R.I.P. – Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse
I’m a little late to the draw here, but over the weekend a relatively little known artist named Mark Linkous, better known as Sparklehorse, took his own life in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was 47 years young. That is a real shame. It was allegedly set off by a text message. How would you like to be the sender? No thanks. I hope it was worth it. Reports say it was roughly 1:20 PM in the afternoon when this all happened so we’d like to believe this wasn’t some alcohol or drug fueled spur of the moment decision. Then again most of us don’t lose our composure over a text message. I’m not passing judgment here though. It may a Wonderful Life, but each of us has our own crosses to bear. I’m turning 50 years young myself next Monday. I never ever dreamed of being this old and yet here we are. Now life gets interesting.
My first exposure to Sparklehorse was in 1995 when I came across a copy of Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. I heard the song called “Rainmaker” on the radio just one time before I jumped on board the Sparklehorse train. I instantly added it to my mixed cut cassette tape empire because I liked it so much. The title of the record was a mouthful and a pain in the neck to deal with, but I’m sure it was intended to draw attention to the release. On that count it seems like it was successful. I was, and still am, impressed with Sparklehorse. It’s a real shame Mark decided to pack it in, but it was not the first time he displayed a certain instability. In 1996 he nearly lost both legs after overdosing on a lethal combination of drugs while on tour with Radiohead. He recovered after spending some six months in a wheelchair and, as it turns out, lived another 14 years.
Sparklehorse was essentially a one man outfit. It was a setup not unlike Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails except that the Sparklehorse sound bordered on Stoner Indie music. I don’t know if that category exists, but it does now. Mark’s music was sometimes hard to pin down and describe. It had some of that jangly Alt Country Wilco feel to it at times, but it could be as spacey as, say, Catherine Wheel too. I loved it because it was way off the beaten path. Sparklehorse didn’t get a lot of radio airplay so whatever audience it had built up was based word of mouth. Their music was mesmerizing to listen to because they didn’t have to adhere to any genre or record company directive. It’s not the kind of thing you throw into your CD player to get you pumped up for an event, but it had its place among the reflective late night set. It’s not going to rock you to your feet, but it was easy to get lost in the trippy feeling embedded in the melodies. I don’t know a thing about recording vocals, but I’m assuming he is singing through some kind of device that alters his voice a tad. It’s dreamy and hypnotic at times.
Nobody has any concrete answers for suicide. I’m pretty sure everybody contemplates it at some point or another, but reason and good sense usually rule the day. Everybody has demons, but most of us keep them at bay. I wish everybody could. Mark was obviously very talented and I wince every time I hear about suicide, but it’s particularly galling when someone with so much to offer the masses makes that decision. This guy is going to be missed, plain and simple and it sure doesn’t seem like it had to be this way. I hope whatever afterlife may exist makes Mark a happier man and I’m really sorry he felt like he had to go now. Rest in Peace.
I’m leaving you folks with a couple of Sparklehorse favorites. You can track them down on 1995′s Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, 1998′s Good Morning Spider and 2001′s It’s a Wonderful Life. I’m also tacking on their wonderful cover of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. That one is from a 2001 Promo only called Chest Full of Dying Hawks which may be hard to locate. I hope you like them.
Sparklehorse – Wish You Were Here.mp3
Sparkelhorse – Wish You Were Here.mp3 YSI
Buy or download It’s a Wonderful Life from Amazon here.
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About the author
I'm just a guy who's mother used to play music constantly when I was as a child. I was exposed to a slew of 40's & 50's acts like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Bill Haley & The Comets, Chuck Berry, Danny & The Juniors and countless one hit wonder bands. Add in your Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Eddie Fisher with scores of popular soundtracks like Zorba The Greek and West Side Story and it's no wonder I became a music fiend. Thanks Mom. My first 45 RPM was The Letter by The Boxtops, but I went on to own a pretty decent 45 collection until I got the brainiac idea to sell it to the neighbors so I could buy baseball cards. Goodbye priceless Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, and Animals collector's items. Hello seven copies of backup catchers. I've been collecting since 1967 or so. Be it eight track tapes, cassettes, 45's, LP's, CDs, MP3's...even VHS or DVD copies of live performances; I've been going at it quite a while. When I was asked to contribute to this site I didn't have to be asked twice. I'm having a ball...
| This entry was posted by John Jay on March 9, 2010 at 8:39 pm, and is filed under R.I.P. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 5 months ago
Thank you for the Sparklehorse tracks.
I’m four years younger than yourself and have seen too many artists make the choice Mark Linkous did at the weekend: Ian Curtis of Joy Division and Billy MacKenzie of the Associates were probably the ones that hit me hardest, but recently Vic Chesnutt was painful too.
I do, however take exception to your remark “everybody contemplates it at some point or another, but reason and good sense usually rule the day”. Of course suicide can be ill-considered, an overreaction and so forth: but it can sometimes be an entirely rational response to unbearable, immutable circumstances. I was present at my older brother’s assisted suicide in Zurich seven years ago. He had stage IV bowel cancer and was looking at an immediate future of severe physical pain, not all of which could be managed effectively, in the context of a steady decline into utter incapacity and powerlessness.
I would never presume to say to people who have struggled sometimes for years with constant suffering that they should soldier on regardless, or that taking their mortality into their own hands was somehow irrational or not ’sensible’. Consider the case of Primo Levi. Human life is not to be preserved automatically, absolutely and at all costs: individuals’ rights to dignity, autonomy and freedom from pain come into the equation too, in rare cases decisively.
Far, far too many people take their lives needlessly for lack of support and understanding but I would say there are difficult and thorny exceptions to suicide being ’taboo’, and compassion obliges us to consider their moral and intellectual validity.
In the US: The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is open 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Worldwide: http://www.befrienders.org/
To the lights which have gone out (and rhetorically, since they are gone): “Thanks for doing what you did while you could.”
about 5 months ago
Hi Jakobovich – Thank you reading our blog and writing us. I suppose I could have phrased my thoughts a bit better, but suffice to say I wasn’t making light of anyone who chooses to take their own life. I actually come down on the side of assisted suicide for the most part, but I wasn’t referring to those types of “exceptions” for lack of a better word. I was thinking, health in order and all things considered, things are usually not quite as bad as they seem is all. I think we can all relate to life experiences where we might have “wished we were dead,” but only in the figurative sense. I would hope my post didn’t come across as some type of judgmental tirade agaisnt suicide as much as a “Wish You Were Here” sentiment. Hopefully it was just my luck someone from the Suicide Prevention Lifeline stumbled across our blog and is much more sensitive to this issue than most. And for the record I’m with you all the way on Ian Curtis. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.
about 5 months ago
Cheers for the reply. I did assume your piece was mournful rather than anything else. For the record, I’ve no connection with either of the organisations.
Back to Linkous, in better times: a wryly understated anecdote about an encounter with Tom Waits, from a Guardian newspaper piece:
“The first time Linkous was given Tom Waits’s phone number he had to knock back five shots of whisky and lock himself in a room before he felt brave enough to make the call. He finally went to California to meet Waits. “He told really great stories. He also scared me to death. We were driving down the highway in his big suburban SUV talking about animals we disliked. I mentioned carrion-eating turkey buzzards. He doesn’t like them either. He proceeded to do an impression of a turkey buzzard sunning itself, his arms outstretched as we were flying down the highway at 80mph. He did a great imitation, it just went on for too long.”