In a posting on her Facebook page, Sabrina Saxon the wife and manager of vocalist Sky Saxon, legendary founder of psychedelic band The Seeds has posted that the garage rock icon has died in an Austin, Texas hospital :"Sky has passed over and YaHoWha is waiting for him at the gate. He will soon be home with his Father. I'm so sorry I couldn't keep him here with us. More later. I'm sorry".
Saxon was hospitalized after falling ill with an undiagnosed condition in South Austin, Texas. Despite feeling under the weather, on Saturday he performed a short set of Seeds classics at the local legendary nightclub Antone's.
Saxon was born Richard Marsh in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Different sources suggest a birth year of either 1937, 1945, or 1946). He began his career performing doo-wop pop tunes in the early 60s under the name Little Richie Marsh.
After changing his name to Sky Saxon, he formed the Electra-Fires in 1962 and then Sky Saxon & the Soul Rockers. In 1965, Saxon founded the psychedelic flower power band The Seeds with Jan Savage (guitar), Rick Andridge (keyboards) and Darryl Hooper (drums). Hit songs for Saxon and the Seeds included "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" and "(You're) Pushin' Too Hard", which became a top 40 song in 1967 and was covered by the Monkees. Saxon's singing performance has been dismissed by critics like Lester Bangs of Rolling Stone Magazine as an American imitation of Mick Jagger, while others considered it a more complicated synthesis of Jagger, Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly.
Saxon broke up the Seeds band in 1967 and formed the Sky Saxon Blues Band. After the release of one album, A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues, Saxon reestablished the Seeds but the group did not attract any mainstream attention.
In subsequent years, Saxon released a number of albums under various band names including The Starry Seeds Band, Sky Saxon & Firewall and King Arthur's Court. As well, Saxon several times reformed The Seeds with different line-ups of musicians.
In 2008, Sky Saxon and the Seeds collaborated on some new songs and recordings with Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins.
2 comments:
Sad news. Doing a radio show right now, and trying to find more on this -- "(You're) Pushin' Too Hard", which became a top 40 song in 1967 and was covered by the Monkees. "
Any info? Can't find on Monkees discography -- thanks, Nell
ever hear of nightwatcher, the band from ypsilanti? they're good :)
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