[bomp] Lou Rawls 1935-2006

[Michael Snider <lasciviumdei@xxxxxxxxx>]

Lou Rawls, Singer of Pop and Gospel, Dies at 72

By BEN RATLIFF
Lou Rawls, the smooth-voiced, enduring singing star
whose career traced a line from gospel to jazz and
pop, died early yesterday morning at Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 72.

The cause was cancer, said his longtime manager and
publicist, David Brokaw.

Successfully modeling himself partly on his friend Sam
Cooke, as well as on Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra,
Mr. Rawls was a suave entertainer who appealed nearly
equally to black and white audiences. He became best
known for the unmistakable, mentholated baritone end
of his vocal range, especially as heard on his biggest
hit, "You'll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine)."

After his greatest successes, in the 1960's and 70's,
Mr. Rawls became something of an elder statesman,
raising millions for black colleges; providing a
recognizable face in movies and on television, and a
familiar voice for cartoons and commercials; and
continuing to tour as a singer. His songs are still as
likely to be played on jazz and easy-listening
stations as on rhythm-and-blues and gospel outlets.

Born in Chicago and reared by his father's mother, Mr.
Rawls began singing at 7 in the choir of her church,
the Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church. His singing
became known around town, where he had what would
become an important connection: Mr. Cooke, with whom
he sang in a group called the Teenage Kings of
Harmony.

Later Mr. Rawls joined another local gospel group, the
Holy Wonders. In 1951, he took Mr. Cooke's place in
the Highway QC's, staying for two years. In 1953, when
the Chosen Gospel Singers came through Chicago, they
hired him, giving him his first exposure on a
recording, in 1954. He later sang with another group,
the Pilgrim Travelers.

In 1955 Mr. Rawls enlisted as a paratrooper in the
Army, and upon his return to civilian life, rejoined
the Pilgrim Travelers as a lead singer. In 1958, while
the group was touring with Mr. Cooke - who by that
time had crossed over to the pop charts with "You Send
Me"- both Mr. Rawls and Mr. Cooke were injured in a
car accident that killed Eddie Cunningham, Mr. Cooke's
driver. Mr. Rawls was in a coma for several days.
After his recovery, he often said he felt he had been
given a new life, and new reasons to live.

Like Mr. Cooke, Mr. Rawls was then leaning more and
more toward secular music. (He sang on a number of Mr.
Cooke's records, and can be heard singing low
harmonies in the Cooke hit "Bring It On Home to Me.")
In 1959, having recorded some singles of his own for
the Candix label, he was performing at the Pandora's
Box in West Hollywood. There the producer Nick Venet
heard him, and soon signed him to Capitol Records,
where he spent a decade.

His Capitol debut, in 1962, was "I'd Rather Drink
Muddy Water," teaming with the pianist Les McCann for
a set of blues and jazz standards.

In his performances during the 1960's - a good example
is "Lou Rawls Live!," a hit record from 1966 - he
became famous for his monologues, sequences in which
he would just talk over a chugging vamp, leading into
and away from a song's refrain. In 1966 he had his
first R&B No. 1 single, "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing," and
in 1967, he won his first of three Grammy Awards for
the song "Dead End Street."

"I was born in a city that they call the Windy City,"
his drawled spoken sequence on that hit song began.
"They call it the Windy City because of the Hawk, the
almighty Hawk. Mr. Wind. Takes care of plenty
business, round wintertime." Mr. Rawls talked about
growing up fighting, bootstrapping and shivering
through cold Chicago weather for almost half the
song's length; then he broke into an impassioned,
rugged, baleful cry, rough around the edges and
imperturbably cool at the center.

Having also won the public admiration of Mr. Sinatra
for his pop singing, Mr. Rawls signed with
Philadelphia International, the label run by the
producers and songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.
In 1976 the team made Mr. Rawls's signature recording,
"You'll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine)," a lavish
ballad with disco rhythm. As a single, it sold a
million copies and reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B
charts.

That same year, he became a spokesman for
Anheuser-Busch; it was his voice heard intoning the
slogan "When you say Budweiser, you've said it all."

In 1980 he started the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars
Telethon, a yearly television event that raised
hundreds of millions of dollars for the United Negro
College Fund.

Mr. Rawls also acted, appearing in about 20 films,
including "Leaving Las Vegas" (1995), and many
television series. He lent his voice to children's
television shows, including "Garfield," "Hey Arnold!"
and "The Rugrats," and provided the voice of the
grandfather on Bill Cosby's animated series
"Fatherhood." From 1989 to 1992, he made three albums
with Blue Note.

In 2003 Mr. Rawls moved to Scottsdale, Ariz. On Jan.
1, 2004, in Memphis, he married his third wife, Nina,
a former flight attendant, who managed his career for
a time. In 2004 he learned he had lung cancer.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Rawls is survived by
their son, Aiden. He is also survived by another son,
Lou Rawls Jr. of Los Angeles, and two daughters,
Louanna Rawls of Los Angeles and Kendra Smith of Los
Angeles, and four grandchildren.

Over the years, Mr. Rawls's hits ranged from material
that recalled rough roots, like "Tobacco Road" and
"Natural Man," to the good-humored flirtation of "Fine
Brown Frame" and the romance of "Lady Love." In
another sign of his versatility, he released a Savoy
Jazz tribute to one of his early pop models, "Rawls
Sings Sinatra," in 2003, the same year he released
"How Great Thou Art," an album of gospel and spiritual
favorites.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/07/arts/music/07rawls.html?ei=5094&en=15988f3173207541&hp=&ex=1136610000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print


We talk and talk until my head explodes

I turn on the news and my body froze

The braying sheep on my tv screen

Make this boy shout, make this boy scream!


		
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