Rock 'N Roll Suicide: How Death Makes Rock Icons Better
Artist:
Babyshambles
Dead rock stars are the most perfect creatures in music. They are the embodiment of all that is desirable about rock and roll and all that is deadly; a reminder of the pain that can sometimes be the side effect of fame. Popular culture is littered with names of people that fell in the name of rock and roll. The previous generation had a wonderfully destructive icon like Kurt Cobain to themselves and the closest we have to a Kurt like figure is Pete Doherty, though comparisons are unfair as Pete has never gifted the world with anything as remotely amazing as Smells Like Teen Spirit.
I know I sound insensitive because Kurt Cobain died a horrible death and in the end there was nothing remotely glamourous about it - he died alone in a small shed with nothing but a gun and some drugs leaving a wife and daughter behind. Yet while in life Kurt had depth and soul, death made him a more interesting figure of iconography. In the end isn't iconicity what rock music is all about? It's what all rock stars secretly aspire to become.
Please don't mistake my frivolity for indifference. I adore the music of Nirvana, I always have and I believe Kurt Cobain to be a genius which results in me attacking anyone who says otherwise. Yet even I realise that in some strange way, death makes him cooler. I have a lunchbox bearing his face on it despite never eating a packed lunch in my life. The metallic picture on the front was probably taken at the height of Kurt's addiction (how morbid of me) and I spray painted my Kurt Cobain All Stars T-shirt a few years ago with garish red to state the immortal line: DEAD. This was before t-shirts bearing a similar design were being sold in shops - I should have sued and become a rich fashionista.
Death these days is packaged and pre-processed for people who, like me, enjoy the kudos that a dead iconic rocker brings. It may be shallow and I'll possibly regret saying all this in years to come but I'm obviously not alone in my feelings. You see when something terrible happens to a rock star and they die, the record companies rush release an album with extra tracks usually called 'The Ultimate Collection' or some such nonsense. Indeed, Rock 'n Roll Suicide is an industry in itself; Tupac Shakur may be stone cold but he is more musically prodigious now than he was when he was alive. It is a fact that he has made a great career from beyond the grave. At the time of writing Eminem produced his last posthumous album though that will probably change because not even something as small as death can stop Tupac. This led to the following thought: how wonderful it would be for Eminem's musical immortality if he died soon. It would be even better if he died via a) Being murdered by his infamously put upon wife Kim or b) if he was killed in a gangland shooting like his friends. Oh well, shit happens doesn't it?
Apart from making a rock star interesting to the public, death gives them undying (pardon the pun) appeal and the depth they possibly lacked in life. Death makes this flawed human perfect. This strange phenomenon isn't limited to mere rock stars though that's where its power if felt the strongest. Actors and actresses have the benefit of this influence as well. Indeed there is still an annual pilgrimage to the site where River Phoenix died and the tunnel where Princess Diana gets the odd tourist. That's what their lives have amounted to - a strange curiosity from the public.
Death somehow makes these people better and more interesting than they were when they were alive. So now I should round everything up into a nice cohesive whole and finish my little essay yet I cannot seem to put my metaphorical finger on why death makes rock stars perfect to me. It just does and I don't argue against it. I just know that as long as there is musical excess so will there be Rock 'n Roll Suicide.
Here is a list I've drawn up of those who should choose death as a good career move:
Kirkland Ciccone
Babyshambles Official Site
Babyshambles Myspace
Dead rock stars are the most perfect creatures in music. They are the embodiment of all that is desirable about rock and roll and all that is deadly; a reminder of the pain that can sometimes be the side effect of fame. Popular culture is littered with names of people that fell in the name of rock and roll. The previous generation had a wonderfully destructive icon like Kurt Cobain to themselves and the closest we have to a Kurt like figure is Pete Doherty, though comparisons are unfair as Pete has never gifted the world with anything as remotely amazing as Smells Like Teen Spirit.
I know I sound insensitive because Kurt Cobain died a horrible death and in the end there was nothing remotely glamourous about it - he died alone in a small shed with nothing but a gun and some drugs leaving a wife and daughter behind. Yet while in life Kurt had depth and soul, death made him a more interesting figure of iconography. In the end isn't iconicity what rock music is all about? It's what all rock stars secretly aspire to become.
Please don't mistake my frivolity for indifference. I adore the music of Nirvana, I always have and I believe Kurt Cobain to be a genius which results in me attacking anyone who says otherwise. Yet even I realise that in some strange way, death makes him cooler. I have a lunchbox bearing his face on it despite never eating a packed lunch in my life. The metallic picture on the front was probably taken at the height of Kurt's addiction (how morbid of me) and I spray painted my Kurt Cobain All Stars T-shirt a few years ago with garish red to state the immortal line: DEAD. This was before t-shirts bearing a similar design were being sold in shops - I should have sued and become a rich fashionista.
Death these days is packaged and pre-processed for people who, like me, enjoy the kudos that a dead iconic rocker brings. It may be shallow and I'll possibly regret saying all this in years to come but I'm obviously not alone in my feelings. You see when something terrible happens to a rock star and they die, the record companies rush release an album with extra tracks usually called 'The Ultimate Collection' or some such nonsense. Indeed, Rock 'n Roll Suicide is an industry in itself; Tupac Shakur may be stone cold but he is more musically prodigious now than he was when he was alive. It is a fact that he has made a great career from beyond the grave. At the time of writing Eminem produced his last posthumous album though that will probably change because not even something as small as death can stop Tupac. This led to the following thought: how wonderful it would be for Eminem's musical immortality if he died soon. It would be even better if he died via a) Being murdered by his infamously put upon wife Kim or b) if he was killed in a gangland shooting like his friends. Oh well, shit happens doesn't it?
Apart from making a rock star interesting to the public, death gives them undying (pardon the pun) appeal and the depth they possibly lacked in life. Death makes this flawed human perfect. This strange phenomenon isn't limited to mere rock stars though that's where its power if felt the strongest. Actors and actresses have the benefit of this influence as well. Indeed there is still an annual pilgrimage to the site where River Phoenix died and the tunnel where Princess Diana gets the odd tourist. That's what their lives have amounted to - a strange curiosity from the public.
Death somehow makes these people better and more interesting than they were when they were alive. So now I should round everything up into a nice cohesive whole and finish my little essay yet I cannot seem to put my metaphorical finger on why death makes rock stars perfect to me. It just does and I don't argue against it. I just know that as long as there is musical excess so will there be Rock 'n Roll Suicide.
Here is a list I've drawn up of those who should choose death as a good career move:
Kirkland Ciccone
Babyshambles Official Site
Babyshambles Myspace
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