Perhaps you've heard of the "27 Club" or the "Forever 27 Club?" If you haven't, it's a way to refer to a number of legendary rock icons who all died at the age of 27. When I think of legendary rock icons who died at the age of 27, I think of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Kurt Cobain; fans of the Rolling Stones would insist that Brian Jones be included as well.
Now, with the news of Amy Winehouse's death at the age of 27, CBS News insists that she has joined the club. I would heartily disagree with that, unless CBS doesn't care about whether the artist has made an indelible impression on the music world, but only that he or she died at the age of 27 - which would include all of these artists as well. It would seem that I am apparently able to do that two-second internet research that someone at CBS found too difficult. I'm sure Walter Cronkite would have gone that extra mile.
Of course, sensationalism sells the news, and comparing Amy Winehouse's legacy to that of some of rock's greats simply by virtue of them dying at the same age is more sensational than speculating whether or not drugs played a role in her death and if she should have, in fact, gone to rehab (for those of you who may not be familiar with her discography, that's a reference to one of her songs that describes her refusal to go to rehab).
Don't get me wrong, her death is a tragedy, and my sympathy goes out to all of her friends and family and anyone whose life she touched. But she's no Jim Morrison.
And if you had her in your death pool, you just hit a home run.
I was watching the CBS Evening News when they made the comparison and couldn't believe it either. I had just posted something on someone else's facebook about how I was sure that they would compare her to Jim Morrison and make a movie about her in 20 years where people of our generation would have to explain that she was neither socially or artistically relevant.
ReplyDeleteThe Doors had gone through numerous musical stages, and you could argue about their overall relevance to the music scene, but I think with "The Soft Parade" they were making music that wouldn't really be made again until the 1990's. It was panned because it sounded so different, but I think if it were released in 1997 it would have been an amazing success, and not even because Jim Morrison had come back to life to record a new album! Even their early stuff had sounds not heard on my albums. Amy Winehouse's sound remained fairly stable over her career, and she didn't even really add anything to the musical discussion. I guess she's just lucky she didn't die at 33 so she wasn't compared to John Belushi and Chris Farley.
Incredible coincidences? Or something more? Either way, crazy news. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDelete