Michael Been

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Michael Been (* 17th March 1950 in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma as Michael Kenneth completion ; † 19th August 2010 in Hasselt , Belgium ) was an American rock musician , singer , songwriter , bassist , record producer and actor . He was best known as the frontman of the Californian rock band The Call .

life and work

Michael Been, born in 1950 in Oklahoma City, grew up in Chicago , where he became a member of various psychedelic rock bands, for example the band "Aorta" or the group "HP Lovecraft". He then played with the former Moby Grape -members Jerry Miller and Bob Mosley in the band "Fine Wine" and Miller later in the band "Original Haze" and bass on the 1974 album With Footnotes the band 2nd Chapter of Acts .

At the end of the 1970s Michael Been ( bass , lead vocals) founded his own band called The Call with Scott Musick (drums, vocals), Tom Ferrier (guitar, vocals) and Greg Freeman (bass) .

This is how the self-titled first album THE CALL , supervised by producer Hugh Padgham in 1982, was formed , supplemented by keyboardist Garth Hudson (synthesizer, piano, saxophone). The 1983 album Modern Romans led to a world tour as the opening act for the musician Peter Gabriel . The title song When the Walls Came Down got a lot of attention on MTV .

Between 1982 and 2000, the group around frontman Michael Been released twelve albums. Including eight studio albums, three best-of albums (1991: The Call - The Walls Came Down (The Best of the Mercury Years) , 1997: The Best of The Call, (WEA Records) and 2000: The Call - The Millennium Collection , (Hip-O Records)) and a live album (2000: Live Under the Red Moon ). Most of these albums were produced by Michael Been and The Call.

In the 1990s Michael Been released two solo albums. One was the soundtrack to Paul Schrader's 1992 crime thriller Light Sleeper . In 1994 the album On the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough followed on Qwest Records, which Been mainly produced itself again.

The single Let the Day Begin from The Call's album of the same name, written by Michael Been, became the official anthem for Al Gore's Democrats campaigning for the 2000 US presidential election .

In addition to his band The Call, Michael Been often found the opportunity to appear as a guest singer in other rock bands or befriended musicians. Among others, Peter Gabriel's album Sun in 1986.

Conversely, famous guest musicians played with The Call from the start . As early as 1986, Jim Kerr from Simple Minds and Peter Gabriel could be heard on the album Reconciled . Garth Hudson , organist and saxophonist of the formation The Band , was keyboardist on the first three albums. Actor Harry Dean Stanton played the harmonica on For Love from the album Let the Day Begin . Bono of U2 sang on the 1990 album Red Moon in the background.

In addition to the music, Michael Been drew attention to himself with another talent. Director Martin Scorsese cast Been in 1988 in his much-discussed film adaptation of Christ, alongside actors such as Willem Dafoe , Harvey Keitel , John Lurie , Harry Dean Stanton and Barbara Hershey in The Last Temptation of Christ in the role of the Apostle John.

With the band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club founded in 1998 by his son Robert Levon Been , Michael Been toured more often in the 2000s. There he often acted as their sound engineer and audio consultant during the concerts. During the 2010 tour, Been died on August 19, 2010 in Hasselt, Belgium, as a result of a heart attack during the performance of the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at the Pukkelpop music festival.

Discography

Solo albums
  • 1992: Light Sleeper (Soundtrack) (WEA Records)
  • 1994: On the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough (Qwest Records)
The call
  • 1982: The Call, (Mercury Records)
  • 1983: Modern Romans, (Mercury Records)
  • 1984: Scene Beyond Dreams, (Mercury Records)
  • 1986: Reconciled, (Elektra Records)
  • 1987: Into the Woods, (Elektra Records)
  • 1989: Let the Day Begin, (MCA Records)
  • 1990: Red Moon, (MCA Records)
  • 1991: The Call - The Walls Came Down (The Best of the Mercury Years)
  • 1997: To Heaven and Back, (Fingerprint Records)
  • 1997: The Best of the Call, (WEA Records)
  • 2000: Live Under the Red Moon, (Conspiracy Records)
  • 2000: The Call - The Millennium Collection, (Hip-O Records)

Filmography

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Portrait of Michael Been on "The Independent"
  2. ↑ Frontman, songwriter and singer for the band The Call
  3. ↑ Michael Been Discography at Discogs
  4. ↑ Michael Been dies at 60; singer was a founding member of rock band the Call, at "The Los Angeles Times"
  5. ↑ Michael Been in Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" at film releases
  6. ↑ Oklahoma-born rocker Michael Been dies in Belgium , The Oklahoman , August 20, 2010
  7. ^ The Call's Been dies of heart attack, CNN.com, Aug. 20, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Been, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Been, Michael Big Daddy; Been, Michael Kenneth (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American rock musician and actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Oklahoma City , Oklahoma
DATE OF DEATH August 19, 2010
Place of death Hasselt (Belgium) , Belgium