Alan Wilson of Canned Heat is never mentioned in the group with Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, Cobain, and now Winehouse as talented young stars who left us at age 27. To me, his music and legacy are just as important as the others.
I found a new website created by Alan's family. It has photos of Alan's instruments including harmonica, copies of documents and songs written with his hand, rare photos, all youtube videos with Alan, youtube vids from Jason Ricci about Alan, a list of his harmonica songs, and even a link to this forum where Alan's music was discussed.... and much more.
Thanks to the family and friends of Alan for creating a wonderful tribute.
It's not a pissing match, or a club that people aspire to "joining" for the kudos. Lots of people die every year the age of 27 has no specific statistical value.
When someone who has touched our lives passes before their time, it is always sad and it is nice to remember what they left behind, but let's not try and attribute some whimsical, pseudo romantic link to the coincidental number 27...the best part of 100 souls were murdered in Norway this weekend, most were under 27 and had not yet had a chance to realise their potential. Their passing is no less sad than that of the others mentioned here & in the Winehouse thread.
Sorry to hijack the thread, but at times like this we should be thinking of those who have lost loved ones, rather than contributing to the propogation of urban myths.
hooker and heat album has some of the best blues harp blowin` i`ve ever heard. in my ears..."alan wilson thats the canned heat"j.l. hooker said that...
Last Edited by on Jul 24, 2011 9:33 AM
I don't know what the tragedy in Norway has to do with this thread? Pissing match? Doesn't fit at all. A pissing match is a contest or an effort at one-upmanship. You are probably involved in a lot of those.
The fact that these music legends all died at 27 is coincidence and a kind of interesting coincedence at that. It's all over the media. Just chatter.
5F6H..(you never did tell me how to prounounce that) ...I apologize if you are related to or are friends with any of the above mentioned or know their families. Please tell them I am sorry I mentioned their legacy in a positive, uplifting manner. I thought maybe someone here had not been exposed to Blind Owl and might enjoy learning about him and listening to his music.
Of course some people can turn any good thing into a crock of shit.....He's done it before.
Let's add Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones to the list of 27s as well.
Seriously, did anyone else think I was trying to say the stars were in line or mystical occurences were involved here....Maybe voodoo or Mojo. Geez...I didn't present it as such.
I am now pissed at myself for letting someone so totally off base sour my mood...for a second anyway...lol
Last Edited by on Jul 24, 2011 10:03 AM
Harpdudesixteewon (I think that's how you pronounce it?) not all music legends die at 27. And not all people who die before their time do it on cue. Amy isn't a legend, popular? Yes. Talented? Yes...I'd consider myself a fan, but a little too soon to evaluate her "legendary" status...she may have been in time. Her passing is sad, and will be all the sadder if she is now infamous for being reduced to "her age at her demise". Blind Owl, Brian Jones, etc, sure there are valid reasons to keep their names in the public consciousness, I'm all for it, but if all they have in common is the age at which they died, that's frankly a little sad & macabre.
Your "list" of people who were unfortunate enough to leave this world at 27 seems to me to be in bad taste. If you think that is "off base" then you need to grow up....hope you've stopped "laughing out loud" and I'm glad you're not doing it within arms length of me. Think about what you write, we might only know of these people in a public context, but they have families that are now missing a son, or daughter, brother or sister.
The sadness and irony about the death of Amy Winehouse is her inability to cope with life despite the fact that she was a truly gifted and inspired artist whose work was widely appreciated and brought her world wide recognition and commercial success. Apparently, none of this created personal happiness for her and she was plagued to death by other demons which haunted her despite the incredible artistic achievements she realized and, to me, that is what is so sad.
@ Groyster "lets lock this one-a threat has been made-ridiculous" More rediculous than this rather jeuvenile, macabre "list/collection/myth repeated enough becoming the truth" fascination with unrelated events surrounding the loss of a life? I think not.
It's not like me to resort to the comment I made to HD61, but sometimes a slap has been known to bring people, even me, to their senses. A hypothetical slap doesn't even leave a bruise.
This thread could easily have had a title that didn't make some bizarre link based on age. If HD61 wants to edit that, then I'll happily delete my posts.
Last Edited by on Jul 24, 2011 1:06 PM
the age of 27 is not the only thing these musicians had in common-they also had abusive lifestyles,sad but true maybe you should delete your post since you made an idle threat
Last Edited by on Jul 24, 2011 12:11 PM
careful 5f6h....I'm an uneducated hillbilly redneck from the hills of east Tennessee. That thar possum gravy gives a fellar a mighty bit of pep come fuedin time!
