Kenny Rogers, late Friday, of natural causes. 81.
"All the songs I record fall into one of two categories, as a rule," Rogers
told
NPR in 2012 (link). "One is ballads that say what every man would like to say
and every woman would like to hear. The other is story-songs that have
social significance. ... That's really what I love to do: songs that you love before you realize
what they're about, but you get the message vicariously."