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Moonie's last days



Original message:

> << I just watched the VH1 Legends on Keith moments ago, and I just want to
>  say that I'm pissed off that he's dead.  I'd forgotten that he had
>  appeared to be finally coming to grips with reality and his health in
>  the final weeks of his life... what could have been should have been. >>
>

Jimbo wrote:

> Oh, please give it up already!  Moonie was, at the end, a shell of his former

> self.  He was not only a pathetic, bloated party boy but also a poor drummer
> his last couple of years.

Keith's drumming always had limits.  The only style he could play was Keith Moonstyle.  But how ever his lifestyle affected his ability to drum, he was only 30, and
had he pulled off a lifestyle change would almost certainly have regained his former
abilities.

> The notion that Keith was "coming to grips with
> reality and his health" is just another myth; sweet reminicences of better
> days of a deceased.  He died of a friggin' overdose you know!

I don't think it was a myth.  He had made numerous attempts at change in the past,but so many who knew him felt that it was different this time.  Yes, he did die of an
overdose, of his alcohol meds.  But his entire life he had ignored it when people
told him to be careful with drugs (or anything), and amazingly escaped unscathed.
It's not surprising to me that he ignored doctor's cautions about those meds.  You
don't make major lifestyle changes quickly.  Who knows, maybe he offed himself;
but I do believe he wanted to change.

>  I will remember the photo of Keith on his last
> night at the McCartney's party with his glass raised high.

What was in the glass?  Did you smell it?  It could have been booze... perhaps it wasn't.Doesn't much matter now.

> We CAN have fond memories of Moonie while at the same time be critical of his
> weaknesses and selfishness.

I agree, and I'm not one who thinks the Who are gods, and I don't think everythingthey do is great (I personally think the Quad tour was mostly Disneyland), and all
of their records are flawed in some way (some of them endearingly so).  But it's the
moments of staggering greatness that makes up for the failures.  And the simple fact
that they did push beyond the limits of their abilities.  Perhaps Keith was incapable
of making the changes necessary to become an adult...  he was obviously unable to
handle things properly the night of his death.  But that doesn't mean he didn't want
terribly, to change.

God, it must have been a blast to march in front of Steve McQueen's house dressed as
Hitler!

I see your point of view, though, Jimbo, and can see how it would bug you to have
to listen to seemingly blind defense of the man's personality simply because he once
was a great rock drummer.  The greatest rock drummer.  I hope people are as
generous with my faults as they are with Moonie's!

Long Live Rock!

Howard P.