Joe Cocker Dies at 70
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The Daily Beast – 4 hours ago
British singer Joe Cocker died of an undisclosed illness at age 70, his agent says. Cocker …
BIOGRAPHY
JOE COCKER
The legendary British born, Grammy award winning singer, renowned for his unique voice and passionate delivery, Joe Cocker, returns with his 23rd studio album.
Following on from the resounding success of his platinum selling number one 2010 album ‘Hard Knocks’, Joe Cocker has returned to Matt Serletic’s Californian Emblem studios to deliver an outstanding follow up album due for release this winter.
Serletic, producer (Matchbox Twenty, Rob Thomas, Collective Soul, Carlos Santana) and Cocker have produced ‘Fire It Up’, an album of eleven songs recorded over the 2011 winter and spring of 2012.
On working again with Joe Cocker, Serletic explains: “We took it to the next level. I’m excited to hear all the different elements that we brought to this album, we got great classic soul records, big power ballads, high energy tracks, and they all have their place in this album ”. Cocker shares that creative direction: “Making an album, to me, is a bit like making a painting, you know, you’ve got 12 songs, and it’s colour – I don’t like everything to be one mood”.
Diverse album tracks include ‘Eye On The Prize’ written by Marc Broussard from New Orleans, who also wrote the song ‘Hard Knocks’; ‘I’ll Walk In The Sunshine Again’ written by the platinum selling singer-songwriter Keith Urban. Cocker describes it as: “It’s country but it isn’t”; ‘The Letting Go’ written by the trio of Charlie Evans with renowned young British blues/soul singer Joss Stone, and Grammy award winning Graham Lyle; and the irresistible title track ‘Fire It Up’ written by Alan Frew, Johnny Reid, and Marty Dodson, with the anthemic lyric, and rapturous chorus sung with Cocker’s signature passion.
Cocker: “Fire It Up is a special kind of tune, and it set up the whole album”. Serletic: “There’s this whole energy which we captured”. ‘Fire It Up’, the first single taken from the album, will be released 12th October prior to the album release.
BEATNIKHIWAY 