Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday post. Unfortunately, we have another death to talk about, in the form of singer Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries. She died on Monday at the age of 46, younger than any of the cast members and 2 years older than myself. Not much (if any) details have been revealed about her passing but I’m sure we will find out some time in the future.
I should also mention the death of “Fast” Eddie Clark who played guitar for the bands Fast Way and Motörhead. Obviously, now that all 3 of the classic lineup have died, there are no survivors. We lost both drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor and singer/ bass player and constant member Lemmy in 2015.
Another person we lost recently was record producer Chris Tsangarides. The name may not be instantly recognizable to you, unless you ar someone who would read the liner notes of vinyl record albums, cassettes and CDs. I was one who is always interested in who did what on most albums I had bought or had been purchased for me when I was a kid. My mom would read me the names of the people and in some cases, I would have to help her to pronounce the names. Or, I would hear most of who did what on the radio when a new album by a major artest came out.
In the case of Chris, he had worked on albums by bands such as: Concrete Blonde, The Tragically Hip, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and others. I love what he did to the drums on the album Pain Killer, with the higher tuned snare and a big bashing sound. RIP to all 3 of these people and unfortunately, this means they have missed an opportunity to guest star on The Simpsons.
This week I would like to talk about The Simpsons and the entertainment industry. Obviously, everyone involved with the show is a part of the machine, whether they are a writer, cast member, director, music editor, sound editor, part of the animation, etc., etc., etc. The writers of made jokes about themselves, as well as entertainment as a whole, to bring out most of how things are, from where they sit. What we don’t see is the other side of the glass, which is more tense and stressful. Why do you think someone like Sam Simon left the series? If you know the story you know that he had a problem with Matt Groening and there was creative tention, along with other comments about one not being there for every session. I’ve read this but I look past all of that because the first few seasons were so funny.
Anyway, think of a character like Krusty the Clown, who has a kids show but isn’t the nicest person off the air. He doesn’t even remember Bart helping to exonerate him of his charge of robbery of the Kwik-e-Mart, when he is scheduled to have dinner with the Simpsons, where he reveals that he is jewish and we meet his estranged father, for the first time.
Also, let’s not forget when Bart and Lisa decide to write their own scripts for the Itchy and Scratchy show because the episode they were watching was rather unfunny. Roger Myers Junior (or however his name is spelled) dismiss is there letter at first until they get grandpa involved. Then and only then, does he decide to let them under grandpa’s name (Abraham Simpson) write the scripts for the show. What we are show’n is a boss who is rather cruel and selfish to his employees and pays no attention, when Abraham admits he’s a fraud.
Back to Krusty, when he is told repeatedly by executives how to change his show he decides to retire. He almost does but Sideshow Bob decides to kill Kruty. However at the last minute, he changes his mind, after an emotional song about him is sung by Krusty. The bomb goes off killing the annoying executives, thankfully and sparing both Bart and Krusty.
Let us not forget about the first time which Krusty’s show gets cancelled because of Gabbo, who is on at the same time and has better ratings than the Krusty The Clown Show. However, Bart and Lisa find Krusty’s friends who are mostly Big names and they all say yes, to appearing on his comeback special. Meanwhile, Gabbo keeps saying that all the kids in Springfield are S.O.B’s and is let go, after making that comment on the air. He is also disillusioned by all the big names appearing on Krusty’s comeback special. Incidentally, a few years later South Park would do something similar for Chef, who was jailed for simply wanting his name on a song by another artist. We find Eric, Kyle and Stanley going to various big-name stars and asking them to appear at a benefit for Chef and well… things work out in the end for Chef but not for the record company who had him put in The crowbar hotel. No, nobody was put in jail when The Simpsons kids went to all the big names but, I find both episodes of both TV shows quite good and they both just happen to be season finales.
There are other examples for sure but there are also real life entanglements with the business side of: music, television, the movie Industry, etc, which we don’t see because if we knew what was really going on we would think of these people in a whole new light. Although, there are some cases where people have brought up their problems in interviews whether they be: depression, drugs, alcohol, managerial problems, record company problems, etc. We’ve lost good musicians in the past and most have been from drugs and some, have been sober but have had a past bout of drug and alcohal abuse. Yup, such cases of Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington come to mind, along with Paul Grey of Slipknot. He died after an accidental overdose of morphine and the synthetic morphine substitute fentanyl, which I had never heard of until his death. Now there are young people dying of opioid overdoses, such as with Fentanyl, which is being talked about as a street drug. There is another example of the media helping to both educate and scare people at the same time. According to a radio spot I have heard, even the smallest amount of fentanyl possible can kill you. It almost makes me rather want to smoke marijuana but I don’t want to because I want to remain sober and with my wits about me.
Anyway, that’s it for this weeks post. I apologize for going off topic at the end but I had some things to get off my chest about certain drugs and their impact on people I admire and one of whom I met years ago. Talk to you again next Sunday.
Simpsons on Sundays 