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Live fast, die young, leave a good looking corpse

04 Sep 2007 04:07 pm

I cried when my extraodinarily evanescent college band broke up. Though a cynic would point out that I might have been crying because the break-up was coincidental with the rending of relations between myself and my college boyfriend, I maintain that the even greater tragedy was the world's loss of Bottle Green's groovy, Irish-punk-rock-pop fusion.

However, it seems as if personally, I may have lucked out:


ROCK stars are famous for excess, and some pay the price. A new study suggests that they are up to three times more likely to die young than the rest of the population, mainly because of drug and alcohol abuse. Researchers led by Mark Bellis at Liverpool John Moores University looked at survival rates for over 1,000 European and American musicians who had their first chart success between 1956 and 1999. From 1956 to 2005, 100 of them died. Some 40% of the Europeans and 28% of the Americans died from overdoses, accidents or chronic disease related to drugs and drink. Cancer and heart disease, conditions associated with unhealthy lifestyles, together claimed over a third of the Americans. The study is published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Since I just know we would have hit the big time had we not been torn apart by the fickle hand of fate, I suppose I have to thank said boyfriend for saving us both from a life of glamour, hard living, and premature death.

Thank you, John, wherever you are. I think.

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Comments (16)

Yes, because the sight of a recently shorn, bug eyed Megan wielding an umbrella to beat off the press minions would be a little too much to bear. :)

Megan,

I might regret this tragedy as well, if I understood what "groovy, Irish-punk-rock-pop fusion" was.

Keith Richards reads that article, chuckles, mumbles something about Hendrix under his breath, tears the newspaper page up into tiny bits and snorts it up, grabs an acoustic and noodles a 20-minute blues riff.

And a beautiful, pristine blues riff at that.

Heh, when I read that my immediate thought was "and we are SURPRISED by this?" I mean better to burn out and all that, but they seem to just flat use their bodies UP. On the other hand Bobby D. has got to be like 100 now or something, and he won't let us alone, so...

I was going to mention the Rolling Stones as the obvious counterexample..."three times more likely" doesn't mean "certain."

Still, if your band hadn't broken up, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation. Think of it that way.

Yes. However, Mick Jagger has outlived the opportunity to "leave a good looking corpse".

"I was going to mention the Rolling Stones as the obvious counterexample."

Mick, Keith and Charlie may have made it through, but Brian Jones didn't.

There's no reason you have to follow the trend.

This would have been from their last album:

Vote!
Vote for Bush!
Because, he'll keep us safe
Even though all evidence points to the conclusion that he's just been lucky and he's willing to put money ahead of the safety of the U.S.
Vote!
Vote for Bush!
Because, he'll keep us safe

[fife and drum solo]

Vote!
Vote for Bush!
Because, he'll keep us safe

relations between myself and my college boyfriend

Me and my college boyfriend.

But I hear she still has Shane MacGowan's teeth.

Got any statistics about how many pre-college-graduation relationships that center around an artistic project actually lead to marriage?

I'm guessing their lifespan is not so good either.

'Yes. However, Mick Jagger has outlived the opportunity to "leave a good looking corpse".'

I don't think that was ever an option for Mick.

Considering the crazy partying and drug use I witnessed among my classical musician friends, I can only imagine the excesses of rockers and rappers.

My dad was a professional jazz musician in the late 30s-early 40s and smoked marijuana when informed it would help him keep time better. But being a hyper-rational scientific-type he found it useless and never smoked again. He wasn't like most musicians, which is probably why he got out of the business. His best friend stayed in it though, and lived quite a long life, despite his alcoholism. Maybe it was the string of 7 or 8 wives that kept him going.

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