Donna Summer on the radio

LaDonna Adrian Gaines, known onstage as Donna Summer, passed away today in Florida, after a lengthy battle with cancer. The singer paired with Italian producer Giorgio Moroder for one of her biggest hits, "Love To Love You Baby," known for its effusively climatic finale, and was lumped into the disco trend of the late '70s, but I always thought of her as an R&B singer. Her pre-disco debut album, 1974's Lady of the Night, is actually quite interesting, produced by Moroder and partner Pete Bellotte, but never made an impact in the States.

I very clearly remember three 8-tracks my parents had when I was a kid: Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees, and Donna Summer's Once Upon a Time. The cover of the album inspired me to put hot rollers in my hair to give it volume like hers, except I was seven and didn't know how to use them, and my mom ended up having to cut out a large chunk of my hair. Summer was born the same year as my mom, which is sobering.

She also completely reinterpreted Serge Gainsbourg's "Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus." A few more highlights below, and Christgau's reviews of her work are an entertaining read.

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With the passing of storyteller Maurice Sendak today, many of a certain age found ourselves thrown back into specific childhood memories of his books. After re-watching In the Night Kitchen, the animated short based on his controversial book of the same name, I started piecing together a very specific memory of reading the book, and then being terrified of falling out of my bed and into some nightmare kitchen. I was literally afraid to look under my bed for a year, but that might have been more because my parents let me watch Poltergeist.

Looking back on it 20 years later, I can see the sweetness of it, the narrative construct Sendak used in all his books as a way to help children cope with isolation and being an outsider and having a wild imagination that maybe not everyone understood. This kid was getting to have the best night ever: HE GETS TO BE WHERE CAKE IS MADE.

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Yauch in 1994, when he bum-rushed R.E.M. at the MTV Video Music Awards

Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, aka MCA, has passed away at the age of 47. More news as it comes, but Yauch had been battling cancer since 2009, after it was discovered he had a tumor in his salivary gland. Sadly, he wasn't able to join his fellow Beasties last month, when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will be be aired Saturday, May 5, on HBO.

This song still has one of the best samples ever.

View more in our slideshow.

Roger Caldwell

Pops Carter

Denton fixture Tom "Pops" Carter passed away on Sunday, and while I didn't have any first-hand knowledge of him, the stories I have been hearing from DFW musicians who did points to a ladies man, a friend of musicians and a fount of blues and R&B history, from Louisiana to Houston to North Texas. Seems like everyone had a story about Pops. Do you? Leave it in the comments.

Here are a few from those who knew him, either in passing or in friendship.

Jeff Ryan (Baptist Generals, The Boom Boom Box)
In 1990, I was playing one of my first shows at the Library in Denton, now known as Cool Beans. Pops could tell maybe I was slightly uneasy, and told me, "C'mon, let's take a walk." We did and we walked past the old barbershop, Jim's Diner, the Corkscrew, just basically around the block. The message in that conversation was summed up in his one statement, "Music is supposed to be fun, so go up there and have fun!" I'll always remember that, and have kept that with me over the years. Thanks, Pops. R.I.P.

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I can't remember the first time I heard Levon Helm's voice. It's a warm, reassuring presence that's just always been there. During his career, it was a voice of the downtrodden and desperate, of a fun-lovin' rambler, and of a faithful farmer. Despite his Southern drawl, he was very much a voice of America.

Levon Helm did not consider himself a singer. He's perhaps more recognized as the drummer in The Band, who, in their early days, supported Bob Dylan after Dylan went electric in the '60s. With The Band, he helped kill off psychedelia and ushered in the country-rock movement of the early '70s. They pioneered the use of the clavinet years before Stevie Wonder. They gained recognition for their string of hits as well as their abilities as an ensemble. Levon's drumming is heard throughout The Band's entire catalog and is marked by a deeply-seeded amalgamation of rock and roll, country, blues, gospel, New Orleans soul, and just about every other native strand of popular music.

A random grab of Band tunes could display any one of these influences at any time, a rare skill most evident in the 1976 Martin Scorsese-directed film The Last Waltz, where The Band was support for a wide range of artists, from Dr. John to Muddy Waters to Neil Diamond.

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Dick Clark and Cyndi Lauper

Man, it took about five minutes before the Dick Clark hologram jokes started pouring in via social media, but I can't say I'm surprised. And even though Clark no doubt had a sense of humor, it'd been increasingly difficult to see him in the last few years, what with his failing health. Still, he continued to do what he knew, what he loved, and we should all be so lucky.

I used to come home from school and race to see who would be on American Bandstand , the show I watched along with Dance Party USA, in the late '80s. Among everything else, Clark was a great interviewer, great at interacting with often prickly musicians. Not very many people get a chance to wrangle The Village People and introduce an off-the-rails performance from Public Image Ltd. Pretty sure he also enjoyed being lampooned every once in a while.

His death today at age 82 from a heart attack, while not surprising, is unfortunate. He was there for the start of rock 'n' roll, and rode that train all the way.

Taryn Walker

Joe Avezzano and his son Tony, 2011

So many got to know former Dallas Cowboys assistant coach Joe Avezzano as a hard-nosed, foul-mouthed, award-winning special-teams coach during his days roaming football sidelines, which began in 1968 and ended yesterday, after Avezzano died of an apparent heart attack while in Italy coaching the Seamen Milano of the Italian Football League. From 2005 to the fall of 2011, however, Coach Joe enjoyed a title many of those in his field don't: live music venue owner.

As owner of Hat Tricks in Lewisville, Coach Joe and his son,Tony, found a place for musical acts of all kinds, after the duo turned the former dart-league spot into a top-notch music venue. He added a new stage, an excellent sound system and first-rate service. Fuel, Coolio, Jonathan Tyler, Johnny Cooper, Brandon Jenkins and Stoney LaRue have recently played there; Filter, Shock G and Chamillionaire are on the upcoming docket.

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Lee (left) and Jonathan Horne in Austin

I didn't know Lee Jackson, a North Texas music writer who passed away on Sunday after a battle with ALS. But the number of mutual friends we have dictates we were most likely in the same room or at the same show in Austin at some point, where he lived in the early Aughts, distanced by the six degrees that bind music scenes.

I know I'd read pieces he wrote for Foxy Digitalis, and felt the same way about this album, but the more I perused his blog, the more I was pelted with nostalgia, as I tried to recall those hazy Austin nights when I'd be at Church of the Friendly Ghost or another like-minded DIY venue. Aaron Mace, longtime organizer for CotFG, was at a loss too.

"I wish I knew him," he related. "One of those brilliant people that's like a quiet, secret museum."

Jackson had been living in Dallas at the time of his passing, which I didn't know either. I would have liked to have met him, and talked about quiet, secret museum things. Funny, given that Jackson often wrote about the harshest: Noise, chaos, drone.

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The great Butch Hancock will be at AllGood Cafe tonight, kicking off a March residency and the cafe's fist annual Townes Van Zandt birthday tribute. Hancock does a similar yearly jam at the Cactus Cafe in Austin, and he's a master storyteller, especially when talking about Townes. He's even more reverent when reinterpreting his old friend's material.

Starts at 8 p.m., and will feature "special guests" from Dallas and Austin.

Julie Garcia of the Granada just sent over this pic of their marquee, thanking Big Daddy Cuban for reaching into his pot of gold and saving the Greenville St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Does this mean Cuban will be King of the Parade this year? Is that a thing?

In other news, the Observer's March 17 concert with Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses will still go on. Tickets just went on sale last Friday. Go get 'em!