The words “till death do us apart” have always been synonymous with a bond between a man and a woman. However some rock and roll stars have managed to form a similar bonding with their fans. When ever the news that a star has died is announced, there is a shock, disbelief and a pall of gloom sets over the star’s fans. Some of the deaths are caused due to the rock star him/herself, and some are due to accidents. The loss of a talent so immense and unique is truly regrettable as most of the deaths are caused because of recklessness. A little care would have been enough to avoid most deaths. Given below are lifes and acts of some famous ones who died young.
1. Jimi Hendrix was and is still considered one of the greatest guitarists ever, even though he had only four years fame which began on October 6th 1966 when he formed his band THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE. The band‘s very first single ‘hey Joe’ was a top 5 single. Hendrix was also a great crowd puller and live act (famously for torching his guitar and smashing it on stage). This lasted until the summer of 1969, when he was arrested for possession of heroin, following which his hit band disbanded. Then while on tour in Europe, during a stayover at a London hotel, he took some sleeping pills to sleep through the next day. He was discovered unconscious the next morning by his girlfriend and rushed to the hospital. He was pronounced dead at 11.25 am. The cause of death was indirectly due to drug overdose and narcotics. The drugs had caused him to vomit and he suffocated on his own vomit. The last lyrics written by him for a song the day before his death were “the story of life is quicker than the wink of an eye, the story of love is hello and good bye until we meet again.”
2. John Lennon is often regarded as the most popular Beatle going on to become hugely successful in his career, which followed the break-up of the Beatles. His songs such as ‘imagine’ had a humongous liking and he had become an icon (firstly because of the Beatles) in the music industry. When Lennon arrived home, on December 8th 1980, following the recording and mixing of a new Yoko Ono single, ‘walking on thin ice’, and got out of his limo he was shot five times in his back and shoulders by a mad man Mark Chapman, who waited for the cops to arrive and arrest him. Lennon died in the emergency room; his death was caused by massive loss of blood. Chapman was suffering with schizophrenia in which he believes himself to be John Lennon. Only by killing the "bad" (external) John could he get on with is own life as the "good" (internal) John. It seems that he was a born-again Christian, and deeply troubled by Lennon's various remarks about organized Christianity, thus making him "bad". On his last day of work in Hawaii (his home), Chapman signed out on his time sheet as "John Lennon". The world had lost another great musician to an unnatural death.
3. James Douglas Morrison was the lead singer of The Doors, the band he which he created along with Ray Manzarek, and is acknowledged to be a very fine singer. The band, along with Jim, rose to great height between 1964 and 1970.but the fame had its repercussions on Jim. As the fame increased so did his addiction to alcohol and drug experimentation. But in 1970 he retreated to Paris with his wife, Pamela. He retreated to Paris because he had become disenchanted with the fame he had received as The Doors' front man and upset by the lack of seriousness with which he was taken as a poet. Paris offered a sanctuary. It was the home of Arthur Rimbaud, his most powerful literary influence. He hoped that this new atmosphere would allow his to find a sense of himself in the world and provide him with inspiration to create fresh poetry. Unfortunately, this goal was never achieved. Instead, Jim was left uninspired and severely depressed. On July 3, 1971, Jim was found dead in the bathtub of his and Pamela's Parisian apartment. His body was then promptly buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
Although the circumstances of Morrison's death have been debated, it is now believed (as reported in Patricia Kennealy's book, as well as Jerry Hopkin's book The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison) that Jim's death was indirectly caused by Pamela. Whether doped up herself or not, Pamela reportedly allowed Jim to snort up a large quantity of heroin, which he believed to be cocaine. This sudden ingestion of such a large quantity of a drug he had never used before led him to hemorrhage internally, which sent his body into a state of shock, and eventually led to the heart attack which killed him. Jim Morrison died at the age of 27. There were many speculations about Jim Morrison’s death from the absurd to the not so true ones. Some believed that he had staged his own death and that he was a CIA agent. Some believed it was because of Voodoo or Voudun philosophy as he claimed connections to the occult. There were many sightings of the rock star. Lot of men claimed that they were Jim Morrison and had very believable and hard to shake stories.
