Mitch Mitchell found Dead

Mitch Mitchell was a popularly underrated drummer who had the fortune or misfortune of playing in the daunting shadow of an extraordinary musical genius. I hope for his sake he perceived it to be the former.

http://www.jimi-hendrix.com/

How do you die of "natural causes" at 61?

Assuming he wasn't murdered and it wasn't suicide the only thing left is "natural".

One of your vital organs gives out.

When I read the title of this thread I initially thought Bear was referring to Mitch McConnell and I pumped my fist in the air in a triumphant manner. Imagine my disappointment when I realized it was one of Jimi's gang.

Proving once more that we can never escape politics no matter what the thread.

As a teenanger with a drum kit, I revered Mitch second only to Bonham. So, when I wasn't playing The Ocean out of my obligatory Zeppelin book I was imitating Mitch. I had to. Because when anyone with a guitar came over they wanted to play Jimi.

When someone says "Mitch Mitchell," I immediately here the opening fills to "Fire."

I went through a phase in high school where I plowed through a stack of biographies of famous people who died of drug overdoses. Elvis. Belushi. In the bio section of the library I found Mitch's book about Jimi. Fucking hilarious. He goes on and on about experiences that were clearly drug-related, but tags them with transparent declarations that he never did drugs and never saw Jimi do any. Total bullshit.

RIP, Mitch.

it's amazing how many of my contemporaries...the first really major drug experimenters...are so sheepish about discussing it now. WTF... it's part of our overall life experience... no regrets...no shame here....look how well I turned out...

Cool

Let's talk about drugs!

For instance, one of the insights which should have been sought by us LSD explorers was why we felt compelled to keep absolute track of the number of trips we took.

I wish they were all legal, for personal and political reasons.

My consumption has precipitously dropped because I have lost all of my contacts and cannot abide the idea of scoring via my kids.

Seeking altered states is a conservative principle and should be embraced.

Ditto sex.

Where both leave the reservation is when they become self-destructive and societal dead weights. Neither need to be.

The first step in mitigating the attendant danger is to legalize drugs and prostitution.

Will some people abuse legalized drugs?

Of course they will. Many abuse legalized alcohol, but we have a very clear and recent proof that the criminalization of alcohol created more societal problems than it solved.

The great fallacy inherent in this discussion is that our government knows what is best for us as individuals, that it is right and proper that it should be able to tell us what we may or may not do with or to ourselves.

I'm happy (well, at least resigned) to accept that our government has a role in telling us what is best for our society and how our individual choices may conflict. That is the price of being a member of society and sharing in its benefits.

However, it is a very tortured argument that suggests my personal use of drugs, without inteference with unwilling fellow members of society, is a violation of the social compact.

If heroin was legal it would almost certainly not be as expensive as it is on the street. Personally, I have enough money to supply myself with legal heroin for my lifetime (of course that lifetime may be greatly reduced by my usage) and so will never need to rob or steal to support my habit.

Indeed, if I allow my usage to go beyond my control (which is highly likely) I will have a severe negative impact on my family, friends and associates (in sharply descending order), but as far as the government is concerned...SO WHAT?

We are not the Children of The State. We do not need Government to tell us what we should eat and when we should go to bed.

Even sensible liberals flirt with a a government that by seeking to mend our prosaic ills will intrude too heavily into what it perceives to be our intrinsic flaws.

Once one argues that Society is better off without individuals using drugs in the privacy of their own homes, it is not a wildly far leap to argue that Society is better off when individuals don't complain or think strange thoughts.

The right of the individual to keep the rewards of his or her hard work and talent is inextricably woven with the right of the individual to blow his or her mind out in a car.