He wasn’t nearly as well known as Farrah Fawcett or Michael Jackson, but Sky Saxon, a garage rock star from the 1960s, also died yesterday.

Despite the hubbub caused by major celebrity deaths, Holly Cara Price noticed his passing, and in this week’s Price Point, she’ll tell us why we should notice it, too.

Take it away, Holly…

The Price Point ~ by Holly Cara Price, Agent Provocateur

Yesterday morning,  it was announced that Sky Saxon, lead singer and founder of the 1960s garage rock band The Seeds, died at St. David’s Hospital in Austin, Texas. Saxon became ill last week and was admitted to the hospital on Monday with an infection. He performed as recently as this past Saturday, when he jammed with the local band Shapes Have Fangs at the Austin club Antone’s.

Saxon was born Richard Marsh in Salt Lake City, Utah. It’s not known exactly when he was born. It may have been as early as 1937 or as late as 1946. As Little Richie Marsh, Saxon performed doo-wop songs in the early 60s. After changing his name to Sky Saxon, he formed the Seeds in 1965 with Jan Savage on guitar, Daryl Hooper on keyboards, and Rick Andridge on drums.

The band had a top 40 hit in 1966 with “Pushin’ Too Hard.” Their sound was simple, spare, but brilliant, flavored with brief-but-tasty keyboard and guitar solos. They totally owned the perfect, snarling, garage-punk attitude.

Saxon broke up the band in 1970 when he joined a spiritual community and adopted the name “Sunlight.” Recently, he kept a low profile, selling music through his website and occasionally performing.

And because he wasn’t the King of Pop of one of Charlie’s angels, his name is  not in the news. The networks aren’t frantically going through their archives looking for any footage of him they can find. Newscasters aren’t walking around the streets interviewing people to discuss their feelings about him.

That’s why I want to toast his memory.

To quote Sky Saxon and Daryl Hooper from “Pushin’ Too Hard”:

Well all I want is to just be free,
Live my life the way I wanna be,
All I want is to just have fun,
Live my life like it’s just begun.

Check out this clip of the band performing “Pushin’ Too Hard” on the TV show Shebang:

They’re quite obviously lip synching and not even trying to hide it. Sky’s wearing silver pants and a really pissed-off teenage face. Dig that keyboard solo and the cowpunk guitar bridge. Catch those threads on the drummer. And enjoy the bit at the end where the host briefly interviews Sky, and it’s like Dueling Haircuts: The 50’s vs. The 60’s.

Here they are performing “Pushin’ Too Hard” on the TV series The Mothers-In-Law in 1967. Apparently, they landed right smack in squaresville. Note the expressions on the faces of the adults (Eve Arden, Kaye Ballard and husbands) while the band doesn’t even attempt to lip synch. Sky leaps around spastically while wearing a weird serape cape, and the drummer is in a Dracula outfit. Of course, the teen girl on the premises is doing the frug or some such thing. Hilarious.

And finally, witness the beautiful Bettie Page (the Nortorious) as she swishily strip-dances to the Seeds’ “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine.” It’s one of their rare ballads and quite beautiful.

And remember Sky Sunlight Saxon on this day.