Randy Rhoads.
But the paths aren't inevitable. There's Ozzy - whom I love deeply (as an artist) but if you were growing up in the 70's, it's frustrating. Iommi has aged with grace and class, as has Bruce and Alice. Peter Criss, not so much, but Jimmy Page? Both he and Plant are like royalty. They understand they're not 26 anymore, and it's no longer the "hammer of the Gods" time. I'm not the hugest fan of his, but Eddie Vedder isn't a maniac anymore, but isn't a casualty or joke either. The guys in Purple. I mean, the list goes on.
This really all goes back to the sort of "myth" of being a rock star; better to burn out than fade away. "And my advice is if you maintain this lifestyle you won't reach 30"; "Christ - it's a romantic way to go really, it's part of the heritage, it's your round i'n'it?".
We burn a little brighter now.
I believe - not literally, but metaphorically - that when you die, there's a room, like a library. I'm old, so it looks like the library at my law school, lot's of wood, and books, and carpet and high windows... and you go and you pull out a book. And in there are things like "John Fitzgerald Kennedy b. whatever, d. November 22, 1963" and a bio. And when you get down to the right part it says "Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963 while riding in a motorcade through Deeley Plaza. The shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, acted alone, but was reacting to a suggestion place in him by a contact who had ties to the Central Intelligence Agency. The Agency wanted Kennedy dead [for various reasons] but could not credibly conduct an operation on their own. Through normal Cold War surveillance they became aware of Oswald and while there was no overt aid, in either planning or execution, certain strings were pulled to make sure that the path to the objective was realtively unobstructed, and would succeed or fail through Oswald and Oswald alone." Then you scroll down and there's a list. "Kennedy had sexual relations with the following women:" [Name, name, name... name, name, name... "Marilyn Monroe"...]
I could go and look up the largest issue (like above) or I could go to the log of "Lost Items" and go to my name and scroll down to see what the ultimate destination was for any number of items I've lost. The keys to my house in Georgia. My NY Giants jersey back in 5th grade (that's true, by the way, and that fucker had my name on the back; who wants THAT?). That Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons disk that I bought, and have the receipt for but for the love of God I cannot find.
In there will be the full story of guys like Morrison and Cobain. "Cobain professed to despise fame and the bands of his 'scene' that pursued fame, but most of his angst was caused by the conscious realization that he wanted fame more than any other trapping of artistic achievement. "Nevermind" was not a compromise to a record company that had to be walked back from, but was rather a semi-conscious decision on Cobain's part to betray his stated punk sensibilities in a way that most allowed him to maintain plausible deniability". Or "Morrison craved fame with the fury of 1,000 suns. The Oedipal ramblings and frequent genital exposures was not the random acting out of a crazed, drug-fueled rock star, but part of a persona. Poorly conceived and not very well calculated, but a persona nonetheless, and as the persona caught on, the lack of authenticity proved to be too much for Morrison, who, like Cobain 22 years and 9 months later, subconsciously ended his own life through a fog of drugs, alcohol, and antisocial behavior."
(And yes, you will be able to find out in that room whether that girl Karen from high school DID have a crush on you, or whether you could have taken her to the prom or not.)
Topic: The Doors (Read 3517 times)
