R.I.P. Mark Linkous

This past Saturday, the world and the music business lost another gem. Following in close friend Vic Chesnutt's fatal footsteps, brainchild and leader of the band Sparklehorse, Mark Linkous, killed himself in a Knoxville, Tennessee alleyway.

Sparklehorse's music was melancholy and sad, at times honest and delicate, and even loud and cynical. Linkous' voice was soft and gentle, almost a whimper rather than a whisper. Much of his sonic kindness can be attributed to the southern gentleman attitude that comes with growing up in rural Virginia, where he was born and spent most of his life--even recording his first two albums in his small house hidden away in the forest.

Linkous was depressed for the better part of the past two decades, which his music often reflected--either metaphorically or obviously. Yet at first glance, one reading select lyrics might picture Linkous to be the joyous type; filled with love and a passion for all earthly delights. As here, from the song "Don't Take My Sunshine Away":

"Your face is like the sun sinking into the ocean
Your face is like watching flowers growing in fast motion
All your kisses are swallowed, like the morning's hollows
All vines and tree nuts will come unwound
baby you are my sunshine, my sunshine,
please don't take my sunshine away"

Sadly, Linkous' sunshine was taken away...years ago. He suffered a debilitating accident stemming from a drug overdose that left him wheelchair-bound for the following six months in 1996. At the time, Sparklehorse was touring with Radiohead.

It seems like Linkous had a true grasp and understanding of the beauty of nature and the possibilities of kindness and truth in people, but only as a metaphor. Speaking from lyrical interpretation alone, Linkous seemed to have trouble dealing with the fact that nothing lasts forever; beauty fades, the sun sets, and the opposite of light is an endless abyss of black. From "Someday I Will Treat You Good":

"everything that's made is made to decay
well I'm shrinking bones in the sun
won't you tell me why that
the beautiful ones are always crazy"

At times, maybe Linkous saw himself as the ugly stain on a masterpiece landscape. Almost as if the world were perfect except for him. In the song, "It's a Wonderful Life" (an ironic middle-finger to journalists) his careful, precious falsetto claims:

"I'm a bog of poisoned frogs"

And then:

"I'm the dog that ate your birthday cake"

Throughout the near two-decade run of Sparklehorse, you can almost hear Linkous sink further and further into depression. The general tone of his albums speak volumes about his deterioration. The 1995 debut LP, Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, is lo-fi and angry at times--almost frustrated at the unchangeable--and drenched in loud guitars and distorted vocals. But within all the noise are precious gems of folky, melodic alt gems, like "Hammering the Cramps".

After Sparklehorse's debut and Linkous' momentary death (the 1996 overdose stopped his heart for a few minutes) came 1998's Good Morning Spider. Although Linkous says most of the album was recorded prior to the overdose, one new song was written in honor of the care he received at London's St. Mary's Hospital. "Saint Mary" is an honest plea for his nurses to hurry him back to his woody home in Virginia where he could "taste the clean dirt in his lungs and the moss on [his] back" and all he needs "is water, a gun and rabbits". Tracks like "Sick of Goodbyes" have the warmth and tempo of something upbeat and potentially promosing, but the lyrics remain consistently unable to deal with the tragedy of life:

"the night comes crawling in
on all fours
sucking up my dreams
through the floor"

About the "incident" in which he temporarily died, Linkous said, "It scared the hell out of me at the time. When you're in a really desperate situation and you really think you're going to die, it makes you realize how quickly things can be over."

Countless lyrics and quotes here and there make his suicide seem like some sort of expected event, as if it were just a matter of when and where. But in recent years, one could look at his musical output and hope for a happier ending.

In 2001, Linkous decided he was looking for artistic growth, so instead of handling all of the production and instrumentation he'd done on the first two records, he decided to open up his doors and get help from a slew of talents, including Flaming Lips production guru David Fridmann, longtime idol Tom Waits, and friends PJ Harvey, Nina Persson and the late Vic Chesnutt. The result was the beautiful and tragically somber It's A Wonderful Life.

But of course, the tone of depression prevailed. In the ominous "Eyepennies", it's clear that Linkous wasn't really thinking of life as something he enjoyed. His lyrics would get darker and more dismal. From "Eyepennies":

"Blood suckers hide beneath my bed
And black fumes of skin so gently bled
I slept with a cat on my breast
Slowing my heart stealing my breath"

After It's A Wonderful Life, Linkous recorded songs for the next Sparklehorse album, but the depression overwhelmed him. The end result was a mix of previously released, re-recorded and a few new tracks, ushered in with the help of producer genius Danger Mouse. The bipolar 2006 release Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain would be the last Sparklehorse record. Although a well-produced, technically different album, it was obvious that Linkous was losing his will. About the album, he said:

"Well, I'd quit working for a while and it started to get really difficult to live and pay the rent. So it was really getting down to the wire where I had to turn a record in. I had some stuff written that I didn't put on the last album, because they were just really pop songs. They felt like anachronisms on the last record. So I saved all these little pop songs."

The best thing to come out of the 2006 album was the collaboration with Danger Mouse that led to the yet-to-be-officially released Dark Night of the Soul project that brought together former contributers like Vic Chesnutt and Nina Persson, and other big names like James Mercer of The Shins, Frank Black/Black Francis of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes and The Flaming Lips, among others. The album along with a 200-page photo book by David Lynch is expected to be released sometime this year after a legal battle with Danger Mouse's label, EMI.

Then on March 6, for whatever reason, Mark Linkous went into an alleyway near a friend's house in Knoxville, Tennessee with a rifle, sat down, and shot himself in the heart, ending his painful, tragic life. To most it wasn't any big surprise, but that didn't make it hurt any less. A southern gentleman with a soft voice and an honest heart who simply couldn't cope with the how and why of life and death.

Listening to Sparklehorse, I've always had the mental image of driving in a car late at night in the rain on a dark, wooded road. Linkous' quiet whisper almost beckons you into the darkness--somewhere where the rising sun and time can't do you harm.

For you, Mr. Linkous, from your own tongue:

"Its time for you to rise
And evaporate in the sun
Sometimes it can weigh
a ton"