A certain Professor Whalen from Boston College always sends me notes about how much he enjoys my Friday blogs. He then proceeds to complain that I have never written about the 27 Club- a collection of music greats who died in their 27th year. This one’s for you, Professor.
Robert Johnson
Johson recorded fewer than 50 songs but most experts agree that he was the most important blues artist of all-time. Most rock fans were introduced to Johnson’s compositions through Cream (“Cross Road Blues”) and the Rolling Stones (“Love in Vain”). Keith Richards opined “You want to know how good the blues can get? Well, this is it.” Unfortunately in 1938, a jealous husband gave Johnson a bottle of whiskey laced with strychnine. Johnson died three days later and is buried in an unmarked Mississippi grave.
Brian Jones
At age sixteen, Brian Jones began playing saxophone because of his love of the great Charlie Parker. At seventeen, Brian became obsessed with Robert Johnson’s blues and started playing slide guitar. A founding member of the Rolling Stones, Jones was an amazingly versatile musician. On the 1960s Stones albums, Brian played slide, sitar, organ, recorder, dulcimer, harpsichord, saxophone and oboe. In 1969, he quit the Stones and months later was found dead in his swimming pool with a mix of drugs and alcohol in his system. Jones’ cause of death continues be debated by conspiracy theorists.
Jimi Hendrix
Most polls rank Jimi as the greatest guitar player of all time. Despite his short career, guitarists still study his dazzling techniques and improvisational genius. Jimi invented his own fusion of blues and psychedelia and popularized the use of feedback. Despite his stardom, Hendrix was a troubled soul. By 1970 he had difficulty sleeping because of several professional lawsuits. On September 18, 1970 Jimi overdosed, swallowing nine barbiturate tablets- eighteen times the amount needed to put a man to sleep for eight hours.
Janis Joplin
Growing up, Janis Joplin never quite fit in. She was bullied mercilessly at her Texas high school and during her brief stint in college. She moved to San Francisco where she developed a taste for Southern Comfort and heroin. In 1967, Janis became a sensation as lead singer for Big Brother and the Holding Company.
Janis embraced the blues, performing covers of “Summertime” and “Ball and Chain”. After leaving “Big Brother’, Janis formed the Full Tilt Boogie Band which produced the 1970 album “Pearl”. Unfortunately Janis died of a heroin overdose before the classic album was released.
Jim Morrison
As a boy, Jim Morrison loved Frank Sinatra, poetry and reading. Jim would eventually write poetry and songs that channeled Albert Camus and Aldous Huxley among others.
The combination of Morrison’s lyrical magic and The Doors’ dark, jazz-tinged psychedelia was incredibly potent. The Doors paid homage to blues legends with “Back Door Man”, a song written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Howlin’ Wolf. Surprisingly, the Doors’ hit “Roadhouse Blues” was a Morrison original not a blues classic.
The hard drinking drug abuser died of heart failure in Paris in 1971.
Kurt Cobain
I was a never a huge Nirvana fan but am starting to realize they produced some great music. One of the original Seattle grunge bands, the group sold 75 Million records during their three years of stardom. Nirvana disbanded after front man Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1994. Cobain struggled with heroin addiction, crippling depression caused by professional pressures and a tumultuous marriage to Courtney Love. Rolling Stone has included him on its lists of the 100 greatest song writers, 100 greatest singers and 100 Greatest Guitarists.
Amy Winehouse
Amy was heavily influenced by jazz legends, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington and even Thelonious Monk. Her 2006 Grammy winning album “Back to Black” displayed Amy’s captivating brilliance. At age 24, she began displaying erratic behavior fueled by drugs and alcohol. She finally agreed to go to rehab and in 2008 reached her peak winning five Grammys. Rehab didn’t take and soon Amy’s drunkenness was getting her booed off-stages across the world. In 2011, she died of alcohol poisoning.
Blame the professor for the depressing stories. Thankfully, the music is eternal.
Have a great weekend.
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