Enter the history of rock dead at 27 years old
- Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain: The club of 27. Rock needed martyrs and when they were only 27 years old, the old man with the reaper crossed them on the way. Many wonder if they still live; and the teeth of any producer begin to sweat when talking about reissues and special editions of their albums. The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll, published in 2009, will help to exaggerate the myth.
The handwritten words on a piece of paper next to the body of Kurt Cobain on April 5, 1994, summarize the spirit of the club of the best 27: “It’s better to burn it in the fire than to withstand it.” They were taken from a song by Neil Young; they can also be signed by Morrison, Joplin or Hendrix. They dreamed that they would live forever; they had a life that they could die the next day. The 27-year-old is the Bermuda Triangle in the world of rock; perhaps the greatest tale that the culture of the loud guitars has created; and there is no need to tell it only with the four characters mentioned, who, although not so well known, went to the neighborhood of corpses without turning 28. Journalist Eric Segalstad has written a book with the praise of all of them, accompanied by illustrations by Josh Hunter.
It will be an attempt to reinforce the myth that, in addition to recounting the deaths of well-known artists who died at the age of 27, will evoke several musicians who did not achieve such prestige. And of course, the publishers will try to have giant sales taking advantage of the mystery of these deaths.
Most of the club died for reasons not fully clarified. Some are possible murders that take the form of suicide; others mysteriously disappeared. And around them they have made the most incredible hypotheses, sometimes even denying death. What cannot be denied is: That the talent of the members of the club of 27 was much greater than their age.
The day wakes up with the news: he is found dead. The incident was repeated twice in 1970, in a very short space. It could be said that the myth of the 27 years arose then. Jimi Hendrix's body was found on September 18 in a room at the Samarkand Hotel in London. The night before, he offered himself a lethal cocktail of sleeping pills and red wine. The river that grows began to vomit legally and drown in its gastric juices.
Fifteen days later, Janis Joplin was last seen alive at Hollywood’s Sunset Sound recording studio, where he was 3 October. The next day he was going to record the voice of a song and, as he did not appear, they went to pick him up at the Landmark Motor Hotel. He was lying on the floor, killed by an overdose of heroin.
Death awoke again in Paris without a year’s end. July 3, 1971. The victim of the time was Jim Morrison, who gave voice to the songs of The Doors. The body was found in the bathtub, but since it was not autopsied, there are many theories that have been built around death: heroin is obviously exposed in the first places, as well as murder; and it was also mentioned as a false death in the biography entitled No one here gets out alive, although new testimonies about the night that Morrison died have gradually rejected the hypothesis.
The fourth member of the club became a member two decades later. Kurt Cobain was the lead vocalist and guitarist of Nirvana in April 1994, when a bullet hit his head at his home in Seattle. The question of who hit the gun, who killed himself, has been repeated a thousand times.
Finding the answer is impossible in the case of Cobain. There are eleven contradictory versions, and what is questioned at the end is the purpose of all these “investigations”. To give you a few facts, only fourteen years have passed since the death of the singer of Nirvana and twenty biographies have already been published. The last, Cobain unseen by journalist Charles Cross, published earlier this year, is truly revealing: not because it provides new data on death, but because Cross himself wrote another biography in 2001. Intimidate the incident again, if not much; there will always be someone willing to buy the book.
And if only the biographies were... The merchandising they've done with Cobain's death is scandalous: Nick Broomfield made the documentary film Kurt & Courtney, in which Gus Van Sant fictionalized the last days in the film Last days; in 2002 Riverhead Books published some manuscripts and drawings of the singer in a book called Journals.
If only he were a reproach: Jimi Hendrix has released more albums after his death than when he lived. A total of 24 works have been published by the genius of Stratocaster since 1970, combining studio and live. The collections deserve another recount: It's already 27. New ones will emerge.
With the last compilation released last year, fourteen collections have been released by record labels “in honor” of Janis Joplin. The same number is for Jim Morrison’s The Doors collections. The ability to produce the dead.
