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24FPS
I don't think people knew at all what to do in the late 60s. These heavier drugs they were being introduced all came on the scene so fast. It was one thing to maybe do a speed pill or smoke a joint in the early days. In a very short span they were overwhelmed with LSD, then coke and then heroin. And being young, and indestructible, they didn't believe it would affect them.
Brian's death was not directly attributed to drugs at the time. It looks like Hendrix didn't OD on heroin, but on an accidental overtaking of unfamiliar german sleeping pills, mixed with wine. I don't think a lot of people thought of Janis as having had a problem. They knew she drank a bit, but she seemed to have kept her heroin use private. No one understood exactly how Morrison died, and to this day it's still a bit of a mystery. It was reported as a heart attack in 1971, but he may very well have ODed on Heroin.
You didn't hear much about heroin for a while as the 70s moved into cocaine, which people thought wasn't that harmful. In fact, I can't think of any rock and roll cocaine deaths off the top of my head. (Until we moved into crack). As you can read, Pete was trying to do something about Keith Moon right before he died. Unfortunately, as anyone who has dealt with an addict, they're not going to do shit because you want to. They will only do it when they want to in their own sweet time.
In this country it was comedian John Belushi's death in '82 that caught people's attention. No one stopped taking drugs totally, but they might have taken their foot off the accelator a bit and scaled back. It was disturbing when the grunge groups of the 90s took up with heroin, with predictable results. By the time Amy Winehouse died from mostly alcohol abuse it was like ho-hum, who didn't see that coming? You can't stop self destructive people, and who among us is a saint anyway?
There was plenty of rehab available for Amy Winehouse. There were plenty of people to support her. She was loved and respected. But only Amy could have saved Amy.
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mickschix
Thanks for posting that! Pete does tell it like it was, and I am currently reading his biography. I believe that most rock/pop stars in the 60's were totally unfazed by the real danger of drugs. They just were so young and thought they were immortal. No one DIED at 27...they thought, and then the big ones began to drop like flies. You'd have thought that after Brian,Jimi, Morrison & Janis they would have wised up. Mick Jagger DID, thank God!
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24FPS
I don't think people knew at all what to do in the late 60s.
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mickschix
Thanks for posting that! Pete does tell it like it was ...
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24FPSQuote
mickschix
Thanks for posting that! Pete does tell it like it was, and I am currently reading his biography. I believe that most rock/pop stars in the 60's were totally unfazed by the real danger of drugs. They just were so young and thought they were immortal. No one DIED at 27...they thought, and then the big ones began to drop like flies. You'd have thought that after Brian,Jimi, Morrison & Janis they would have wised up. Mick Jagger DID, thank God!
Keith was too deep to get out at that point. Which always brings me back to the curious realization that no major English rock stars at the top of their game died in the late 60s, early 70s. Meanwhile America lost it's Rock Royalty in Jimi, Janis, and Jim Morrison, and it's future in Duane Allman (due to a motorcycle crash, not drugs). Luck? Hardier stock? Bad Luck? In fact I don't remember the first major British rock star death from drugs. Was it Moon? All the way up to '78?
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TheDailyBuzzherd
Well now, that's Kinky.
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24FPSQuote
TheDailyBuzzherd
Well now, that's Kinky.
Yes, but still not a drug death. Marc Bolan went the old fashioned Eddie Cochran way of car crash. Moon might be the first major British drug death in rock; one that actually affected a major group. There's just nothing comparable to American Rock being beheaded by 4 major artists at their peak a 13 month period that began with Hendrix and ended with 24-year old Duane Allman. It was even more traumatic than the earlier rock tragedy that saw Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran die, while Chuck Berry was thrown in prison on a trumped up violation of the Mann Act, something for which 25-year old Elvis Presley probably did violate with 15-year-old Priscilla, who actually lived in his house.
Not that I wanted, or ever want, something tragic to happen to British rockers. I guess peaceful John Lennon being gunned down outside his own dwelling in NYC was harsh enough. So...be a rich rock star with access to pharmaceutically pure dope seems to be the message here. And don't be a dumbass and carry a year's supply into Canada with you.
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DoomandGloom
PT is correct when an abuser is hell bent on dying they can't be stopped.
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24FPS
I can't think of any rock and roll cocaine deaths off the top of my head
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carlorossiQuote
24FPS
I can't think of any rock and roll cocaine deaths off the top of my head
Maybe not directly, but I have a feeling that Entwistle did enough that he did long term damage to his heart, and it finally did him in. I'm sure smoking didn't help, but the dude wasn't that old.
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DoomandGloom
True enough... It's a shame really somewhere Brian would have done more great stuff.
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mikeeder
Pete's own book was like Keith's a disapointment. Reading what he wrote here he could have penned a masterpiece.