Morphine

Morphine is a band that I have only discovered recently, but, unfortunately, they no longer exist. The bassist and lead singer, Mark Sandman, collapsed on stage July 3rd, 1999, at the Giardini Del Principe in Palestrina (near Rome). He was pronounced dead of a heart attack, at the age of 46. They are an amazingly unique three piece, comprising of a baritone saxophonist, drums and a two string slide bassist who sings. It is like they are the missing link between Jazz, Blues and Rock. Sandman sings with a bluesy, deep, gravelly voice not unlike Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen. At times they almost seem like a cross over between Nirvana and the Doors.

I have three of their albums and a 'best of' compilation, which, of the five albums they released while Sandman was alive, is hardly enough. Four albums and compilations have been released since his death. With a combination that, on the surface, would'nt seem to appeal to a rock audience each of the albums succeeds in breathing new life and freshness into the music world. Sandman appropriately coined the term 'low rock' for Morphine's music. They are well worth a listen by anyone who likes jazz or blues-rock or anyone interested in good music. And, apparently, Morphine is also an aphrodisiac for women - the band that is.

This Day in Music

The folks from the website www.thisdayinmusic.com have released a book about; yep you guessed it, musical facts, album/song chart positions, births and deaths of musicians on each day of the year. It is quite large for the rock music buff, with over 10,000 facts about music for the last 50 years, I knew when I saw it I could not resist. Here is a fun fact for today, in 1969, Peter Tork quit the Monkees, buying himself out of his contract for $ 160,000, which left him broke. There are a whole lot of facts like this in the book and it is well worth a purchase.