4. Janis Joplin was Rock and roll's first female superstar; Janis Joplin showed that women could be rock singers. Almost 30 years after her death she is remembered as the best white blues singer of the 1960s. Famous for her incendiary stage performances, her masochistic tango with the bottle, her tumultuous love life, and her fatal dalliance with drugs Joplin started off as a 17 year old when she ran away from home and started by performing as a singer in Texas. She was initially a part of a band called ‘the big brother and the holding company’ and formed a new group ‘the full tilt boogie band’ just before her death on October 4th 1970, while recording her next album ‘pearl’. She had succeeded in procuring an illicit drug, a batch of heroin that was more pure than usual. She accidentally overdosed in the Landmark Motor Hotel in Los Angeles at the age of 27. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered off the California coast. Her famous words being “the more you live, the less you die”.
5. Kurt Cobain, front man of the band Nirvana, was found dead on the morning of April 9th. The Seattle Police Department had confirmed the conclusion that Kurt Cobain committed suicide. Cobain already had undergone a near-death experience in Rome earlier in the year that may or may not have been a suicide attempt in which Cobain digested nearly fifty pills called Rohypnol. He also locked himself in a room with a .38 caliber pistol and said he was going to kill himself after a dispute. Kurt Cobain was also notorious for hating his fame. He was once quoted as saying, "I'd rather be dead than cool." Kurt Cobain also had stomach pains that sometimes caused him to vomit air because he could not even hold down water. Cobain's marriage and band were both on the brink of breaking up. The pieces of the puzzle seem to fit together perfectly. The suicide note, the pain, the history of Kurt Cobain, and the attitude everyone perceived Kurt possessed pointed to suicide.
To the public, Kurt Cobain appeared suicidal. To those who knew him, he didn't. Kurt Cobain's best friend had said that Kurt was "not at all" suicidal. Another one of his friends, Mark Lanegan said, "I never knew Kurt to be suicidal." (Cobain's former attorney, Rosemary Caroll, who believes Courtney Love had Kurt Cobain killed, does not believe Cobain was suicidal. Even those who would know best if Cobain was suicidal or not, the expert therapists at Exodus Treatment Center where Kurt sojourned shortly before his death, did not consider him to be suicidal. The depressed attitude of someone who commits suicide did not fit the interview Kurt gave to Rolling Stone on January 27 of that same year. Cobain said "I still see stuff, descriptions of rock stars in some magazine- 'Sting, the environmental guy' and 'Kurt Cobain, the whiny, complaining, neurotic, bitchy guy who hates everything, hates rock stardom, hates his life.' And I've never been happier in my life." As for the song, "I Hate Myself and I Want to Die" Cobain said, "Nothing more than a joke. It was totally satirical, making fun of ourselves. Here was another rockstar whose death is still under speculation.
6. Elvis “Pelvis” Presley is widely regarded as the king of rock and roll and to date is counted among the artistes having the most number of number one hits ever. He was the artiste, who gave us Jailhouse Rock, Love Me Tender, Truckin’, Falling In love and so on. Till the Beatles came along he was the biggest sensation of that generation and is even now his style of singing and dressing is imitated by many. He was also a popular actor starring in movies like Loving You, Blue Hawaii, and Jailhouse Rock. In his concerts of the 1970's, Elvis were heavily ornamented jumpsuits, often with a cloak for his opening appearance on stage. Worth thousands of dollars a piece, these suits could weigh up to 30 pounds.
Elvis toured the United States from 1970 onward, to wildly approving crowds. In 1976, he played in a total of 74 cities, and in 1977, before his death in August, he played in 50. A double album was released, Elvis Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite. After the performance Aloha From Hawaii was shown live on television in 1973. Elvis continued to amaze large crowds in Las Vegas up until he finally retired and later passed away on the 16th August 1977 from a drug overdose in his bathroom. The after effects of the Aloha to the King are still felt. He is the richest dead star; his songs generating a huge amount of money in the form of royalties from the recording companies.
There are many more examples of rockstars having reached their end before their time. Three are many others like the country singer John Denver (plane crash), Metallica bassist Cliff Burton (car crash), Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham(choked on his vomit after getting excessively drunk), Chicano star Rithchie Valens(plane crash), The Who drummer Keith Moon(overdose of prescription pills, he took 32 of them at one go!). One just wishes that these icons and demi-gods of the entertainment industry had been a bit more sober and not so wild in their lifestyles. Had they been so, their talent could have enthralled millions more for a longer period. “There are those who don’t have talent and work hard to gain fame, and then there are those who have loads of it but throw it away by stupid acts which are fatal.”
