Remembering Joe Cocker, A Mad Dog And Englishman

The Woodstock era became a little more distant this morning, when Joe Cocker, the rock icon known for songs like "Feelin' Alright" and his Beatles cover, "With A Little Help From My Friends" died of lung cancer. The English singer, whose 1969 Woodstock performance catapulted him onto the American scene, was 70.    

For a period of time in the late 1960s and early '70s, Joe Cocker was one of pop music’s biggest names. This was because he had two things going for him: his voice, which could go from a soulful croon to a searing wail -- sometimes in the course of a single phrase; and his stage persona, which turned the idea of the Rock God frontman on its head. Neither untouchably cool nor radiating sexual heat, Cocker would perform as if in the throes of a seizure, with his arms flailing, his face scrunched up, making passing attempts at air guitar and just as often gesticulating wildly at his bandmates.

Most people came to Joe Cocker’s music for the voice; many stayed because of the unforgettable image his live performances conjured.

My clearest memory of Joe Cocker is also my clearest memory of the comedian John Belushi. Saturday Night Live, 1976: Joe Cocker is on the set, singing “Feelin’ Alright,” when cast member Belushi comes out onstage and joins him, aping his movements and, frankly, upsetting quite a few people who thought that perhaps there was something wrong with Cocker and that Belushi was making fun of an illness or disability.

Well, it turns out there was nothing wrong with Joe Cocker. Or rather, there was nothing physically wrong with him. But he did go down the rabbit hole of drug and alcohol abuse, and lost momentum in the late '70s while dealing with his addiction. He rose to the top again in 1982 with “Up Where We Belong,” his duet with Jennifer Warnes. But I’ve always felt like that song was not representative of the real Joe Cocker.

His greatest songs – and I wish I could think of a more elegant way to put this – had balls. Cocker's breakthrough record, a cover of The Beatles’ "With A Little Help From My Friends," blew Ringo Starr’s original out of the water. Even The Beatles acknowledged that Cocker had performed some kind of alchemy on the song, transforming a genial piece of pop into something epic and raging. (The guitarist on the track, by the way, was Jimmy Page.) And that was before his career-defining live performance of the song at Woodstock.

"Feelin’ Alright” and “The Letter” both came from Mad Dogs And Englishmen, his 1970 album which documented his live touring band at its gutsiest, most soulful peak. And while I was less of a fan of the ballad “You Are So Beautiful,” even there, by the end of the song, Cocker’s voice sounded like it was being ripped from his chest.

The Mad Dog, as he was once known, an Englishman born and bred, had been living in Colorado for the past quarter century or so. He still toured, successfully, and recorded, perhaps less successfully. Aside from “Up Where We Belong,” Cocker’s post-70s career may not have been as visible or as groundbreaking as his earlier work; but Joe Cocker’s legacy was assured well before that memorable Saturday night in 1976.