The Needle and the Damage Done

Just been reading the rather tragic story of Bass Player Mike Starr from ‘Nine Inch Nails’ who recently died of a heroin overdose, I’m sure most of you are thinking “who?”, and you’d be right to think that as he was hardly a household name! Still, never mind eh.

The article went onto to describe/explain the tragedy behind Grunge music and its affect on its ‘famous deaths’. To be brutally honest with you – I thought it was a crop of shit as no matter what genre of music – there will always be fatalities, but the only thing that differs is the way the person dies!

Hip Hop/Rap music has always long been associated with gun crime compared to the rather reckless self debauched hedonistic lifestyles of certain rock musicians. So, it’s pretty un-fair to singe out Grunge for being associated with a couple of ‘wrongn’s’

So, why does/did Grunge attract so much negative press, doom and gloom and damn right miserable bastards? The simple answer may well be the way the main ‘stars’ of the Grunge scene acted, but the main, more honest explanation may well be Heroin! It was the true dark cloud that followed Grunge around!

Heroin was pretty rife in young Grunge musicians of the late eighties and early nineties. It was born of frustration after Reagan introduced a new welfare to work reform in the USA (in short, if you had no job, you got NO financial help). Now if you add into the mix disaffected young men and women with nowhere to go and nothing to do except sit in your bed sit all day, the music that will follow will hardly be ‘Shiny Happy Fucking People’ will it?

With regards to Grunge in general, I personally I think the Grunge ‘style’ (ripped jeans, t-shirt worn underneath chequered shirt, greasy hair and loads of acne) was an image tool much like the Glam Rock Style of the early seventies and New Romantic style of the mid eighties. Obviously not the same but an instant association with that genre of music no doubt.

Now, I’m not applauding the use of heroin in any way here, but have you noticed that the one, sad thing missing from mainstream pop these days IS heroin! A good few high profile deaths instead of the odd underground musician popping his clogs would also be very welcome news (I think you can probably guess who I’m thinking of the police finding dead in a bathtub with a syringe hanging out of their cocks would definitely raise a smile from me!)

But to be honest here and ‘fight the corner’ of heroin, music over the years DID sound better when played under the influence of hard drugs such as scagg. Take Gram Parsons, Keith Richards, Janis Joplin, and Lou Reed for examples. They’re music was great when they were on the gear, but, sadly not so great when they were straight! Sad, but you really can’t compensate for true creative inspiration! If you don’t believe me, have a trawl through the afore mentioned back-catalogues and you’ll see what I mean!

(Also see title of Black Grape’s debut for sarcastic take on this subject by the way)

But, in all seriousness, music aside for one minute, you really can’t compensate for an early grave can you?

Live fast die young?

The legend should go: Live fast (Take smack, make sweet music), die young more like!

Mol