1. Jimi Hendrix was and is still considered one of the greatest guitarists ever, even though he had only four years fame which began on October 6th 1966 when he formed his band THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE. The band‘s very first single ‘hey Joe’ was a top 5 single. Hendrix was also a great crowd puller and live act (famously for torching his guitar and smashing it on stage). This lasted until the summer of 1969, when he was arrested for possession of heroin, following which his hit band disbanded. Then while on tour in Europe, during a stayover at a London hotel, he took some sleeping pills to sleep through the next day. He was discovered unconscious the next morning by his girlfriend and rushed to the hospital. He was pronounced dead at 11.25 am. The cause of death was indirectly due to drug overdose and narcotics. The drugs had caused him to vomit and he suffocated on his own vomit. The last lyrics written by him for a song the day before his death were “the story of life is quicker than the wink of an eye, the story of love is hello and good bye until we meet again.”
2. John Lennon is often regarded as the most popular Beatle going on to become hugely successful in his career, which followed the break-up of the Beatles. His songs such as ‘imagine’ had a humongous liking and he had become an icon (firstly because of the Beatles) in the music industry. When Lennon arrived home, on December 8th 1980, following the recording and mixing of a new Yoko Ono single, ‘walking on thin ice’, and got out of his limo he was shot five times in his back and shoulders by a mad man Mark Chapman, who waited for the cops to arrive and arrest him. Lennon died in the emergency room; his death was caused by massive loss of blood. Chapman was suffering with schizophrenia in which he believes himself to be John Lennon. Only by killing the "bad" (external) John could he get on with is own life as the "good" (internal) John. It seems that he was a born-again Christian, and deeply troubled by Lennon's various remarks about organized Christianity, thus making him "bad". On his last day of work in Hawaii (his home), Chapman signed out on his time sheet as "John Lennon". The world had lost another great musician to an unnatural death.
3. James Douglas Morrison was the lead singer of The Doors, the band he which he created along with Ray Manzarek, and is acknowledged to be a very fine singer. The band, along with Jim, rose to great height between 1964 and 1970.but the fame had its repercussions on Jim. As the fame increased so did his addiction to alcohol and drug experimentation. But in 1970 he retreated to Paris with his wife, Pamela. He retreated to Paris because he had become disenchanted with the fame he had received as The Doors' front man and upset by the lack of seriousness with which he was taken as a poet. Paris offered a sanctuary. It was the home of Arthur Rimbaud, his most powerful literary influence. He hoped that this new atmosphere would allow his to find a sense of himself in the world and provide him with inspiration to create fresh poetry. Unfortunately, this goal was never achieved. Instead, Jim was left uninspired and severely depressed. On July 3, 1971, Jim was found dead in the bathtub of his and Pamela's Parisian apartment. His body was then promptly buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
Although the circumstances of Morrison's death have been debated, it is now believed (as reported in Patricia Kennealy's book, as well as Jerry Hopkin's book The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison) that Jim's death was indirectly caused by Pamela. Whether doped up herself or not, Pamela reportedly allowed Jim to snort up a large quantity of heroin, which he believed to be cocaine. This sudden ingestion of such a large quantity of a drug he had never used before led him to hemorrhage internally, which sent his body into a state of shock, and eventually led to the heart attack which killed him. Jim Morrison died at the age of 27. There were many speculations about Jim Morrison’s death from the absurd to the not so true ones. Some believed that he had staged his own death and that he was a CIA agent. Some believed it was because of Voodoo or Voudun philosophy as he claimed connections to the occult. There were many sightings of the rock star. Lot of men claimed that they were Jim Morrison and had very believable and hard to shake stories.
4. Janis Joplin was Rock and roll's first female superstar; Janis Joplin showed that women could be rock singers. Almost 30 years after her death she is remembered as the best white blues singer of the 1960s. Famous for her incendiary stage performances, her masochistic tango with the bottle, her tumultuous love life, and her fatal dalliance with drugs Joplin started off as a 17 year old when she ran away from home and started by performing as a singer in Texas. She was initially a part of a band called ‘the big brother and the holding company’ and formed a new group ‘the full tilt boogie band’ just before her death on October 4th 1970, while recording her next album ‘pearl’. She had succeeded in procuring an illicit drug, a batch of heroin that was more pure than usual. She accidentally overdosed in the Landmark Motor Hotel in Los Angeles at the age of 27. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered off the California coast. Her famous words being “the more you live, the less you die”.