Then there's the "multiple of 27"... my best friend died at age 27 in car accident... another best friend died at age 54 from a heart attack... if and when I reach 81, I will be part of that group... but who really gives a bug's butt ?
Harpdude, Ha ha, I never said I'd come out of it on top..if you're more than half my height & weight then that's too much like a fair match to my mind ;-) Sometimes you have to say, or do what you feel is right...& suffer the consequences...wouldn't be for the first time...
@5F6H Im also from east tennessee and really dont think harpdude did anything to violate the forum creed but idle threats and I do mean very idle is probably in violation but will leave it to the moderators discretion
Groyster, man up. You have a strange sense of ethics. I have offered my compromise. It's up to Harpdude what he wants to do about it, (without wanting to further reignite, or propogate any minor verbal disagreements...which if I remember right are outside the remit of the UN, Geneva Convention etc.) it's not up to you to decide what I find distasteful or not.
@5F6H I will let you get in the final word because I wont look @ this thread again you are not worth getting kicked off this forum which I would not want to because there are some great,helpful people on this forum who are classy people a title you are not deserving of-outta here
Thanks Mr. Shanks! The whole point of the thread. Sorry if it sounded like something else. I was feelin groovy when I started this thread. I'm still feelin groovy. This song is dedicated to FIVE ELF SIX HAYTCH. C'mon boys and girls...dig the groove of the Blind Owl and the Hook!!
I heard an hour interview this Saturday with the man who made the discovery that 27 was a sadly popular year of death for rock stars...Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, etc.
When he and a colleague charted out the ages of famous rock stars who died of anything but old age they found 44 who died at 27 - a huge outlier compared to any other age. He went on to share many sociological reasons why this was the case, although there were a fair amount of crazy random things that killed some of the stars.
Anyways, this author, who wrote a book about RJ, actually, managed to convince me that Hendrix was murdered and Kurt Cobain may have been. But I totally believe Hendrix was murdered now.
Doh! Just for a minute I thought this might return to being a thread about Wilson. Might sound hypocritical given my previous posts, but I'd like to hear more about Blind Owl, rather than allusions to "Club 27" or whatever glib name some pea-brained fool attributes to it.
Many on that list of 44 are hardly "rock stars", some were undeniably talented (like Linda Jones, one of my favourite singers)...
...but I think it's worth remembering a few things...
People are shaped by "nurture" as well as "nature". Sadly, some are likely to be influenced by the early passing of their heroes and significant people in their lives.
This forum can be accessed & read by anyone, even possibly some young, aspiring, impressionable musician with their own demons (in studies many folk who are driven to seek fame are found to have deep rooted troubles), who see what they want to see in this perceived pattern..."monkey see, monkey do". Yes, it will happen anyway and no, I'm not on some Star Trek like crusade to eliminate poverty, disease and suffering from humankind...but I do think that propogating the myth that "legendary musicians die at 27" and then are indicted into some elite club is somewhat irresponsible...of course if I had a book, or magazine to sell, I might think otherwise.
Most of us here are probably too late in life to steal any kudos from joining up...but like I said, we don't control who reads what we write here, or how they perceive, or interpret it.
I'm sure the mothers & families of the 44 named would have much rather they died of old age surrounded by their children & grandchildren.
I'm sure we have all lost friends & loved ones before their time and I'm sure many of us are still dealing with those who are haunted by depression, addiction, terminal & life shortening illnesses and who might regularly talk of meeting an early grave (whether by their own hand or not)...indeed some on this list may be dealing with these very issues themselves. When you spend time trying to convince people in these situations that life IS worth living (always with the possibility that you might ultimately be making no difference at the end of the day in the back of your mind), the glamourisation of "club 27" feels like a smack in the face and two steps back.
Besides the fact, that those who are known for dying young are probably going to be under 30 & past their mid teens, a significant number will be in their 20's & statistically 44 musicians who died at 27 doesn't seem particularly unique, or out of the norm %-wise?
It's part of the human condition to try and seek out patterns to make the world more comprehendable, but if we set too much store by attaching meaning to coincidence, then we may as well go back to throwing virgins in volcanoes every time we have a bit of bad luck.
So let's celebrate the achievements of all those that left us before their time (whatever their age), spare a thought for the tragedy that accompanied their demise & the human cost to loved ones...rather than subscribing to poorly researched, schoolyard myths (...can't we leave that to Hello magazine & Facebook?)
Like remembering this guy for instance...
Apologies to Harpdude for railroading the thread once again (go to http://alanwilsoncannedheat.com/ ). No hard feelings meant to anyone.
