8.09.2011

ARTHUR CONLEY STORY...SWEET SOUL MUSIC

Entrance at the Vorden Cemetary, near Ruurloo

Everyone come to me, and I shall give you peace (Vorden General cemetery)

This is a great piece... After we posted photos of Jackie Wilson's resting place... Dennis Blom a friend from Facebook wrote in to tell me that Arthur Conley (the great soul singer of Sweet Soul Music and more)...was buried near his home in Zwolle, Netherlands. Dennis went out with his camera and shot some photos to share with my readers! How cool is that??

THANK YOU DENNIS...XXOOK


From Dennis:

After a rainy start of the day, the sun is starting to shine as I arrive at the cemetary where Arthur Conley has been laid to rest. After his success and the death of his idol (Otis Redding), Conley went to Europe in the 70's to disappear into anonymity.

First in Antwerp, then Amsterdam, in the multicultural Bijlmer. Then to the small town of Ruurlo. This was where he and his love Jos lived and worked, for Conley was a homosexual. In Ruurlo nobody thought strange about this relationship and they could live in peace. Conley by this time had almost nothing to do with music and the stardom he had in the years before.


He did do a single with a group from Amsterdam, under his alias Robert Lee (the first name of his mother). At the cemetary nothing will remind you that here lies a man who has world fame with his single 'Sweet soul music'. There are a couple of family tombs and a field for the ashes of the cremated. It's was a bit difficult to find his grave, luckily I had a photograph from another visitor, found on the internet.


And after a couple of rounds I found the grave. Not even a tombstone to remind us who lies here , but only a couple of flowers and plants. If it wasn't for the cd case on the grave, nobody would have known who has been laid there. As the keeper of the cemetery puts it: 'If they can't afford a gravestone, then we put the coffin in the ground and we put a small garden on top. ' Conley was buried here after he died from cancer at the age of 57, the people who knew him remember he was a gentle and kind man. And that's how he will be remembered.


Walking back to the gate there is a line from a local poet:
'Out of the night rises morning red, life out of death'

Read More about Arthur Conley's Life

Read More on RK
Otis Redding
Sam and Dave

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