Pointer Sister Dies

[PKO]

How sad...June Pointer, youngest(52) of the Pointer Sisters has passed. She succumbed to an undisclosed type of cancer.
Jump...I'm So Excited...Neutron Dance...Yes We Can Can...how many Saturday nights did I dance till morning, falling in love under the mirrors and lights to the music of the Pointer Sisters?
Rest In Peace, June...you are forever in our memories. PK

[Randy & Betty in Pa]

Thats so sad, such talent and life.... R.I.P June, the world is a lesser place without you.

R. from Pa

[RedjackRyan]

Ahh the pointer sisters rocked.. thanks for all the good times , June.

[Rickster]

Ah...Too young to die! I enjoyed the Pointer Sisters and their music.

[abe]

Besides Janis, the Pointer Sisters have been always one of my most favorite artists for years. I have all the albums of them, and two solo LPs by June as well. The video clip she was featured in the Staple Singers' classic "Respect Yourself" was so funny and she still sounds amazing to me, though the cover version was actually lead by Bruce Willis for his own album.

"He's So Shy", "Dare Me", "Jump (for My Love)", "Should I Do It" and "Goldmine"... They are all lead by the youngest Pointer sister. I'm Shocked and saddened. The good news is the other sisters Ruth and Anita could be there. Bonnie couldn't make it. So sorry.

[Irish Beth]

We are Family sure meant alot to people in Pittsburgh. How sad :(

[Dougster]

Like you Abe, I have always loved the group, and what they recorded. Especially in the early days. The LP "That's A Plenty" is a favorite because of how fun it is. I know June struggled with demons as we all do.

I hated seeing this news. A great sound (the trio or quartet) is silenced forever. Makes me sad. Makes me feel old. I will always love and miss her.

[DaveM]

She is already missed. What more can one say?

[Wildflower Fever]

We are Family sure meant alot to people in Pittsburgh. How sad :(

No disrespect, Beth, but wasn't We Are Family by Sister Sledge?

[abe]

Like you Abe, I have always loved the group, and what they recorded. Especially in the early days. The LP "That's A Plenty" is a favorite because of how fun it is. I know June struggled with demons as we all do.

I hated seeing this news. A great sound (the trio or quartet) is silenced forever. Makes me sad. Makes me feel old. I will always love and miss her.


Thank you, Dougster. Yeah, "That's A Plenty" is my favorite album, too.
I kept hoping she would be back together with Bonnie to the other sisters for teaming the quartet, even while the trio was enjoying success with pop materials since I used to be a big fan of their amazing chorus technic in 70's.

Now I just hope she's in somehere at the higher ground, and is singing beatifully and proudly, without pain.

[jetcityhawk]

I too was sorry to read of June's passing, especially for us more "mature" folks who remember them from when they first burst on to the scene. These are a few of my Pointer Memories:

I remember waaaaay back in the seventies, I took one of my first girlfriends (and one of my last actually) to see Helen Reddy, and opening the show was The Pointer Sisters. I took her because not only did we like both performers, my girlfriend was one of the early "funky dressers" (30's and 40's stuff, scarves, jewels, Carmen Miranda type) and The Pointer Sisters were one of her early inspirations! Years later, with my now "husband" of 11 years (I finally realized which sex I was supposed to be with) we saw them starring in "Ain't Misbehavin" and enjoyed them immensely.

R.I.P. June. And thanks for the music, through the years...;)

Marko

[DaveM]

It is especially sad when a "sister" or a "brother" leaves us....I mean, how can you imagine one Pointer sister without the other?

Or how can one imagine the Mills Brothers as anything other than a trio? I listen to my 78s every now and then and have to shut them off, as I miss them all so badly.

[Bryan]

I saw the Pointers in concert in the summer of 2001 (I think it was just after June returned to the group). They did this gag where they started to sing We Are Family and then stopped after the first verse and said...."wait a minute, that's not our song." Apparently a lot people thought it was.

[SFBill]

That's funny. I saw the Pointers in concert in the summer of 2001 (I think it was just after June returned to the group). They did this gag where they started to sing We Are Family and then stopped after the first verse and said...."wait a minute, that's not our song." Apparently a lot people thought it was.

That is hilarious, Bryan!

I've followed the Pointers ever since their thrift clothes days--I most enjoy their jazz-pop music of the early-mid 70's--I would have loved to have seen that particular Pointer Sisters incarnation Live. Their music made me feel good.

I also just finished reading the SLYVESTER biography and the Pointers sang backup for him in the beginning--I never knew that!

Great book, by the way! I loved Slyvester's music and the integrity he showed in a very homophobic music industry and culture. This book also shows what a great musician he was!

