Hi, I’m DJ Michele. Every Friday night I host a show on KEXP called Nite Life. Usually I spend about 3 hours preparing for my show. Then at 9pm I get to hit the air with danceable sets for your Friday night madness. Every week at 12 o’clock I do a Midnight Album Spotlight. This Friday it’s Morphine’s sax-infused melodic rock masterpiece Cure for Pain. Morphine’s from Boston, and this is their second album.
Released in 1993, this baby has sold more than 300,000 copies. When I first heard this at a friend’s house, I asked her the album name and she said, “Cure for Pain. It works.”
Morphine singer Mark Sandman died on stage during a concert. The official report was that he was hit with a sudden heart attack while playing a festival in Palestrina, Italy — near Rome. Mark’s love affair with drugs and his recurring depression were no secret though. And although this album is a statement about how music pulled him through, it didn’t save him. Here’s the title track to Cure for Pain:
Mark was 46 years old when he went down. Like many brilliant artists who died young, tracing his history is like watching a shooting star. His best songs have this feeling too. Fiery, fast and doomed. Check out “Buena”:
The trio Morphine were together for 9 years. They formed in 1990 and on this album you can hear Mark Sandman on the two-string slide bass, Dana Colley on sax, and two drummers: Jerome Dupree and Billy Conway.
Morphine’s sound is totally unique. There is no guitar in this band. And no other group integrates sax into rock and roll like this one. And I love the sensitivity of Sandman’s lyrics on all the songs. His vocals on “In Spite of Me” are especially soft. He’s so perceptive too. This song is like opening a window during a rainfall. It’s an obscure, unusual Morphine track. And if you weren’t listening to KEXP, I doubt you’d ever hear it.
Join Michele Myers for Nite Life every Friday night at 9pm on KEXP.
7 Comments
Really nice write up on Morphine, If anyone ever is in Cambridge, MA stop by Sandman square. The two string bass was another unqiue part of their sound.
“Mark’s love affair with drugs and his recurring depression were no secret though.”
Really? I’ve never heard that about him before, and it seems strange to me that you could make such an assertion about such a famously-private person. I’m not saying it’s not true, I haven’t done any kind of research about him, I’m just saying I’m surprised to hear this claim for the first time. The only factor I’ve ever heard about in connection with the heart attack was that he was stabbed in the chest when he was a cab driver in his 20s.
Just listen to the lyrics to Cure for Pain. If that’s not honest material I don’t know what is.
There’s an interview (somewhere) explaining the band’s name of morphine was a play on sandman’s name. personally, i didn’t care either way - the music’s great, but i agree, this is the first mention i’ve heard of sandman + drugs.
Having talked to the remaining band members I can assure you that mark Sandman was not into drugs. Coffee & cigarettes, yes. NO Drugs.
My name is Dana Colley I am the sax player from Morphine. I understand how misinformation gets perpetuated regarding Marks lifestyle. However I always feel compelled to set the record straight. Mark WAS NOT a hard drug user. Period. His heart attack WAS NOT a result of complications from being stabbed. In “Cure For Pain” the drugs he throws away are the household variety that many of us use to get us going: caffeine; nicotine; alcohol; sugar; salt; and yes the evil weed. The point of the song is to show the double standard during the “War On Drugs”. Where certain drugs are classified as illegal and fail to even acknowledge that the habitual intake of socially acceptable intoxicants can be even more harmful and even deadly. That humans have always looked to take the edge off and when we stop feeling we will no longer need to mask our pain.
It is easy to make ass-u-me-ptions about someone who is in the public eye. But before you make an ass out of you and me… think. This is a persons life and legacy.
Thank you Dana for clearing that up. I discovered Morphine long after around 2005 and have been catching up ever since. I want to thank you for keeping the music alive through Sandbox, live shows, At Your Service, etc. It means alot to people like me who did not get to experience the band before and I’m sure it means just as much to fans that have been there from the start. Don’t ever stop keeping the music alive…
All The Best,
Jason