In December 2005, my boss asked me to write a story on the upcoming 25th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. I protested, as I always did when given an assignment, arguing that it was not news, that every day is a rock ‘n’ roll anniversary, and everything that can be said about Lennon has already been said a million different times.
Read moreThis is a scheduled break from my rock ‘n’ roll reporting to mark the centenary of the execution of English nurse Edith Cavell during World War I.
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I’m a terrible person . . . to take on vacation.
You might want to lounge on the beach, or go shopping or eating. I just want to visit celebrity graves and miscellaneous death sites.
Read moreLally Stott would have been 75 in 2020. “Who’s Lally Stott?” you ask. Harold “Lally” Stott was an English singer/songwriter whose best-known creation vied with “Maggie May,” “My Sweet Lord” and “Brown Sugar” as one of the biggest songs of 1971.
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To date the only fresh corpse I’ve seen in real life, appropriately for my job as a showbiz reporter, belonged to a celebrity: Ray Charles.
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