I know Lester has been mentioned before on here but i've only just discovered him yesterday.
He was a Punk Rock harp player from California and wow, what a player.
I'm trying to get hold of the record he did with his band The Red Devils and the other stuff he released with 13 ft Lester Butler, hard stuff to find unless you got alot of money to spend on Amazon new and used.
I had no idea his life ended very tragically, like alot of great musicians.
For those who like their Punk Rock, lester is the harp player who played the intro to Rancids Life won't wait album.
Here's the intro i'm talking about
Rharley kindly found some info on his death on the last Lester Butler thread. It reads as follows.
Les didn't overdose -- he was overdosed while unconscious and unable to help/defend himself. Check the court records.
While Les was at the house of Bill B. Friday night May 8 he was injected by a woman named April Ortega. She gave him too much and it caused him to immediately pass out. She and Bill got scared and threw him in an ice-bath but it didnt help. Next her boyfriend Glenn Demidow arrived and they decided to inject Les with cocaine instead of getting him medical attention. Nothing happened. So they injected him again with more cocaine. Nothing happened. So they injected him AGAIN with even more cocaine. What a surprise -- he wasn't reviving!!
They still didn't get him medical help. April and Glenn then drove him to his gig and left him in his van (unconscious) while they went in and listened to Lester's band (without Lester) telling people that HE had passed out and was sleeping it off. Lester still hours later wasn't able to wake himself (would you with 5 doses of deadly drugs in your system?) They still didn't get him medical help but instead took him to their apartment at 2am, they went to sleep, then the next night after he had died in their care dropped his dead body back at Bill B.s house.
They were literally at the house 2 minutes just to dump the body and then drive away in Lester's van. Lester's body was put in a guest bed to look as if he had died in his sleep. Luckily a friend, J., stopped in and instantly saw that Lester was in bad shape and immediately took him to County USC where he was pronounced dead-on-arrival. April and Glenn are serving 2 and 3 yr sentences -- Bill B. is free without being charged with aiding in covering up a murder! Lester was pronounced dead Sunday May 10 -- Mother's Day.
After receiving toxicology reports from the Coroner, the detectives picked April up as she walked out of a drug center w/Bill B. weeks after Lester's murder. Glenn fled but finally turned himself in to his lawyer weeks after April's arrest (nice boyfriend, huh?)
Bill was not arrested -- guess its ok to cover up a murder and harbor a dead body as long as you're not the one actually injecting the drugs. April and Glenn were charged with 2nd degree murder. After months and months of court dates, the D.A. offered April and Glenn a plea bargain down to Involuntary Manslaughter, against Lester's family's pleads. Of course they plead guilty and accepted the plea bargain for sentences of 2 and 3 yrs only.
Had they been convicted in front of a jury of 2nd degree murder, they would have been in jail 10 - 15 years. Its ironic that they admitted to overdosing him with 5 lethal mixtures of heroin and cocaine causing his death but they only have to serve 2 - 3 yrs -- that's our criminal justice system -- not much of a deterrent. April and Glenn should have been prosecuted for administering the drugs to an unwilling and unconscious victim, kidnapping him, murdering him, and stealing his van when all was over. What a tragic loss of a truly talented individual!
--sign me: anonymous
Note from visitor: June 22, 1999 I just read the obit on your website about Lester Butler. He did not O.D. but was in fact murdered. The two responsible for his death are currently in prison. It would mean a lot to me and the rest of Lester's family if you would change O.D. to murdered.
Thank you.
Virginia Tura, Lester's Sister
Heres some videos of his Band the Red Devils and also check out the Rehersal vid that Kudzu also posted o another thread. He is obviously very clear about what he wants from his band.
Great guy.
Ilove this one, its almost like its a special treat to get the Little Walter vinyl out lol!!
http://www.youtube.com/user/fiendant?feature=mhum
Last Edited by on May 11, 2011 11:31 PM
Ant - Lester was a great harp player. I have a load of his stuff including most of the stuff he recorded with other people. Send me your email address and I'll sort it out for you. I agree with 7LimitJI "King King" is one of the best live albums I've heard too.
