R.I.P. Bob Birch

[Hörnisse]

Just read that Elton John's longtime bassist has committed suicide. 

[uwe]

Not a good neighborhood for bassists, I must say. He's already no 2. Was he the guy that played on the last three Elton albums (prior to the Union collaboration) where Sir Reg found his musical footing again after being awol for much of the eighties and nineties? To be fair, I never noticed his bass playing like I did his predecessor's whose lightning-fast melodic runs (way beyond my physical capabilities) had only John Deacon's early style to be compared to.

Anyway, suicide seems to be all the rage with aging rockers recently (Montrose, Welch, Delp). You either die young of drugs, middle-aged due to cardiac arrest since coke leaves its imprint for life or commit suicide when you're old?

[Hörnisse]

He'd been in Elton's live band since '92.  I believe his first recorded effort was 1995's "Made In England."  Hard to imagine what goes through these guys minds. 

[Denis]

Hard to imagine what goes through these guys minds. 

You are right about that, Robert. And yet some guys, some of my favorites like Jon Lord and Richard Wright live to a relatively decent age and die of more natural causes.

[dadagoboi]

Hard to imagine what goes through these guys minds. 

That they've had enough and why continue something that's no longer fun?  Or that bad physical or mental health is not worth going through?  I'm sure it helps to have a gun and some alcohol at hand. 

I wonder the opposite:  Why does Billy Graham cling to life when he's so sure God loves him and there's a heaven or why Sun Yung Moon's son is asking the Moonies to pray that the 92 year old 'man of god' recovers.

...some of my favorites like Jon Lord and Richard Wright live to a relatively decent age and die of more natural causes.

I'm 66 in 2 weeks and some days 71 doesn't seem very old...of course if I was Richard Wright I'd be dead already.

[Hörnisse]

http://www.eltonjohn.com/news/news_details.aspx?postid=df2ff294-9f0c-4ff4-833c-d94386600b09

[uwe]

Doesn't really explain why he killed himself, does it? The obituary makes everything seem lovery-dovey, alway work, appreciated by his co-musicians, wife and son.

Not so much "Someone saved my life tonight", but more "I think I'm gonna kill myself, cause a little headline news ...".

[gweimer]

Sometimes, the demons a person carries are buried deep inside. In my 27 year marriage, there was too much drug use and drinking.  Not even my kids realized it.  I had come to the point where I was going to end it.  I even told that to my ex.  She laughed and told me to grow up.  I did - I stopped all my bad habits and left her.  If I hadn't left just over a year ago, I am fairly certain that I would be dead now, one way or another.

[Dave W]

I'm guessing they didn't explain because they didn't know. Or if they do have an idea why, it may have been something that would cause pain to the survivors if it became public.

[uwe]

I don't want them speculating either, it's ok not to muse about reasons. But putting a shroud over the fact that he killed himself is dishonest. The guy didn't die in a car crash, he killed himself because he believed something to be very wrong about his life. Don't act like it didn't happen, that is not going to help anyone. This suicide hushing up has become all the rage in Germany too, whenever people just die at an age where you wouldn't expect it and the yellow press doesn't mention a cause for the "tragic early passing" you know what happened. But not speaking or writing about suicides and why people feel compelled to do it, doesn't create awareness. In the long run not even the descendants.

Gweimer, I'm happy you feel better now.

I'm not judging about suicide victims and there are scenarios where I think it is acceptable (terminal disease, to escape torture etc, to save someone else's life), but I prefer a saved suicidal person to a dead one. I'm not religious, so it has nothing to do for me with having received a gift from heaven, but being alive is a freaking wonder even if you believe we all came from a gas bubble and will go back there, you just don't throw that away if you can at all help it (I know that with a severe chronic depression you do get worn out fighting it).

[Denis]

It was a bad year to be ANY Bob in a band, what with all the ex-Fleetwood Mac Bobs going belly up.

[nofi]

bob babbitt

[Hörnisse]

Bob Weston