REST IN PEACE, SALLY STEVENS

 

Terrible shock this morning:

our friend Sally Stevens passed away last night from bronchial pneumonia, fallout from our exceptionally wretched 2017-18 influenza season. Sally was the sort of music biz person with whom you wish the whole field was populated, a genuine fan of rock and roll and an avid enthusiast of all the creative arts. 

Although we both were active in the local L.A. music biz from the late 1960s onward, I actually met her through our mutual love of fine art through her many posts of beautiful paintings on Facebook. She liked upbeat things. Her latest Facebook series was that of UPS drivers being greeted by exceedingly friendly dogs of all kinds.

She also knew music from both sides, both as a singer/songwriter/guitarist as well as publicist. Born and raised in England, she came of age during the influentual 1960s "Swinging London" era of cultural innovations, and with her great looks and smarts fit right in. (proof sheet upper left, photographer unknown.) These later served her well in her adopted home of the USA, where she was employed by Elektra-Asylum Records, RCA Records and others in the music field. Her world was that depicted below (photographer unknown) with clients and chums such as Jackson Browne and John Belushi during rock's most interesting eras- the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s.

Left, Sally with music writer Todd Everett at typical music biz function, in this case Jet Records, photographer unknown; right, Sally as performer herself in the 1970s, photographer unknown.

My 2014 color pic above  at the top is of Sally at our house, in front of a vintage oil painting of my better half Mr. Twister during his rock star days, based upon a promo photo of him by Norman Seeff.  She was displaying her vintage shirt designed by The Fool (see interview with Marijke Koger-Dunham, head artist of that design/art/music phenomenon LINK*) which was worn on the opening night of The Beatles' Apple Boutique in London, 1967, which she attended. Sally's life intersected with as many important cultural touchstones as interesting people. She will be missed by a huge amount of the latter...

*http://fastfilm1.blogspot.com/2016/02/interview-with-marijke-koger-dunham.html