RIP, Andrew Gold

He was all over the radio 34 years ago this summer with "Lonely Boy." Also did "Thank You For Being A Friend," which lives on via "Golden Girls" reruns.

Part of the Linda Ronstadt band back in the day, too.

Only 59.

http://oregonmusicnews.com/blog/2011/06/04/singersongwriter-andrew-gold-dead-at-59/

 

Listened to a 1982 countdown today on XM and he got name-checked. Recorded before his death. Weird.

 

"Lonely Boy" had to be the whiniest hit in a decade full of sensitive guys on the charts. I mean, this guy was spun into permanent existential crisis by the birth of his sister. Who, in the song, didn't do anything to him. Her mere presence was all. Unless she was born a succubus, I'm not sure what young Andrew was so put out about.

 

Well how would you feel if your parents said you were the only son and you thought you were the only one, then they brought you a sister and told you they had to attend to HER needs because she's so much younger than you? Huh? I know I would be PISSED.

 

hey, dude whined himself into a hit single. give him a break. dunno why i think of this, but any time i hear his name i think of linda ronstadt introducing him as, 'the fanTABULOUS andrew gold...'

r.i.p. hope he didn't die a lonely man....

 

Want to talk about bad introductions (at least inaccurate ones)? Check out Helen Reddy introducing the Sanford Townsend band on Bert Sugarman's Modnight Special back in the 1970's. I would say she missed the mark with her prediction. Great song, though...

 

in fairness to ms. ronstadt, i didn't mean to suggest it was a 'bad introduction, just a memorable fusing of adjectives. i never thought that she had misspoken...

 

Didn't realize his mother was Marni Nixon. who did the singing for Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn in the movies of West Side Story and My Fair Lady.

 

No, he didn't die a lonely man. At least he was greeted at the pearly gates by Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, and Rue McClanahan.

I didn't mind "Lonely Boy." I like the song. [/ducking]

 

Family reunions must have been fun when Uncle Andrew showed up drunk again to bitch out his parents for pampering his sister, his sister for stealing the attention, and his nephew for falling victim to the same vicious circle.

Must have been like the reunion in "Scent of a Woman."


Plus if you listen to the lyrics, his witch sister was exactly two years younger than him, so I somehow suspect young Andrew was not sitting around giving a lot of thought to the shifts in the family dynamics created by the new arrival.



Ahhh, what the hell. The song was a hummable piece of Seventies AM cheese.

RIP.

 

Gold was a charter member of the sensitive bearded "one-hit wonders" of the 70s with Robbie Dupree, and Henry Gross.