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Ronnie ‘The Hawk’ Hawkins, a musician and impresario who helped uncover and develop The Band and quite a few different musical acts that emerged out of Toronto within the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies, died round mid-day on Sunday. He was 87.
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A pal reported the reason for demise as problems from previous age.
Born in Arkansas in 1935, Hawkins began touring Canada as a musician within the late Fifties, and finally moved right here completely, residing in Mississauga and later in and round Peterborough.
Within the Nineteen Sixties, he performed an instrumental position within the flourishing Toronto music scene the place many outstanding artists together with Neil Younger, Joni Mitchell, the Band, Rick James, Gordon Lightfoot, Daniel Lanois and others performed. In 2014, Hawkins grew to become one in all only a handful of non-Canadians to be awarded the Order of Canada, for his contributions to Canadian music and his assist of charitable causes, along with many different accolades together with a Juno Award.
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“Ronnie, he did loads for folks,” mentioned Nelson Thall, a longtime pal. “He was a expertise scout, he was a coach, he would assist them get the correct sound and he was only a man for all seasons.”
Thall mentioned he met Hawkins at a membership on Toronto’s Yonge Avenue a while within the Seventies. Oftentimes, Hawkins would carry out his personal music, after which dangle across the bar, shopping for drinks for others as a result of he didn’t drink, Thall mentioned.
He described Hawkins as bigger than life, somebody who was as comfy speaking to a watermelon farmer within the U.S. South as he was speaking to an mental like Thall, who studied with the Canadian thinker Marshall McLuhan, a College of Toronto professor.
“Imagine it or not, there was a thinker aspect to him,” mentioned Thall, who mentioned he stayed up by means of Saturday night time into Sunday morning holding vigil. “I used to be as soon as with Ronnie, and unexpectedly he broke into broke right into a line from Hamlet — “Communicate the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue” — I imply, right here you’re, he seemed to be simply form of a Hayseed hillbilly from Arkansas, however wow, you realize, unexpectedly, Shakespeare.”
He mentioned Hawkins may all the time give you a singular metaphor, like ‘That man seems like a bullfrog on the patio,’ or another humorous and homespun saying.
In 2003, Hawkins was identified with pancreatic most cancers and given three months to dwell, however in some way beat the sickness, attributing his restoration to different medicines and natural cures.
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He could also be most well-known for serving to domesticate The Band, a gaggle of principally Canadian musicians hailing from Southwestern Ontario who began off as his backup group referred to as the Hawks, later backed Bob Dylan after which finally broke out on their very own.
Hawkins can be credited with serving to to find guitarist Pat Travers and lots of different musicians.
In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent a number of weeks at his dwelling in Mississauga, Ontario as a part of their world peace marketing campaign.
“He had his hand in so many alternative folks’s careers,” mentioned Eric Alper, a publicist in Toronto, who mentioned he met Hawkins whereas his grandfather owned Grossman’s Tavern, a musical venue within the metropolis. “He was a candy, candy man, very form, and really, very humorous. He’s in all probability crucial determine relating to Canadian rock and roll.”
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Hawkins was additionally an actor with roles in a number of notable movies. He performed Bob Dylan within the 1978 movie Renaldo and Clara, which was directed by Bob Dylan. He additionally performed roles in Heaven’s Gate (1980), Meatballs III: Summer season Job (1986), in addition to different films and TV sequence.
Within the 1978 movie The Final Waltz, directed by Martin Scorsese, in regards to the final live performance carried out by The Band, Hawkins performed “Who Do you Love?,” “The Form I’m In” and on different tracks.
As a musician, he additionally had his personal hits. He helped write, and carried out ‘Mary Lou’ with the Hawks, which reached quantity 26 on the Billboard Prime 100 in the summertime of 1959.
In 2002, the Metropolis of Toronto honoured Rompin’ Ronnie, as he was typically referred to as, with a key to town and induction into Canada’s Stroll of Fame in recognition of his lifetime contribution to music and his beneficiant assist of the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario and different charitable organizations.
Thall mentioned Hawkins had lived on a ranch on Stony Lake, close to Peterborough, till promoting it a number of years in the past and transferring right into a home on a quiet avenue within the metropolis of Peterborough.
He’s survived by his spouse Wanda and his three youngsters, Ronnie Hawkins Jr., Robyn Hawkins and Leah Hawkins; and 4 grandchildren.
Extra particulars to return.
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