Oklahoman Archives
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
August 19, 2010

Michael Been, vocalist/guitarist for '80s band the Call, died today in Belgium. He was 60. Been is the father of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club bassist/vocalist Robert Levon Been (who's also known as Robert Turner), and was working as the band's sound engineer. According to reports from the Pukkelpop Festival, where BRMC was performing.

Been became ill backstage and was rushed to the hospital but later passed away. Been born in Oklahoma, formed The Call in California in 1980. The Call's epic '80s rock had strident political overtones and glittering production and keyboards normal for the day; the band's hits included "The Walls Came Down," "Everywhere I Go," "I Still Believe (Great Design)" and "Let the Day Begin."

His solo album, 'On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown', was released in 1994. The band appeared to go on hiatus around the turn of the millennium, and Been concentrated on working with his son's group.

August 1, 2000

Michael Been was already a rock 'n' roll star at age 7 - probably Oklahoma's very first. [some sources say he was 5] He won a talent contest by impersonating the King of rock 'n' roll, Elvis Presley, at the Oklahoma State Fairground Speedway.

The Buchanan Elementary School student had won a talent contest that year at the Oklahoma semi-centennial statehood celebration at the fairgrounds. That's how he landed the gig on Channel 4, then known as WKY-TV.

Been went on to front one of the most critically-acclaimed rock bands of the 1980s - the Call. Their anthemia, socially-conscious, spiritually-influenced music drew comparisons to Irish superstars U2, and the admiration of people such as film director Martin Scorsese, who cast Been as John in "The Last Temptation of Christ."

Vice President Al Gore adopted the Call's high-blooded "Let the Day Begin" as the theme for his presidential campaign.

image found at http://www.last.fm/music/Michael%20Been