Monday, March 29, 2010

Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, Rest in Peace

While writing my last blog post, I went to the Sparklehorse web site to create a link and got a nasty shock. Mark Linkous had taken his own life on March 6th.

I'm still very sad to have lost this incredible and unique talent. And worse, that he took his own life. Is it something about creativity and musical talent that runs concurrently with depression? Or perhaps it is that depression (and the events that cause it) that inspires the musical talent. Elliott Smith, Kurt Cobain, and now Mark Linkous...

The second Sparklehorse album, "Good Morning Spider," is one of my favorite albums. The unusual lyrics made a lot more sense when I found out Mark Linkous spent a lot of time convalescing. The song "St. Mary" is one of my all-time favorites. I use it as a sort of lullaby to myself when I'm having trouble sleeping; it always transports me to a peaceful and beautiful place.

As I mentioned in my last post, I used lyrics from several Sparklehorse songs in my novels. Thank you, Mark Linkous. And thank you for creating moving music for the joy of many. And we are sad that there will be no more.

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4 Comments:

At March 29, 2010 at 10:37 PM , Blogger KirstenM said...

Someone else died? Dreadful.

 
At March 30, 2010 at 7:55 PM , Blogger Susanna said...

So many. Makes me think of Vic Chesnutt: www.nytimes.com/2009/12/26/arts/music/26chesnutt.html

 
At March 31, 2010 at 7:25 PM , Blogger Eowyn Wood said...

I'm not familiar with Vic Chesnutt, but sounds interesting. I will have to check out his music...

 
At June 29, 2010 at 7:29 PM , Blogger Eowyn Wood said...

Well, I learned a lot about Vic Chestnutt from an article in the July 2010 issue of "Spin." Turns out he was friends with Mark Linkous! They even appeared together on the forthcoming "Dark Night of the Soul" (Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse). Also, the article has a lot of quotes from Kristin Hersh, who happens to be one of my favorite artists... The article online contains some of the same material as the print article: http://www.spin.com/articles/vic-chesnutt-when-bottom-fell-out

 

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