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Fatal Journeys |
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By: Ganashree Kedlaya |
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Date:
2008-11-20 |
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Place: Bangalore |
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TRAGIC TALE: Jimi Hendrix asphyxiated after overdosing on sleeping pills | What do Jim Morrisson, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain have in common? They are all rock legends and they all died at twenty-seven. The Forever 27 Club is a jinxed phenomenon that haunted the world of music at a time when rock and roll was followed like a religion.
Many popular musicians, in the '60s and '70s, died young, leaving behind a cult of followers, having produced great music that echoes off the walls in most pubs even to this day.
The 'curse', as it came to be called, swallowed not just popular rock musicians but many blues and rap artistes as well, taking the total death toll to 40.
The musicians who belong to this club were curators of rock culture and icons who set fashion trends, which have outlived them.
As many of them died under mysterious circumstances, the number 27 was considered plain unlucky. But critics argued that their decadent lifestyle led to their early demise. But rock fans are convinced that something more sinister was at work, or why else would tragedy strike exactly at 27? Forty musicians died at the age of 27, over a span of two years, and if that's not strange I wonder what is.
Still, rock music has lived on, through turbulent times and unfortunate losses and through tales of murders, suicides and addictions, to give birth to more and more fans, generation after generation.
 Ten popular singers who died at the age of 27
>>Jimi Hendrix (pioneering electric guitarist, singer and songwriter): Asphyxiated after overdosing on sleeping pills.
>>Jim Morrison (poet, lead singer, songwriter and video director for The Doors): Cause of death was listed as heart failure but, as no autopsy was performed, the actual cause remains mysterious.
>>Kurt Cobain (lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for Nirvana): Committed suicide.
>>Brian Jones (Rolling Stones founder and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist): Drowned in a swimming pool.
>>Janis Joplin (lead vocalist and songwriter for Big Brother and the Holding Company): Died of heroin overdose.
>>Ron McKernan (founding member and keyboardist of the Grateful Dead): Gastrointestinal hemorrhage associated with alcoholism.
>>Gray Thain (Former bassist of Uriah Heep): Died of drug overdose.
>>Alan Wilson (lead singer and primary composer of Canned Heat): Death was listed as possible suicide.
>>Les Harvey (guitarist of Stone the Crows): Electrocuted by a microphone.
>>D Boon (guitarist, lead singer of punk band The Minutemen): Lying down in the back of a van when it veered off the road, he was ejected from the vehicle and broke his neck. |
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