Legendary Canadian Musician “Skip” Prokop Dies At 74

Ronald Harry “Skip” Prokop was a Canadian drummer and band leader who was a driving force in Canadian rock music, creating seminal bands, including The Paupers. In 1969, Prokop co-founded the rock group Lighthouse with Paul Hoffert. The world’s first 13-piece rock orchestra, it achieved international success as Canada’s leading rock group. Lighthouse was the first group in Canada to be sponsored by a large corporation on a national level.

https://youtu.be/6qB76FlXfvs

The Paupers were managed by Albert Grossman. He introduced Prokop to Al Kooper. Grossman asked him to leave The Paupers to play drums with Kooper and Mike Bloomfield for a follow-up recording to Super Session. The result was The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, a seminal live blues-rock album of the late 1960s. Prior to the founding of Lighthouse, Prokop also played on a number of other sessions, including one with Janis Joplin at RKO Studios following her parting with Big brother & The Holding Company. This came about because Grossman had asked him to put a new band together for Joplin.

Paul Hoffert and his wife Brenda along with Skip Prokop co-founded the famous Canadian rock band LIGHTHOUSE in the 1970s. In 2006 I transferred a bunch of family video tapes for Paul and Brenda, wonderful family, very very nice people. Each time I went to their home to deliver done tapes and pick up some more, they insisted on feeding me a delicious lunch! One tape was a Umatic video tape of the 1982 LIGHTHOUSE REUNION weekend at the then outdoor Ontario Place Forum. On the tape is the only time I am aware of that their wives and kids were on stage altogether to perform one of the songs. This short clip from the 50-minute show is that families’ performance. Very cool! (HomeMoviesdotCa – YouTube)

He wrote “I’d Be So Happy”, which was recorded by Three Dog Night in 1974 on their album Hard Labor.

https://youtu.be/wJyQgrhHNok

We have no further details on his passing. RIP.