|   Layne Staley | AD
Apr 22, 2002 4:14 AM | | It's sad times for the music industry. Another one bites the dust. What a shame, this guy had loads of talent. I personally think Facelift is one of the best damn rock albums of all time. RIP Layne |
| The handwriting on the wall.... | RPM
Apr 22, 2002 8:42 AM | | Here's some lyric snippets from the album <i>Above</i>. As far as I know Staley penned them all. Were these words a cry for help? A person facing the truth? A coward? a helpless victim? Likely a bit of "all of the above". Tough to have a lot of sympathy for Layne, even as a fan, but who am I to judge...
from "Wake Up":
wake up young man, it's time to wake up
your love affair has got to go
for 10 long years, for 10 long years
the leaves to rake up
slow suicide's no way to go
from "River Of Deceipt":
my pain is self-chosen
at least, so the prophet says
I could either burn
or cut off my pride and buy some time
a head full of lies is the weight, tied to my waist
the river of deceit pulls down, oh oh
the only direction we flow is down
from "Artificial Red":
artificial red, smoke, poison consumed
in the house of ill repute
is this the way I spend my days
in recovery of a fatal disease?
oooh... oooh...
oooh... oooh...
on a cloud of pink has turned to grey
and i'm alone again, yeah
someone to hold against my own
alone, untouched is what i crave
oooh... oooh...
oooh... oooh...
artificial red, smoke, poison consumed
in the house of ill repute
is this the place I search for love
when my need is within me, a gift from above?
from "Lifeless Dead":
then a demon came to him
"you must know i'm gonna win"
yeah, lifeless dead
he said, she said
she led him dead
he said we bled
she said not fed
lifeless dead, lifeless dead
from "Long Gone Day":
lord it's a storm and I'm heading to fall
these sins are mine and I've done wrong
I want you to, oh, I just want you to
come on down
I fear again, like then, I've lost my way
and shout to god to bring my sunny day
IMO, Mad Seasons <i>Above</i> is a <b>great</b> alternative rock album, which combines the Alice In Chains sound with Pearl Jams guitar leads. Barret Martin plays on percussion and is notable as well. Highly recommended if you like harder edged stuff.
Rick |
| Seattle Times reports that Staley had been dead several days... | 3-LockBox
Apr 22, 2002 9:48 AM | | making immediate identification difficult. There was heroin paraphernalia present, but there won't be an official announcement as to the cause of death until today (it was not known at press time whether or not Staley's death was 'natural' or an overdose.
I guess you can draw your own conclusions as to what 'natural' means. Why don't they just call it suicide? It started about ten years ago. See, money can't buy happiness. If it did, we'd still have Staley, Cobain, Lynott, Presley, Joplin, Hendricks, Morrison, etc, etc. |
| good point about "natural" | Darius
Apr 22, 2002 10:09 AM | | Kurt Cobain committed suicide but when it comes down to it he died of his drug addiction, a fatal disease. Suicide and attempted suicide is reallly best thought of a symptom in a case like that. Whatever Staley officially died of is almost certainly the same thing.
The only reason I bring up this point is to keep the focus on the larger health problem represented: heroin addiction and alchohol addiction are fatal if not successfully treated. The exact manner of death may differ, but a crucial underlying cause remains constant in so many cases. Of course you could potentially go back further in at least Cobain's case to look at larger mental problems as the cause of the drug addiction. It's quite depressing. |
| Its always 'heroin' isn't it. | 3-LockBox
Apr 22, 2002 11:47 AM | | I can't recall a news report like this that state's the persons problems with pot or cocane. Its usually heroin or alchohol; most of the time its heroin. And its usually heroin that the person can't shake, while most of them are successful in kicking cocane or alchohol addictions. Though most people start with alchohol, pot, or cocane, they almost always end up with heroin ('end' being the operative word here).
