The Forever 27 Club

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Is it a curse? Or just coincidence?

Have you ever noticed that some of the most talented musical performers have died at age 27 either by suicide, drug abuse or tragic sudden death? Why 27? Enough people have noticed this trend and coined the term The 27 Club or The Forever 27 Club. You have to wonder if all these great musicians are all in Heaven having a jam session. This lens will cover a few of the many famous people who have died at age 27. Is it a curse? Or just coincidence? Or perhaps in some cases, deliberate.

Cobain and Hendrix biographer Charles R. Cross wrote: "The number of musicians who passed away at 27 is truly remarkable by any standard. Humans die regularly at all ages, there is a statistical spike for musicians who die at 27."

When Kurt Cobain died, his sister claimed that as a child he would talk about how he wanted to join the 27 Club.

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Kurt Cobain 

April 5, 1994 - Suicide

 

Kurt Donald Cobain (pronounced Category: Wikipedia - :IPA for English|/ko?be?n/, /k?be?n/; February 20, 1967 ? c. April 5, 1994) was an American songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the rock band Nirvana.

With the lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana's second album Nevermind (1991), Nirvana entered into the mainstream, popularizing a subgenre of alternative rock called grunge. Other Seattle grunge bands such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden also gained wider audiences, and as a result, alternative rock became a dominant genre on radio and music television in the United States during the early-to-middle 1990s. Nirvana became considered as the "flagship band" of "Generation X", and Cobain, as its frontman, found himself anointed by the media as the generation's "spokesman."Azerrad, Michael. "Inside the Heart and Mind of Nirvana." Rolling Stone. April 16, 1992. Cobain was uncomfortable with the attention and placed his focus on the band's music, believing the band's message and artistic vision to have been misinterpreted by the public, challenging the band's audience with its third studio album In Utero (1993).

During the last years of his life, Cobain struggled with drug addiction, illness and depression, his fame and public image, as well as the professional and lifelong personal pressures surrounding himself and his wife, musician Courtney Love. On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle, the victim of what was officially ruled a suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. The circumstances of his death have become a topic of fascination and debate. Since their debut, Nirvana, with Cobain as a songwriter, sold over twenty-five million albums in the US alone, and over fifty million worldwide.Armstrong, Mark. [http://new.music.yahoo.com/nirvana/news/nirvana-tops-50-million-mark-in-worldwide-sales-journals-number-one--12064388 "Nirvana Tops 50 Million Mark In Worldwi...

Kurt Cobain's Suicide Note 

Kurt Cobain's Suicide Note

its read by his wife Corutney Love

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Jimi Hendrix 

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942Charles R. Cross, Room Full Of Mirrors: A Biography Of Jimi Hendrix, 2005. Page 8. ? September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is often considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music by other musicians and commentators in the industry, and one of the most important and influential musicians of his era across a range of genres. After initial success in Europe, he achieved fame in the United States following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Later, Hendrix headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. Hendrix often favored raw overdriven amplifiers with high gain and treble and helped develop the previously undesirable technique of guitar amplifier feedback.

Hendrix was one of the musicians who popularized the wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock which he often used to deliver an exaggerated pitch in his solos, particularly with high bends and use of legato based around the pentatonic scale. He was influenced by blues artists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Albert King, and Elmore James,Blues CD, MCA, sleeve notes by Jeff Hannusch, p. 2.A Film About Jimi Hendrix deluxe ed. DVD, Warner Bros. sp. feat: From The Ukelele to the Strat, Faye Pridgeon Interview. rhythm and blues and soul guitarists Curtis Mayfield, Steve Cropper, as well as by some modern jazz.Mary Willix, voices from home 195, pages 28, 38, 73. In 1966, Hendrix, who played and recorded with Little Richard's band from 1964 to 1965, was quoted as saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice."White (2003), p. 125-128, 131-132, 163, 228

Carlos Santana has suggested that Hendrix's music may have been influenced by his partly Native American heritage. As a record producer, Hendrix also broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. He was one of the first to experiment with stereophonic and phasing effects for rock recording.

Hendrix won many of the most prestigious rock music awards in his lifetime, and has been posthumously awarded many more, including being inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. An English Heritage blue plaque was erected in his name on his former residence at Brook Street, London, in September 1997. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6627 Hollywood Blvd...

Jimi Hendrix Video 

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Janis Joplin 

October 4, 1970 - Drug Overdose

Janis Joplin was born to Seth and Dorothy Joplin; her father was an engineer at Texaco, her mother, registrar at a business college. She had two younger siblings, Michael and Laura. The Joplins felt that Janis always needed more attention than their other children, with her mother stating, "She was unhappy and unsatisfied without [receiving a lot of attention]. The normal rapport wasn't adequate."

As a teenager, she befriended a group of outcasts, one of whom had albums by African-American blues artists Bessie Smith and Leadbelly, whom Joplin later credited with influencing her decision to become a singer. She began singing in the local choir and expanded her listening to blues singers such as Odetta and Big Mama Thornton.

Primarily a painter while still in school, she first began singing blues and folk music with friends. While at Thomas Jefferson High School, she stated that she was mostly shunned. Joplin was quoted as saying, "I was a misfit. I read, I painted, I didn't hate niggers." As a teen, she became overweight and her skin broke out so badly she was left with deep scars which required dermabrasion. Other kids at high school would routinely taunt her and call her names like "pig," "freak" or "creep."

Joplin graduated from high school in 1960 and attended Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont, Texas during the summer and later the University of Texas at Austin, though she did not complete her studies. The campus newspaper ran a profile of her in 1962 headlined "She Dares To Be Different."

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 ? October 4, 1970) was an American singer, songwriter and music arranger, from Port Arthur, Texas. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Joplin number 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Janis Joplin - Summertime (Live Gröna Lund 1969) 

Janis Joplin - Summertime (Live Gröna Lund 1969)

Great preformance by Janis Joplin! Live in Stockholm 1969!

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Jim Morrison 

James Douglas Morrison (8 December 1943 - 3 July 1971) was an American singer, poet, songwriter, writer, and film director. He is best known as the lead singer and lyricist of The Doors, and is widely considered to be one of the most charismatic frontmen in rock music history. He was also the author of several books of poetry, and the director of a documentary and short film.

Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, to future Admiral George Stephen Morrison and Clara Clarke Morrison. Morrison had a sister, Anne Robin, who was born in 1947 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a brother, Andrew Lee Morrison, who was born 1948 in Los Altos, California. He was of Scottish and Irish ethnic heritage. He purportedly had an IQ of 149.

In 1947, Morrison, then four years old, purportedly witnessed a car accident in the desert, where a family of Native Americans were injured and possibly killed. He referred to this incident in a spoken word performance on the song "Dawn's Highway" from the album An American Prayer, and again in the songs "Peace Frog" and "Ghost Song."

Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind


Read the complete Wikipedia Article Here.

Jim Morrison - The Doors 

the end [live] - jim morrison the doors

jim morrison live

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More 27 Club Members 

Other notable Forever 27 Club Members include:
  • Brian Jones - Rolling Stones lead guitarist. Drowned in a swimming pool on July 3, 1969.
  • Les Harvey - Guitarist of Stone the Crows. Electrocuted by a microphone on May 2, 1972.
  • Dave Alexandar - Bassist for the Stooges. Died of a pulmonary edema on February 10, 1975.
  • Ron "Pigpen" McKernan - Keboardist of the Grateful Dead. Hemorrhaged to death due to alcoholim on March 8, 1973.
  • Peter Ham - Keyboards and guitar, leader of Badfinger. Suicide by hanging on April 24, 1975.
  • D. Boone - Guitarist and lead singer of the punk rock band, the Minutemen. Broken neck from a car accident and was ejected from the car on December 22, 1985.
  • Pete de Freitas - Drummer for Echo & the Bunnymen. Motorcycle wreck on June 14, 1989.
  • Kristen Pfaff - Bass guitar for the band Hole (Courtney Love).

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