 Video Açıklaması Material Issue Everything Jim Ellison Suicide COMPLETE XMaterial Issue, Everything, 1992 Destination Universe. Format, Video: MPEG 1152 kbps, Audio: 192 kbps, made by 666USA 666 USA.
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Jim Ellison: Ten Years Gone
Jim_ellison_1 It was ten years ago today that Jim Ellison died. Just as I remember hearing Material Issue's music for the first time nearly twenty years ago, I remember exactly where I was when I got the news. Now it's not like Jim's passing was like the Kennedy assasination (wasn't alive then) or September 11th (slept through phone calls all day long until I finally got up at 2PM that day) but it was one of those moments when someone you know is suddenly gone and you're not sure how to feel. Since I was too young (and a bit relieved) to have experienced the ascendancy of Chicago bands Styx and Survivor from local bands to rock stars, this was the first band that I liked that went from that band who used to play at our high school rec center to a band with a major label deal whose videos I'd see on MTV. Material Issue presaged the Pumpkins, Liz Phair and Urge Overkill's rise to national prominence, they blazed the trail.
Jim and I weren't friends, hardly even acquaintences really but I had interviewed Material_issue_pass_1the band once and had emceed a few of their shows over the years at venues big and small. I remember a Metro show I emceed for them in 1995 in which Jim took me aside and asked me if he could give me a few things to say. I'd rather say something the band wants me to say than just give a standard intro. The great thing about 'the Ish' was that unlike most bands who want little or nothing to do with an MC, they wanted the MC to literally bring them onstage. I'd do my bit and they would start their first song. So armed with Jim's intro: "Rock Over London, Rock Over Chicago, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World, MATERIAL ISSUE!!!" I left the stage, Jim winked at me and with pick in right hand, he slapped my hand as Mike Zelenko played the opening drum part to Going Through Your Purse to massive cheers. A great rock and roll moment, to be sure. And while some would call that intro a bit over the top, Jim truly believed he was the frontman of the best band ever, he was that cocky but in the best possible way.
It wasn't until the wake and subsequent conversations with his friends and bandmates that a different Jim emerged. With some of his advance money from the Mercury Records deal, he bought a house in Roscoe Village. The house, I was told, had some rock and roll memoribilia but he also lined his mantel entirely with pictures of family: parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. In addition to his collection of vintage guitars, he was an avid collector of period Heywood/Wakefield Furniture.
And while girls were often the subjects (and titles) of many of his songs, troubles with one girl in particular was supposedly what distressed him enough to take his own life. He was missed then as he is now. Now see if this gem (She's Goin' Through My Head) from 1987 doesn't give you chills like it still does for me after all these years. If you have any Material Issue in your collection, bring it with you in the car today and crank it up with the windows and/or top down. If you don't have any MI, download the tracks above (or the two below) and do it, that's the way Material Issue is meant to be heard. |
