Ten For Today: Disappeared

Connie Converse, Francisco Tenório Júnior, The Motifs, Jim Sullivan, Incredible String Band, Alain Kan, Pen Ran, Quessly Blu, Manic Street Preachers, Zelim Bakaev

It’s August 3, and Connie Converse was born this day in 1924, in Laconia, New Hampshire. She slays me. If you are not aware of her amazing and devastatingly sad story, it’s worth a trip down the rabbit hole, which would include reading Howard Fishman’s 2023 biography. She was an anti-racist advocate, and a Red Scare target. In the biography, Fishman quotes her saying, “We have become a nation of awful paradox: hysteria inlaid with unconcern, literacy woven with misconception, democracy wrapped up in tyranny, boldness nailed down by fear. I have no doubt of the outcome, but I dread the interval.” I wonder what she would have to say in 2026. Truly remarkable. This recording is from 1950 I think. Such sophisticated songwriting. She disappeared in 1974 – just drove off in her VW Bug never to be heard from again. This was recorded sometime in the mid-‘50s.

In Connie Converse’s honor, here are Ten For Today: The Disappeared. Some are mysteries. Some less so.

In March 1976, Francisco Tenório Júnior was on tour in Buenos Aires playing sold-out shows with Brazilian legends Vinicius de Moraes and Toquinho. He was considered one of the greatest pianists of his generation – and what a generation that was. After a performance on March 18, 1976, he left his hotel leaving a note saying he was going out to buy cigarettes. He was never seen again. His story did have closure. His remains were identified in 2025. He had been shot and buried in a mass grave. His friends said he was not political, but rather a musician swept up in the chaos of what came to be known as Operation Condor, a South American state terror campaign. This is from his 1964 solo album.

Walter Cichon, along with his brother Ray, was in the popular New Jersey band the Motifs, who had a regional hit with this song in 1965. Walter disappeared in Vietnam in 1968, and is still listed as MIA. Bruce Springsteen cites them as an influence, and has said that his own song, “The Wall” was inspired by Walter.

Jim Sullivan was born in Nebraska in 1939. He recorded and released a couple of great albums in 1969 and 1972 respectively, but neither got any real notice. He disappeared in 1975, last seen in New Mexico, where his VW bug (!) containing his guitar, wallet, and a box of his unsold records, was found abandoned. He was driving from California to Nashville, where he’d said he wanted to begin a new life. Of course there are those who think he was abducted by aliens, as if he foretold his fate in this 1969 song of his.

Licorice McKechnie was born in Scotland in 1945 and reportedly left home as a teenager to marry Bert Jansch – but it never happened. She ended up joining the Incredible String Band from 1968 – 1972, appearing with them at Woodstock. At some point, she moved to California, got married and played in a couple of other bands. Her whereabouts had been a mystery since 1987, when she was seen hitchhiking across the Arizona desert. Her sister also claims she was in Sacramento in 1990, recovering from surgery. She reportedly struggled with mental health issues. She wrote this song and recorded it in 1970 with ISB.

French openly gay glam rocker Alain Kan, heavily influenced by David Bowie, Lou Reed, and Marc Bolan, disappeared in 1990. He told a story of being whisked away by Bowie for ten days in the 70’s, and claimed they wrote a song together, but no one knows what song. (A great basis for a play. You’re welcome.) He was last seen in a Metro station in Paris. This was him in 1974.

Pen Ran (or Pan Ron as her name sometimes appears), was born around 1944. She was kind of flamboyant and outspoken, and very, very popular. She disappeared during the Cambodian genocide in the mid- to late-seventies, and given the way she wore western influences on her sleeve, it’s probably safe to assume she was executed. I don’t know the year this was recorded but believe it’s the mid-‘70s.

It is quite possible — even probable — this one is entirely made up, but points for a good story. The recording sounds much too modern to have been made in the ‘70s. And it seems obvious that the singer has heard Fiona Apple, which would mean she didn’t disappear in the ‘70s.

Richey Edwards, lyricist and guitarist for the Welsh band Manic Street Preachers, was born in 1967, and was very open about his mental health struggles. Here they are performing at the Reading Festival in 1994, about six months before he vanished. He wrote the lyrics. He disappeared in 1995, and was declared dead in 2008.

Chechen singer Zelim Bakaev disappeared in 2017 while traveling from Moscow to his sister’s wedding in his hometown. Human Rights Watch believes he was abducted because he was suspected of being gay. This was a few weeks after Chechen regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov said there were no gay people in Chechnya. The U.S. State Department, which was normal back then, said the statement was “very concerning and also upsetting.” Can’t imagine we’d get that kind of pushback now, God help us. I think this was performed the year he disappeared.

That’s it for today. I don’t intend to disappear today, in case you are wondering. I intend to keep up the resistance. Thanks for reading.

Joyce