This week we saw the death of Amy Winehouse a radical icon in the World of Music. She was brilliant, talented, iconoclastic, charismatic, rare, sexy, cool & adored. She was the voice of a generation and also vilified by the right wing press and frowned upon by the moral majority. She was an addict who burnt the candle at both ends and achieved the dizziest heights in her career, which has now Shockingly, come to an abrupt end. Her tragic death however, will elevate her to the rarified plain reserved for legends. Along with Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones. Amy is another shooting star that has been snuffed out as if it was pre ordained. She has joined the chillingly exclusive 27 Club. The age at which these great icons suddenly die. Opening a ghostly genre surrounded by spirituality, conspiracy theories, film and book fodder and what could have beens. Her back catalogue has now become a shrine, if not a temple. Not to mention the eventual supposed sightings, that will inevitably be reported.
Admittedly Elvis, Jacko & John Lennon, had this but they had had, substantial careers way beyond the dreaded 27. There is however, a definitive catagory of creative performer that get 'taken' from us at the age of 27. Lifestyle is an obvious factor but why 27? why not 25, 26 or 28? it has been a conundrum for years. Strangely enough I was once told that 27 is a very significant age, that the brain 'sets'! in other words you can't have a truly original idea after the age of 27. Is this true? it does seem Winehouse & co seem to fit a whole lifetime in 27 years, they seemed to have done it all, feral youth, pain and ancient wisdom all in one package.
I do have a suggestion a theory, I can't endorse it with empirical evidence nor can I back it up with medical knowledge, my idea is just a gut feeling. I think that these stars like Amy Winehouse binge themselves so much until they are forced to detoxify. Their bodies recover very quickly, perhaps back to the finely tuned state prior to drug or alcohol abuse. Unfortunately, they naturally feel better, so they feel invincible again. They then take the same dosages etc. as they had, when they were at the peak of their addiction, but their bodies have returned to a non users state. A long term heroin user, can tolerate doses that would kill a novice. At 27 you are just perhaps on the cusp of wiping the slate clean, before you enter the start of age decline. If you have abused your body, stopped or cut down, your own youthful ability to repair your body can catch you out. Especially, if you try to use the same amounts of what ever your poison may have been. It's up to experts to test this out.
On the other hand there are those, who would see such icons as transcient beings that perhaps have been 'sent' as emissaries by anything from aliens to God. Maybe our need to aspire to the young, beautiful and talented is all part of the search for perfection, however brief it may be, a distant light, to find a connection with Divinity.
Admittedly Elvis, Jacko & John Lennon, had this but they had had, substantial careers way beyond the dreaded 27. There is however, a definitive catagory of creative performer that get 'taken' from us at the age of 27. Lifestyle is an obvious factor but why 27? why not 25, 26 or 28? it has been a conundrum for years. Strangely enough I was once told that 27 is a very significant age, that the brain 'sets'! in other words you can't have a truly original idea after the age of 27. Is this true? it does seem Winehouse & co seem to fit a whole lifetime in 27 years, they seemed to have done it all, feral youth, pain and ancient wisdom all in one package.
I do have a suggestion a theory, I can't endorse it with empirical evidence nor can I back it up with medical knowledge, my idea is just a gut feeling. I think that these stars like Amy Winehouse binge themselves so much until they are forced to detoxify. Their bodies recover very quickly, perhaps back to the finely tuned state prior to drug or alcohol abuse. Unfortunately, they naturally feel better, so they feel invincible again. They then take the same dosages etc. as they had, when they were at the peak of their addiction, but their bodies have returned to a non users state. A long term heroin user, can tolerate doses that would kill a novice. At 27 you are just perhaps on the cusp of wiping the slate clean, before you enter the start of age decline. If you have abused your body, stopped or cut down, your own youthful ability to repair your body can catch you out. Especially, if you try to use the same amounts of what ever your poison may have been. It's up to experts to test this out.
On the other hand there are those, who would see such icons as transcient beings that perhaps have been 'sent' as emissaries by anything from aliens to God. Maybe our need to aspire to the young, beautiful and talented is all part of the search for perfection, however brief it may be, a distant light, to find a connection with Divinity.
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