Joan Manners - death of a Little Criminal

When I joined the Little Criminals¹ aka the Randy Newman mailing list way back in 1997, one of the first people to greet me was Joan Manners. She was very much the heart and soul of the list and used to post detailed reports of Randy concerts and became 'famous' for them. Living in Los Angeles and working for Paramount studios, she naturally became the leading contact between the list and the Rand himself or his manager, Cathy. Thus those of us who are geographically challenged heard about concerts and scoring sessions for the various movies with which Randy was involved. 

At one stage (pre-list), she was the girlfriend of 'Weird Al' Yankovic (who used to create parodies of popular songs), so we heard bits and pieces of gossip about him also. A biopic was recently made about Weird Al, but Joan wasn't amongst the characters.

Joan also frequently posted about her personal life and so I know that Joan always had health problems. As far as I can recall, these were mainly back problems; she was operated on a few times and these operations weren't always successful. But in December 2023, she was getting tested and diagnosed at one of the world's leading respiratory hospitals called National Jewish Health.  I've been here for a week and have one more week to go, and it's been exhausting!  But I'm getting some good information.  For instance, it turns out that I don't have asthma.  (I had been misdiagnosed with asthma by two doctors!) 

Eight months ago, Joan posted: Well, as long as I'm being self-indulgent on the list, I may as well tell you that I got laid off from my job of nearly 36 years a couple months ago.  Paramount was having mass layoffs, so it wasn't completely unexpected.  But, since I was the only one who was doing my job, I had always considered myself sort of safe.  But there's no such thing as being really secure in a job these days.  I had a good run.So, you'd think I'd have more time on my hands now, but I'm actually busier and more stressed than ever, going nuts trying to transition to retirement.  (I'm 70.  I'm not gonna look for a new job.)  I'm going nuts trying to figure out Medicare, for example.  I have lots of health problems, so I need to make the right decision, and it's really confusing.  (I'm reading "Medicare for Dummies" right now.)

At the beginning of April, Joan wrote: I've been going through things and downsizing a bit, and as a result we received several posts at the beginning of June (i.e. the beginning of this month) recalling all sorts of memorabilia from 1997-9. In retrospect, it's clear what was happening: Joan knew that she would soon be dead and was remembering her life, and in doing so, helped us remember her.

This obit is much more detailed than my usual ones about musicians or authors who touched my life, primarily because I have a great deal of personal documentation from which to quote. The picture at the top shows Joan and me (when I still had brown hair) in a restaurant in Los Angeles, when I was there in 2005. 

I also note the passing of Mick Ralphs, who was the original guitarist in Mott the Hoople (early 1970s trivia). I can't say that he touched my life but he was part of the Island records milieu.

As I am writing this, the beautiful orchestral version of  "Pavane for a dead princess" by Ravel is playing in my headphones; a fitting tribute to Joan.

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This day in blog history:

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85	26/06/2007	How one's life can change in a minute	Fire
86	26/06/2007	How one's life can change (part 2)	Fire
1047	26/06/2017	Good days for insights	Kaizen
1235	26/06/2019	DBA update	DBA
1518	26/06/2022	The malleability of folk songs (2)	Personal