An heroic Comatose?

I don't know if I have ever mentioned that I have always been a fervent fan of grunge, of the good real one, early 90s Seattle-based grunge; not the post-grunge MTV kind of pop-grunge as the likes of Silverchair, Bush and Puddle of Mud. Well, regarding Bush I must assume that "Machinehead" and "Greedy Fly" are just awesome songs, I'll give'em that, but Gavin Rossdale should have never been mentioned as a natural grunge singer because he's a fake!

Bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, Mudhoney, The Melvins... and later on the Californian's Stone Temple Pilots joined this close group of musical influences in my life. Yeah, I too had a band called "Salem's Voice" back in the days where I'd use to sing and play bass. But we were never grunge, or wannabees. I just love music and grunge was and still is my favorite, most emotionally honest music I have ever heard in my life.

It was with great contentment that I found a book written by Mark Yarm on the history of grunge. A first person's opinion of many participants in the grunge scene, people with all liberty, right and experience to comment on the grunge scene..., not Gavin Rossdale.

This book I have been reading is a 500 and something pages entitled "Everybody Loves our Town - A History of Grunge". For obvious reasons I am not going to review the book with this post. I am approaching it by a more pseudo-scientific and pre-weekend light: 1st) Grunge tablets should not be taken when you're down, 2nd) Grunge tablets should not be taken leniently if you haven't been a punk-rock fan before, 3rd) It is better to overdose in Grunge than to overdose in drugs, that's a fact.

I remember back in '94 when Kurt Cobain died that it really demolished me inside, not because I was feeling his death tremendously like if he was a relative, but it was like my unexpected best friend had just vanished and suddenly all those deep words I could empathize with wouldn't be there anymore.

Kurt Cobain had many problems that drove him to his suicide, heroin was one of them. But many others in the grunge pot of artists died due to their heroin addiction. Humpfff :S, rock stars and drugs, quite proverbial!!! But in fairness, the early '90s brought what the world was not ready for, the nasty outcome of the 80s excesses. Great artists "ODying" with heroin, a drug that whatever might be said wasn't that known to parents and relatives in the 80s. Heroin killed Andy Wood, heroin killed Mike Starr, Heroin killed Lane Staley, etc etc etc. And very recently one of my favourite actors, Philippe Hoffman (an incredible irreplaceable actor I must say). 

The "heroic" comatose they've all subjected themselves to, brought their structures to their knees and reduced the grunge movement to a hype. Death is never pretty, but an overdose is a very ugly way of perishing.

Do you understand how Heroin kills? Your brain forgets to breath, a process known as brain herniation, a state that occurs after a prolonged impaired consciousness.

Moreover, Heroin as a drug, simply lower one's physiological sensitiveness reducing one's heart rate to a level that, sometimes, is just fatal. Adrenaline is sometimes used to bring people back. Remember Pulp Fiction's Uma Thurman rising from the death with an adrenaline syringe injected to her chest?

Now imagine these amazing artists I have just mentioned, who actually made my teenage-hood and influenced me emotionally and intellectually so much... imagine them shutting them bodies to the force of a needle without being brought back. It is indeed too sad.

If you want to read more about the subject visit this great PDF document on heroin overdose (accessing here).