“There is no cure for birth and death, save to enjoy the interval.”
- George Santayana
Today was the birthday of the talented but much troubled musician, Shannon Hoon (1967). If the name's not familiar, you'd know him, perhaps, by the song and video he and his band, Blind Melon, are identified with, No Rain. Turn on any 90s-themed radio station or playlist and No Rain will come around, guaranteed. It's always frustrating when a very fine band with loads of good songs gets saddled with that one - the only one anyone ever knows of. “Oh, yea, they're the ones that sing…”
Blind Melon gets lumped in with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and the like. That legion of grungers that swept the musical landscape in the early part of the 1900s final decade. They were cousins of those bands, I suppose, but different in their way.
They weren't around long enough to see their talent and potential bloom fully. After two albums, Blind Melon was gone, like Shannon Hoon, he dead at the age of 28. He departed, like so many before and after, in the saddest, most rock and roll cliche way. Books have been written and documentaries made about his short, restless life. It's too bad they needed to be.