music friday: joe cocker

On this date in 2014, Joe Cocker died at the age of 70. He was noted as a great interpreter of the songs of others.

Cocker made a big impression at the Woodstock Festival and subsequent movie, with one of the best performances by any of the famous artists at that famous festival. As Paul McCartney said after Cocker's death, regarding Cocker's version of "With a Little Help from My Friends", "It was just mind-blowing, totally turned the song into a soul anthem and I was forever grateful for him for doing that."

Cocker wanted a break from touring, and he disbanded the Grease Band, but there were contracts that committed him to touring, which resulted in the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour. It was well-received and a big success, and like Woodstock, that success was buttressed by a live album and a feature film. Cocker was fried by that point, and started having drinking problems. Still, the music was great:

He had become a joke to some ... John Belushi did an infamous sketch imitating a beer-guzzling Cocker, even performing it next to the real Joe Cocker on Saturday Night Live. I didn't follow his music much after that, but despite the personal problems, Cocker kept it up, living several decades after Mad Dogs. And he wasn't just a nostalgia act ... in 1974, "You Are So Beautiful" was hit, and in 1982, a duet with Jennifer Warnes, "Up Where We Belong", won a Grammy and an Oscar. Maybe my favorite of his tracks in those years was "Woman to Woman", which was later famously sampled by Tupac and Dr. Dre for "California Love":

The Tedeschi Trucks Band is similar in spirit to the Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and they were the perfect choice for a tribute concert to Cocker featuring songs and performers from Mad Dogs, the year after Cocker died.

And it all came full circle: