Lives Behind The Music

I have enjoyed reading this collection of obituaries from The Times. The linking theme is that they are all popular musical entertainers. There are around 75 names altogether, nearly all of whom I was aware of (Phil May was new to me; I didn't know the name Jet Black; I knew the name Captain Beefheart but noithing about him). Some are legends, as they say, others less so. They die at different ages (with a little glut around 27 as is known - Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, etc). Few of them seem to have lived very easy lives and most of those who weren't abused themselves in some way were immoral or drug abusers. Some of the stories are very sad (Elvis, Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain, etc). There are very few Christians here (Alvin Stardust and Glenn Campbell?) few religious at all. They are really a bunch of misfits in many ways but redeemed by their musical genius. From David Cassidy to Shane MacGowan I read them all and found them all interesting in one way or another. The obituaries change in style and length over the years (I'd like to have had a longer one on Marc Bolan). Some are missing (such as Johnny Cash).

Blue Plaques in Swansea

I was in Swansea again over the weekend. I believe there are at least 14 blue plaques in the city. I saw these two. The first is at the station and the second is near by on Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Pete Ham was a member of Badfinger, the first act apart from the Beatles to appear on the Apple label. Sadly, he became a member of the 27 Club when he committed suicide in 1975. A posthumous album of his home recordings is called Golders Green, noting his residence when the recordings were made (the other was called 7 Park Avenue for the same reason - there is no blue plaque there; it's round the corner from me).

As for Griffith John, he was by contrast a pioneer missionary to China, who translated the Bible into Chinese languages. A new bitesize biography of him by John Aaron has recently appeared.

Aged 27

I notice in my sidebar that my most popular post at present is one I did in 2008 on musicians who died aged 27. See here. No prizes for guessing why people have been looking at it. Tragically, another 27 year old musician died last weekend. There is probably nothing over significant in the number. It allows time for real success but is still tragically young. Others, like Marc Bolan, get beyond 27, but still die tragically young.

10 musicians who died at 27

Reading recently about blues singer Robert Johnson and the fact he died at 27 reminded me of an article I had read recently in The Times about the apparent phenomenon that several musicans have died at the age of 27. For more on this see here.

1. Louis Chauvain (1908)
2. Robert Johnson (1938)
3. Brian Jones (1969)
4. Jimi Hendrix (1970)
5. Janis Joplin (1970)
6. Alan Wilson (1970)
7. Jim Morrison (1971)
8. Ronald McKernan (1973)
9. Peter Ham (1975)
10. Kurt Cobain (1994)