Gerry Goffin Dead at 75

One of the Brill Building's famous composers has died at the age of 75. The name may not be a familiar one to many on the radio boards, but dates as recently as Whitney Houston compositions - and somewhat beyond.

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=873881&ocid=ansent11

Since posting the story, additional news "sources" (more like outlets) besides this and the Village Voice version have begun reporting the story - which goes to show the age group working in the news departments around the country. Hows about some culture, kids?

Most have referred to him in headlines as Carole King's ex-husband. As though that was he biggest accomplishment.

Reminds me of John Lennon, who was talking about his future obit. "They'll probably play 'Yesterday," which was Paul's song."

Silkie said:

One of the Brill Building's famous composers has died at the age of 75. The name may not be a familiar one to many on the radio boards...

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You know, he said coming in from yelling at clouds and chasing kids off his lawn, there used to be these things with a spiral groove, the undulations of which were an analog of the song or songs, and they had paper labels so that you could tell which of these grooved things were which, and on those labels was information that included who wrote the songs, and those of us who were enthusiastic about the songs used to read everything on those labels as part of that enthusiasm, and the name Gerry Goffin was oft to be found there.

Does that sort of stuff show up on an iPod screen? Does it survive the mp3 conversion and download process?

Have Dr. Fever's fears come true, that there was no one to teach the little children about rock and roll?

TheBigA said:

Reminds me of John Lennon, who was talking about his future obit. "They'll probably play 'Yesterday," which was Paul's song."

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I recall an interview with Lennon, in which he claimed that the bandleader in nice restaurants would play "Yesterday" whenever he walked in.

Meanwhile, McCartney is having a battle of his own, with Yoko, over songwriting. Since (sometimes) only the first listed composer is mentioned, due to space limitations, Lennon is listed as the composer of "Yesterday" and others, and McCartney's name often gets crowded off.