Details released on the passing of the Seeds' Sky Saxon
Sky Saxon, leader of Los Angeles 1960s garage-rock band the Seeds, died early Thursday morning in Austin, Texas. Born Richard Marsh, Saxon was hospitalized on Monday. His death was made public via a Facebook status update from his wife, Sabrina Saxon, and confirmed later in the day by his publicist. His exact age is unknown, but he is believed to be in his mid-‘60s.
Saxon’s wife has been keeping fans updated on Saxon’s status via various social networking sites. He was hospitalized earlier this week for an undetermined internal infection and was reported to be in critical condition. A statement released last night revealed that Saxon ultimately died of heart and kidney failure due to the infection.
Saxon had recently moved east to Austin, where he had continued to be an active musician. Saxon had performed just last Saturday at the Austin club Antone’s, where he appeared with local garage-rock band Shapes Have Fangs, and was planning to tour this summer with surviving members of Love and the Electric Prunes. The tour is expected to go on.
The Seeds came together in the mid-'60s garage-rock boom, had a Top 40 hit in 1966 with “Pushing Too Hard,” marked by Saxon’s aggressive vocals and its dandified electric organ line. The Seeds came close to hitting the Top 40 again in 1967 with “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine,” which highlighted Saxon’s mewing scratch over a more traditional early rock ‘n’ roll groove, albeit one scorched with acid.
Like many bands of the era, the Seeds took its sloppy blues rock cues from the Rolling Stones. Yet the Seeds were equally influenced by the flower-power generation, and the 1967 album “Future” saw the Seeds retreating into more psychedelic cult status.
Saxon had been in the studio last year with the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, and was said to be working on a documentary on the Seeds.
--Todd Martens
On our Radio Base Camp show on WPKN radio in Bridgeport we had a very interesting interview with Sky Saxon...and he was on the California '66 Tour that was coming to Fairfield, CT at the THE QUICK CENTER with a benefit concert for WPKN with The Electric Prunes and LOVE with Johnny Echols & Baby Lemonade. Here is a link to the WPKN archives and our 38 min. interview this past March. California '66 continues and will add a new group and the tour will be in honor of Sky "Sunlight" Saxon. Sky RIP
Interview link: http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/listen/1174
Posted by: Steve di Costanzo | June 28, 2009 at 02:08 PM
Dig this podcast tribute to the late, great Sky Saxon: THE MAL THURSDAY SHOW: Riot on Sunset Strip Revisited:
http://blip.tv/file/get/Malthursday-TheMalThursdayShow16789.mp3
R.I.P., Sky!
Posted by: JM Dobies | July 01, 2009 at 02:46 PM
ROCKNROLL LEGEND SKY SAXON'S L.A. MEMORIAL WITH THE SEEDS' DARYL HOOPER & JAN SAVAGE, THE ELECTRIC PRUNES, STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK, BILLY CORGAN, NELS CLINE 07/24/09 ECHOPLEX OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
-- For Immediate Release --
- Los Angeles, California -
Richard Marsh, otherwise known to the rocknroll world as SKY SUNLIGHT SAXON, will find tribute & love visualized at a memorial in his honour to be held Friday, July 24th 2009 at the Echoplex in Los Angeles, California. At 8pm the service gathering will commence with performances by friends THE SEEDS' DARYL HOOPER & JAN SAVAGE with other members of SEEDS line-ups with Sky, THE ELECTRIC PRUNES, STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK's GEORGE BUNNEL - RANDY SEOL - MARK WEITZ - GENE GUNNELS, BILLY CORGAN of THE SMASHING PUMPKINS & MARK TULIN of THE ELECTRIC PRUNES one-night-only as SPIRITS IN THE SKY, NELS CLINE of WILCO, solo set by Djin Aquarian of YaHoWha 13, solo set by MIKE RANDLE of BABY LEMONADE (ARTHUR LEE'S LOVE back-up band), the Simon Stokes Band, Sofizel, & very special guests. Attendees are encouraged to dress in flower children ware & bring flowers for the stage.
The Echoplex is located at:
1154 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 413-8200
http://www.attheecho.com/
The venue is 18 yrs & over
Advanced tickets available at Ticket Web
SKY SUNLIGHT SAXON of the psychedelic garage rock legends THE SEEDS passed away at 9:10am Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at St David's South Austin Hospital in Austin, Texas. Sky died of heart & kidney failure, due to an undiagnosed infection of his internal organs. He passed peacefully with his wife Sabrina Smith Saxon & his spiritual brother in YaHoWha Joshua Aquarian by his side. He died, in his words, at the age of "eternal".
SKY SUNLIGHT SAXON, fell ill as early as Thursday, June 18th in his new home in Austin. Despite feeling under the weather Saturday, he performed a short set of SEEDS classics at the local night club Antone's with his local collective WORLD SPIRITS, his favourite local Austin band SHAPES HAVE FANGS. After continuing illness, he was rushed to St David's South Austin Hospital Monday morning & was immediately placed in ICU. He remained in critical condition in ICU until his passing several days later. Sky & his wife Sabrina recently moved to Austin, following his exciting headlining performance at the Austin Psych Fest #2 in March. Several tours were scheduled, including the East Coast/Mid-West tour in August with the California Revue, with members of LOVE & THE ELECTRIC PRUNES. The tour will still continue despite his absence.
Sky had many projects in the works that will undoubtedly still be completed & released in the coming months if not years due to his wealth of creative material left behind. One of which is a documentary about his legendary band THE SEEDS to be released next year in 2010. The documentary chronicles the band's activities with exclusive interviews with all original members, & rare never-before-seen footage of the band live & in session. The project is spear-headed by Alec Palao of Ace Records U.K. (The Zombies' box set "Zombie Heaven") -
"Part of the impetus for the SEEDS documentary is to correct a lot of the misperceptions about the band," explains documentary-maker ALEC PALAO, "and to properly state their role and achievements, and celebrate their music for what it is. The band were way ahead of their time, which I realize more and more as I go thru the nuts and bolts of their recordings. Due to various circumstances beyond the band's control, the original integrity of what the band was doing got lumped in with the worst commercial hype of the psychedelic scene as it expanded. Ultimately it means that the hipsters and tastemakers got turned off by the hype, and those prejudices have remained with all the commentators and writers ever since. So THE DOORS remain hip and leaders and THE SEEDS are seen as commercial hippies, followers, or not even an authentic part of the initial movement, which of course is dead wrong. I'm doing my part to correct that!"
Learn more about SKY SUNLIGHT SAXON by visiting
these officIal sites:
http://www.skysaxon.com
http://www.myspace.com/theseeds
For inquiries, please contact:
Jennifer Marchand
Publicist :: Sky Sunlight Saxon
"Pushin' Too Hard" by THE SEEDS - Top 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Bleu French Laundry Rocknroll Promotions
Austin, Texas
bleufrenchlaundry@hotmail.com
http://www.skysaxon.com
Posted by: Bleu French Laundry | July 20, 2009 at 10:30 AM
The link for the podcast tribute to the late, great Sky Saxon, THE MAL THURSDAY SHOW: Riot on Sunset Strip Revisited, has changed.
You can now hear it at:
http://m.podshow.com/media/22496/episodes/166057/themalthursdayshow-166057-07-20-2009.mp3
Dogspeed, Sky.
Posted by: JM Dobies | July 25, 2009 at 08:03 PM