April fifth marked the 19th anniversary of the death of music Legend Kurt Cobain. Cobain, lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist in the famed American Rock band, Nirvana, died suddenly of a seemingly self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Cobain is just one of the 44 members of what it now known as the ‘27 Club’ a collection of musicians who died, suddenly at age 27.
The majority of the group’s members have died in the past forty years (with the largest spike during the seventies). But what most people don’t know is that the 27 Club is as old as the recorded music industry itself. The Groups first member, Andre Levy, was a Brazilian Composer who fused classical music and the folk music of Brazil to create what would later become known as “the Latin Style” that is still around today.
Going back to the mainstream, the group’s two most famous members are indisputably the aforementioned Cobain, and Jimmy Hendrix. With his band, Cobain gave the 90’s one last breath of rock with a twist of Grunge. His most popular works include, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come as You Are” both songs you have heard at least once in your lifetime, unless you really were born yesterday. While Nirvana’s music has rung from radios for the past two decades, Jimmy Hendrix has had arguably the most lasting effect on the music industry.
A societal rebel, Hendrix first claimed fame with his two part song,“Testify” but it was only up from there. Hendrix music spoke to his generation. Fueled by its Anti-Vietnam, peace and love ideals, his music some described as mystifying. Perhaps his most famous feat would be closing the Woodstock Music Festival by playing the Star Spangled Banner –with his teeth.
The Door’s too lost their singer/songwriter Jim Morrison who some describe as “The whole band. After he left the band just fell apart.”
While it may seem that this phenomenon may be it music’s past I can assure you it is not. One of the Club’s most recent members was Amy Winehouse who died on July 23, 2011. But it is not just their deaths that keep these artists alive. They are memorialized in songs. Billy Joel sings of many of the 27 Club in his song “We Didn’t Start The Fire.” Rising country music star Justin Moore sings of one of the women in the club, Janis Joplin, when he sings “Janis to sing the second verse of “Me and Bobby McGee”’ in his song “If Heaven Wasn’t so Far Away.”
So why does this keep happening, Icons of generations stricken from this world at such a young age. Some think it to be the cost of greatness. Some say it’s the stress of fame. Most die of substance abuse, a few were murdered (Cobain’s death is still shady). Regardless of their cause of death or whether or not you like their music, the odd fact still remains that all of these artists died, age 27. At SAC we know Wednesday to be our ‘hump day’ should artists consider 27 to be their ‘hump year?’