5. Kurt Cobain, front man of the band Nirvana, was found dead on the morning of April 9th. The Seattle Police Department had confirmed the conclusion that Kurt Cobain committed suicide. Cobain already had undergone a near-death experience in Rome earlier in the year that may or may not have been a suicide attempt in which Cobain digested nearly fifty pills called Rohypnol. He also locked himself in a room with a .38 caliber pistol and said he was going to kill himself after a dispute. Kurt Cobain was also notorious for hating his fame. He was once quoted as saying, "I'd rather be dead than cool." Kurt Cobain also had stomach pains that sometimes caused him to vomit air because he could not even hold down water. Cobain's marriage and band were both on the brink of breaking up. The pieces of the puzzle seem to fit together perfectly. The suicide note, the pain, the history of Kurt Cobain, and the attitude everyone perceived Kurt possessed pointed to suicide.
To the public, Kurt Cobain appeared suicidal. To those who knew him, he didn't. Kurt Cobain's best friend had said that Kurt was "not at all" suicidal. Another one of his friends, Mark Lanegan said, "I never knew Kurt to be suicidal." (Cobain's former attorney, Rosemary Caroll, who believes Courtney Love had Kurt Cobain killed, does not believe Cobain was suicidal. Even those who would know best if Cobain was suicidal or not, the expert therapists at Exodus Treatment Center where Kurt sojourned shortly before his death, did not consider him to be suicidal. The depressed attitude of someone who commits suicide did not fit the interview Kurt gave to Rolling Stone on January 27 of that same year. Cobain said "I still see stuff, descriptions of rock stars in some magazine- 'Sting, the environmental guy' and 'Kurt Cobain, the whiny, complaining, neurotic, bitchy guy who hates everything, hates rock stardom, hates his life.' And I've never been happier in my life." As for the song, "I Hate Myself and I Want to Die" Cobain said, "Nothing more than a joke. It was totally satirical, making fun of ourselves. Here was another rockstar whose death is still under speculation.
6. Elvis “Pelvis” Presley is widely regarded as the king of rock and roll and to date is counted among the artistes having the most number of number one hits ever. He was the artiste, who gave us Jailhouse Rock, Love Me Tender, Truckin’, Falling In love and so on. Till the Beatles came along he was the biggest sensation of that generation and is even now his style of singing and dressing is imitated by many. He was also a popular actor starring in movies like Loving You, Blue Hawaii, and Jailhouse Rock. In his concerts of the 1970's, Elvis were heavily ornamented jumpsuits, often with a cloak for his opening appearance on stage. Worth thousands of dollars a piece, these suits could weigh up to 30 pounds.
Elvis toured the United States from 1970 onward, to wildly approving crowds. In 1976, he played in a total of 74 cities, and in 1977, before his death in August, he played in 50. A double album was released, Elvis Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite. After the performance Aloha From Hawaii was shown live on television in 1973. Elvis continued to amaze large crowds in Las Vegas up until he finally retired and later passed away on the 16th August 1977 from a drug overdose in his bathroom. The after effects of the Aloha to the King are still felt. He is the richest dead star; his songs generating a huge amount of money in the form of royalties from the recording companies.
There are many more examples of rockstars having reached their end before their time. Three are many others like the country singer John Denver (plane crash), Metallica bassist Cliff Burton (car crash), Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham(choked on his vomit after getting excessively drunk), Chicano star Rithchie Valens(plane crash), The Who drummer Keith Moon(overdose of prescription pills, he took 32 of them at one go!). One just wishes that these icons and demi-gods of the entertainment industry had been a bit more sober and not so wild in their lifestyles. Had they been so, their talent could have enthralled millions more for a longer period. “There are those who don’t have talent and work hard to gain fame, and then there are those who have loads of it but throw it away by stupid acts which are fatal.”
2 comments:
nice post!
is this not the same that was published in CRAP! there were the same artists that u mentioned about..
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