Blues and blue movies

The Final Word says goodbye to two very different personalities. One was from the world of blues and the other was from the world of blue movies (well soft porn anyway).
Jeff Healey was only 41 and enjoyed success with his brand of blues/rock in the late 80s and early 90s. He was not my cup of tea but made quite an impact, later moving towards jazz. Blind, he had a distinctive guitar playing style, holding the instrument on his knees. His premature death from cancer ended a short but impressive career. Here's the story in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/arts/music/04healey.html?ref=music
There's an obituary of Jeff in today's Times (March 5) and also one of Arkansas rock and roller Bobby Lee Trammell who died on February 20 aged 72 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3483975.ece
Paul Raymond was aged 82 and was one of the richest men in England, his wealth built on strip clubs and soft porn magazines. I went to Raymond's Revuebar in Soho only once and found it just a bit too unsleazy for my taste. It was expensive, the girls were very glamorous, but it was not very exciting - rather like some of the flashier 'gentlemens' clubs' that one finds in the States. When I was younger (ie back in the 1960s) I went to one or two of Soho's many strip clubs. There were at least a dozen of them in those days but today only Sunset Strip in Dean Street remains. I remember when I was about 16 two friends and I visited one of these down market strip joints on Boxing Day. We were the only customers in there and the strippers took these three shy young punters to their hearts and gave them an especially personal show. On the way back a lady of the night approached us and asked us if we had seen old Bill. We had no idea who old Bill was and it was only later that we worked out what she was talking about. Soho remains a place full of character and the demise of at least some of the clip joints has to be an improvement. But I must admit that I miss the sleaziness of Soho in the 60s, with the strippers dashing from club to club (they were expected to strip off at six clubs every two hours) and mini-skirted tarts plying their trade. Paul Raymond was the undisputed porn baron of the area and his death marks the end of an era. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/03/2?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews