Review of the Decade - Part 5: RIP

Layne Staley: 22nd August 1967 – 5th April 2002
There was a depressing inevitability about Layne’s death. As the singer with ‘grunge’ band Alice in Chains, he had struggled with heroin addiction for many years, indeed wrote about it openly on their 1992 album Dirt. He had retreated from the spotlight in his latter years, his last high profile appearance was on MTV Unplugged in 1996 where he appeared to be struggling. He was found two weeks after his death, when police broke into his apartment. Cause of death was adjudged to be an overdose. He contributed vocals and lyrics to all of Alice in Chains albums in the 1990s. Strangely the band reformed in 2008 with a replacement singer, William DuVall. It’s worth checking out the album Dirt, if you like their heavier side, or Jar of Flies for moodier acoustic music.

Nina Simone: 21st February 1933 – 12th January 2003
Nina Simone died of breast cancer in 2003. A giant of the jazz/blues scene, she had not recorded for 10 years or so, yet has a strong body of work which belongs in anyone’s music collection. Hard to distil her career down into highlights, but Feeling Good will probably become her signature tune. A comprehensive ‘best of’ is definitely worth seeking out.

Johnny Cash: 26th February 1932 – 12th September 2003
Cash died in 2003 four months after his wife. While best known for country music, his deep voice and black apparel caused him to be adopted by younger followers in the mid-90s, when he recorded a series of stripped-down, largely acoustic albums known as the American Recordings, which interspersed original songs with unusual covers of artists like Beck, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden.

Elliott Smith: 6th August 1969 – 21st October 2003
Primarily known for guitar-based acoustic music, Elliott Smith recorded a series of albums in the 1990s and early 2000s. Earlier albums were largely acoustic, though later albums saw him achieve a degree of success and an Oscar nomination with a more-fleshed out sound. He did however struggle with depression and drug addiction, and took his life in 2003.

Grant McLennan: 12th February 1958 – 6th May 2006
Played in the Go-Betweens, main songwriter and guitarist along with Robert Forster. His songs tended to be more upbeat than Forster’s, and generally had a more commercial sound (though little commercial success). The band released several albums in the 1980s but split in 1990. He released solo albums in the 90s before regrouping with Forster in 1999 for 3 further Go-Betweens albums. The band’s reunion was brought to an abrupt end due to McLennan’s death of a heart attack.

Ron Asheton: 17th July 1948 – 6th January 2009

See previous entry: http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.com/2009/02/ron-asheton-rip.html

John Martyn: 11th September 1948 – 29th January 2009
John Martyn had a long musical career from the late 60s till the 2000s, with his albums straddling folk, jazz and blues and a slurred vocal style. His 1973 album Solid Air contained his best-known songs, the title track (a tribute to Nick Drake) and May You Never. Much of his work was experimental as he explored ambient sounds, however alcohol and drugs became the ruin of him. He was forced to have his right leg amputated in 2004 and died in 2009 of double pneumonia.

Ron Asheton RIP

It hasn't been a good start to 2009 musically. Just when the Stooges had made a comeback and started to receive some real acclaim, I was sorry to hear of the death of their guitarist, Ron Asheton.

I have had to take a month to digest this news. Ron Asheton's riffs were central to the first 2 Stooges albums. The first album, The Stooges, was some of the most basic rock n roll ever recorded. The songs were basic, childish, bratty, repetitive and downright puerile. Which is what made them great. Mostly using 2 or 3 chords, Ron's chords formed the basis for 3 of the greatest ever songs: 1969, I Wanna Be Your Dog, and No Fun.

From the moment the riff for 1969 kicks in, you are transported to a grimy, rough little setting. Helped in no small way by Iggy Pop's singing. He's not the greatest singer in the world, but he sings with just the right attitude to make these songs REAL classics. Forget the Beatles, the Stones, the bloody Beach Boys and all the other artists from the late 60s / early 70s that form the so-called 'canon' of rock. These songs take rock, screw it up into a little ball and trample on it. This song even coaxed some emotion out of Andrew Eldritch from the Sisters of Mercy in their cover version!

I Wanna Be Your Dog is even better. Possibly the greatest riff of all time, I defy anybody not to completely change their posture, walk or whatever they are doing when they hear it. No Fun, much-loved by the Sex Pistols, is equally basic. To me, it's like a theme tune for a mode of behaviour. I used to walk around with this in my headphones as an antidote to all the blandness out there. Also, these songs are great to sing because the words are equally basic.

They got more ambitious with the 2nd album, Fun House. TV Eye is solid guitar craziness. The guitar riff makes you want to go crazy and shout at the top of your voice. However the moment of genius in that song belongs to Iggy. Right in the middle of the song, he screams so hard that he starts coughing. And they just left it in!

Ron also perfected the quieter, slow release, heavy guitar dynamic on Dirt, which lopes along driven by the bass and beat, with Ron playing perfectly pitched guitar over the top to match Iggy's tension-filled vocals.

However for the 3rd album, Raw Power, due to events recounted elsewhere by better writers than me, Ron played bass. Anybody who's heard that album will tell you that due to the way it was recorded, it's hard to pick out the bass.

Of course it wasn't all good. We Will Fall is 10 minutes of tedium. Guitar-free if I remember rightly, think it was their answer to the Doors. And once you hear it, you won't be in a rush to hear it again.

The comeback album, The Weirdness, was nothing special either, but as a means to an end it got the Stooges to reform. I was lucky to see them play in Dublin in June 2008. The guitar had lost none of its power, even in a large outdoor venue, and Iggy's energy was both infectious and hilarious (in a good way).

Ron Asheton never achieved much else away from the Stooges. But for the first 2 albums alone, he deserves to be remembered as a cool guitarist. Forget the word legend, it's not very-Stooges. He was a cool guitarist.