“It’s better to burn it in the fire than to withstand it.” It's kind of ironic. The phrase is very useful for any head of the music industry to say to their artists. Younger dead musicians are more profitable for large record labels than those with a long career. It’s a better business to have the right to re-release songs from the 27-year-old clubs than to edit new records from the rock dinosaurs. After all, who bought the last of Paul McCartney? There is no new wind in him, only the wrinkles of The Beatles. The ashes cannot shine, while the blood always reflects some prince of light.
It will be an attempt to reinforce the myth that, in addition to recounting the deaths of well-known artists who died at the age of 27, will evoke several musicians who did not achieve such prestige. And of course, the publishers will try to have giant sales taking advantage of the mystery of these deaths.
Most of the club died for reasons not fully clarified. Some are possible murders that take the form of suicide; others mysteriously disappeared. And around them they have made the most incredible hypotheses, sometimes even denying death. What cannot be denied is: That the talent of the members of the club of 27 was much greater than their age.
Dying at 27 years old, leaving a beautiful corpse
The day wakes up with the news: he is found dead. The incident was repeated twice in 1970, in a very short space. It could be said that the myth of the 27 years arose then. Jimi Hendrix's body was found on September 18 in a room at the Samarkand Hotel in London. The night before, he offered himself a lethal cocktail of sleeping pills and red wine. The river that grows began to vomit legally and drown in its gastric juices.
Fifteen days later, Janis Joplin was last seen alive at Hollywood’s Sunset Sound recording studio, where he was 3 October. The next day he was going to record the voice of a song and, as he did not appear, they went to pick him up at the Landmark Motor Hotel. He was lying on the floor, killed by an overdose of heroin.
Death awoke again in Paris without a year’s end. July 3, 1971. The victim of the time was Jim Morrison, who gave voice to the songs of The Doors. The body was found in the bathtub, but since it was not autopsied, there are many theories that have been built around death: heroin is obviously exposed in the first places, as well as murder; and it was also mentioned as a false death in the biography entitled No one here gets out alive, although new testimonies about the night that Morrison died have gradually rejected the hypothesis.
The fourth member of the club became a member two decades later. Kurt Cobain was the lead vocalist and guitarist of Nirvana in April 1994, when a bullet hit his head at his home in Seattle. The question of who hit the gun, who killed himself, has been repeated a thousand times.
Dying at the age of 27 for them to do business
Finding the answer is impossible in the case of Cobain. There are eleven contradictory versions, and what is questioned at the end is the purpose of all these “investigations”. To give you a few facts, only fourteen years have passed since the death of the singer of Nirvana and twenty biographies have already been published. The last, Cobain unseen by journalist Charles Cross, published earlier this year, is truly revealing: not because it provides new data on death, but because Cross himself wrote another biography in 2001. Intimidate the incident again, if not much; there will always be someone willing to buy the book.
And if only the biographies were... The merchandising they've done with Cobain's death is scandalous: Nick Broomfield made the documentary film Kurt & Courtney, in which Gus Van Sant fictionalized the last days in the film Last days; in 2002 Riverhead Books published some manuscripts and drawings of the singer in a book called Journals.
If only he were a reproach: Jimi Hendrix has released more albums after his death than when he lived. A total of 24 works have been published by the genius of Stratocaster since 1970, combining studio and live. The collections deserve another recount: It's already 27. New ones will emerge.
With the last compilation released last year, fourteen collections have been released by record labels “in honor” of Janis Joplin. The same number is for Jim Morrison’s The Doors collections. The ability to produce the dead.
Dying at 27 years old, getting older is worse
“It’s better to burn it in the fire than to withstand it.” It's kind of ironic. The phrase is very useful for any head of the music industry to say to their artists. Younger dead musicians are more profitable for large record labels than those with a long career. It’s a better business to have the right to re-release songs from the 27-year-old clubs than to edit new records from the rock dinosaurs. After all, who bought the last of Paul McCartney? There is no new wind in him, only the wrinkles of The Beatles. The ashes cannot shine, while the blood always reflects some prince of light.