Who is Joe Cocker

Linda Rose (that's me and friend Tim 1972) says:

Joe Cocker's music stays with you like your first love; once heard, you will never forget him. His vocals are unique and original. Just listen to: "You Are So Beautiful", not an original of his, but he made this song extremely popular, and tell me you aren't touched. His rendition of this song sure made couples on the dance floor (or other places....hummmm) finalize their relationship. Yes, that song seems to be directed at females - but is it? This song was sang to me by a musician who sounded exactly like Joe Cocker and let me tell you, especially the guys out there, if you sing this song to your girl - You're in!

Joe Cocker's music never grows old - he'll keep you rockin', from pre-Woodstock (1969) to present. Explore this page and get to know him. Listen to him and see for yourself!

Don't Give Up on Joe Cocker
Posted on 14 May 2009 by carly

Who: Joe Cocker in concert
When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Mississippi Moon Bar, Diamond Jo Casino, 301 Bell St., Dubuque

Tickets: $45, $95, $150 through (563) 690-4800 or www.diamondjo.com
DUBUQUE - Joe Cocker says his "Hymn for my Soul" CD isn't autobiographical, but the track "Don't Give Up on Me" could very well be.

It's been 40 years since Cocker helped rock Woodstock and on Wednesday he turns 65.

"People said I'd never make 40," he says in a phone interview from Ontario, one of the stops on a whirlwind tour that will bring him to Dubuque's Diamond Jo Casino on Saturday.

"To be still rocking and still playing to people around the world feels privileged."

He's laid to rest many of the demons that have plagued him through his storied career and is in a good, stable place in his life.

"I've been married almost 20 years to Pam. I met her when she was working for Jane Fonda years ago in Santa Barbara. She's hung in there. I've often thought it's got to be hard being married to a rocker. I quit boozin' about eight years ago. Weird isn't it? Fans I've known backstage who want to hang out with me still don't get it."

He credits his wife for keeping him grounded. They've traded California living for the high life on their Mad Dog Ranch in Crawford, Colo.

"It's on the western slope," he says. "Aspen's about an hour away." But the ski migration doesn't reach their place. "Where we live was basically a hunting area, so that's the only time of year we get really invaded."

Originally looking for a little getaway place, Cocker fell in love with the area. "There's something about the four seasons," he says. And when he's not on the road, he spends about two hours every day walking with his dogs. He says his canine companions the best deterrents for bears. "Even with a couple of dogs, you have to keep your eyes pealed," he says.

Now that he's on the road, those walks will fall by the wayside and the numbers on the scales are likely to go up.

"I tend to put on a few pounds when we start rolling," he says with a laugh. "It used to be the other way around."

Another difference between touring then and now is the view from the stage.

"It's always a bit odd," he says with a mellow British accent that belies his trademark raspy vocals. "I used to tint my hair a little bit, but I finally decided to let it go. When I see all these people with gray hair (in the audience), I don't recognize them. God, it's a weird world."

His tour started April 17 in Florida and ends July 18 in Memphis. "We've done nine shows - only 44 to go," he says.

Will the fans hear a lot of cuts from his latest CD, released in 2008?

"Not really, luv. I've learned over the years to do most of the hits in the space of an hour and a half, so now I'll only do the title track." And he knows those hits have to include "The Letter" and his favorite, "You Are So Beautiful."

"It's a lovely song Billy Preston wrote," he says. "I sang it at his funeral. It's a powerful tune that's always different every night.

"I've seen grown men cry, so it is a powerful little tune. It still gets me wrapped up some nights when you look into people's eyes. It was originally a gospel song and Billy just turned the words around."

Cocker has been turning things around since his boyhood days in Sheffield, England. In the beginning, he was a drummer.

"I played in Vance Arnold and The Avengers - in those days they gave us funny names," he says. "But nobody sang and played drums, so I let them go. I do regret I didn't take up guitar. In my teens, so many guitar players were hanging around ready to play so I never really felt pressed to learn."

Instead, he discovered Ray Charles and developed what into what he calls "a white soul singer."

"Ray Charles had such a big influence on us in the late '60s," he says. "When I first heard Ray, I dropped everything and studied him for hours." But unlike Charles, he doesn't play piano, which he says "is a shame."

So now, he says, "with a choice of songs, I can pick up any kind of tune but approach it as a soul singer."

And he doesn't plan to quite any time soon.

"We have a big house in Colorado. I keep working a lot to maintain it," he says. "I don't have a lot of royalties - I don't write tunes so I'm still working for a living."

But it isn't all about personal gain. His wife, Pam, started Cocker Kids Foundation.

"It raises money for local kids who have an idea and want to do something special, " he says. "Maybe they need to go to Europe to study art - we give them a chance. We also bought computers for a school.

"It's kind of nice to give back a bit."

- Diana Nollen, The Gazette

Joe Cocker, wife Pam and a board of directors have had this youth foundation since 1998. It is situated in North Fork, Delta County CO and helps youth up to 21 years old. It is based on "neighbor helping neighbor" and the "Organizations and kids who receive funds volunteer their own time back to the community". I quote this directly from Joe Cocker's official site: http://cocker.com/MadDogRanch/KidsFoundation.asp

Isn't that the way people in communities are supposed to be, helping each other,like the good old days? Yes! At least here is a man and his family plus others who are still practicing it.

If you are interested in the other side of the music and want to know the man and his family, please visit his site.

The picture accompanying this post, of Joe Cocker and wife Pam at a playground, is from the Cocker.com official Site with no alterations.

