ALL THINGS MUST PASS: This past three-week period had perhaps the densest concentration of celebrity deaths in recent memory. Katherine Hepburn, Buddy Hackett, Strom Thurmond (after Gregory Peck, David Brinkley, and Hume Cronyn before them). But now we have the saddest of all: Barry White has died at the age of 58.
White will always be best known for his deep, sexy singing/speaking voice, which has gotten more men laid over the years than any other substance, with the singular exception of alcohol. The White mythos was often parodied on "The Simpsons" and "Ally McBeal," among other television shows, as well as in an unproduced comedy sketch written by yours truly, "Barry White's Help Desk of Luv."
The passing of Barry White, along with the hospitalization of Luther Vandross and the out-of-commission status of Stevie Wonder and Lionel Richie, seems to point towards a decline among the established elite of the traditional R&B sound. Can Ruben Studdard fill their very large shoes? I'm not betting on it.