Back in 1997, the band Morphine played a big gig in Utah. It was July 15, at the HORDE Festival in the Canyons (then known as Wolf Mountain). Sadly, it was the band's last Utah gig.
Leader/bassist/vocalist Mark Sandman suffered a fatal heart attack Saturday while playing a music festival at the Giardini del Principe, in Palenstrina, Italy. He was 46.Sandman apparently didn't have a history of heart or other health problems, according to MTV News. But he was a heavy smoker.
Still, the musician died doing what he loved, and how many of us will be able to say that?
Fans might have known the singer as "Deadpan Sandman," because of his Steven Wright-like vocal delivery.
I had the privilege of talking with Sandman a week before that '97 concert. And, yes, he did sound like Wright, except that Sandman laughed a lot.
"I want to see how far I can take this," Sandman said before the HORDE (Horizons of Rock Development Everywhere) show. "When we first got together, we hung around a lot of bands who only played a few sets and then broke up. But now look where we are. We're booked through October. And, yeah, we tried to break up." (Insert hearty laugh here.)
Back in 1990, Sandman formed Morphine with baritone saxophonist Dana Colley and drummer Jerome Dupree in Cambridge, Mass. The band's debut, "Good," was released in 1991. By 1993, Billy Conway had replaced Dupree and the band released "Cure for Pain," which featured the single "Thursday." "Cure . . ." was followed by "Yes" in 1995, and the group's final album, "Like Swimming," came in 1997.
It was the back-alley noir style that helped Morphine develop its core following.
"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man or woman miss out on the nightlife," Sandman sang on "Early to Bed," from the album, "Like Swimming." Sandman's slow-motion, head-slapping lyrics were accompanied by the band's groovy, heavy mumble. It took Sandman's two-string bass, Conway's heavy back beats and Colley's huffing sax to come up with that style. Yes, you read right, the band's lineup had no guitar.
"A lot of musicians in the past didn't use guitars," Sandman explained during the interview. "Little Richard had two baritone saxophones as his main backups, and other '50s musicians, including Richard, had a piano."
Morphine used to play the Zephyr Club locally before the band was picked to headline the smaller HORDE stage. In fact, Sandman remembered having to alter the band's name on the Zephyr marquee for one gig.
"I guess there was a conference of some type in town," Sandman said about one of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' semiannual sessions. "So we were asked to take the band's name off the sign and use our album's title, 'Like Swimming,' instead. It was a little weird." (Another hearty laugh.)
Then after a moment of silence (contemplation, perhaps?), Sandman said, "It was interesting that someone would make that suggestion."
Almost an afterthought, he added, "And it's even more interesting that we had complied." (Another hearty laugh).
A private service for Sandman's family and friends was to be held today in Boston, according to MTV News. The family requests that all contributions be made to the Mark Sandman Music Education Fund, which will benefit Cambridge public schools.
Sandman is survived by his wife Sabine, his parents Bob and Tel, his grandmother Goldie Conway, his sister Martha Holmes, two nephews and a niece.
Rest easy . . .