Post by Cagey-1 on Feb 7, 2012 18:00:50 GMT -5
Post #1230 Thu Apr 1, 1999
Jesse's final performance for the moment was a few weeks ago out at
Walt Disney at a special convention located at Coronado Springs Resort for the
Council On Aging. At 97 years of age, Jesse Stone got up and sang
his famous SHAKE, RATTLE, and ROLL for a packed ballroom of guests
and fans and friends.
After staying the weekend at the resort, Jesse
collapsed at his home the following day suffering yet another heart
attack brought on by yet another infection in his dialysis tube.
Jesse was touch and go for the next few days. Delerious and
halucinating. Saying things he had no idea what he talking about.
Jesse was fading. We are losing him. He is weakening. The drastic
effects of extreme age are taking their toll on this wonderful
legendary man.
Today I visited Jesse in his room at the hospital. He barely
recognized me and I barely recognized him. The creeping of the
inevitable does not release its grip for no one. As his daughter and
grand daughter watch and wait for what comes next. Jesse knows. He
says he is ready to go. Nothing in this world is of any interest to
him anymore.
His breathing was labored. Talking is very difficult
and comes out sounding like a mere mumble. His words are quiet now
and slowly pronounced as though he were still trying to make an
effort at being correct. This is what has made Jesse the legend he
is. He is a leader of the highest calibre. A visionary who made a
tremendous impact on music this century. Watching him go like this
brings back such vivid memories of seeing a dying Allen Collins in a
similar situation. You can tell when they reach the point of no
return, and today I saw Jesse slipping and sliding past this point.
He won't be coming back to us. How can you say goodbye??? How do you
say you love them and thank them for all they have done to enrich
your life?
I took my oldest daughter with me and it was her first time seeing
someone like this. She was scared of Jesse having never seen him
like that. She did not want to touch his hand and say goodbye, so I
put her hand in his and she reluctantly reached for his other hand,
knowing she may never see him again. She did not realize what it
meant to say goodbye forever until she left the hospital and she
asked where will Jesse go? I told her to heaven. To be with God. And
that he is going to a better place where there is no pain and
suffering.
Jesse is not in any pain, though he is suffering. He is hooked up to
all kinds of machines. His left arm has swollen up twice the size of
the other arm. His right eyebrow is also swollen up. He is losing
circulation to his legs and there is some discoloration of the skin
that is being watched for deterioration. They are having a hard time
getting needles into him as his veins and arteries are becoming too
hard to puncture properly. His kidneys are failing and slowly, Jesse
is losing the battle to stay with us in this world. Jesse, you are
loved, and will be sorely missed by many. You are our Curtis Loew,
Jesse, and we know you have to be moving on.
And through all of this, Jesse's 77 year old wife is still keeping
her calendar of dates and moving ahead. She knows that this is how
Jesse would want it. The show must go on.
Say a prayer for Jesse. I don't think he will stay with us too much
longer. I doubt he'll ever stand on his feet again and walk into the
sunshine. Jesse once said he was glad to just be able to wake up and
to see the new dawn.
Today Jesse said he just wanted to go home. And through the tears, I
said don't worry Jesse, there will be a light to show you the way.
Fly on FREE BIRD!!!
I'm having a hard time saying goodbye, and not wanting to let go. I
felt this same way for Allen. Some things just have to be.
Kent
------------------------------------------------
www.slipcue.com/obits/01/obits12.html
JESSE STONE, 97, Developer of Rock's Early Hits
Courtesy of The Associated Press
Jesse Stone, who wrote "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and helped develop many of the Atlantic Records label's biggest rock-and-roll hits, died on Thursday after a long illness. He was 97.
As a writer, producer and arranger at Atlantic, Stone worked with artists like Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, the Drifters and the Clovers. Among his other songs were "Idaho" and "Money Honey."
In 1974, the head of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun, said, "Jesse Stone did more to develop the basic rock-and-roll sound than anybody else."
Stone's wife, the singer Evelyn McGee Stone, said that even on the day her husband was hospitalized for the last time he had begun writing a song while he watched her playing with their dog.
"I had been saying to the dog, 'That's it, that's it,' and he wrote a song, and that's the title," she said.
The grandson of Tennessee slaves, Stone had a career that embraced minstrel music, folk songs, dance tunes, rhythm-and-blues, rock-and-roll and jazz. He helped build Atlantic Records into a top rhythm-and-blues label in the late 1940's and early 50's, signing stars like Ruth Brown.
"Her first record came out: Bang! It was a hit," Stone said in a 1991 Associated Press interview. "We got a group called the Clovers. Their record came out. Bang! It was a hit. Everything we touched after that went over big. Sometimes we had four or five records on the chart at the same time."
Stone and Bill Haley, who had a Top 10 hit in 1954 with Stone's "Shake, Rattle and Roll," paved the way for the acceptance among whites of what had been considered "Negro music."
"A white man recording black music," Stone said of Haley in the interview. "That's when white people began to buy this stuff. They could hear it on the air."
Elvis Presley's nationwide success the following year cemented the foundation laid by black singers, many with Stone's tunes and arrangements.
Earlier, Stone's jazz tune "Idaho" was a big hit for Guy Lombardo, selling three million copies in the mid-1940's. Benny Goodman and Jimmy Dorsey also had hit recordings of the tune.
Stone was born in Atchison, Kansas, on Nov. 16, 1901, and started performing at age 5, touring with his family's minstrel show. In the 1920's he led a jazz group that included the future saxophone legend Coleman Hawkins.
Stone, who also wrote under the name Charles Calhoun, was inducted into the Rhythm-and-Blues Hall of Fame in 1992.
He is survived by his wife.
Sunday, April 4, 1999