{"id":31534,"date":"2025-12-16T09:26:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T15:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/?p=31534"},"modified":"2025-12-16T09:26:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T15:26:21","slug":"obit-watch-december-16-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/?p=31534","title":{"rendered":"Obit watch: December 16, 2025."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/news\/legendary-texas-musician-joe-ely-dies-78\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Ely<\/a>, one of the great Texas musicians. <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/music\/obituaries-people-news\/joe-ely-dead-texas-singer-roots-rock-hero-1236609581\/\" target=\"_blank\">Variety<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/12\/15\/obituaries\/joe-ely-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9E8.rJiH.QsyCtx8rohi3&#038;smid=url-share\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>NYT<\/strong> (wow!)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m generally a little cynical about Texas musicians, but even I have to acknowledge that he was one of the greats. And I could just post YouTube videos all day.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0KuZiqI6yVk?si=LDm7_kwGXdGkgQO8\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t an Ely original, but I prefer this to Robert Earl Keen. That is a controversial opinion, I know.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0CfiFeg9bS8?si=ViD3r2llQt8ZQd9J\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Lawrence describes this as the greatest song ever written about a fighting rooster. Can&#8217;t argue with that.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bhqIQx3EhAc?si=UpreOs-lcR0NGJP8\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b4ozfEj02IE?si=t5XrSBkgKQtNUdB9\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, he was an early adopter: he had a BBS system, back in the day when BBS systems were a thing.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/12\/15\/obituaries\/joe-ely-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9E8.rJiH.QsyCtx8rohi3&#038;smid=url-share\" target=\"_blank\">After the show, Mr. Strummer and Mr. Jones took the Ely band on a tour of London\u2019s late-night demimonde, an eye-opening experience even for someone as well-traveled as Mr. Ely. He returned the favor when the Clash came through Texas on their first U.S. tour, in 1979. He took them around Lubbock, to sites including Buddy Holly\u2019s grave, where they all got stoned on laughing gas and beer.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/12\/15\/obituaries\/joe-ely-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9E8.rJiH.QsyCtx8rohi3&#038;smid=url-share\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cI had teachers tell me I wouldn\u2019t make it to 21 when I was going to high school, so I beat the odds, you know?\u201d he told Lone Star Music magazine in 2011. \u201cI\u2019ve traveled millions of miles, zigging and zagging in every kind of vehicle known to man, trying to get from one place to another to create some more music.\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He was 78.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/7XZbp\" target=\"_blank\">Anthony Geary<\/a>, actor. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0311270\/?ref_=fn_t_1\" target=\"_blank\">Other credits<\/a> include &#8220;UHF&#8221;, &#8220;Project U.F.O.&#8221;, &#8220;Shaft&#8221; (the TV series)&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and &#8220;Mannix&#8221;. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0641546\/?ref_=nm_flmg_job_1_accord_1_cdt_epp_sm_1\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;A Way to Dusty Death&#8221;<\/a>, season 7, episode 2. He was &#8220;Eddie Decken&#8221;.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joe Ely, one of the great Texas musicians. Variety. NYT (wow!). I&#8217;m generally a little cynical about Texas musicians, but even I have to acknowledge that he was one of the greats. And I could just post YouTube videos all day. This isn&#8217;t an Ely original, but I prefer this to Robert Earl Keen. That [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150,195,40,16,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1970s","category-mannix","category-music","category-obits","category-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31534"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31539,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31534\/revisions\/31539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}