I think enough time has passed since the death of Michael Jackson that we can pick up our ongoing series of playlists; a tribute to those artists lost too soon. Plus, if that poll was any indication, the majority of the population has moved on. Last week we covered only two years, 1979 through 1980. It was a rough couple of years for the music industry and luckily it wasn’t until 1986 that the next “major” artist was lost.

Cliff Burton is a name known to every metal fan. The second bassist of the band Metallica, after replacing Ron McGovney, he was featured on their first three albums and contributed to developing their early sound. His death was caused by the driver of their tour bus falling asleep and crashing the bus. When the bus crashed, he was thrown from his bunk and out the window. He was then pinned under the bus, killing him. Since his death, he has been “replaced” in the band by Jason Newsted and Robert Trujillo and recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The 90’s marked a number of big hits to the world of music. Of course the loss of Kurt Cobain was huge. I’m not sure there is much more that can be said about his death (unless I could prove it was really Courtney Love). But some of the other, “less” publicized deaths are also worth mentioning. Shannon Hoon and Bradley Nowell, although not nearly as popular as Kurt, in death, they are nearly as iconic. Even though they both died of drug overdoses, they were each at different points in their career. Blind Melon was seemingly been on the way down after their sophomore album slumped compared to the breakout success of “Blind Melon (the Album)” which featured the hit “No Rain”. Sublime was only just starting to take off and it wasn’t until after Nowell’s death that they gained mainstream notoriety.

Jeff Buckley is the final member of today’s group. Unlike the other deaths in the nineties, his was not an overdose or suicide. During the recording of his second album, he took a break to go swimming in a part of the Mississippi River. Unfortunately, during this break, he drowned. Posthumously, his second album was released and “Hallelujah”, his cover of Leonard Cohen has gone on to be a staple of pop-culture.

Metallica - “One”
Nirvana - “I Hate Myself and Want to Die”
Blind Melon - “No Rain”
Sublime - “What I Got”
Jeff Buckley - “Hallelujah”

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