Friday, October 31, 2014

“27 Club” by Chloe Black – A Song Review

     Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison – all members of the 27 Club. It’s Halloween, so it seems appropriate to blog about the oddity of so many well-known musicians passing away at the age of twenty seven. It’s particularly timely because London’s Chloe Black used her emotive vocal skills in a recently released song about the 27 Club.
     What’s the formula for this song? Start with a real-life situation, “Joplin, heroin, cocaine, Cobain, Raise my Hendrix to Jimi. Paraphrase Neil Young’s “It’s better to burn out, then to fade away.” Improve upon Lana Del Rey’s approach to vocalization. Step back and let the fans add up.


Lyrics to “27 Club”
Shotgun wound to the head so I
Oho, oh oh
Think about it every day and night
Oho, oh oh
Joplin, heroin, cocaine, Cobain,
Raise my Hendrix to Jimi
Top shelf, despair, party hard, don't care
No one gets old in the city

Going hard, going hard, wild hearts
Crashing cars, crashing cars and stars
Yeah we're burning and we'll never fade away
Falling hard, au revoir, wild hearts

Lifetime membership “27 Club”
Can I get it?
Lifetime membership “27 Club”
Can I get it?

Leave a good looking corpse behind
Oho, oh oh
Pay the price and get your name in lights
Oho, oh oh
I'll bury you with your guitar
Oho, oh oh
Leave flowers on the boulevard
Oho, oh oh

Going hard, going hard, wild hearts
Crashing cars, crashing cars and stars
Yeah we're burning and we'll never fade away
Falling hard, au revoir, wild hearts

Lifetime membership “27 Club”
Can I get it?
Lifetime membership “27 Club”
Can I get it?

Joplin, heroin, cocaine, Cobain,
Raise my Hendrix to Jimi
Top shelf, despair, party hard, don't care
No one gets old in the city

No one to pay, no one to fade
Come and say my name, yeah
Ain't no one to pay, ain't no one to fade
Come and say my name, yeah
No one to play, no one to play
Come and say my name, yeah

Lifetime membership “27 Club”
Can I get it?
Lifetime membership “27 Club”
Can I get it?
(repeat)


Members of the 27 Club – Information from Wikipedia, with thanks.
Name
Date of death
Official cause of death
Fame
March 26, 1908
Neurosyphilitic sclerosis
Ragtime musician
August 16, 1938
Blues singer and musician who recorded a very influential set of 29 songs.
August 5, 1945
Swing jazz pianist
February 6, 1960
Traffic collision (car)
R&B singer, pianist and songwriter
May 20, 1964
Drug overdose
October 24, 1964
Heart attack
R&B and gospel singer
Malcolm Hale
October 31, 1968
Poisoning (carbon monoxide)
March 26, 1969
Drug overdose (sleeping pills)
Rock and roll singer
July 3, 1969
Drowning (coroner's report states "death by misadventure")
September 3, 1970
September 18, 1970
Pioneering electric guitarist, singer and songwriter for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys
October 4, 1970
Arlester "Dyke" Christian
March 13, 1971
Murdered
July 3, 1971
March 14, 1972
Complications from diabetes
Soul singer
May 3, 1972
Electrocution
Guitarist for Stone the Crows and brother of Alex Harvey
March 8, 1973
Gastrointestinal hemorrhage
Roger Lee Durham
July 27, 1973
Fell off a horse and died from the injuries
Wallace Yohn
August 12, 1974
Plane crash
February 10, 1975
Pulmonary edema
April 24, 1975
Suicide by hanging
December 8, 1975
Drug overdose (heroin)
Former bassist of Uriah Heep and the Keef Hartley Band
August 2, 1976
Traffic collision (car)
Singer
May 3, 1977
Poisoning (carbon monoxide)
December 27, 1978
Traffic collision (car)
March 23, 1980
Traffic collision (car)
December 22, 1985
Traffic collision (van)
February 17, 1988
Fall from a height, probable suicide
Poet, rock musician and songwriter
August 12, 1988
Painter and graffiti artist; formed the band Gray
June 14, 1989
Traffic collision (motorcycle)
July 7, 1993
Murdered
June 16, 1994
Drug overdose (heroin)
Bass guitarist for Hole and Janitor Joe
February 1, 1995
February 3, 1998
Murdered
March 28, 1999
Murdered
June 21, 1999
June 24, 2000
Traffic collision (car)
Sean Patrick McCabe
August 28, 2000
Asphyxiation
Maria Serrano Serrano
November 24, 2001
May 25, 2003
Drug overdose (heroin)
The Mars Volta and De Facto sound manipulator
Bryan Ottoson
April 19, 2005
Drug overdose (prescription medication)
November 26, 2006
Murdered
July 23, 2011
Poisoning (alcohol)
Singer-songwriter
Richard Turner
August 11, 2011
Cardiac arrest
Trumpet player, collaborator with Friendly Fires[37]
Nicole Bogner
January 6, 2012
Undisclosed illness
Soroush "Looloosh" Farazmand
November 11, 2013
Murdered
Monkey Black
April 30, 2014
Murdered
Dominican rapper and singer

1 comment:

  1. At first you made sense but you brought Lana Del Rey into this, because...? She sounded like a cheap knockoff version of Lana with autotune & music to hide her lack of range. Lana doesnt do that & her songs dont disrespect the dead nor do her videos. And if wikipedia is your source of news, honey, you're adorable. Seeing as this was 2014, I hope you've improved & I mean no harm, writers have it hard enough & idk how I ended up here in 2019, but if I am to pursue my passions I should get ready for haters I suppose. This in particular triggered me.

    ReplyDelete