Shannon Hoon Songwriting

         Shannon Hoon was certainly a brilliant an ambitious songwriter. He had a jock type of personality. He certainly carried a message with his music. He was a highly energetic songwriter. He did use drugs like Cocaine to heighten his creative focus. He just overdid it and crashed. But he accomplished far more in music in his short life than most musicians do in a lifetime.

          To illustrate how Shannon Hoon carried a message look to Blind Melons performance of Galaxie on David Letterman. Letterman gives him this insincere handshake like he wants to get away from Shannon. Hoon purposely holds the shake and goes up and down lol. On their first Letterman performance Hoon had a huge question mark written on his forehead. Kurt Cobain's death was the reasoning behind it.

Late 1995 Shannon Hoon sings with intensity and diction

          Hoon was great at personalizing his observations into his songwriting. One example of this is the song St. Andrews Fall. Blind Melon witnessed a person fall off a building while in St. Andrews. This definitely personally affected them. You can hear the song's music crescendo into absolute madness. This simulates the fall. Then the music then pauses. So he was an energetic songwriter.

More examples of his energetic songwriting with his personal message include:
Walk

Walk should be considered an all time great folk song. The song is original. Walk features great harmonica. 
If you study the lyrics: http://www.metrolyrics.com/walk-lyrics-blind-melon.html You can tell it is all about Shanon Hoon's struggles.

St. Andrews Fall
I still don't know the instrument at the end of St. Andrews' Fall. If you do write the instrument name in the comment section below.

Mouthful of Cavities

Mouthful of Cavities has funny to hear lyrics. Yet the song is sung and played in a very somber or sad way.

Change

Change is so good it baffles me how someone can come up with such powerful lyrics. Hoon has the courage to say things he tried to but may have not been able to do himself. What courage! Haters will say this song is hypocritical, but it is simply a moving song about courage and humility.

Late 1995 Shannon Hoon is tired yet Triumphant

2 x 4

2 x 4 may be about heroin but I think of classic mountain rock when I hear it.

Needle fetal someone's pourin' warm gravy all over me

The way it's delivered is just amazing. He might be alluding to the fact that doing Heroin is like being hit by a 2 x 4.

Toes Across The Floor

The aroooooa chants in toes across the floor. The music video seems to suggest hallucinations. Tripping on acid. etc.

Bill Watt highly recommends The VH1 Behind The Music Documentary of Blind Melon. In part, because it illustrates the following point: On one hand the drugs completely ruined Shannon Hoon's life. On the other hand he came up with these brilliant songs in which the drugs must've helped him focus more on the creative part. There's a clip of Blind Melon playing St. Andrews Fall less than a month before Shannon's death. It's like his body's there but he's not actually there.

Shannon Hoon was clearly losing it don't know how he could write and sing so well. Check this out at the Live At The Metro Concert. Less than one month before Hoon died and he appears to be suffering from drug addiction. His eyes either suggest cocaine come down or Heroin usage. I cannot verify either. The most fucked up I've seen Hoon (not in person) is in their performance of 2 x 4 at the Metro.

          If you recall last article the destination video was Blind Melon at Woodstock. Where he was tripping on acid. Sadly he kept relapsing on drugs that seemed to Shannon to solve his personal problems so well. The past year of Hoon's life the drugs had taken over. Like most addicts he was probably able to justify this. But he looks good in these final concert pictures from late 1995. He died October 21, 1995.

Late 1995 Shannon Hoon gets the crowd into his words

       Bill Watt thought Hoon was pretty high during Soup. Based on the VH1 documentary on Blind Melon he definitely pushed the limits of Cocaine. A drug that turns anyone into an angry jock type figure. Supposedly Hoon dealt with Heroin as well. Some people say his eyes were the result of Heroin. But he might have been coming down from Coke.

If you don't already have it. Here is a link to Soup and you can also navigate to get Nico while you're there. Enjoy!

Blind Melon Rock Studio Album Entitled Soup

       Shannon Hoon sang on Nico and wants to be heard. He died before the release of a major Blind Melon album. He had plenty of reason to keep going. As discussed in the other Blind Melon article. I don't believe Hoon wanted to die. Many people simply find that drugs like Cocaine and similar stimulants sharpen their creativity and focus. Even Dr. Wayne Dyer lived by this theory. Shannon Hoon is another case of a person going to far for their art / music. He accomplished a great deal while he was here.

The Youtube Game. Universal and Convenient

I invite everyone to play the youtube game. Find a buddy anywhere in the world on another computer. You both Start at any video and the first one to get to the chosen destination video by only clicking on and watching featured or related videos wins. In this case, start with this video:

and end with any Blind Melon Woodstock video. The catch is you can only click on the featured or related videos. You have to watch each video in its entirety. So if you keep clicking long videos it will take a while! But enjoy the videos you come across. Videos you would not have watched any other way! Obviously the first person to piece the connection together and arrive on the winning video wins. 

In the case of Bill and I.  Bill Wins! Bill states,

"Got it. The key for me was Lindsey Buckingham who did the holiday road song. Then tried to find Axl Rose who was friends with Shannon Hoon. Got to the alt rock songs and somehow made it."

Meanwhile, Youtube distracted me by featuring a very personalized video. I picked a 52 minute video of Fr. John Corapi speaking LMAO.

Bill has a winning record over me. 
But remember to watch an enjoy each video. Don't be joylessly focused on winning. Win with soul. You should always be able to talk about an interesting video you went through to get to the destination video. ENJOY