Clydie King RIP

The new year is only a few days old but already there have been several music deaths. The latest is Clydie King at the age of 75. Clydie will be well known to fans of girl groups, soul music and Bob Dylan, but spent much of her career as an in demand background singer. Her recording career goes back to 1956 when she was discovered by Richard Berry and made a record under the name of Little Clydie and the Teens for the RPM label. She followed this with records under her own name for Specialty and Phillips as well as being a member of the Meadowlarks and recording 'Who Do You Love', a duet with Mel Carter. In 1965 she recorded 'Home of the Brave' as a member of Bonnie and the Treasures for Phil Spector.
Later in the sixties she recorded some fine soul records for Imperial and Minit and had some success with 'Ready Willing and Able', a duet
with Jimmy Holiday. She was a member of the Brothers and Sisters of Los Angeles who recorded an album called 'Dylan's Gospel' in 1969 and did some background work for Bob himself at around that time. She was a member of the Blackberries who recorded several tracks for Motown which weren't released and had a solo LP released called 'Direct Me' and another called 'Brown Sugar featuring Clydie King'. As a backing singer she supported Little Richard, Humble Pie, Joe Cocker, the Rolling Stones, the Supremes
and Ray Charles among others and in 1980 she became a regular part of Bob Dylan's touring band, singing duets with him on most shows and backing him on several albums in the eighties. It's said that she was Bob's girlfriend and had two children by him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5dM86R1brA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LynNU-0KVhY
Another death is that of Eric Haydock, bass player with the Hollies from 1962 to 1966, who was one of the first British musicians to play the Fender Bass VI.
Also passed on, at the very end of last year, is Dean Ford, who was lead singer of the Marmalade from 1966 to 1974 and who co-wrote their big  hit 'Reflections of my Life'. Born in Scotland, he formed a group called the Gaylords, which became the Marmalade. Other hits included 'I See The Rain' and 'Rainbow'.After recording an unsuccessful solo album in 1975 he moved to LA where he battled alcoholism.