It was 9 years ago today...
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Artist:
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Album:
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Track:
...that Mark Sandman "collapsed on stage at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina,Latium, Italy while performing with Morphine. He was soon pronounced dead of a heart attack at the age of 46".
It was that very same day that the world of music got poorer. After all these years, the gap remains. But that's what happens with voids of gone presences that are very significant; they just never get filled, and we learn to live {or survive, if you may} with them.
I'm not going to elaborate on the nights and years I've spent with Morphine. I'll just mention that I tasted Morphine for the first time when I was 15 years old and never got off it, and leave it at that.
A few facts about the man, from wiki.
"His instruments were extensively altered and sometimes built by hand to create unique sounds. In Morphine, he played primarily a two-string slide bass guitar usually tuned to a fifth, but he also was known to play a unitar (named after the one-stringed instrument in American blues tradition), and three-string slide bass with one bass string and two unison strings tuned an octave higher (usually A). He sometimes paired bass strings with one or two guitar strings, creating the "basitar" "tri-tar and "guitbass".
In addition to his work as a musician, Sandman was also an amateur photographer and artist. He created a comic entitled The Twinemen, starring three anthropomorphic balls of twine who form a band, become successful, break up, and later reunite".
Let this day be dedicated to Mark. Spin some Morphine to his honour, occupy your thoughts a little bit with what he offered the music community, all the inspired, soul-scratching, and sexy music that came to us from this group. I don't know where he is, but I'm sure that it's a smoky, jazzy and noir place.
a crash in the night
two worlds collide
when two worlds collide
no one survives
Comments (20)
My God...I can't believe that it has been nine years already...I feel blessed to have been lucky enough to see that amazing saxophone twice live. One of rock's truly original talents...and anyone who ever heard a Morphine song was better off for it.,
Wow. I can't believe it's been 9 years already.
It wa 9 years ago yesterday that I purchased tickets to see him at Stubbs here in Austin...it was kind of a weird confluence of events that he was dead within hours of me buying my ticket. I count myself lucky that I was able to see his first band, Treat Her Right they were amazing as well.
I saw them in 96, with MMW opening for them. John Medeski later joined them on stage, playing some organ with their too cool, low ballad, poetics. Sandman was a consumate front man, and just oozed that substance that makes lead singers/front men so powerful. I think I could hear womens under wear dropping when he would recite the parts of songs that had little spoken word breakdowns in them. He was the kind of cool you wanted to be but couldn't, becuase it would just be imitation.
What an original he was! And you'd thing a 3 piece band with a double barritone sax, 2 string bass, and drummer would get boring - wrong! They were one of the few that transcended the mere gimmick that their line up could have been. Amazing stuff. Still one of my top concerts of all time.
Thanks for posting this. I wondered what they sounded like. "The Saddest Song" sounds great. I like how the spare arrangement helps us hear his fretless bass sound. What he could have done had he lived on!
I was acutually in Italy when he died, and I remember hearing it second hand. I was sad, but never quite sure (until later) what the whole story was.
Contra...you put that pretty perfectly. My hub got to see them live. His songs and words very close to our hearts.
Thanks for posting dear Anna. We'll be playing Morphine tonight, no doubt.
"there's something going on that makes my guts ache
I got guilt, I got fear, I got regret
I'm just a panic-stricken waste I'm such a jerk
I was honest, I swear
the last thing I want to do
honest, I swear
the last thing I want to do
is ever cause you pain
I'm free now
free to look out the window
free to live my story
free to sing along"
so tragic. i remember when this happened and was shocked to hear about his passing.
Always liked Morphine but don't own any. Wondered what happened to them. That's very sad but it's also life. Death happens to even the most talented of humans.
"...the day the music died..."
Great band, great artist. Mark got to go out doing what he loved.
Toast a drink to the Sandman..
Country Dick Montana of the Beat Farmers died from a heart attack three songs into the set...
(The Beat Framers' first album, Tales of the New West - rereleased by Rhino in 2005 - features a version of Reason to Believe that may be better than Brooce's own...)
Lovely eulogy to a rare talent.
I may just make a Best of Morphine mix to pay tribute. Favorite song is still "Buena" but there are many, many more...
Awful end to such an incandescent performer. Poetic though: Italy, onstage, on the rise. Grateful to have seen him live on a couple of occasions - and the music plays on.
I have a lot of crew from the Boston 90's scene who knew Sandman. What a heavy cat, definitely irreplaceable. All his records have that *something* that everyone wishes their band had...
Thank you all very much for sharing memories, personal experiences, stories, lyrics, songs, and, of course, for being here.
Felt that it was more appropriate for me to shut my trap in the comments section.
I was hoping that the post would become a haven for remembering Mark, and it did, thanks to you all.
Am I missing any Morphine albums: Good, Cure For Pain, Yes, Like Swimming, The Night, B-Sides and Bootleg Detroit?
Eric, you didn't miss anything.
And this one has some previously unreleashed tracks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_of_Morphine:_1992-1995
Great - I'll have to check out those 3 unreleased tracks - iTunes doesn't have it available here in the US but I'm going to check eMusic.
thx