Rest in peace | Page 45 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

RIP George A. Romero

Okay, I gotta admit that I’m hearing about this pretty late, but when it’s Elvis-related, I gotta pay my respects.

Red West, Elvis Presley’s friend and film and TV actor, dies

MEMPHIS — Red West, the longtime and sometimes critical confidante and bodyguard of Elvis Presley who became a successful film and television actor after the singer’s death, died Tuesday night after suffering an aortic aneurysm at Baptist Hospital. He was 81.

Born in Bolivar, Tenn., the athletic Robert Gene “Red” West befriended Elvis at Humes High School, where the 6-foot-2 redhead protected the smaller pre-fame Elvis from bullies on at least a couple of occasions, according to Presley lore. He worked for Elvis for some 20 years, occasionally taking small roles in such films as Flaming Star and writing or co-writing such memorable Elvis songs as the 1972 hit Separate Ways, the holiday favorite If Every Day Was Like Christmas and the 1975 masterpiece of infidelity, If You Talk in Your Sleep, recorded at Stax.

West also composed or contributed to songs recorded by other artists, including Ricky Nelson, Pat Boone and Johnny Rivers. 

An ex-Marine, Golden Gloves boxer, karate instructor and genuine tough-guy-with-a-heart-of-gold (at least in his later years), West said it was his protective streak that motivated him to co-write Elvis: What Happened?, a tell-all best-seller published only two weeks before Elvis’ death on Aug. 16, 1977, that documented the singer’s drug dependency and unhealthy lifestyle. West and his co-authors, fellow “Memphis Mafia” members and Elvis bodyguards Sonny West (a cousin) and David Hebler, assisted by Steve Dunleavy, a journalist, said the book was an attempt to encourage Elvis to give up his dangerous ways, but some outraged fans said the memoir was written out of spite, since the three men only a year earlier had been fired from Elvis’ employ by Elvis’ father, Vernon Presley.

As Elvis’ friend, driver and bodyguard, West was among Presley’s closest associates during the singer’s meteoric rise, Army tour of duty, Hollywood stardom, late 1960s so-called comeback and 1970s decline. West’s father, Newton West, died the same day as Elvis’ mother, Gladys Presley, which only strengthened the men’s bond. When Elvis was in the Army, West traveled to Germany to be nearer the singer, at Presley’s request.

RIP Red West 

RIP Glen Campbell

RIP big guy, great musician. “Rhinestone Cowboy” was one of a coupla singles newly-8 year old vonbontee selected with the purchase by his grandparents of his first very own stereo turntable.

I saw part of that tv doc about his dementia struggles and it was fascinating (and depressing, obv) to watch him onstage playing a solo (improvised, memorized, dunno) with amazing technique; then suddenly getting lost and switching to something wholly unrelated and then stopping entirely – practically avant-garde. It’s sad, but touching how his overall musicianship displays itself in those moments when his mind eludes him.

Omg I knew he was in that but didn’t realize he’d played LaBeouf…the part played by Matt Damon in the Coen Brothers remake  (that’s the only version I’ve seen)