We’ve been touched by Rock ‘N’ Roll deaths in the past. We cried when John Lennon died, but we were kids. We were as shocked as anyone else when Kurt Cobain took his own life. But when we heard that Tom “T-Bone” Wolk died of a heart attack at the age of 58 on Monday, a little piece our hearts – the part that still thinks we’re teenage girls – broke.
Most people don’t even know who T-Bone was but those people weren’t Hall and Oates fans in the ‘80s. If you were anywhere near MTV during that decade, T-Bone was the guy with the hat, playing the bass. And he was an integral part of the H&O sound. Daryl Hall went so far as to refer to him as the ampersand in Hall & Oates.
After all “No Can Do” without that definitive bass riff might as well be called, “Well Maybe, I’m Not Sure.” “Maneater” with out that gnawing Wolk sound would have seemed more like “Dude-Nibbler.”
If you didn’t like Hall & Oates (and by the way, it’s finally fashionable to admit you always did), you should still know T-Bone. He played with music superstars like Elvis Costello and Carly Simon. And, he was a part of the “Saturday Night Live” house band from 1986 to 1992, when it was under the direction of his H&O partner in crime, guitar player G.E. Smith.
Sadly, T-Bone suffered a heart attack after leaving the recording session for Daryl Hall's new solo album on Monday night. Read what Daryl and John have to say about their dear friend on his MySpace blog page.
No comments:
Post a Comment