RIP – MARV TARPLIN

EXPIRED: 09/30/11 – Marv Tarplin, 70, was just a teenage from Detroit, Michigan who played guitar for a local all-girl vocal group known as The Primettes, who got an audition with Motown. They played for Smokey Robinson, lead singer of the Miracles. Robinson loved the Primettes, and suggested they change their name to The Supremes, but he loved Tarplin more and stole him away from the girls.

Smokey referred to Tarplin as The Miracles’ “secret weapon.” As a songwriter, Tarplin co-composed many of the Miracles’ hit singles, including the million-selling Grammy Hall of Fame winner “The Tracks of My Tears” for which he received the ASCAP Award Of Merit  in 1965. Other hits were “My Girl Has Gone,” “I Like It Like That,” “Going to a Go-Go,” and “The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage.

He also co-wrote Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t That Peculiar” and “I’ll Be Doggone,” and “One More Heartache.”

Tarplin left the Miracles in 1973, shortly after Smokey Robinson went solo, and continued to collaborate with his old boss on

Robinson and Tarplin continued to collaborate as writers on Robinson’s solo recordings, including “Cruisin'” and “Being with You.”

In 1987, Smokey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. The Miracles met the qualifications, as did Robinson, but the band have not, to date, been inducted.

Tarplin retired from touring in 2008.

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RIP – DAN SICKO

EXPIRED: 08/28/11 –  Dan Sicko, 42, was a freelance journalist writing for Rolling Stone, Wired, and Urb and specializing in covering Detroit’s underground techno music scene and authored the acclaimed book “Techno Rebels” a little over a decade ago. If it wasn’t for Sicko, the only one covering the scene at the time, a lot of Detroit’s techno history would be lost.

Last year he revisited the scene with a 2nd edition, “Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk.” That book explores in even greater detail Detroit’s role in shaping techno.

While not spending time immersed in techno, Sicko brought the same commitment to a job as creative lead of the interactive marketing firm Organic, where he worked for the last 6 years.

Sicko died of ocular melanoma, a rare form of eye cancer. You can read more about his struggle with the disease – and make a donation to help his family – at http://www.mattsicko.blogspot.com.

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RIP – ESTHER GORDY

EXPIRED: 08/24/11 – Esther Gordy, 91, loaned her brother, Berry, $800 to start the Motown record label during in 1959. Often described as “the pillar of Motown”, she took an active role in management and booking tours, and acted as “mom” to some of the label’s younger acts. After Motown shut down she created a museum in the label’s Detroit studio, called Hitsville USA.

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RIP – IRV ROMIG

EXPIRED: 05/23/10 – Irv Romig, 90, better known as Ricky the Clown, started clowning for the Frank McIntyre Circus when he was just 5 years old. His family dressed him up as clown and that was that.

His family circus act moved around with traveling circuses but would always settle in Detroit in the off-season. But during the Depression, when getting work was tough, they started their own circus: the Romig and Rooney Circus, and Irv became “Irvie The Circus Buffoon.”

After doing time in World War II, Romig headed for New York and eventually joined Ringling Bros., even appearing in the early 50’s movie of the phenomenon,  “The Greatest Show On Earth” by Cecil B. DeMille.

RIP – DOUG FIEGER

EXPIRED: 02/14/10 – Doug Fieger, 57, the singer-songwriter for American pop band the Knack, wrote his first two albums about ex-girlfriends and broken hearts, so it’s kinda apropos that he would break the hearts of all his fans by leaving them finally and completely on Valentine’s Day. The Knack’s biggest hit was 1979’s “My Sharona” but nearly the entire album was written about that love /crush of Doug’s.

He had been living with his girlfriend Judy since he was 15, and moved from Detroit to Los Angeles with her after the demise of his first band, Sky. Judy worked as a hairdresser and while Fieger tried to get his new band, The Sunset Bombers, off the ground. Across the street from Judy’s salon was a children’s clothing store and in it worked a young girl named Sharona. Fieger met her, broke up with Judy and moved out.

RIP – JAMES GURLEY

EXPIRED: 12/20/09 – James Gurley, 69, died 2 days shy of his 70th birthday and almost 40 years after his bandmate, Janis Joplin passed away from a drug overdose in 1970.

RIP – EDWARD ZOLD

EXPIRED: 11/04/09 – Edward Zold, 38, grew up in Detroit and ran away to San Francisco in his teens shortly after contracting HIV. There he attended university and became a tireless HIV/AIDS activist.

Living with HIV for two decades, Zold was an early member of ACT UP/Golden Gate, and was involved in local and national HIV prevention and treatment campaigns. He was ACT UP’s media coordinator for four years, often serving as a spokesman for the group, and wrote for the Bay Area Reporter.

RIP – SHELDON DORF

EXPIRED: 11/03/09 – Sheldon “Shel” Dorf, 76, lived and breathed comics.

When he wasn’t reading them, he was drawing them. When he wasn’t drawing, he was talking about them, sharing them and promoting them. No wonder he started the annual convention that today is a leader in the industry, Comic-Con.