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    Phoebe Snow has died

    By Donal on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 2:57pm | Arts & Entertainment

    I read once that the original Phoebe Snow was a media creation. Railroads were trying to show that diesels were much cleaner than coal, so they invented this ephemeral socialite named Phoebe Snow who could travel the rails wearing white, and emerge unsoiled by soot. The name carried to an Erie Lackawanna passenger train, and Phoebe Ann Laub borrowed it for the stage.

    The LA Times has an obituary:

    Phoebe Snow, a singer and songwriter who gained fame with her 1974 self-titled album that featured the hit single "Poetry Man," has died. She was 60.

    Snow died Tuesday in Edison, N.J., her longtime friend and public relations representative, Rick Miramontez, said. She had suffered a brain hemorrhage in January 2010.

    The album "Phoebe Snow" turned the singer, blessed with multi-octave range, into a star. She made the cover of Rolling Stone, appeared on "Saturday Night Live" and was nominated for a Grammy Award.

    I can't post youtubes at work, but if I could I'd certainly post Teach Me or Two-Fisted Love.

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    Arts & Entertainment

    Comments


    by Richard Day on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 5:28pm


    by Donal on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 8:25pm

    I remember an interview in which she was asked why she had disappeared from the music scene for so long.  Turned out that she'd had a special needs child, perhaps with Down's syndrome, and wanted privacy.  Godspeed to you and your family, Phoebe. 


    by we are stardust on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 5:34pm

    Yeah, her brain-injured daughter Valerie died on March 18, 2007 at the age of 31.

    FoxNews: Valerie was born with such a confluence of injuries in 1975 that no one knew what was wrong. Truthfully, I don’t think to this day anyone ever did figure it out.
    ...

    Valerie was 16 in 1991, the year I remember Phoebe announced that her child walked for the first time. It was a miracle.

    With no real diagnosis, and no precedents, Valerie was a medical anomaly. Phoebe talked about doctors in Mexico and alternative treatments, but whatever it was, it was a miracle. And that’s the way things have been since then.

    Phoebe and Valerie lived in a small apartment in Fort Lee. Phoebe did occasional gigs, and they would sell out. To say she became kooky is a kind of way of putting it. I don’t know what she was like before all this, but life devoted to Valerie was not easy no matter how much Phoebe loved her.

    The child's physical deficiencies were severe, and daunting. Her communication skills were a challenge. At this point, as Phoebe continued to care for her child, the mystery of Valerie became almost spiritual. There was no explanation for why or how she had lived so long, except that Phoebe had willed it.


    by Donal on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 7:58pm


    by Donal on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 8:29pm

    I think if it's OK if I offer this, which was posted on Facebook yesterday by an old friend of mine:

    I will never forget the summer of 1967... my roommate at Hampshire Lodge teen camp was Phoebe Laub, later known as Phoebe Snow... we sang Phil Ochs songs and Dave Van Ronk songs at the hootenannies, and shared the secrets and joys and tears of teenage girls... she was a shining star whose brilliance lit up the world for far too short a time, but her music will continue to inspire generations to come, I'm sure.


    by Bruce Levine on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 5:39pm

    That's nice.


    by Donal on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 7:20pm

    Wow.  Thanks for posting this.  I have been singing Pheobe Snow since my aunt gave me the album at age 16.  My favorite is her version of San Francisco Bay Blues.  I love singing that one for some reason.  A friend of mine once told me I sound more like Phoebe Snow than Phoebe Snow as if that's possible but I considered it a great compliment. 

    I send you love and gratitude Pheobe.


    by synchronicity on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 8:57pm