![]() ![]() The third CD, Celebrity Night at PJ's, a 1965 live release previously available only on import, is little more than a quaint souvenir. It features more than 40 studio cuts (including singles, album cuts, stereo versions, alternate takes and unreleased tracks) spread over two discs. Forgotten assembles everything the Bobby Fuller Four recorded for the Mustang imprint from 1964 through 1966. But in the process, it raises as many questions as it answers. The Del-Fi label's new three-CD set Never to Be Forgotten: The Mustang Years, tries to address those questions. Was he an important figure whose death overshadowed his contributions? Was he an innovator? Or was he merely a run-of the-mill sum of his influences who happened to meet with a tragic fate? He had a mere two Top 40 hits to his credit, and like Valens, he appeared to be on the rise before tragedy struck. But Fuller had yet to carve out a unique musical niche when he passed away. Hendrix's place in music history was clear when he died, as was that of Morrison, Joplin and even infamous Who drummer Keith Moon. One misguided soul even called Unsolved Mysteries claiming Elvis Presley did it.īut with all the fuss about Fuller's death, little energy has been expended on evaluating his proper place in rock history. ![]() Or, just maybe, an envious member of the Bobby Fuller Four - which was about to disband when its leader was found dead - was somehow involved. Others suggest that the death was the work of a devious financial backer who held an insurance policy on Fuller's life. Some say he was snuffed out by a mob-connected club owner, jealous because Fuller had been hanging around the guy's girlfriend. But what actually happened still remains a matter of conjecture there are as many theories about Fuller's demise as there are about Marilyn Monroe's. County coroner's office proved no more competent, determining the cause of death as "asphyxia due to inhalation of gasoline." Really now, how does one accidentally douse himself with gasoline? Then again, this was Los Angeles.Įven more details surfaced after Unsolved Mysteries aired a segment on the case in 1996. Subsequently, the LAPD ruled Fuller's death a suicide, stating, "there was no evidence of foul play" despite the bruises on the singer's face, chest and shoulders (eyewitnesses' reports also said his finger was broken). Weird, to say the least.įor their part, members of the Los Angeles Police Department demonstrated their usual mastery of forensics, failing to dust the car for fingerprints and discarding an empty gasoline can found in the back seat. The singer - best known for his mid-'60s hit "I Fought the Law" - had been dead for at least three hours when he was discovered, yet two of the artist's friends claimed the car wasn't even in the lot shortly before 5 p.m., when the body was found. Both Fuller and the vehicle in which he was found had been missing for 14 hours before both were discovered in a vacant lot next to his apartment building. ![]() The death had all the makings of a true-crime thriller. So it makes perfect sense that when Bobby Fuller's badly beaten, gasoline-soaked body was found inside his mother's car on a hot July afternoon in 1966, the 23-year-old Baytown native was assured of a place in rock history. Meanwhile, his sorry replacement, Sid Vicious, who died of a heroin overdose surrounded by accusations that he killed his girlfriend, is deified as a prince of the punk movement. After all, few people remember Glen Matlock, the original bassist of the Sex Pistols and composer of much of their repertoire. The legacies of Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and numerous other stars all, to a certain extent, depend on the simple fact that they met their maker with potential to spare. Ritchie Valens, who died in the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, is considered such even though he had only two Top 40 hits. There's nothing like death to give a rising rock and roll star instant status as a legend.
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