Tag: rock’n roll

I was taking a Zogby poll the other day and a question surfaced within the poll that actually made me freeze and think long and hard before I cast my vote. It’s something that can come up in idle conversation at any time and you might throw out an immediate answer but I took this question real seriously…

What dead rockstar best epitomizes the spirit of rock and roll

Jim Morrison (The Doors)
John Lennon (the Beatles)
Janis Joplin
Jimi Hendrix
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Freddie Mercury (Queen)
Duane Allman (The Alman Brothers)
Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
Jerry Garcia (The Grateful Dead)
Frank Zappa
Buddy Holly
Ronnie Van Zandt (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Elvis

It really made me stop and think. I’m not sure why… I mean, the first thought I had was Lennon but John — for all the good he gave to the world as a musician just didn’t feel like the guy who represented Rock in life and death. One could say Elvis but he didn’t live fast and die young…

I thought of Jim Morrison and his glory days that people remember him for and Jimi Hendrix and how he was the genius on guitar that everyone strives to be. I thought of Kurt Cobain who wrote and sang, lived fast and died young leaving the beautiful corpse — and how his insecurity (a trait with almost all musicians) was a profound attribute to his personality.

Just who best epitomizes Rock?

Edit April 24, 2019: This was written so long ago and without giving my own conclusion for a very deliberate reason: Reaction and response from potential site readers. A lot of my personal blogging early on with this site has the habit of doing that. 

I also must say that I didn’t give depth or seemingly truly admit with some of these: 

John Lennon did live in excess and glamour like rock stars are known to do, but his fast-life was different with thanks to his marriages and children.

I never mentioned Mercury, Joplin, Allman, Vaugh, Garcia… Janis best fits what’s known as The Stupid Club — live fast, die young. Mercury died of AIDS, Garcia was around and I don’t know Allman or Vaughn well enough to have concluded by voting for either.

And Holly? ‘The day the music died’ was his passing (with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper); what could he have brought to music if he hadn’t left in such a tragedy? 

There are so many stories with all these acts, and the title of this blog post does accurately fit: They ruled music, they embodied what Rock was known for on and off stage… And their end made them kings and queens in musical martyrdom.