PlayItForTheKidsVille
Legendary Lotuslandian rock and roll DJ Red Robinson has passed away:
“With deep sadness and broken hearts, we bring the news that our beloved Dad, Red Robinson, passed this morning at 8:15am after a brief illness. We’re so glad we got to spend his final moments with him, and having his brother Bill there made it extra special.
Most people knew our Dad as a rock’n’roll DJ, a TV personality, an ad agency owner, a spokesperson, or through his philanthropic work. He was larger-than-life in a lot of ways, but to us he was a devoted father and grandfather, a loving husband to our late mom Carole, and a loyal friend to everybody.
Red’s departure leaves a huge hole in our lives, as well as the lives of everybody he touched in the worlds of radio, TV, music and entertainment. An event celebrating his amazing life will be announced soon, and we invite you to share your memories on Red’s Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages.
Luckily, Mr. Robinson and Company worked diligently the last few years to get all kinds of his archived material up into the Digisphere at places like the social media sites listed above as well as on the Tubez and down at the audio clip-powered Podsville Station.
Below is a short history of Robinson's career, narrated by the man in himself, in which explains that he first got on the air at the age of 16 after he called into Al Jordan's 'Themes For Teens' show on CJOR in 1953 and did a Jimmy Stewart impression:
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4 comments:
Not only was he part of rock n roll history, he recorded it and for that we can all be greatful. He recorded all the music history in Vancouver for all that time. Its really amazing. He was one of the constants of Vancouver's music scene and history.
He will be missed.
Oh, he does look so young in that picture, well I know he was. It really was amazing he started his career in 1953. A lot of Greater Vancouver's population hadn't even been born yet, but when we became teenagers we all got to know him
Sad to read this news yesterday. Too soon.
Even recently , when you heard him talk, he still had the voice.
What a great life he had.
Met the man once as he did a TV promo for KVOS back in the 90's in my store. Very nice and quite humorous.
Alas, far too many icons are leaving us.
condolences to his family.
Sad day. My sweetheart was just entering high school as Red was exiting as a senior. We were bummed yesterday, but I really enjoyed her memories of him and the good old days of rock’n’roll (she has a small phial of dirt she scooped from where Elvis walked by her during his only Vancouver gig—and of course he was interviewed by Red Robinson). She said Red was friendly, very personable, a good interviewer and enthusiastic promoter of music a lot of people assume was a smash from the artists’ first recordings when, in reality, even Elvis and the Beatles needed promoting way back in their early days. And they all worked very, very hard. (Been asked a million times why I never pursued a career in pop—or at least Blues and Folk: I never regretted not living on the road. It woulda killed me.)
First song I ever learned on guitar was “Battle of New Orleans” and my favourite Beatles tunes were “Act Naturally” and “I feel Fine”—a direct lift from Buck Owen’s “Buckeroo”—just to remind that, back in the late 50s, pop was on the cusp of an explosion that people like Red could sense coming, but everybody was searching for the big genre —thus Beatles doing C&W numbers, Elvis and Marty Robbins doing Hawaiian music—and even Pat Boone doing “rock and roll.”
It’s funny how, even though I was immersed in it, it takes looking back from now, six decades later, to appreciate how pop might have taken so many different paths and that it only happened to take the one it did: Jump x Hillbilly = Rock-a-Billy—then Rock-n-Roll; yeah, there was rock and progRock and acid-rock, but the only new hybrid after Rock-a-Billy was a bit of Reggae sneaking in, and even that was a weak hybrid that didn’t last. Sad to say it was all over by 1980–but, happily enough, that’s when I went retro and discovered the musicI really love: mid-20s to mid-50s.
Red Robinson, RIP, and LONG LIVE ROCK AND ROLL!
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