Re: [Harp-L] Snooky Pryor obituary

[Philharpn@xxxxxxx]

STRANGELY ENOUGH, the Chicago Sun Times had an obit on Snooky Pryor and 
mentioned the fact that he took a club from the Army PA system used to amplify 
bugle calls and got his own portable PA when he got out of the Army and started 
hanging out on Maxwell Street.

See also:


www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/118812,CST-NWS-xpryor01.article

Having spent the last 38 years working for newspapers as a reporter and copy 
editor, I KNOW that the only way obituaries (free news stories) not paid death 
notices (as the classified line rate) get in the paper is if a funeral home 
faxes or e-mail the form into the city desk.

At the paper I worked at, all the bosses were about 24 and knew. Even though 
we were a major Detroit Metro newspaper, we never ran obituaries of anybody 
from out of the circulation area unless he was a national figure -- and even 
then, the person had to be a name a 24-year-old would recognize.

Somebody must have explained who Ed Bradley was why he was important -- 
because I'm sure most of the young editors in the joint never saw him on TV or 
heard of him until the wire stories started coming into the city room.

When I saw the post on Harp-L that Snooky had died that was all I needed to 
know. I had several of his recent CDs and wrote about him in AHN several times. 
I knew he was ailing.

So I didn't even check the five daily papers I get (including the NY Times) 
for more details

That's why we have Harp-L. Nobody else gives a damn about harp.

Phil Lloyd

 




In a message dated 11/11/06 12:32:03 PM, havaball@xxxxxxx writes:


> http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1944241,00.html
> 
> The only "official" (ie from a mainstream newspaper, not a specialist
> publication) obituary of Snooky Pryor I have seen -- and naturally
> enough by Tony Russell for one the UK's leading newspapers.  I could
> go on and on here about the US media STILL not recognizing what's
> right under it's nose, but this isn't the time or place. Rather I'll
> just say I'm glad this ran in the UK and it seems a balanced overview
> of Snooky's life.
> 
> --TB
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