builder, a booking agent, an excellent bowler and a manufacturer of a line of food products.
His career in music continued sporadically. He and his business partner Harold Logan started a label at Double L Records in the early 1960s, which gave Wilson Pickett an early break and he also ran a New York nightclub. But in 1969, after Logan’s murder, Price became so depressed that he eventually moved to Nigeria and did not return until the 1980s. He would become a favorite on the old tours, performing with Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis among others.
He settled in New York with his wife, but did not return home. One of Kenner’s street was renamed Lloyd Price Avenue and for years Kenner celebrated an annual Lloyd Price Day.
The value will be clean life and steady focus for their endurance.
“I would never drink, smoke, or have bad habits,” he told interviewer Larry Katz in 1998. I was never a starstruck. I had 23 hit records and I never saw the next record to be hit. I never needed that they had to belong to anyone. I just wanted to be. “
– Dalton reported from Los Angeles.
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