Can I just say how %$^&*()_ sick I am of the canonization of every dead, junkie rock star? Dying because you've overdosed on drugs does NOT make you a great performer. It just makes you a dead one.
It started with Elvis. Now, Elvis, in his day, was fucking amazing. I love The King's music. However, The King died on the throne. Literally. Just utterly horrible and ugly, unpleasant way to die. His personal life... have you ever paid attention to the crap Elvis got up to? *slams head on the desk* He may have been the King of Rock'n'Roll, but, Christ on a crutch, he was a DUMB sumbitch! His movies were atrocious enough, but the shit he did in his personal life... *shakes head* Thankfully, his daughter seems to have survived her stupid phase (although belonging to the Shiny People... *shakes head*).
Then there was Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison--all dead at 27, all the deaths involving alcohol and drugs. Lionized, forever young, legends, the men much more so than Janis. Moon the Loon and John Bonham--two legendary drummers, dead, alcohol I believe involved in both (sorry, at work and not researching atm--look it up yourself if you want to know for sure and post it in the comments).
The punk era saw suicide (Ian Curtis of Joy Division) and pure stupidity (Sid Vicious). Punks... we're not too sentimental. No one has turned Sid into an English Prayer (a la Jim Morrison), although Johnny Rotten's comments in The Filth and the Fury are heartbreaking--basically, Sid was a dumb kid who got fucked over and who was too dumb to wake up and smell the coffee. I hope Malcom McClaren is doing a long, slow roast in whatever hell his soul ended up in.
John Lennon got shot in December of 1980; after that, I don't really remember who else died in the 80's; I don't think I really care. I know, I'm an asshole. Sue me.
The 90's... in the 90's things got WEIRD. Freddy Mercury died of AIDS in November of '92. THAT hurt; I remember seeing them carrying the body out of his house on the telly and weeping. And then... then the grunge guys started ODing.
I've gotten into a couple of minor barneys with a friend over Kurt Cobain vs. Layne Staley. I hate Alice in Chains--same fuckin' song every time. Nirvana... Nirvana hit a chord in my soul. That's it; there was something in Kurt's words, voice and music that reached me in a way few people do. I KNEW the pain he was singing. I went through the worst of my depressive episodes from '91-96; Kurt's music got me through some of it, and seeing his face on the magazine covers with 1967-1994 on every newsstand kept me from slicing open my veins more than once.
Yes, I'm one of those people who thinks Nick Broomfield was on to something when he did the documentary Kurt and Courtney; I am waiting for the day that murdering junkie whore turns up dead with a spike in her arm. No apologies--listen to In Utero. It's what I call a "divorce album"--there are quite a few of them out there (Bruce's Brilliant Disguise, both G'n'R's Use Your Illusion albums, fer instance)--listen to the lyrics. That bitch was getting kicked to the curb and would have lost everything. She's also proved that she has zero talent of her own--her music is only as good as the guy she's fucking.
(Can you tell I really hate it when women let down the side? Just pisses me off--makes it harder for the rest of us. There was actually a study published a few years ago about women in the arts--that we are MUCH harder on other women and expect far more from them than from men.)
However... no matter how much I dig Nirvana's music (and love the success Dave Grohl has had with the Foo Fighters... NEW ALBUM COMING!!!!!!!!!), I am SOD-ALL sick of their music being overplayed on commercial radio. Argh.
The other 90's band that lost a singer to an OD (and the one that inspired this rant) is Sublime. THEY SUCK! EVERY FUCKING SONG SOUNDS IDENTICAL! And worse, like Alice in Chains, they've found another fucking singer who sounds just like the dead one. Just makes me want to put a fucking ice pick through my ear drums.
And, there's the king of the canonization... Michael kid-fucker Jackson. The man was NOT the king of pop--he was the king of shit. End of story. The guy SUCKED (and sucked kids--NOT good!).
I didn't even know he'd died; I was at a post-surgery support group meeting and the facilitator made a crack about we could all go home and pay tribute by moonwalking, and I'm like WTF? A lady leaned over and said, "Didn't you hear? Michael Jackson died!"
My reaction: "REALLY?! THAT'S AWESOME! One less child molester in the world!"
This did not make me popular amongst the people around me, particularly the two African American women sitting behind me. Although I felt the temperature drop around me a little, I didn't realize how upset I'd made her until her purse connected "accidently" with the back of my head when she got up to go to the ladies' room.
I actually "lost" a friend on FB because of this. Some lunatic out in Cali decided to friend me after I started following a voice actor-related web developer. This sad creature started tagging me whenever she or one of her fellow sad, life-lacking friends would post a picture of Jackoff. This pissed me off utterly, and I finally lost my shit and posted for them to stop connecting me with a child molester. I said in a private message to her that I despised him, and she replied with "I utterly despise you for thinking such horrible things about him." And she unfriended me.
I laughed my ass off.
See, I don't care how the trials ended. I've heard enough about Cali justice (at least around Hwood) to know that there was no fucking way Jackoff was going to be found guilty. Why am I convinced he was guilty? Well, kids, it's like this--an innocent person does NOT pay hush money for such heinous accusations. That's it. You pay the blackmailer, you're guilty. Especially when you're accused of something so low, so vile, so utterly completely unforgivably disgusting.
Particularly when your career is in the toilet because the world has discovered just how unoriginal your music is and how much you suck. And particularly when you're broke because you're so out of touch with reality... I mean, he was trying to buy the skeleton of John Merrick back in the 80's. And does anyone else remember the pet chimp? Folks, chimps aren't pets; they're wild animals.
When was the last time Michael Jackson made a decent song? I mean, if I'd had to look at THAT "Man in the Mirror," I would have fuckin' killed myself. Seriously--I can understand the amount of drugs he was taking. If I'd pissed through that much money, wasted my talent, and become an international laughing stock, I'd have medicated myself beyond redemption.
Actually, I wouldn't. I would never have allowed my life to go that far, but that's because I'm an asshole.
I mean, c'mon, we all knew Billy Jean wasn't his lover--if anything, he was fucking her little brother. And none of his kids are his biological kids--yes, please, let these white children be raised by the same people who physically and emotionally abused their father so badly he not only hated himself so deeply, he tried to change not only his appearance but his skin color.
Hell, yeah, THAT makes sense. Argh.
And before ANYONE throws the "he was abused" argument at me, all I have to say is, GO FUCK YOURSELF. A lot of people have been abused; that doesn't give you carte blanche to fuck up your life and be an asshole. If anything, it puts a greater responsibility on you to break the cycle and make your life mean something (besides a warning to anyone else). When you have that much money, you can afford good therapy and to throw the abusers out on their ass.
George Carlin did--he put his mother out when he finally realized that her drinking was killing him.
If Fate is kind and I get any kind of success with my writing/performing, there are a few people I will make sure to look after, but there are a couple of people who if they show up with their hand out had better have fuck-all good reflexes because the door will slam as hard as possible, and whatever gets caught, broken or otherwise mangled is their fuckin' problem. I mean, COME ON! Someone beats you and you SUPPORT THE PRICK? And allow him to live off of YOUR money? Jesus H. Christ, what kind of a stupid, moronic masochist does that kind of shit?
Yeah, I get pissed when someone lets down the side. You die stupidly because you've let them ruin your life, a part of all of us trying to survive dies.
Can you tell I've had this conversation with someone recently? *slams head on the desk*
At least I'm back to being cranky instead of just blackly depressed.
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