I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends...

RIP Joe Cocker.

Joe Cocker passed away yesterday.  His raspy voice and on stage gyrations are what most folks remember.  He made 40 albums and had dozens of hits.  The US first heard of him from the kick-ass version of "I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends" at Woodstock... pretty impressive when you can take a mellow Beatles song and turn it into a powerful classic.

In 1971, I took Joan to see Mad Dogs and Englishmen, a rock-umentary film of a Joe Cocker concert.  We were two of the few people in the theater.  Two older ladies sat behind us - I remember hearing one of them saying to the other, "I think this is an English comedy."  It wasn't...

While volume that can push you back into your seat may be common in today's movies, it wasn't back then.  This movie opened up loud and continued to kick.  The two little old ladies didn't make it 10 minutes.

That was Joe Cocker's music... you didn't just hear it, you felt it.  He didn't simply sing a song, it was coming out of every pore.

I still play three songs that were hits for Joe Cocker: With a little Help From My Friends (the Beatles), Feelin' Alright (Dave Mason), and You Are So Beautiful (Joe Cocker).  I have read that You Are So Beautiful was Cocker's favorite song from his catalog... "It was originally a gospel song, and Billy Preston rewrote the lyrics to make it more of a love song."  Joe Cocker doing love songs?  Yep, and like no one else.

RIP Joe Cocker.