# 50 Greatest Meltdowns in Rock **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 25, 2002, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497 "2002-08-25T16:57:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/41 "2002-08-29T05:45:12Z")
Two more: The mysterious disappearance (and presumed death) of **J. Richey** of **The Manic Street Preachers** in 1995. His car was left on (or right by) a bridge, but there was no note and his body was never found. As told to me by someone in the industry: after **D. Boon** of **The Minutemen** died, a Minutemen fan named **Ed Crawford** just showed up at the house of, I think, bassist Mike Watt, and wouldn’t leave. Watt kept telling him to get lost, even begging him to give it up, but the guy just wouldn’t leave. But after a couple of days, Watt relented, letting the guy in for an impromptu audition. He was great; he knew all the riffs; he was a formidable musician in his own right; and the superfan was accepted by the two surviving Minutemen in their new band, **Firehose**. Surely that doesn’t happen everyday. Drug busts, deaths and disappearances, sure, but a band _accepting a mere fan_ into their ranks? Too weird to be true! ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/42 "2002-08-29T07:30:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Scrivener \* > \*\* > > Surely that doesn’t happen everyday. Drug busts, deaths and disappearances, sure, but a band _accepting a mere fan_ into their ranks? Too weird to be true! \*\* _coughcough_Judas Priest_coughcough_ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/43 "2002-08-29T12:26:21Z")
I’ll take your word for it. I’m willing to tackle a fair amount of music-industry trivia, but metal ain’t my cup of tea. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/44 "2002-08-29T12:31:04Z")
Michael Hutchence’s fancywank? Roy Harper giving a sheep kiss-of life and contracting a sheep disease (possible UL) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/45 "2002-08-29T12:54:11Z")
Hutchence’s AEA death was duly noted. It sure was bizarre, though. What exactly was the Roy Harper thing? Enquiring minds… Perhaps the odd studio fixation, concommitant with running up huge deficits in self-indulgent perfectionism, wasting years in the process, alienating and even burning out engineers and producers, deserves a mention. There’s a slew of these, but I can think of a few: **The Beach Boys** ’s (actually, Brian Wilson’s) aborted **Smile** album; **My Bloody Valentine** ’s three years/$500,000 work on their sophomore effort, the classic 1991 album **Loveless** ; and **The La’s** all got caught up in the studio-perfectionist trap. In the latter case, they took four years to record their classic (and only) album, going through a half-dozen producers in the process. In the end, their exasperated label just put out a version unauthorized by the band, which refused to acknowledge it as their own. An inefficiently-running band can have a “burn rate” that would rival many a dot-com startup. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/46 "2002-08-29T14:25:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Scrivener \* > Surely that doesn’t happen everyday. Drug busts, deaths and disappearances, sure, but a band accepting a mere fan into their ranks? Too weird to be true! > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Raygun99 \* > coughcoughJudas Priest_coughcough\* And - IIRC - **Black Flag** too. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/47 "2002-08-29T15:58:36Z")
For studio daze I give you: The Stone Roses. Actually in most cases they win. And does AEA mean fancywanking? And you could throw Paula Yates on the Hutchence bonfire too. The Roy Harper thing is pretty much all there in my post. He kissed a sheep got sheep snoggers disease and couldn’t sing for over a year. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/48 "2002-08-29T16:23:49Z")
AEA – auto-erotic asphyxiation. Did Roy Harper kiss said sheep on the mouth, or the other end? ---
**Author:** ![EchoKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@EchoKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EchoKitty)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/49 "2002-08-29T16:46:16Z")
Rolling Stone said, “David Bowie spent the mid-Seventies gadding about L.A. like a blond coat hanger with a dead rock star hanging on it.” I love David, but damn! I wish I would have said this! ---
**Author:** ![EchoKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@EchoKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EchoKitty)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/50 "2002-08-29T17:11:32Z")
Could someone find a cite for the Springsteen meltdown? Or an eyewitness maybe? I’ve never heard it but I don’t doubt anything in rock-n-roll. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/51 "2002-08-29T17:30:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Scrivener \* > **Perhaps the odd studio fixation, concommitant with running up huge deficits in self-indulgent perfectionism, wasting years in the process, alienating and even burning out engineers and producers, deserves a mention. There’s a slew of these, but I can think of a few: The Beach Boys’s (actually, Brian Wilson’s) aborted Smile album; My Bloody Valentine’s three years/$500,000 work on their sophomore effort, the classic 1991 album Loveless; and The La’s all got caught up in the studio-perfectionist trap.** And that’s barely half the story with My Bloody Valentine! Reportedly, MBV’s Kevin Shields has spent the past decade or so recording and scrapping multiple albums. ---
**Author:** ![waits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df788c/32.png) [@waits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waits)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/52 "2002-08-29T19:55:00Z")
> [@](#): > > **EchoKitty:** > Could someone find a cite for the Springsteen meltdown? Or an eyewitness maybe? I’ve never heard it but I don’t doubt anything in rock-n-roll. Don’t have a specific cite (yet) but it took place during the No Nukes concert in Madison Square Garden on his 30th birthday in 1979. Bruce and photographer Lynn Goldsmith had broken up recently and he asked her not to take pictures of him at the show. When he saw her in the photographers pit he pulled her up onstage and introduced her to the crowd as his ex-girlfriend. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/53 "2002-08-29T22:04:50Z")
Not a meltdown, really, but certainly a bizarre moment: Anybody remember Dubya trying to dance with Ricky Martin at the inauguration? ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2002, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/54 "2002-08-30T00:20:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hazel-rah \* > \*\*Anybody seen Shane McGowan try and do a show lately? \*\* Sadly, [yes](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=130131&highlight=Shane). ☹ ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2002, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/55 "2002-08-30T00:44:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by EchoKitty \* > \*\*Could someone find a cite for the Springsteen meltdown? Or an eyewitness maybe? I’ve never heard it but I don’t doubt anything in rock-n-roll. \*\* [September 23 1979](http://www.greasylake.org/itsmylife/timeline2.htm) at Madison Square Garden. ---
**Author:** ![Cholo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Cholo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cholo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2002, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497/56 "2002-08-30T03:34:50Z")
Didn’t Phil Ramone have quite a few meltdowns in his past? I’ve read of him firing guns in the studio. How about Ike Turner? Now that was a meltdown of the first order. “I know, I’ll beat Tina for the fun of it…she’s never goin’ anywhere”. What a guy. How about Lennon either buying into or trying to sell Yoko to the public as a legitimate recording artist? How high was he anyhow? Someone mentioned Jerry Lee Lewis and his less than perfect marriage to his 13 year old cousin. How about the fact that he’s called “The Killer”? Wasn’t there some suspected foul play with at least one of his other wives that died? Wish I had a cite. How about the Grateful Dead’s Pigpen? He died of alcohol abuse in 71’ at the age of 27…weighing in just over 100 lbs. Has anybody mentioned Marvin Gaye’s dad? Shot his boy dead. Pretty serious meltdown in my book. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-greatest-meltdowns-in-rock/125497.md?page=2)