• Log In

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

Subscribe on Android Spotify Google Podcasts audible patreon
  • Home
  • Podcast
    • PEL Network Episodes
    • Publicly Available PEL Episodes
    • Paywalled and Ad-Free Episodes
    • PEL Episodes by Topic
    • Nightcap
    • Closereads
    • Philosophy vs. Improv
    • Pretty Much Pop
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • (sub)Text
    • Phi Fic Podcast
    • Combat & Classics
    • Constellary Tales
  • Blog
  • About
    • PEL FAQ
    • Meet PEL
    • About Closereads
    • About Pretty Much Pop
    • Philosophy vs. Improv
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • Meet Phi Fic
    • Listener Feedback
    • Links
  • Join
    • Become a Citizen
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Log In
  • Donate
  • Store
    • Episodes
    • Swag
    • Everything Else
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • My Account
  • Contact
  • Mailing List

Listening Unto Death

October 19, 2012 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

Following my thread of "if something feels weird, let's call it some kind of existentialism," I've been listening a lot to Badfinger lately.

See who I'm talking about on YouTube.

Of course there's something a little disconcerting about the passage of time itself, and the fact that, if you're listening to anything from a few decades back, some of the participants are probably dead or at least can't sing like that any more, but that's not the issue here. The issue is the suicide of the lead singer Pete Ham, reportedly largely because of the shitty business situation of the band at the time (bad record deal + another bad record deal + horrible management = multiple albums of work getting shelved, no money, failure). Ham was a member of the 27 club, and it being 1975 when he went out, a lot of the blame goes to substances and that 70s rock lifestyle, but given the situation:

1. Per the phenomenon pointed out by Payne, I feel a visceral need about more information about the actual suicide, as if I could get in there and prevent it somehow.

2. I also feel like I'm in a Dr. Who story, and the suicide is a fixed point that can't be thought around or denied, much less change... as if it weren't the case that ALL the details of the past also fall into this category.

3. The poignancy of the feeling of injustice is of course a direct result of how achingly beautiful Ham's voice and tunes are. Though bassist Tommy Evans also hung himself eight years after Ham, I don't feel ask keenly about this, except when listening to the chorus of "Without You," which is all Evans singing in his high, weird way (Ham wrote and sings the verses).

4. As with John Lennon and Kurt Cobain and the rest of them, I feel cheated of the many years of subsequent music that Ham (and Evans) would undoubtedly have recorded, having only as my consolation EVERY SINGLE OTHER THING RECORDED BY EVERYONE ELSE, as if that shouldn't be more than enough recompense. As if it weren't equally sad when anyone dies and that potential gets cut off.

So through art, we develop these quasi-relationships with strangers, getting emotionally involved at the expense of using that energy to, say, heap more attention on the people we actually are friends with. Per existentialist cliché, we're all alone in the night, and no one can stop us from hanging ourselves. I regularly comfort myself that suicide is not just a choice that anyone can just decide on, but an expression of clinical depression, which may of course be exacerbated by circumstance. This means that even if your career is in the crapper and your lover has left you (which was incidentally not the case with Ham; he was on the verge of being a dad!), you still won't do it unless you were predisposed to do it beforehand. But the truth is that I don't know what the hell I'm talking about in that regard; it's not like I'm up on the clinical research.

What I can speak to is my (our?) own reactions, where, again, existential self-examination is a matter of locating places where our perception and sentiments are systematically warped by something like Sartrean bad faith. It seems ironic, however, that in engaging in this most literary of procedures, I feel like Mr. Spock. "Sentiments one through four listed above are illogical. Sentiment should be distributed rationally upon its appropriate objects." This sounds much more like Adam Smith than Sartre.

-Mark Linsenmayer

P.S. Here's the Behind the Music if you're into that kind of thing.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Filed Under: Misc. Philosophical Musings, Things to Watch

Comments

  1. Laura says

    October 20, 2012 at 5:22 pm

    Mark, I found this post wonderfully personal. The common complaint about philosophy is that it over-intellectualizes experience and thus steps away from that experience leaving one stuck and never honestly feeling. I disagree with that conclusion and one of the things I’ve always liked about you here and on the podcast is your upfront, unabashed self and feelings about everything.

    I want to say, though, even if I understand your sadness and your “visceral need about more information about the actual suicide,” I would caution you to let that go, if you can. Of course through art we develop these “quasi-relationships with strangers, getting emotionally involved”–probably more likely with music…but the fact is our relationship is more profoundly with the art, itself. Additionally, Lennon, Hamm, Cobain–all of them suffered with life’s pain, cruelties, unfairness as we all do. I think its important to accept the sad misfortune of their deaths, and let it go and experience their work as celebrations for what they did. I know you know all this…but feeling stuck like you’re in a Dr. Who episode says to me either you haven’t fully accepted their deaths, or won’t.

    That said, as I recall, at Spock’s death, Kirk said “Of all the souls I’ve encountered, his was the most human.” Less Adam Smith, more Sartre I believe.

    Reply
  2. Russ Baker says

    October 20, 2012 at 8:08 pm

    I wasn’t aware of the tragic history of Badfinger (particularly Pete Ham). I do know I always loved their music. It is strange how we identify so strongly with celebrities, people we don’t know and are pained when we learn about their struggles, their pain, their deaths. It’s real and very human.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Citizenship has its Benefits

Become a PEL Citizen
Become a PEL Citizen, and get access to all paywalled episodes, early and ad-free, including exclusive Part 2's for episodes starting September 2020; our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more causally; a community of fellow learners, and more.

Rate and Review

Nightcap

Listen to Nightcap
On Nightcap, listen to the guys respond to listener email and chat more casually about their lives, the making of the show, current events and politics, and anything else that happens to come up.

Subscribe to Email Updates

Select list(s):

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Support PEL

Buy stuff through Amazon and send a few shekels our way at no extra cost to you.

Tweets by PartiallyExLife

Recent Comments

  • Paul on Ep. 326: Guest Michael Tomasello on the Evolution of Agency (Part One)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Lacan’s Ontology
  • wayne schroeder on Lacan’s Ontology
  • Fllamber on Why Non-Euclidean Geometry Does Not Invalidate Kant’s Conception of Spatial Intuition
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 325: Paul Grice on Meaning and Conversation (Part Two for Supporters)

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

Become a PEL Citizen!

PEL Citizens have access to all podcast episodes, free access to podcast transcripts, guided readings, episode guides, PEL music, and other citizen-exclusive material. Click here to join.

Blog Post Categories

  • (sub)Text
  • Aftershow
  • Announcements
  • Audiobook
  • Book Excerpts
  • Citizen Content
  • Citizen Document
  • Citizen News
  • Close Reading
  • Closereads
  • Combat and Classics
  • Constellary Tales
  • Exclude from Newsletter
  • Featured Ad-Free
  • Featured Article
  • General Announcements
  • Interview
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Misc. Philosophical Musings
  • Nakedly Examined Music Podcast
  • Nakedly Self-Examined Music
  • NEM Bonus
  • Not School Recording
  • Not School Report
  • Other (i.e. Lesser) Podcasts
  • PEL Music
  • PEL Nightcap
  • PEL's Notes
  • Personal Philosophies
  • Phi Fic Podcast
  • Philosophy vs. Improv
  • Podcast Episode (Citizen)
  • Podcast Episodes
  • Pretty Much Pop
  • Reviewage
  • Song Self-Exam
  • Supporter Exclusive
  • Things to Watch
  • Vintage Episode (Citizen)
  • Web Detritus

Follow:

Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | Apple Podcasts

Copyright © 2009 - 2023 · The Partially Examined Life, LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Copyright Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in