2 Rock Guitarists Dead In Last 24 hours...Ratt's Robbin Crosby and The Ramones Dee Dee Ramone

AP/Reuters/All media outlets | 6-7-02 | my favorite headache

[My Favorite Headache]

I am posting this thread if anyone cares to add to it. I am a fan of so many different styles of music and the last 24 hours has claimed the lives of 2 men who took part in 2 totally different rock bands during 2 totally different periods of popularity.

The death's of Layne Staley from Alice In Chains was a waste. A total waste of incredible talent, gone forever due to an addiction to heroin. Dee Dee Ramone from the famous punk band The Ramones died of the very same thing a little more than a day ago. Robbin Crosby one of 2 guitarists in the 80s hard rock act RATT died from a long battle with AIDS, attributed from use of a dirty heroin needle.

Robbin was really a great guy. I saw RATT live with him and he was a great performer. He was also responsible for some of the best licks i.e. Round and Round, Wanted Man,Lay It Down, You're In Love,Back For More, Dance, Dance, Dance,Way Cool Jr., What's It Gonna Be? and much more. Hit after hit from Ratt.

He also dated everyone from Heather Locklear (who didn't?), Tawney Kitaen, and various models and actresses. He had such great talent but it all went to hell by way of the needle. A personality to light up a room. Yes a ton of people in here probably have never heard of him and will just call him another heroin junkie rock star who got what he deserved. But Robbin never denied that.

When he was on Geraldo's show about 7 yrs ago...his hands were swollen, he could not even play the guitar anymore and he had been diagnosed with HIV at the time.But he accepted it and also accepted CHRIST. He knew he played russian roulette and lost.

I am not going to gush over this anymore. I just came home from a 12 hour shift at work to have the news sent to me about his passing. I just wanted to recognize his life in some way because his music was something that was just downright...good.

Robbin is up with Christ now and his long and painful battle with AIDS is over.

R.I.P to the both of them.

[gabby hayes]

Frankly, I have more concern for the eighth name in the left hand column of the Akron, Ohio phone directory.

[Sabertooth]

It certainly sounds like you did the right thing, but did your boy ever like AC/DC? Or did you force it on him?

I ask this because my 7 year old boy's favorite song is "For Those About to Rock," and his favorite band is The Thunder from Down Under. He spits venom at (c)rap music. And I will move Heaven and earth to keep it this way.

Do I have a chance?

You've got a chance.

Here's a game I play with my 14 year-old daughter...

I tune a classic rock station, and she can't change it until she guesses the artist on the first guess.

Then she tunes to one of ther pop or alternative stations, and I can't change it until I guess the artist on the first try.

We're both expanding our horizons, and she gets a kick out of telling me stories of jaws dropping when she can ID Boston, Zeppelin (tole her not to say "Led"), the Doors, etc. to her friends... Especially the seniors in her choir class who have their own bands and expect her to be into nothing but Britney and N'Synch.

[wardaddy]

I simply do not like the thuggishness of most rap nor do I care much for it musically. It's a lot of banter and incredibly superficial posing. I am very amused by spoiled suburban whiteys acting like they are gangbangers. In reality they are soft as putty and weak in spirit and the blacks they emulate think they are either chumps or pumpkins.(hard on the outside, soft on the inside). I view them much the same way I view yuppies donning leather and pretending to be Hell's Angels...LOL.

Why a perfectly good white boy would wish to embrace the worst of black "culture" is beyond me.

[HBAR223]

"Lack Of Communication" currently blasting from my Klipsch 5.1's. Had to blow the dust off that disc.

[Huck]

RATT was great music for people who didn't take music too seriously.

Right. And pornos are movies for people who don't take acting too seriously. :-P

[Huck]

I don't know if you've ever seen the movie "Office Space", but there's a funny bit in the opening credits where the white dork programmer is sitting in traffic on his way to work, with some gangsta rap cranking, and he's rapping along with it, in dialect. Suddenly, he sees a black man in the median up ahead selling flowers, and he gets a scared look on his face, turns down the music, and sneaks his hand over to the window to lock the doors. As soon as the black man has passed, he cranks the music back up again. Pretty funny. Later on in the movie, he stops by his buddy's cubicle and greets him with "What's up, G?" Perfect satire of what you were talking about. The biker thing irritates me. Not that I really care, but I used to work with some hard core bikers. In my wild days, I used to play in bands and we did a lot of pig roasts and biker parties, where the highlight of the evening was when they'd throw a "riceburner" on the fire. That, and the drugs. Man, those were some parties.

Oh, and by the way, whenever you are ready with the Keith Richards story, let her rip.

[JMJ333]

If ya'll say so. =)

I guess to each his own. Personally, I can't get into drug induced vibes, which precludes me from a lot--especially stufF like Godsmack and Korn which I find extremely offensive...same way Alice in Chains offended me religiously...so I just tuned em out. I have taken to liking contemporary instrumentals. Mysteries of Eqypt is really very good.

