ConQueso says
They're last record was a live show at St. Andrews in Detroit...called Bootleg:Detroit...really awesome.
Didn't Sandman die from a brain aneurysm or something? I remember a story about him dying on stage...but i have no idea if it's true.
SatisfiedMind614 says
A friend turned me onto them years ago, he gave me a tape of "Cure For Pain' and i was floored! The sound of that baritone sax and the bass just sounded SO cool! Listen to that
entire record....its good from start to finish
extraordinarypoems says
I did read that Sandman died on stage, and it made me wonder how many other musicians have died while performing. Bizarre question, I know, but suffer my incurable curiosity.
fairportfan says
As to musicians who died on stage, you've got two i can specifically identify, Sandman and Country Dick Montana, and Johnny Ace, who died backstage on a break allegedly losing at Russian roulette...
A site listing dead musicians and how they got that way is Gordon Polatnick's "*FULLER UP - THE DEAD MUSICIAN DIRECTORY*":http://elvispelvis.com/fullerup.htm
Perhaps more than you want to know about Sandman, mostly from Wikipedia:
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.
Sandman's art and photographs were showcased on the official Morphine website and later featured in a DVD released with the *Sandbox* box set.
Colley, Treat Her Right and Morphine drummer Billy Conway, and singer Laurie Sargent would later adopt the Twinemen moniker for their own band as a permanent homage to Sandman.
During the 1990s, Sandman continued to expand his Cambridge-based home recording studio with second-hand instruments and equipment, calling the studio "*Hi-n-Dry*":http://www.hi-n-dry.com/. Hi-n-Dry became Morphine's unofficial home and they recorded many of their signature tracks using Sandman's unique homegrown production methods.
On July 3, 1999, Sandman collapsed on stage at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Latium, Italy (near Rome) while performing with Morphine. He was soon pronounced dead of a heart attack at the age of 46. Sandman was survived by his girlfriend Sabine Hrechdakian, his parents Bob and Tel Sandman, and his sister Martha Holmes. Morphine immediately disbanded following his death, though the surviving members briefly toured with other musicians, creating Orchestra Morphine as a tribute to Sandman and the band's music.
Following Sandman's death, Hi-n-Dry became a commercial record label and studio, recording and releasing the work of Boston-area artists. The label and studio is managed by Sandman's former Morphine bandmates Conway and Colley. Hi-n-Dry issued a retrospective box set of Sandman's music called Sandbox in 2004
The intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Brookline in Cambridge, Massachusetts' Central Square is named in Sandman's honor.
"*The Mark Sandman Music Education Fund*":http://www.hi-n-dry.com/mark_sandman/music_education.html was established by his friends and family in order to give children in the Cambridge and Boston area an opportunity to learn musical instruments.
Following Sandman's death, Chris Ballew, Dana Colley, and Billy Conway recorded and released a tribute song entitled *Gone Again Gone*. It was available online as an MP3 file for a limited time.
As a fellow bassist who admired Sandman, *Les Claypool* had an audience chant some "Yo Ho's" in honor of him at a show with Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, which can be seen on his DVD *5 Gallons Of Diesel*. Claypool also has a Sandman sticker on his bullet microphone.
"*A Mark Sandman Memorial Page*":http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/music/99/07/08/MARK_SANDMAN.html
*Current National
Terror Alert Level*
Kid Charming says
I first heard of Morphine from one of Rolling Stone's celebrity favorites list. Someone (I can't remember) said Cure for Pain was their favorite of the year, and the description they gave of it (which I also can't remember) made me pick it up. And I was hooked. And everyone I played it for was hooked.
If I had to sum them up in a word, it would be cool — not the stylish disaffection the word connotes these days, but a smoky, unflappable groove. The music is jazzy and rock at the same time, and the lyrics are precise and smart.
All their albums are excellent. Their first two, Good and Cure, are sparser and simpler. With Yes and Like Swimming, they started expanding their sound and instrumentation, and these albums are sonically fleshier. Their last studio album, The Night, was the first step towards a breakthrough in their sound, and I wish I could hear what would have been next.
I've got an (admittedly overwritten, but it was about 4am, and I had a lot of painkillers in my system) post about their song "Buena" here.
Dirk1 says
This shows how unique Morphine was: if you set up a station on Pandora for artists like Morphine, you're not going to get any (with the notable exception of Bourbon Princess, which has some former Morphine members and a similar sound). Mark Sandman was unique. I had all of the Morphine albums on my hard drive but took most of the tracks off recently because I'm running out of space, but maybe I can upload a few to Multiply for you.