[Fursky]

This is so sad, and she was so young! Like those who posted before me, I have nothing but fond memories of the Pointer Sisters. I remember many nights of dancing the night away with June. What a legacy she leaves behind and thousands who will miss her greatly!:(

[Randy & Betty in Pa]

You know it's funny, well not haha funny but strange funny when I saw new additions to this thread I was sitting here Listening to the Soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever and of course the Bee Gees... We've lost so many great artists over the years.... It is such a sad thing...

Best to all

R from Pa

[Rickster]

No disrespect, Beth, but wasn't We Are Family by Sister Sledge?



Wildflower, I believe you are correct.

[DaveM]

The truly sad thing is that when a "sister" or "brother" dies, a lovely act is no more. That said, I am keeping everything crossed and hoping the Everly Brothers live forever.

Can anyone here imagine "Phil Everly in Concert"? I thought not.

[SFBill]

I thought some here might enjoy this article.

by Annette John-Hall
Philadelphia Inquirer, April 18, 2006

When June Pointer of the Pointer Sisters died last week from cancer
at age 52, many news organizations mistakenly ran a picture of her
older sister Ruth with their obituaries.

That final indignity simply reaffirmed the lack of appreciation the
singing sisters from California have dealt with throughout their
long and versatile career.

Nowadays, they are viewed as another oldies act, their more popular
songs -- "Jump (For My Love)" "I'm So Excited" -- more recognizable
as commercial jingles than the top-10 hits they were.

But true Pointer fans remember when the trio was a quartet; how the
sisters emerged on the scene in 1973 like a "Cloudburst" -- one of
many jazz standards they sang at breakneck speed; how they pushed
fashion forward by dressing in the vintage past; how they could funk
it up better than LaBelle, scat like Ella, and croon country so
authentically that folks at the Grand Ole Opry didn't even realize
they were black until they actually performed their 1974 Grammy-
winning hit, "Fairytale" (which, by the way, Elvis later recorded).

True fans understand that the Pointer Sisters were the single most
influential girl group to cross the post-Motown divide between
restrained R&B and free-flowing pop. Their gospel-tinged voices --
straight out of the West Oakland Church of God, where they grew up
as preachers' kids -- were malleable enough to defy category. Their
versatility paved the way for many, from Sister Sledge to Destiny's
Child.

True fans could tell the difference between June and Ruth.

It was June, not Ruth, who dropped out of high school to form
Pointers-A-Pair with sister Bonnie. Anita and Ruth joined later.
Their debut album, The Pointer Sisters -- the cover featuring a
photo of the quartet rocking funkily hip 1940s' garb -- was a rich,
jazz-inflected gumbo of complex harmonies and R&B grooves. (One of
the songs from that album, "Jada," written by Anita, inspired this
reporter to name her daughter after same.)

Ruth, the oldest, provided the group's gut-bucket alto harmonies.
And while Anita's voice was more pop, and Bonnie -- who left the
group in 1977 to pursue a solo career -- was more rock, June, the
fun-loving, practical-joking, generous-to-a-fault baby sister, was
the belter.

It was June who sang lead on "Jump," and "He's So Shy," the flirty
1980 pop anthem that put the Pointers back on the charts,
positioning them for the pair of Grammys they would win in 1984
for "Jump" and "Automatic."

If the Pointer Sisters' albums were refreshingly eclectic, their
live performances were spectacular. They were the first pop act to
perform at the esteemed San Francisco Opera House, and those who
attended that 1974 concert are probably still talking about it. From
their showmanship -- they wore such outfits as padded-shouldered
1940s' suits to Carmen Miranda-like rumba skirts -- to their
mercurial vocal prowess, the Pointers set the standard for harmonies
in a way that would make the Andrews Sisters, the Manhattan Transfer
and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross bow down in reverence.

June, however, could not shake the drug demons that haunted her
after she was raped as a teen, became pregnant, and had an abortion,
her brother Fritz told the San Francisco Chronicle last week.

She struggled with her cocaine addiction throughout the group's
heyday in the '70s and resurgence in the '80s. By the 1990s, after
releasing a pair of solo albums to little fanfare, June stopped
touring, replaced by Ruth's daughter Issa, whose father is Dennis
Edwards of the Temptations. In 2004, June was charged with felony
cocaine possession.

The Pointer Sisters were on tour when June suffered a stroke in Los
Angeles in February. They rushed to their sister's bedside, where
they found that cancer had also been diagnosed.

The passing of June Pointer silences a voice that blended perfectly
with her sisters' but was distinguishable on its own -- a voice that
true fans would never mistake for another.

[diver_boy]

was sad to read that............but the pointer sisters are still going strong - i believe they are touring again.

PKO...i dance countless hours to them in the car ;) lol they are such an awesome group.

[KarenSews2]

I find nothing much better than putting on a Pointer Sisters CD when I have major housecleaning to do! I've done that for years. And when something really FABULOUS happens, I always start singing "I'm So Excited!"

I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know,
I want YOU,
I want YOU!