Blind Melon – Letters From A Porcupine

Blind Melon
Artist: Blind Melon
Title: Letters From A Porcupine
Label: Capitol
Rating: 7/10

Remember the little bee girl? Remember how bad you wanted to choke her after seeing her running around every day of the week on Mtv? Well, this was the first thing I thought of when it came to actually viewing Letters From A Porcupine. But this dvd is more than just copies of their videos. They’re all there, but there is so much more.

Highlights start with singer Shannon Hoon doing his best Jim Morrison live versions of “2 X 4”. The correlations are almost scary. Also notable are the live versions of “Tones Of Home”, “No Bidness”, the Saturday Night Live performance of “No Rain”, and “Mouthful Of Cavities”. I have to admit, after years of not seeing it, the video of bee girl took me to my past. The video for “No Rain” even garnered a smile. Most memorable was Hoon talking about his struggle with heroin. It echoes loud now that he has passed.

Some of the lowlights aren’t necessarily anything to do with the band. It’s rather annoying that I can’t skip through the documentary, because it’s sloppy and all over the place. Although it’s insightful, the idea is quality, not quantity.

Blind Melon was a really good band. Shannon Hoon had a fantastic voice. The tragedy was that it was lost when Hoon died from an overdose. He was on the road of tragedy and no one really stepped in. There is more than hindsight to figure it all out because the signs were there. Just watch the interviews. The bigger Blind Melon was, the more bizarre and off the wall Hoon got. His eyes always seemed lost, but if you watch early on in their careers, the introverted Hoon was having fun and was excited about the prospect of being a big band. He just wasn’t ready when it happened. Letters From A Porcupine documents that from beginning to tragic end.

+ rae gun


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