R.I.P. Richard Marsh, a.k.a. Sky "Sunlight" Saxon

Sky Saxon - legendary driving force of 60's Punk Rock masters The Seeds passed away today, June 25th.

Just this morning I was reading the "Sky Saxon of The Seeds is Ill" thread on the GaragePunk Hideout, which quoted Sky's wife Sabrina in an update on Facebook:

Sky is in ICU and is still considered in critical condition.

Needless to say Sky seemed to be getting a wee bit better but took a turn for the worse .... I won''t go into details here but suffice it to say when we got him here in the ambulance, the doctors were telling me they just couldn''t tell me he would be okay. I was devastated.

It has been touch and go all day .... and probably about 3 hours ago the nurse told me he was going down ... blood pressure was dropping like crazy and they were trying one last medicine. she asked me to go over and start talking to him ... as his sedation was low enough that he would understand me ....

so i did ... and it slowly got better and better and better ..... and it was going steadily up .... and he was feeling better ....

he has a tube down his throat so he could not talk and that was very frustrating for him .... so i told him i would ask him yes and no questions ... and he was good with that .... slowly i figured out all the questions he had and answered them .....

now his color is back ... and the purple is receding a lot ..... his blood pressure is normal ... the heart rate is still a little erratic but they are more confident now that that will get better ... once all of his vitals are steady and normal they will take that darn breathing thing out of his throat .... this was only a precautionary tubing so they could get him breathing well while they worked on all of his other vitals ....

once he gets stable they will start trying to figure out what is the root cause of the problems is ... there seems to be an infection somewhere and since he has suffered from stomach pain for basically all his life ... we are certain it is somewhere in there ... but the gastro guy can''t do anything to check it out until he is stable ....

I feel much better about it now ... he seems more able to fight to stay alive .... and is gaining his strength little by little ...

he is asleep right now and seems to be resting well ... i''m here in the room with him in ICU .... they have wireless here and i had thought to bring my computer just in case they did ... just felt confident enough he is okay to pull it out .... he is sleeping really well right now ...

so please keep him in your prayers that he will beat this .... and be able to get out of this place!

will keep in touch and let you know what is happening ... now that i''m hooked up here in his room that will be easier to do ....

Sabrina

No sooner had I finished reading that - and feeling the same spark of hope - that I saw a link to this article on Austin360.com stating Sky Saxon, founder of the brilliant ’60s garage band the Seeds, died Thursday morning at St. David’s Hospital...

Little known fact: The Seeds, along with Arthur Lee & Love were enormous influences on Jim Morrison and The Doors!

Keep tuned to the GaragePunk Podcast Network; there will surely be some great tributes in the days to come.

Our hearts go out to Sabrina and the entire Saxon family. They will truly need some Sunlight in their lives...

Rest in peace.

Here is a great video of The Seeds performing their anthem Pushing Too Hard. Enjoy it and send it to everyone you know!