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The death of Amy Winehouse brought a storm of eulogistic speeches for Amy Winehouse's induction into the so-called 27 Club. I am not one to speak ill of the dead; nor am I the sort to rain on someone's funeral procession, so I've been holding this in ever since July 23. It's now a couple of days past a month later: not too soon, right?
It's one thing to talk about Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison ('though I probably wouldn't put Jones in the group, since one would hardly call him iconic while the other three were practically living symbols of their profession and time). It's another thing entirely to include Kurt Cobain (whom I love), Robert Johnson, and Amy Winehouse. Cobain obviously passes the icon test, and when he killed himself I went to bed for three days and never left the apartment, so I am not minimizing his significance.
But you can't just add people to the supposed group because of an age. People die all the time, and they die at all ages, and they die from all walks of life. It's somewhat chilling, I'll admit, to think of Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison all dying at that age and within ten months of each other, and there is some poetry there because of the way they lived and because of the crazy state of music and culture they left behind. The others on the list just don't pass that test. You can keep lowering the requirement for initiation into Mensa, but keep doing it and it ceases to be Mensa.
The creeping hyperbole of musicians' deaths is a disservice to the musicians. For all her talents, Winehouse never attained either the cultural icon status of Morrison, Hendrix, or Joplin, OR the musical portfolio that might put her in their league. The best thing music-lovers could do is to call her what she was, to evaluate her body of work on its merits, and leave it there. Enshrinement into any kind of hall of fame only turns her death into an eye-rolling exaggeration.
Besides: the real age-death club should be 42. Check out the musical talents who died at that age.
The 42 Club
Elvis Presley
Peter Tosh
Billy Fury
Freddie King ("The Texas Cannonball," one of the Three Kings of Blues Guitar)
Charlie Patton ("Father of the Delta Blues")
Robbin Crosby (of Ratt)
Rob Fisher (of Naked Eyes)
PLUS these other iconic figures:
Gilda Radner
John Wesley Hardin
Divine
Gary Coleman
Robert Mapplethorpe
I'm 42 now, so if I don't make it to early January, you could add me to the club, too.
It's one thing to talk about Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison ('though I probably wouldn't put Jones in the group, since one would hardly call him iconic while the other three were practically living symbols of their profession and time). It's another thing entirely to include Kurt Cobain (whom I love), Robert Johnson, and Amy Winehouse. Cobain obviously passes the icon test, and when he killed himself I went to bed for three days and never left the apartment, so I am not minimizing his significance.
But you can't just add people to the supposed group because of an age. People die all the time, and they die at all ages, and they die from all walks of life. It's somewhat chilling, I'll admit, to think of Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison all dying at that age and within ten months of each other, and there is some poetry there because of the way they lived and because of the crazy state of music and culture they left behind. The others on the list just don't pass that test. You can keep lowering the requirement for initiation into Mensa, but keep doing it and it ceases to be Mensa.
The creeping hyperbole of musicians' deaths is a disservice to the musicians. For all her talents, Winehouse never attained either the cultural icon status of Morrison, Hendrix, or Joplin, OR the musical portfolio that might put her in their league. The best thing music-lovers could do is to call her what she was, to evaluate her body of work on its merits, and leave it there. Enshrinement into any kind of hall of fame only turns her death into an eye-rolling exaggeration.
Besides: the real age-death club should be 42. Check out the musical talents who died at that age.
The 42 Club
Elvis Presley
Peter Tosh
Billy Fury
Freddie King ("The Texas Cannonball," one of the Three Kings of Blues Guitar)
Charlie Patton ("Father of the Delta Blues")
Robbin Crosby (of Ratt)
Rob Fisher (of Naked Eyes)
PLUS these other iconic figures:
Gilda Radner
John Wesley Hardin
Divine
Gary Coleman
Robert Mapplethorpe
I'm 42 now, so if I don't make it to early January, you could add me to the club, too.
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