Last Edited by on May 12, 2011 10:01 PM
There is a DVD available of his last gig at Ospel, Netherlands, shortly before he was murdered. I do not know whether it's still available, but try BluesDVD.nl
I don't understand why he is a "punk-rock harp player" all this stuff that he played(excp 1 clip) is blues :) ---------- http://www.youtube.com/user/wheelharp
@wheel I think the punk reference is more to with his attitude.he certainly dresses like a southern Californian punk -dickies work pants,key chain,slick back hair,tattooed sleeves. His stage presence has the same punk rock swagger that Jason Ricci has,who we all know loves punk rock and even covered a misfits song on his last album.
If lester was recruited by rancid to play on that album them I'm guessing he had links to the punk movement.
Lester wouldn't look out of place in a band like social distortion(who used to have a harp player in the old days) or similar.
I'm a massive southern California punk fan and lester just looks like he had the stage presence to front a punk band from that area.
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http://www.youtube.com/user/fiendant?feature=mhum
Last Edited by on May 12, 2011 10:12 AM
Two of my favorite harp recordings are King King and the 13 cd.
I have been tempted to buy the demo and the Mick Jagger stuff but the prices that I have seen on that lately are all fairly steep. 50 - 60 bucks (for 5 or 6 tracks) is what I'm seeing for the demo. Can anyone report on the relative quality of any of that? Also heard that there is a side or two out there that Lester did with Johnny Cash. What does that sound like?!!
Lester was a strong player but technicaly there must have been about a zillion musicians who could play as well or better than him. I think that what made him really stand out was his strong sense of who he was and what his music had to be. Just like anyone else who can produce a really solid and captivating personal style he must have had some serious, serious ideas about who he was and what his music had to sound like. Wish I could get some insight into where his thinking was and how he engineered the bands sound and arranged those tunes to arrive at the heavy effect that was created.
I like his harp playing a lot, and when you combine it with that weird voice that he sings with it kicks it all up a notch or two. Too many harp players sound like the guy down the street or maybe not quite that good.
Anyway, he always seemed to wind up playing with some REALLY good guitar players. Those guys deserve a lot of credit.
The stuff recorded with Mick Jagger and The Red Devils was available online a few years ago...someone will usually post the files on a share site and you can download them...search around and they will turn up eventually. I'm not generally a fan of those sites but with rare stuff like that it's hard to resist. The recording quality is good and the performances are pretty good, Lester sounds great...it's straight up blues covers and there are several takes of each song. To me, Mick always sounds uncomfortable/stiff without Charlie Watts behind him. I would call it a curio, but if you are a big Lester Butler fan, probably essential.
@Ant138: Yes, that's one of the tracks. The sound quality is better than on this youtube clip though. "Blow Wind" is on there, "Checkin' on My baby", "One Way Out", etc. All the musicians involved are talented, but to me, it sounds a bit stiff...like a top notch one-off blues jam with guys who have never played together before. Totally worth finding though!
@ Ant,.. May he never be forgotten,.. Giles King gives him his Just Do's in this video:
Maybe it's just me ,..But if you follow Giles King as I do ,..I believe the man (Giles) is a reincarnated Paul Butterfield ! The way he plays harp & his looks ??
I heard Lester for the first time last year when a friend posted Time to cry on Facebook and I have listened to everything I could find of his on the net since then.
I saw some of his stuff on Ebay recently and I just couldn't swing it.
When ive finished a crappy day at work i usually put some Red Devils or a 13 album on for the drive home and it just sorts me out.(they have re-released the 13 album this year and its got some bonus live stuff on it)
Ive been on a Lester binge now for about 3 months non stop. He had a great on stage presence. Its a shame i'll never get to see him live. ----------
