SOME SPECIAL HEROES OF THE DAY!
Names: Eric Zapata, Poly Styrene and Phoebe Snow
Ages: deceased
Occupations: policeman, singers
Last Seen: the great beyond
Awarded For: being an asset to society
Ages: deceased
Occupations: policeman, singers
Last Seen: the great beyond
Awarded For: being an asset to society
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As the old saying goes, death happens in threes.
OK, so most people outside of west Michigan never heard of Eric Zapata, but to the people of Kalamazoo, he was a hero. He was a man who gave his life to protect others as a public safety officer. A week ago Monday, Zapata, 35, responded to a call of shots being fired. However, when he arrived at the house, he asked the man standing on the porch, and he shot Zapata, killing him. Afterward, he then shot himself.
His funeral was yesterday at Miller Auditorium, where hundreds of police officers, family and friends from all over - even from Florida - came up to pay respect to a man who had a coward take his life, only to take his own.
Then again, many never heard of Marianne Joan Elliott-Said - aka Poly Styrene - either. She was one of the first ladies of punk rock in the 1970's as the outspoken lead singer of the British band X-Ray Spex, best known for their 1977 sax-fed anthem "Oh Bondage, Up Yours!" Styrene's voice was called by critics as "powerful enough to drill holes through sheet metal". Many viewed her as a leader of the riot grrrrl movement in rock since she made a statement on the studio recording of the song: "Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard - well I think, oh bondage, up yours!"
The band had considerable success in their home land of England, where several of their records where top 40 smashes. Here in America, it was another story as top 40 radio ignored punk to a tee while focusing on the mind-numbing sounds of disco. Styrene kept performing after the Spex broke up in 1979, but earlier this year, she had announced that she had been battling breast, lung and spinal cancer. She died on Monday, aged 53.
Eric Zapata was a hero for putting his life on the line. Poly Styrene was a hero for making it cool for a chick to sing punk rock. But, it was Phoebe Snow who realized that family was way more important than that of a career.
In 1975, 24-year-old Phoebe Ann Laub - who got her famous stage name from an early 1900's advertising icon for the Lackawanna Railroad - scored a number five pop hit on the Billboard charts with "Poetry Man". Just a few months later, what was supposed to be one of the proudest moments of her life turned tragic, and detrimental to her career.
She gave birth to a girl, Valerie, who was born with severe brain damage. Worse, her husband left her. Her label wanted her to keep recording new material and tour, but she knew that Valerie was priority one. She recorded only four albums in the 80's and 90's and made only a handful of appearances. Howard Stern was one of her biggest fans, even inviting her to perform at his wedding in 2008.
Valerie Laub was finally freed from her crippled body in 2007 at the age of 31. On his show Tuesday, Howard Stern commented that offstage, she was always in tears since Valerie was her life and it was taken away from her. Phoebe suffered a stroke last year, and never recovered from it. She was 60 years old.
Maybe in Heaven, Phoebe Snow and Poly Styrene can finally have a jam session together, and Eric Zapata can be the security.
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