Friday, April 18, 2008

Danny Federici, 1950-2008

I know I tend to be pretty irreverent with the celebrity death news around here, but this truly does suck: Danny Federici, keyboardist for the E-Street Band, has passed away after a battle with melanoma. As far as I'm concerned, The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, Born to Run, and Darkness on the Edge of Town is one of the most amazing streaks of albums in modern popular music history, and they certainly would be less memorable without Federici's accordion, glockenspiel, and his absolutely transcendent organ fills and solos. The loss is made even sadder because, after leaving Springsteen's tour to undergo treatment last year, he appeared onstage at a concert in Indianapolis less than a month ago, leading me, to think that he was all but recovered.

Video of his final performance is at brucespringsteen.net, and more information at the Backstreets fan site.



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