Last Edited by on Jul 25, 2011 8:44 AM
I forgot the name of the guy who I heard, but he himself had said it was more of a coincidence than anything largely based on how the music industry works. Rock starts probably wasn't the best term for me to use...he and his partner had qualifiers of who they would look at and they had to be musicians that had made a significant impact on their genre, etc. It wasn't isolated to rock.
So they took a list of all the relatively famous musicians who died of things other than natural causes and it just so happened that ages 26 and 27 did end up being significantly higher than any other ages.
I don't remember the whole list (I was in the car and it was 3am) but really it came down to the culture of music...most artists are in their prime in their mid to late 20's and tend to fade out a bit as they near 30 because of marketing and how teens are buying the music, etc. They are at a stage in life that can be overwhelming and they need to take a crossroads, etc. Really, when he broke it down, there was no voodoo to it. There was, though, a bit of a lesson of how the public and stakeholders can really run people to death.
He even stated that as time goes on and the music scene changes, this will be less and less likely to occur. In fact, his argument was that nowadays a lot of artists are learning to not behave like that, blah, blah, blah. ---------- Mike Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas
More than half the 44 died in everyday circumstances that cannot be attributed specifically to not being able to cope with the pressures of a rock'n'roll lifestyle (car crashes, motorcycle crashes, everyday illnesses & murder).
The fact that Cobain willfully took his own life, after "the club" had been established (whilst not being any kind of evidence of supporting my feeling on the subject) does raise questions for me as to the effect of this kind of propaganda on the troubled mind.
More memories of someone taken before their time, even some harp content ;-)
Last Edited by on Jul 25, 2011 8:33 AM
I seriously doubt that Cobain killed himself in order to join the club...
I'm with Harpninja here, I don't think it's purely coincidental, but it relates to the way music industry works, and probably the way an artist works, the way celebrity works, and you can add the way a drug addiction works...
Gloth you are accepting these statistics as "fact" without any research (research being robust data, not just a nice idea for a money spinning book that is likely to appeal to wide range of the market due to the headline names of the subjects).
Andrew, it's not a club, it doesn't exist, if it does then offer some robust data. People die...some die in the womb (18% of males conceived die before, or shortly after taking their first breath...if you want a truly sad, shocking statistic, if you make it to 27 you're virtually indestructible in comparison), once you are out of the womb you will inevitably die one day (sorry folks to shatter anyone's illusions), some people inevitably die aged 27. In all stastical data that I have read, people are more likely to die up to & with every year that passes after the age of 9 (statistically the safest age). More 28 yr olds die than 27 year olds, vastly more 45 year olds die than 28 year olds. In the US and much of the developed world anything prior to ~80yrs may be considered "early/before your time".
Hell, my grandfather went "before his time", succumbing at 91 to wounds sustained when he was 26!
At 27 your chances of dying in the next year are one in 1415 in the UK. By 74 that becomes one in 42.
Another soul taken before their time...at 33 this time...obviously not talented enough to join the club and be a "legend" ;-I
This subject should really be in the "conspiracy theories for the profoundly gullible forum.com" It's depressing me, so I'm out.
Last Edited by on Jul 26, 2011 7:53 AM
5F6H, I had already put inverted commas around my first use of the word 'club'. I am sorry that I forgot to put them around the second.
The "club" is not one of dying before your time. It's one of self-destructive talent. Rimbaud didn't exactly self-destruct (depending on the source of his cancer), but turning from poetry to gun-running in 19th century Abyssinia is not exactly an imitation of the life-style of the chartered accountant. ----------
Andrew. ----------------------------------------- Those who are tardy do not get fruit cup.
Last Edited by on Jul 26, 2011 7:27 AM
BW Keller needs a bigger envelope for his "back of the envelope" research...I used an A4 Manilla envelope, both sides!
Between 1900 & 1950 the most common age for a musician to die was either 44, 47, 48 (4% each) compared to 1.8% for 27yr olds. Source "Dead Rock Stars Club", from 227 records carrying DOB & DOD.
It quickly became apparent that a full investigation would take years, so I thought I'd check out 1975, a good year for the 27 Club with Gary Thain, Dave Alexander, Pete Ham passing in that year. Funny how no-one mentions any of the 64 year olds that passed that year (8% of records compared to 4.6% for 51yr olds, 46yr olds & 27yr olds).
So far this year 27yr olds make up 0.64% of musicians who died before reaching the average life span...but "club61" (5.43%) doesn't really have the same vibe does it?
Love Blind Owl. 27 Club? Utter hogwash!
Last Edited by on Jul 29, 2011 2:30 PM
Before THEY wanted to go? Before WE wanted them to go? Or simply, before old age took them? ---------- Robert Hale Learn Harmonica via Webcam Low Rates, High Results http://www.dukeofwail.com DUKEofWAIL YouTube
