While I don't want to downplay the loss of John Lennon 25 years ago, I'm not going to be one of the millions of bloggers commenting on that today. I want to recall another musician unknown to most people.
Yesterday's edition of my local newspaper brought the news that drummer Mark Craney, a Sioux Falls, S.D., native, died Nov. 26 from longstanding health problems. Craney was more than just a local music standout. He toured with Tommy Bolin (a Sioux City, Iowa, native) and Jeff Beck and recorded with Jean-Luc Ponty and Gino Vannelli in the late 1970s before joining Jethro Tull. (Ian Anderson, who initiated the idea of a Craney 1997 compilation CD on which Craney and many notable artists perform, has posted a tribute at the band's website.) Craney also toured with Tower of Power before kidney problems forced him out of the business. Following a kidney transplant, Craney ended up touring again, this time with the Eric Burdon Band. A few years later, though, the transplanted kidney failed and Craney was forced off the road for good in 1996.
Yet those credentials aren't why I remember Mark Craney. And, to the best of my knowledge, I never met Mark. Yet he and a few of his friends had a dramatic impact on my musical interests.
One of the South Dakota-based bands Craney played in was Zero Ted, a jazz/rock-oriented group. One night back in 1971 or 1972, the band played at the Watertown (S.D.) Auditorium. I went more for the hell of it than anything else. At this time northeast South Dakota still was largely a music wasteland if you wanted much beyond the Top 40 occasionally played on local AM radio. Word of mouth, music magazines and late night megawatt radio stations like KOMA out of Oklahoma City or Little Rock's KAAY were your options to find something a a tad more innovative.
Article comments
1 - uao
This is very good writing Tim, and an excellent eulogy for Craney, whom I confess I've never heard of (although I know the bands you've mentioned).
Thanks for posting this; to me, this is why music is so important; for the impressions it leaves that stay with us our whole lives.
2 - MrFarf
Thanks much Tim for your wonderful comments about a "most excellent" drummer and musician. I saw Mark drum for Jethro Tull on the "A" concert tour and was dumbfounded when I heard Ian Anderson introduce Mark as being from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined a Tull drummer coming from America's heartland. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the "A" show emmensely and treasure my copy of the "Slipstream" video(and now DVD). What a great way for Mark's talents to be permanently available for all drummers, Tull fans and musicians. I wish I had "had" the opportunity to meet Mark once upon a time and to offer my words of compliments and congratulations but I'm sure he is aware of my profound feelings of respect for him and his musical efforts. Mark...YA DONE GOOD!
3 - ccccitab
RIP Marc Craney!
As You describe Tim, I have also felt a deep impact from the works of this wonderful musician. Not many people in this world, let alone musicians or drummers (!), can be remembered at all for making any kind of mark in other peoples mind and this man managed to do so "simply" by playing drums on some recordings from the late 1970 and early 1980.
The first recording I heard with Marc was Brother to Brother and for many years I did not know the name of the excellent drummer (this was before the internet and PC's kids!), but I listened to it over and over again for years - still do!
I read an interview with Marc were he raised the question of self worth and I would like to raise the following questions: 1. What would have become of the brother to brother and nightwalker albums had another drummer recorded it? 2. How big would Gino Vanelli had become without the signature drumming of Marc Craney on those albums? I am not saying that Gino would not have managed, but I am simply raising the question of Marcs actual input/impact and just keeping on the thread of his own question of self worth...
Thanks,
//MG, Stockholm - Sweden