[southern rock]

I don't care much for music purists of any genre, because nothing you listen to can ever be "pure" enough for them. You listen to RATT or Poison, and the Metallica/Slayer nazis are on your case. Listen to a little Alan Jackson or Travis Tritt, and the folks who think Waylon and Merle are the only authentic country lecture you. And oh, if you like alternative or punk, there are actually layers of purists. The purists have purists on their case, who have even snootier purists chewing them out.

Well guess what? Music is FUN! That's all. Purists can kiss my a$$

[wardaddy]

I like nearly all music to some degree...except rap. Thrash style rap I can tolerate at a distance....barely.

[wardaddy]

Sorry I forgot to mention I can tolerate some dance hall Jamaican style roots of rap stuff...also at a distance.

[wardaddy]

I like some AIC.....Korn and stuff like that....it doesn't reach me anymore. True punk from the late 70s was probably my last angry music hurrah. I did think Tool was interesting actually but they are passe' now as well. I do like original country and original blues and Appalachin.....reggae...ska....classical...very little opera. I am an L&L product....Zepplin and Skynyrd....1972...sophomore in HS. I was weaned on the Beatle, Stones, Byrds, Kinks, Who, and Motown but that hippie country Skynyrd and the trippy bluesy medieval LZ stuff molded me....that and the Grateful Dead till around 1977 when they went to hell in a bucket...I could go on and on....don't worry I won't

[JMJ333]

Feel free to go on as much as you want. I am prolonging digging this hole in my backyard for a pond I bought. I fear I am in over my head. lol

I used to like much of the same things you did. Now I like the instrumentals I mentioned and old Catholic hymns. I even like the gregorian chants. The last music I bought was a cd by the Sisters of St. Paul singing these really soft songs about Mary. One sings Ave Maria Acapella.

I guess I'm off to the yard. Cripy! =)

[guitfiddlist]

"A noble spirit EMBIGGENS the smallest man."

I checked that word out with teachers at Springfield's NEA office, and found out it is a perfectly cromulent term.

[Huck]

I hear ya. I am not assaulting RATT from some sort of "purist" standpoint. It's pure bullshirt, to me. It just sucks. But hey, to each his own, right? There's no accounting for taste.

[Dakmar]

"Life goes on..."

"And so does blind use of disabling and killing drugs."

As does blind use of disabling and killing solvents.Would you
a) Ban Solvents
b) Deal with solvent abuse as a medical problem rather than a legal one?

ARTICLE:

Solvent abuse - initiation & frequency of use - IDMU

Solvent Abuse - Initiation and Frequency of Use

Initiation to Solvent Abuse

The peak age of initiation to use of solvents is 14, with most first trying solvents between ages 12 and 18, although 10% first experiment after age 18.

Fig 1 - Solvent Initiation/Age curves

Amalgamated data from IDMU Regular Users Surveys collected in 1994, 1997 & 1998

Total sample size n=3623

Key - Red data represents cumulative numbers of respondents ever having used solvents by the stated age

Green data represents the number of respondents reporting first having used solvents at the stated age.

Prevalence and Frequency of Use

In all the IDMU surveys, consistently, the vast majority of drug users report never having used solvents and of those who have, the majority have used experimentally (defined as on less than 10 occasions) or to have stopped using solvents altogether.

The majority of non-solvent users state they would never consider trying solvents, and solvents generally have a highly negative rating (overall - 1.49/10) by users of illicit drugs.

Frequency of Solvent Use among Illicit Drug Users
Frequency of use	1984	1994	1997	1998
Non/ex-users	89.6%	89.4%	89.4%	89.5%
Experimental	6.1%	8.0%	6.9%	8.2%
Occasional	1.3%	2.3%	3.3%	2.2%
Weekly	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0%
Daily	0%	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%
Mean rating (0-10)	n/a	1.50	1.82	1.24
Sample size	607	1333	1136	1153

Fig 2

Reference Source:

Atha MJ, Blanchard S & Davis S (1999) - Regular Users I-III - Solvents Initiation & Frequency of Use. © IDMU Ltd 1994 - 2001

[wardaddy]

Don't feel bad ...it was weedeater and hedge trimmer time for me as well..

[TheLurkerX]

You mean, "99 Aloof Baboons?"

[ProbableCause]

I feel bad that the Ratt guy died. I have nothing against him personally, and I suppose in some technical sense he was a competent guitar player. But (and this is a big j-lo sized but) hair metal just about gives me hives. It really was the worst trend to ever suck the life out of rock 'n' roll. Doesn't the mere sight of that big, fruity hair make you cringe here in the aughts? It's more embarrassing than disco could ever hope to be.

Now, on the subject of Dee Dee, the man sang that he lived on Chinese rocks. Now, like Johnny Thunders, he has died by them too. Yet another lesson to anyone still capable of learning.

[Don Myers]

Solvents is a whole new field. If you want to pressure your politicians to pass solvent laws, go right ahead.

[Dakmar]

I think you kind of missed my point on that, and I'm fairly sure you did so on purpose. If people don't have sense enough not to huff glue, banning it won't really make much difference in their lives, they will just find something else to scramble their brains with, while the rest of us will be stuck with that crappy orange smelling glue that works about as well as dried spit for assembling plastic model kits. People need to take responsibilty for their own lives, and we can't assign a government nanny to everyone just because a few people truly are too incompetent to live without one.