An active member of the '70s and '80s Manchester rock scene who played with the Mothmen, Motivation and, perhaps most notably, the post-punk band the Durutti Column, Dave Rowbotham died a mysterious death. After supposedly falling in with some shady characters, his body was discovered at his flat on Nov. 8, 1991, with a coroner's report saying it had been there for quite some time. Rowbotham had been brutally bludgeoned to death by an unknown assailant wielding a lathe hammer.

Nobody ever served time for the crime, but does ‘Cowboy Dave,' the epic seven-plus-minute final track on the Happy Mondays' 1992 album 'Yes Please!,' offer clues? Lyrics like "Tell me what you know about Cowboy Dave/ Did he whistle on Brown?" seem to suggest payback for snitching was the motive.

 

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