Can't think of additional rock musicians who died on stage but Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who was a 19th century pianist/composer, and a major star in his day, died onstage while performing a piece of his called "Morte"!
extraordinarypoems says
Woah, what a great story (about "Morte")! And an interesting note about Morphine at Pandora. I'll check out the link you posted.
RGM, I was just checking out your post that refers us to the politics page of Rolling Stone. Awesome.
IRodric says
Finally i find someone mentioning Morphine on MOG besides me.
Morphine is one of those bands i know about for a long long time, yet I admit i got addicted by the time I began trying to play the saxophone, in fact Morphine is in part responsible for it, for i remember wandering around in the small oldstreets of Lisbon night, their music as the soundtrack of those bohemian moments, while i dreamed with my sax to be.
In the summer of 2003, I was on vacation at Canos de Meca in the South of Spain, when i met this very funny guy named Luca from Palestrina in Italy, we came to realize we both were fans of Morphine, with a distinction....he actually knew Mark, from some past event in wich Luca had the job of managing the venue and Morphine was playing.
It was an unforgettable moment watching an always funny and joker guy like Luca, revealing his older age and life scars, as the tears flooded his eyes while he told me about the fatal show, that he was watching front row.
That day Luca offered me a Morphine cap he had, according to him, it had been offered to him by Mark along with some band stuff.
Truthfull or not, until this day i see in that cap a connection to Morphine, Mark and Luca, all good friends.
extraordinarypoems says
Fairport, you're awesome as usual. I want to see Twinemen. I've got to. I love that kind of funky stuff. And I dig that there is a music education fund in Sandman's memory --- and I bet Gone Again Gone is very moving.
Lord Helmet says
Another musician that died on stage: Pantera's guitarist, Dime-bag Darryl...
shot by a deranged fan in front of everyone. Very sad stuff.
Morphine has one of the most unique sounds out there, no doubt. First heard them from a 'shared music' I-tunes folder of one of my former co-workers. Was immediately intrigued and impressed.
UtahSpike says
I first heard about Morphine in a magazine article, I can't remember what the magazine was but it described their sound as something like a a Lynchian creep through the world of Film Noir. Being a massive Lynch fan and lover of Film Noir I felt obliged to check them out.
The first album I bought was Like Swimming.
3 of my favourite songs are Night On Fire, there's just something quite sexy & hypnotic about the almost Middle Eastern vibe going in the background and my other 2 faves are off the same album I love the images conjured up the song The Night and the wonderfully off kilter romance of Take Me With You.
This is one of the bands I would miss deeply if my album collection were consumed by flames.
extraordinarypoems says
What a wonderful response, UtahSpike!
Hey --- do I remember correctly that Lynch's father took him out into the woods and left him there to find his way back? I seem to remember Lynch had quite a challenging background, and thus his creepy way of seeing the world.
extraordinarypoems says
IRod, you are a writer! I love that story. And I love it that this Morphine post has brought out so many good stories and memories.
UtahSpike says
Just want to correct my post from earlier - I've been working daft hours, one of the pleasures of Christmas in retail and now see I got a song title wrong and the music geek in me won't let me got to bed till I get it right . . .
The song in question is Rope on Fire - not Night . . .
Please someone slap some sense into me so I get a 'proper' job come New Years.
I didn't know that story about Lynch's dad, that is pretty damn sinister though. I do however remember reading that he wrote Eraserhead as a result of his experience of becoming a father himself, the sleepness nights & all . . . now if that is true then that really is a strange family.
Perhaps the strangest thing is the house in Lost Highway up in the LA hills is actually Lynch's. Imagine shooting that twisted stuff then sleeping there !
sentinel329 says
Morphine is one of the many bands that I've been hipped to here on MOG. When I first found out that they consisted of a bass player, drummer, and baritone sax, I was somewhat skeptical but decided to take a chance anyways. I'm sure glad I did. Like "Kid Charming sez":http://mog.com/extraordinarypoems/blog_post/%23%3CBlogPost%3A0x95f7b30%3E#comment-139368, they're just really cool.
extraordinarypoems says
Well, it certainly does look like Morphine has a group of fans on the MOG. Did somebody add the band members' birthdays to the new MOG calendar for 2007?
IRodric says
It`s late but let`s see it by this perspective, it`s a Lynchian way of graphically and symbolically tell the same story as my prior comment.
IRodric says
thank you, i finnally finished my thesis on "Music, e-learning and communities", now we'll find out if you were right about me being a writter heheheh
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