Barry White Dead At 58.

[Bernie]

It's almost 5PM New York time and while listening for the weather update I heard that Barry White died today at the age of 58. Details are sketchy, but it is likely due to his long running wait for an organ donar...

The poor guy was only 58 years old and it instantly brought memories of losing my dad to an accident at the same age.

Still have wonderful memories of listening to all that great music while growing up in the 1970s. May he rest in peace.

[PaulC]

Barry White - You are 'The First, The Last, My Everything' Thank You! I Love You!

[peppertree5706]

I am so sorry to hear of the death of Barry White. My memory of his music is probably what he would like. Steamy nights on hot dates with his music on the radio. We listened in the front seat and then made our "night moves" in the back seat of a 1971 Maverick. We listened to him in dark parts of Coney Island and "parked" by Plum Beach off the Belt Parkway always while it was dark.

This is what the memory of his music brings back. Hottest song for my date and me was, "It's Ecstasy When You Lie Down Next To Me."

Herbie Mann-He had a long career but his influence on me was an extended version of 'Hijack" during the early days of disco. I remember that the guys at WPIX-FM liked to play Hijiack often. I really got into that song. I am sad to see the passing of Herbie Mann.

[Bernie]

Here's a link to a news story on Barry White's passing.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/...in561787.shtml

[Forrrce]

****You did your bit, Big Man****

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[jazz_pilgrim]

When I heard the sad news tonight, I just went and slammed on "Can't get Enough Of Your Love". My own personal tribute - paying my respects to the great man.

I think he was one of the greatest - his influence on not only disco music but on black music was enormous.

BARRY WHITE. Respect to you, Sir. Thank you for the enormous contribution you have made to music. And for the pleasure you have given to millions.

RIP. God Bless.

A fan

[QUINNY]

He had a good life.
Look out for 'greatest hits' at a shop near you in a few weeks.
It's a bit like, the King is dead, long live the King, eh?
R.I.P.

[Giovanni]

Words can't explain what the music give us deep down inside.
He was THE music.....
Respect

[NickNack]

I had just turned on the evening news and heard the anchor say that Barry White died. I had the remote in my hand and flung it across the room. Didn't even realize I'd done it.

The music this man gave and shared with the world will be around for a long time to come. I am really going to hurt realizing he'll never do anything else. They said he was working on a new CD before he got very ill. I hope enough was done for a release.

Right now, I'm playing "Your Love - So Good I Can Taste It".

Dear Barry,
Motown said it best: "What you gave... is more than enough to last." Thank you, Maestro.

[rhessel]

Dear Barry:

We will miss you :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Bernie, shouldn't we create a special article about him, such as discography, biography and interviews??

Cheers, :( :( :( :(

[Leanmean]

God, the Maestro is gone from us. I was on my way to pick up my mom to go see fireworks tonight when I turned on the radio and caught, "from the late, great Barry White who died at the age of 58."

I couldn't believe it. Didn't want to. I knew he had been sick, but you just don't want to focus on that I guess.

Barry White's music turned me on and on and on when I first heard "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Babe" and Never, Never Give You Up" when I was a mere 16. His music was the backdrop to my coming out days.I will miss him. He was an icon. Thanks Barry for the love.

[Marcio**]

Thank you Barry White, you're my personal soulstar, thank you for songs like "Brazilian Love Song", "Rio de Janeiro" and "In Brazil". Music Maestro, Please!!! :(

[Outsider]

I heard about his death earlier today, and it's really sad. Barry was a very talented singer, and he will be missed.

:evil:

[K-Bee]

The passing of Barry White was the first thing i heard about when i got out of bed this morning.
What a terrible way to start the day :cry:

I've been a big fan since i was a kid and i'm really sad that he was never able to recover from his kidney failure. Thankfully, he left a huge cataloque of music for us all to remember him by.

where ever you may be now Barry...K-Bee salute you!

[efunk_adelic]

What a horrible day this has been. Barry will be remembered for his music for a very very long time. I'm still in shock right now... because I am learning of his passing as we speak. :cry: I'm listening to my favorite song by him I've Found Someone .

Barry may you rest in peace.... you are truely blessed :)

[Funky Dude]

I heard the horrible news from Voyage when we were chatting on Soulseek and my first words was "oh crap" :cry: . My first thought was:

Didn't anybody bother to donate a kidney to him???

Recently I was sort of wondering how he was doing whether he's been given a kidney and back on his feet or not? I honestly thought someone would have kindly donated him a kidney so he could be saved, how wrong I was :cry: :cry: :cry: . Surely they could have saved him in the amount of time they had :cry: !!!

All I can say is that Barry White is a top bloke, he is one of the best soul/disco artists in the world, he has the best talent in the world, his music is fantastic and we'll miss him so bad :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: !!!

RIP Barry :cry:

[PaulC]

I was fortunate to meet him some years ago through my work.
I told him how I had seen him in concert, as a teenager back in the 70's and had taken photos, but they all turned out blurred, because I was shaking with excitement.
He really laughed at my story and realised I was a big fan.
The next day I had the surprise of my life! He sent me a beautiful signed photo and a bottle of champagne!
What a wonderful man.

[The Lord of Flatbush]

I am saddened by Barry White's loss. Not only was Barry White legendary from the genre of R&B and Soul Music, Barry White was one of the pioneers from the Disco Era.

His music must've touched many of our hearts one way or another.

He'll always be known as "My First, My Last, My Everything!"

[zeca azevedo]

Barry White will always be the undisputed king of disco and sexy soul. He was blessed with talent and he made millions of people around the world happy with his music. We'll miss him very much.

