The 27 Club

Benjamín Pacheco López

Letras Españolas

4º semestre

C.A.A.D.I.

THE MYTH AND THE COINCIDENCE The 27 Club reffers

a group of virtuos musicians who died at the same age.

From 1908 to 2011 there are forty five “members” listed in websites, magazines or blogs.

1994: A CRUCIAL YEAR-KURT COBAIN AND THE SHOTGUN

After the suicide of Cobain, the Press quoted out of context a declaration of his mother:

“Now he´s gone and joined in that stupid club”.

Apparently, this part of the declaration impacted in the popular culture.

Scientists have suggested that we are captivated with analyzing death because such investigations make us better able to stave it off.

To look at the age of the deceased in the obituaries appears to be universal and across cultures.

The Astrological Lodge of London tried to explain the statistical spike of The 27 Club.

Also, scientists of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia used mathematical analysis to determine the significance of this coincidence.

At the end, the researchers concluded that: “the 27 Club is based on myth, but warn that musicians have a generally increased risk of dying throughout their 20´s and 30´s”.

One of the evidences founded in this research is that there where no deaths in this age group in the late 1980s.

Some reasons involved the change in the music scene from the hard rock 1970´s to the pop music in the 1980’s.

Also, scientists developed better treatments for heroin overdose.

ROCKSTARS Robert Johnson.The

first “official member”.

He was born in 1911.

He “sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his talent”.

He died in 1938 after succumbing to pneumonia after drinking whiskey that had been spiked with strychnine.

Actually it is considered that his music legacy “has entranced later generations of rock and blues musicians such as the Rolling Stones and Led Zepellin.

Fans and experts alike call him the grandfather of rock and roll”.

BRIAN JONES He was born on

February 28, 1942.

Was a founder member of the Rolling Stones.

Also, Jones was a truly gifted musician and was able to learn how to play any instrument in a few hours time.

On July 2, 1969, Brian Jones was found dead in his swimming pool.

The police reported a “death by misadventure” a.k. drowning.

In 1993 was reported that he was murdered by a construction worker.

JIMMY HENDRIX Johnny Allen

Hendrix was born in November 27, 1942.

In 2003, the Rolling Stone magazine gived him the humber one position in a polemic edition called “100 greatest guitarists”.

He died in September 18, 1970, in London.

The doctors said that he had a “considerable amount of alcohol in his pharynx and larynx (red wine), despite suction, and it was obvious that he had drowned in his own gastric contents”.

THE “PEARL” JANIS JOPLIN

She was born in January 19, 1943, in Port Arthur, Texas.

Her most memorable tracks are “Piece of my heart”, “Cry Baby” and “Me and Bobby McGee”.

Joplin represented an entirely different approach for female vocalists: wild and uninhibited yet still focused and deliberated.

For experts, Janis Joplin was trying to sound like “an old black woman”.

She died on October 4, 1970, in Los Angeles, of “an accidental overdose of heroine and alcohol”.

JIM MORRISON James Douglas

Morrison was born on December 8, 1943, in Florida.

He was influenced by the poetry of William Blake and the writings of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

His lyrics were based on “image-rich poeticism (…) perfectly supported by the Door´s swirling, eclectic psychodelic rock”.

Morrison died alone in Paris. He was found dead in his bathtub on July 3, 1971, the victim of an apparent heart attack.

KURT COBAIN Kurt Donald

Cobain was born on February 20, 1967, in Hoquiam, Washington.

He was considered the most important artist of the Nineties even though he lived for less than half of the decade.

Like Bob Dylan, he hated the notion of being dubbed the voice of a generation –in Cobain´s case, Generation X –but got it anyway.

His body was found on April 8, 1994, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.

AMY WINEHOUSE Amy Jade

Winehouse was born on September 14, 1983, in London.

She was known for “confessional songwriting and expressive contralto” voice that makes her one of the most representative british singers during the 2000´s.

Also, her 2006 album Back to Black led to six Grammy Award nominations and five awards, breaking the record for most wins by a female artist in a single night.

Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment on July 23, 2011.

The report, delivered three months later, “revealed that her blood alcohol content (such as vodka) had reached a potentially fatal level”.

“THIS IS THE END, MY ONLY FRIEND, THE END”