Fred Cecil, a Kentucky musician, sang so much like Joe Cocker; it was hard to believe you were hearing someone else. I wrote this poem in memory of Fred and thought that it somehow belonged here on this page honoring him as he honored Joe in life. He passed on Joe's birthday which made this just seem right. This poem was published in Story Digest Vol II, Issue IV, Editor and Publisher Shaun C. Lockhart

My Thoughts Go Back

By Linda Cervantes Rose
In Memory of Fred Cecil

My thoughts go back, back to a time...

when the warmth permeated this room,

Like that you would find within the womb.
The fan whirred in a monotonous din.
The air unit had frozen again.

when the music softly played a popular tune;

It was a hundred and seven at about noon.
Our clothes were strewn in heaps on the floor.
The covers were askew from the night before.

when as lovers were stirred, new morning broke,

Being together, to each one woke.
Entwined were our spirits, one with the light.
We had agreed that this was "really right".

when a new found love had just begun;

He opened a heart where I thought there was none.
Thinking forever we'd be King and Queen,
He went off to work to sing and be seen.

when I didn't know that on that date,

It had all been sealed; it was just our fate.
The keyboard sat silent, awaiting his hands,
His voice would be missed by all of his fans.

when I listened for his knock upon the door

So he'd be with me, just once more.
Overwhelming pain, hurting so deep
Imagining him here with me asleep.

My thoughts go back, back to a time...

when the warmth permeated this room,

Like that you would find within the womb.
The fan whirred in a monotonous din.
The air unit had frozen again.

Linda Cervantes Rose
Copyright 1999

Photo by John Macpherson

first heard Joe Cocker when I was around 15, growing up in a small town in Puerto Rico in the early 70's. I remember feeling intimidated by his album photos - the disheveled hair, the flapping arms and the wild expression. But something about his voice captured me.
I listened to every Cocker album that I could get my hands on, much the same way that Cocker had listened to every Ray Charles recording that he could find as a youngster growing up in Northern England.

Throughout the years, I stuck with the Sheffield shouter, even during periods when I had no clue what he was up to. I rejoiced every time he had a new recording or a hit song.

I didn't know it then, but Cocker introduced me to the blues. In his voice I heard the voice of the Mississippi Delta, of the bluesmen who had inspired him and who I would later come to love and admire.

Cocker performs Saturday at the Cruzan Amphitheatre near West Palm Beach, promoting his new CD, Hymn For My Soul, and I got a chance to talk to him about his music. As I dialed his home in Crawford, Colo., the other day, I was probably as nervous as Cocker was when he first met his idol, Ray Charles.

"It was nerve wrecking," Cocker recalled about the 1969 encounter. "He sat in his dressing room in his underpants, so you can imagine how intimidated I felt. But even now I don't think there is anyone, apart from Aretha [Franklin], who I admire more."

I asked Cocker about a period in 1965 when he and his band -- then still unknown -- toured U.S. Air Forces bases in France and developed a following among black servicemen who became excited about a white boy who could sing soul.

Did he know then that he had it?

"It was really good training because we would start at 7 at night and continue way into the wee hours, with very little time off. I copied Ray; I used to know all his nuances. In the late 60's, it dawned on me that I could develop my own style."

"But you're right," Cocker added. "It kindled something. We played these clubs after the air bases and that's when all the black people would follow us around. So I knew that we were on to something."

I asked Cocker if he remembered a 1969 quote from Life magazine: "Joe Cocker is the voice of all those blind criers and crazy beggars and maimed men who summon up a strength we'll never know to bawl out their souls in the streets."

He hated that quote.

"It disturbed me even back then. If you listen to a lot of the great blues artists, as I have and do, they were crying more from the soul. We white boys learned everything from those cats. So I thought that quote was more applicable to Muddy Waters and the other blues guys who started the whole thing."

But isn't his legacy about introducing blues and soul music to a wider audience and to a new generation?

"I have crossed the borders," Cocker said. "I think we all did - Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, guys who are still around. And it's nice to know that I've connected with a lot of people who don't understand the black side of it, but they go into it from a different angle."

After all, he said, "Rhythm and blues is the foundation of what we do."

And Cocker was my foundation for loving the blues.

POSTED IN: Blues (60), Deborah Ramirez (81)

GO TO ORIGINAL BLOG: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/features/arts/music/blog/2008/05/joe_cocker_my_foundation_for_l_1.html

By MOLLY GLENTZER Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Oct. 29, 2008, 7:58PM

Even before Joe Cocker let loose his trademark growly voice onstage Saturday at the Hyatt Regency ballroom, the Houston Children's Charity 12th annual black-tie gala was a rocking success. In spite of the troubled economy, the event raised $1.4 million for the nonprofit, which serves underprivileged, abused and disabled children.

Chairs Sheridan and John Eddie Williams pulled out all the stops for the night's honorees, Houston Chronicle society columnist Shelby Hodge and architect Shafik Rifaat.

Key players in the evening included board chair Tilman Fertitta and wife Paige; board president Edna Meyer-Nelson; executive director Laura Ward with her husband, Channel 13 news anchor Dave Ward, who served as emcee; auctioneer Vikki Vines; and a host of board members including Gary Becker, Grant Guthrie, Thad Brown and Don Clark.

Kudos also go to Momentum BMW Southwest and West, which helped bring in the big bucks by donating a hard-to-get 2009 335i hardtop/convertible to the auction - and to Wallis Marsh, who bought the car for a princely sum. R.O. Hunton and Suzanne Klein were also among the night's generous bidders.

Party goers included BMW's George Ault, Ericka and Jeff Bagwell, Sheila and Walter Umphrey, Cindy and Mike Gatewood, Cynthia and Bucky Allshouse, Linda and Dr. Walter McReynolds, Janiece Longoria and Steve Lasher.

Original article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/society/6084638.html#