another dime in the jukebox baby…

So since Scott’s Friday Night Jukebox was less ambitious than he intended, and since the video he included has had embedding “disabled by request” I present you with an encore.  Now, during my late high-school and throughout my college years one of the bands I listened to a great deal – probably too much – was Blind Melon.  I have long suspected that lead singer Shannon Hoon was the reincarnation of  Janis Joplin and I have now confirmed my suspicions:

Hoon was the cousin of slightly more famous G&R lead singer of Axel Rose, though I’d take the poetry and madness of Blind Melon over G&R any day. But why not both?

I think you see an interesting transition from the 80’s to the 90’s in this video, with Rose in those stupid short shorts and bangs, and Hoon in a plain t-shirt and jeans. Grunge emerging, thankfully, from the ashes of the hair-bands and glam rock.

In any case, a couple years later you’ve got sounds like this:

Songs like this populated my darker years. There’s something about good, sad music to fill long, sad days. Nothing better. Perhaps it’s empathy we’re after. Nothing is worse than happy music for the depressed or heart-broken or disillusioned.

The thing that strikes me about Blind Melon is just how extraordinarily musical and soulful they were compared to many of their grungy counterparts. It was a damn shame when Hoon died, after only two albums (though a third came out after his death, “Nico” named after his baby daughter who was born just before his death.) I think they had something like 36 instrumentals laid down without vocals just waiting to be finished up.

So, one more…