Sandy Pearlman, producer of The Clash's Give 'Em Enough Rope and Blue Öyster Cult's '(Don't Fear) The Reaper', passed away peacefully in the early hours of July 26. He was 72.
Pearlman suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in December 2015 that left him unable to walk or talk.
He had an extensive and varied career, managing Black Sabbath, producing for Blue Öyster Cult and The Clash, and helping pioneer rock criticism. He wrote for seminal publications such as Crawdaddy and may have been the first critic to use the term "heavy metal".
His friend Robert Duncan describes him as a "poet, producer, songwriter, manager, label owner, member of the Library of Congress preservation board, [and] professor of music and philosophy at McGill and University of Toronto". Duncan also said in a Facebook post that "a celebration of his exceptional life will be announced later".
Pearlman was also parodied by Christopher Walken in the beloved SNL sketch 'More Cowbell'. His response?
"See, I don’t really like cowbell that much, and it’s not actually that loud. It’s the radio compressors that make it loud. Actually I needed less cowbell".
See Duncan's Facebook post and some highlights from Pearlman's career below.