Remembering 2023’s Music Losses: John Gosling

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Ugly, ugly weather in the south. It’s supposed to get very cold here…just in time for the 30th anniversary of the “snowstorm of the century” in Kentucky. (Understand, we aren’t used to 16” snowfalls, so what might be an inconvenience to Minnesota or Maine literally shut the state down for a WEEK.) I’ll just stay home if/when it happens and play music! Here’s another performer we lost in 2023. John Gosling And you’re saying “Who?” No, he was in the Kinks, not The Who. While John Gosling was not an original member of the Kinks (and, therefore, not inducted into the Hall of Fame with them), he played on ten albums of theirs during the 70s, when “album rock” made the Kinks an important band in rock and roll. He sadly was in the “wrong place at the wrong time,” joining the band for Lola Versus the Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One in 1970 and leaving before their “comeback” (in America, anyway) album Low Budget in 1979. Still, he played on some important Kinks songs including “Lola,” “Sleepwalker,” the classic “Celluloid Heroes,” and “Jukebox Music.” After the Kinks he and some other former members had a band called the Kast-Off Kinks. Gosling retired from music in 2008. His death from undisclosed causes on August 4, 2023 brought heartfelt tributes from Kinks lead guitarist Dave Davies, who said, “He has been a friend and an important contributor to the Kinks’ music.” Brother Ray, the songwriter and lead singer of the Kinks, wrote, “Rest in peace, dearest John.” Indeed. John Gosling February 6, 1948 - August 4, 2023 (age 75) Here’s one of my favorite Kinks songs, a humorous yet somber tribute to American cinema, “Celluloid Heroes”: