THE 27 CLUB

Hello Charlie !!

Today I’m going to talk about the popular musicians who died at age 27. It became a real malediction and was mainly known as the 27 club.

-BRIAN JONES 

The first musician to die at age 27 was Brian jones. But at the time, nobody was considering that it was the beginning of a whole malediction. Brian jones was born on 28 February 1949. He was an English multi instrumentalist best known as the founder of The Rolling Stones, which he created with Keith Richards, actual guitarist of the group and Mick Jagger, actual leader and singer of the band. As they were becoming a very successful songwriting team, Richards and Jagger began to take over the band’s direction and furthermore, Jones didn’t get along with the band’s manager who pushed the group into musical directions at odds with the blues inspirations of Brian Jones. With his alcohol problems, Brian’s performances began to decrease. Finally, the band dismissed him in June 1969 and less than a month later, Brian was found dead at the bottom of his pool, at the sad age of 27. 

- JIMI HENDRIX 

Born in 1942 in Seattle, California, Jimi began playing guitar at the of 15. He was an American guitarist, songwriter. Even if his mainstream career was very short, he is on of the most influential electric guitarist in the history of rock, if it’s not the most. Hendrix began playing low paying gigs with the king kasuals, his his first band and began slowly to earn a popularity by playing at the Chitlin’s circuit, which is a collection of performance venues throughout the U.S.A. In addition to playing in his own band, Hendrix performed as a backing musician for various artists. By may 1966, Hendrix was struggling to earn a living wage, so he briefly rejoined Curtis Knight and the squires for an engagement at one of N.Y.C’s most popular nightspots, the Cheetah club. During a performance, Linda Keith, the girlfriend of Keith Richards noticed Hendrix and was absolutely mesmerized by his playing. She invited him for a drink and they became friends. Keith recommended him to many managers, but they failed to see Hendrix’s musical potential and rejected him, Finally, Keith referred him to Chas Chandler, who was convinced he could create a hit single with Jimi. Following Hendrix’s arrival in London, Chandler began recruiting members for a band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience. After having the group created, the band was brought to a place were Cream was scheduled to play. There, Hendrix met Eric Clapton, and asked if he could play a couple of numbers. Clapton agreed, and the show was incredible. After that, within two months, they had three hits on the top of the Uk list. Finally, Hendrix ingerated his own vomit and died of asphyxia on September 18th , 1970. 

Jimi at the Woodstock festival.

-JANIS JOPLIN

Janis Joplin was an American singer and musician. She was born on January 19th, 1943 and was one of the most successful female rockstars . She began her carrier with a psychedelic rock band called Big brother and the Holding company. After two albums with the band, she left Big brother to continue as a solo artist with her own backing groups, first the kozmic blues band the on the Full Tilt boogie band with whom she made her cover versions of “piece of my heart “, “cry baby”, “down on me “, “ball and chain” and “Summertime “ which are her most popular songs. Joplin died of a heroin overdose in 1970 after recording two albums with big brother and the Holding and one solo album.

Most popular photography of Janis Joplin.

-JIM MORRISON 

Jim Morrison was an American singer, poet and songwriter, he was born on December 8th, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida and was mainly known for having found with pianist Ray Manzarek the Doors in 1965. The band spent two years without being very popular until they recorded their number one single in the U.S, “Light my fire “. Morrison was well known for improvising  spoken word poetry passages while the band played live. Throughout the band’s carrier, Jim developed alcohol problems which affected his performances on stage. And finally, there it happens, Morrison died unexpectedly on July the third of 1971 in Paris.

-KURT COBAIN 

Kurt Cobain was born in 1967 in Aberdeen. He was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter and was mainly known for having be the lead vocal, guitarist of Nirvana. He is also considered as one of the most influential musicians of rock. Nirvana found global success with “Smells like teen spirit” from their second album “nevermind”, which was critically acclaimed. As a matter of fact, Cobain thought his message and artistic vision had been misinterpreted by the public. During the las year of his life, Kurt became addicted to heroin and struggled with chronic health problems such as depression. In April 1994, the singer of Nirvana was found dead at his home five days after having gunshot himself. According to Hendrix and Cobain’s biographer, it’s after the suicide of Kurt that the idea of 27 club and malediction was considered of 27 was considered.

-AMY WINEHOUSE 

Amy Winehouse was born in 1983 and was an English singer and songwriter. Her eclectic mix of musical genres including soul, blues, jazz makes her my favorite singer. As a member of the national Youth Jazz orchestra during her youth, her first albums were influenced by jazz. In 2006, she released back to black which became an international success and one of the best-selling albums in UK history. In 2008 she won five awards at the 59th Grammy awards, becoming the first British woman to win five Grammys. She died of an alcohol overdose on 23 July 2011 and is for now on the last person to have entered the 27 club.

 I chose to talk about the artists of the 27 club because I listen a lot to these musicians and the story of their lives interest me a lot.