Planes, Veins & Automobiles
An American Prayer
And I looked and behold, a pale horse
And it's name that sat on him was Death
And Hell followed with him
Revellations 6:8
"Although it was a shock when it actually happened, nobody was really that surprised... There are... I'm sure that everybody's got those feelings that certain people... Everybody knows people... you just have that feeling about them... they're not going to be seventy years old... ever!" Keith Richards - In an interview with Dutch TV 1969
Some time after his death by misadventure / in mysterious circumstances (take your pick), a macabre Brian Jones toy appeared on store shelves around the world... An inflatable, life-size pool toy that floated face-down in the water, simulating the Stone's guitarist, drowning in his own swimming pool.
"The whole ‘Is it a boy or is it a girl?’ thing starts with Brian Jones. He was the first heterosexual pop star to wear costume jewelry, off-stage and on. He was the definitive, quintessential pop star... He looked as good as any of the women in the ’60s like Verushka or Francoise Hardy or Nico. And he did it himself. He didn’t get a bunch of designers. It wasn’t ‘Brian Jones dressed by…’ It was self-presentation. That was his art.” …
Nick Kent
"I've been poor, and I've been rich... Rich is better..."
Bessie Smith
An estimated 10,000 mourners filed past the coffin of Bessie Smith on October 3, 1937... Smith had sustained critical injuries when her Packard, driven by her lover, Richard Morgan collided with a truck on a long stretch of straight road on Route 61 between Memphis and Clarksville. She was buried in Mount Lawn Cemetery, Sharron Hill... Her estranged husband, Jack Gee thwarted efforts to buy a headstone by spending the money raised for that purpose. The grave remained unmarked until 1970, when a stone was erected and paid for by Janis Joplin and Juanita Green...
Bar-Keys trumpet player, Ben Cauley was the only survivor when Otis Redding's plane crashed into Lake Monona, Madison, Wisconsin on December 10, 1967. Onboard were Redding, his manager, the pilot and five members of the Bar-Keys. Cauley, asleep until only seconds before impact, recalled that he saw bandmate Phalon Jones looking out a window saying, "Oh, no!" The last thing he remembered before impact was unbuckling his seatbelt. Seconds later he found himself in the freezing waters of the lake, clinging onto a seat cushion to stay afloat...
Buddy Holly : "I hope your bus freezes up..."
Waylon Jennungs : "I hope your plane crashes..."
Playful banter 1959
"I'm an old rocker. I used to appreciate Buddy Holly.
I carried Eddie Cochran's guitar for him when I was 8 years old."
Marc Bolan
I carried Eddie Cochran's guitar for him when I was 8 years old."
Marc Bolan
On Saturday 16 April 1960, after a long UK tour Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Cochran's girlfriend, songwriter Sharon Sheeley, were being driven back to London prior to flying back to the USA. Before reaching their destination, the car crashed into a lamp post at high speed. Cochran was thrown through the windscreen and died of his injuries the following day. Vincent sustained a broken collarbone, ribs, and further injured his already damaged leg. Sheeley suffered a broken pelvis. The driver, George Martin (no relation presumably) suffered no injuries... A fourth passenger, Patrick Thomkins, a Camberwell theatrical agent, also survived the collision.
The car and contents were impounded by Police until after the coroners report. Dave Dee, a young police cadet at the station, taught himself to play guitar on Cochran's trademark Gretch, the same guitar a young Marc Bolan had carried for Cochran earlier in the tour... The cadet would later have hit records as a member of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich...
'Lord, there ain't no cure for the summertime blues'
Eddie Cochran
Skinny white sailor, the chances were slender
The beauties were brief
Shall I mourn your decline
With some thunderbird wine and a black handkerchief?
I miss your sad Virginia whisper
I miss the voice that called my heart
'Sweet Gene Vincent' - Ian Dury
On a large enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero.
Chuck Palahniuk – ‘Fight Club’
Quinlan: Come on, read my future for me
Tanya: You haven't got any.
Quinlan: Hmm? What do you mean?
Tanya: Your future's all used up.
Orson Welles & Marlene Dietrich - Touch of Evil
Not the original film... but just as good in it's own way... A must see...
This is the life of men on earth:
Out of darkness we come at birth
Into a lamplit room, and then
Go forward into dark again
Text on the gravestone of Kurt Weill
"Life is being on the wire... all the rest is just waiting..."
Karl Wallenda
In 1978, at the age of 73, in high winds, between the two towers of the Condado Plaza Hotel, San Juan Puerto Rico, 120 feet above the pavement, Wallenda finally came off the wire for good... Doing what he lived for...
Tyrell: Would you... like to be upgraded?
Batty: I had in mind… something a little more radical.
Tyrell: What... what seems to be the problem?
Batty: Death.
Tyrell: Death; ah, well that's a little out of my jurisdiction. You... ?
Batty: I want more life father!
Roy Batty meets his maker... Blade Runner
Batty: I want more life father!
Roy Batty meets his maker... Blade Runner