His music will endure, and I'm sure there's lots of couples making love and listening to his warm baritone at this moment...

R.I.P., Maestro.

Love Unlimited to us all,

zeca azevedo

[usagi-san]

No more Walrus Of Love? Walrus Of Love's gone? Answer me, Barry, with something other than "Sho you right."
I heard 'Love's Theme" when it came out and afterwards but it seemed DJs never announced the artist. Eventually I bought most of his original albums, including all the 1970s ones on CD (no hits collections; I couldn't handle the way they'd edit his songs, although I bought Love Unlimited and LUOrchestra collections on CD). Romance all over the place. I think I would have bought anyone's albums if they had that music in the background, but his voice made it an excellent pairing. The longest I ever watched "Ally McBeal" at a time was when he was on it. I hope he gets to have a good time with Edwin Starr.
usagi-san :cry:

[efunk_adelic]

Barry just made music, period. He didn't know of the disco sound. Neither did Ior others that write in the forum. We discussed this in some other thread that spot lited "Harold Melvin/Bluenotes". He stated in a vh-1 interview, that he was making music, not love music ... I think he would be affended by us saying that he started disco. What makes him so talented is that he wrote all his early songs & put everything he had into them. :D He wasn't trying to be the guru of love.

[discosavvy]

This is in response to comments by efunk_adelic:

According to the Washington Post ("Barry White, Velvet Voice of Love" by Richard Harrington, July 5, 2003), Barry White told a reporter "Very few people know what 'disco' is and I'M ONE OF THE INVENTORS OF IT. Ain't but one thing that distinguishes disco from any other music -- four on the floor. I only made three records with that beat, and they were big, but the world's producers took that and ran with it on every record they cut."

He's wrong, though -- he made more than 3. Even if we excluded the constant Bohannon-like stomp in a few of his early songs like "What Am I Gonna Do With You?" (1Q) and "Honey Please, Can't Ya See" (2Q), both of which I consider to be disco songs too, we do see the most typical disco drumming in songs like "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" (1), "You See the Trouble with Me" (2), "I'll Do For You Anything You Want Me To" (3), and "How Did You Know It Was Me?" (4), and arguably also "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me" (3Q) (though the tempo is a little slower there), as well as the incredible opening to "Your Sweetness is My Weakness" (5), plus some songs for Love Unlimited and the Love Unlimited Orchestra like "High Steppin', Hip Dressin' Fella" (6) and "I'm So Glad That I'm a Woman" (7), and maybe "Don't You Know How Much I Love You" (4Q) despite its unique rhythm. A few others are borderline disco and could be interpreted in different ways. So that's 7 for sure, and 4 more (marked Q) which I think also qualify. "Power of Love" by the orchestra is borderline disco but there's an extra beat in there in a way I haven't heard in other songs.

Sure, most of his output wasn't disco, but he did have some disco.

What offended White, according to the article, was that "He came to symbolize the worst musical, social, sexual and fashion excesses of that era." He also spoke out against the excesses of the music industry and the way they were over-marketing disco to its detriment. And in another interview he said he didn't think he was "no king of no disco".

It seems like Barry White, like K.C. of the Sunshine Band, also didn't like the word "disco". They just wanted to make good music and were making it before anyone standardized a word for 120 bpm soul/funk-driven dance music. And it's true that without that word, there would be no "Disco Sucks" and endless songs titled disco this and disco that. Like, if the music was called "house" or "dance" from the beginning, would "House Sucks" make any sense? Would people be afraid to say the words "house" or "dance"?

For better or worse, because disco has a standard formula, whether a song is disco or not depends on how it sounds, NOT whether its maker approves or disapproves of the classification.

[Masdefi]

I am still shocked from that. I can't believe. Barry has been my guide and my favourite in the early disco age.

Dead of Maestro Barry is the saddest thing and more sad is that I think media haven't given the right importance to this, at least in Italy. :cry:

No other words I can say than God bless you, Barry

Masdefi

[HustleBaby]

I was at Lincoln Center (Midsummer Disco Night) when the dj Bobby Morales announced the sad news of Barry's death.
I was speechless and sad :( :cry: . It was nice and hot that day (without rain) so I knew that I was gonna have some fun. Anyway, I made the best of the evening with a Grand Marnier cosmo and a toast to the maestro. R.I.P Barry.

Does this mean that record stores are gonna to jack up the prices of his cds???

*DISCO DELIGHT*

[QUINNY]

Barry White was from the old school of soul music and all his 'disco' hits were actually before disco fully emerged weren't they?
What he did manage to do was combine elements of soul with funk and a certain level of sophistication not heard before. He also managed to create an unmistakeable sound that was all his own. For my own taste he was too saccarine sweet sounding on most of his tracks, but there were the odd few that really moved and sounded hard. Interestingly, one of his biggest hits You're The First........was so unlike anything else disco at the time, but would probably be the one track everyone quotes as being disco. It was pure pop as far as I was concerned, but by then EVERYONE loooooved Barry and he could do no wrong. One of the most cherished memories of my DJ career was a night from hell, in early 1975 when the only customers (all well known to me) in the disco I was working were nearly all BIG and I mean BIG, Barry White fans, oh and a parrot was there too. Anyhow, to cut along story short, I must have played every conceivable Barry White track that night and the sheer joy on the customers' faces was really something to behold. Luckily, they knew I'd pulled it out especially for them and it was only done because there were no other customers in the joint, so the event wasn't repeated or even asked to be repeated.

IMO: He was never anything to do with disco as such and I've been surprised how many people have given him a disco label.