Listening to The Libertine's eponymous debut, I started to think about lead singer Pete Doherty.Last I heard he was busted again for drugs. His struggle with hardcore drug use is infamous.
It's funny (not funny "ha ha") that we hold musicians on a different level than most other people. We typically love good music. But couldn't a direct correlation between good music and drug and alcohol abuse be drawn.
When did The Beatles get really good? When they started doing drugs. I read that Brian Wilson started smoking weed while recording "Today!" which preceded their finest works in "Pet Sounds," "Surf's Up," "Wild Honey," and other classic Beach Boy albums.
Would Kurt Cobain's music been as aching, tragic and violent if he was shoot up heroin? We'll never know. Maybe he kills himself earlier and we never get "Nevermind."
Granted, Doherty is no John Lennon, Cobain or Wilson.
But have the Red Hot Chili Peppers been better off heroin? Is Aerosmith better or worse without alcohol? Some would make the argument that both -- although more popular -- had a drop in creativity once they went clean.
On one level, we demand our artists to be dope fiends or alcoholics, whether we mean to or not.
1 comment:
I don't go for the druggie lifestyle at all, but the more I listen to Peter Poherty (w. the Libertines. Babyshambles and on his own) the more impressed I am by his genius. Of course it's frustrating genius because the self-destructive element is so attractive, and yet gets in the way of what could be. It's that sublime quality of playing around with death that makes you tune in. But his writing, his ability to convey an image that is clever, congruent and satisfying is pure genius. I love his rhyme schemes which I find so fresh and surprising (like rhyming "yeah, yeah, yeah" with "just don't care.").
I think he must be bipolar with strong manic periods. I think he self-medicates with the drugs, but by now the addictions are a problem unto themselves. Pity that. He is one of the current generation's (last of the) English Roses, and like every rose, his bloom is fading fast.
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