Certainly, by the time a person arrives at heroin, they're usually evading something, not just getting high. Drug use at this level is usually a symptom of much deeper issues. There isn't usually much sympathy for anyone who achieves fame and fortune, but winds up an addict (or in jail). Maybe its because we associate happiness with wealth, and we can't accept this level of dispare when the person obviously had money, because it blows our image of what being rich is suppose to mean. |
| Its always 'heroin' isn't it. | nobody
Apr 22, 2002 1:09 PM | | Its usually Heroin because you have to really do a whole heck of a lot of blow before you give out, unless you've already got a weak heart.
And, of course, Heroin is the only one of the drugs you mentioned that is physically addictive, a really, really important distinction when it comes time to kick.
Still, I've gotta admit I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for rock stars that kill themselves with drugs. This crap happens everyday to people who can't afford treatment and have much tougher issues to deal with on a daily basis. I guess if dying rock stars can eventually shine a light on a problem affecting so many around the world, so be it. I'm just not holding my breath. |
| Drugs, emotional problems, Cobain and rock star egos | WStan
Apr 22, 2002 2:22 PM | | I agree with you that substance addiction is linked with significant psychological problems. No one who I've known well and felt was a genuinely happy person has ever resorted to prolonged substance abuse, whereas I can point to some sense of depression and emotional trouble with all of the addicts I've ever known.
Wasn't Cobain's major (certainly not exclusive, though) problem ostensibly the severe, supposedly untreatable and intolerable pain he experienced from some bizarre stomach ailment?
As I stated in the above thread on this same topic, it seems like most of these musicians who become addicts and/or O.D. have more positive things going on in their lives than the average person, making their desire to escape pretty puzzling. Perhaps the ego of performing artists that gives them the drive to entertain before audiences also makes them focus excessively on the negative (perhaps a bit of manic-depressive tendencies in most such artists). In my senior year high school English class, we watched Apocalypse Now as a corollary of reading Heart of Darkness, and this girl in my class who was the ultimate drama queen suddenly jumped up in the middle of the movie, just after the famous line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," screamed "I can't take this senseless violence anymore!" and ran crying, tears down her face, from the classroom. [The actual napalm bombing scenes there were filmed from nearly a mile away, so there was no actual gore shown at that point]. Although I'm not sure if this person ever did drugs, perhaps this is reflective of the sort of overly-focused introspection and circumspection that goes on in the performer's mind that often leads them down the path of drug addiction. |
| good points (nt) | Darius
Apr 22, 2002 2:32 PM | | |
| A few other factors. | BradH
Apr 22, 2002 3:23 PM | | I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. One minute these people are struggling in the clubs. If they hit it big, then suddenly they're dealing with fame, massive debt to the record companies, the knowledge that they're getting screwed, plenty of drug connections and enough cash to buy it. The drugs only increase the confusion and the cycle starts again. What surprises me is the labels have no interest whatsoever in helping these people. An employee who brought in as much money as Cobain to a corporation outside the music biz would be helped, somehow, someway. There wouldn't be any talk about "personal responsibility" either, not at first, anyway. Sometimes I wonder if they think all artists are screwed up or over-sensitive and if they straighten them out then the hits will stop coming. Most likely the suits are too busy covering their own ass. |
| One thing that is overlooked oftentimes... | wik
Apr 23, 2002 5:21 AM | | drugs are at first a lot of fun. It feels good to get high so it's very easy if you have a lot of money and
you are really adventurous to get snared into an addiction and if you take that step into heroin it is extremely difficult to stop. I've known a few addicts who I don't believe had any underlying psychosis or mental instability. They just got caught up in the party atmosphere and went too far. They didn't take drugs because they were depressed, they took them because they were having a good time. This is one of the things that bothers me about Drug awareness programs. They neglect to tell kids the truth that drugs are fun and exciting at first and that is where the danger lies. You don't have to be depressed or suicidal to get caught up in an addiction. |
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