michael hutchence - r.i.p.

i miss michael hutchence. there it is for the world to know. on november 22, 11 years ago, he passed away amid the clatter of a world spinning on its axis and seemingly paying zero attention to the partying and subsequent depression of one rock star occurring in a posh hotel room in sydney.

michael has often been compared to jim morrison and i think that is an apt comparison. both were probably more style than substance. for insight, i might look to bono, or vedder or yorke, which is not to suggest michael was a dumbass. he wasn't. but michael sweated cool and started trends by accident.

michael's charisma and style were nonchalant. he embodied rock star effortlessly.

i remember november of 1997 too. when hutchence died it seemed to barely make it into the news here in l.a. (page a-26 in the print edition of the la times.) a 26?! 'kick' sold nine million copies for crying out loud just 10 years earlier and in the one to two years following that release, hutchence was easily the biggest rock star in the world. from north korean treaty talks to jon-benet ramsey to the imf to winnie mandela to ted kaczynski to saddam hussein, plus the fact that hutchence's death was shrouded in mystery and the hotel he died in would not release any definitive information, amounted to michael's death being a mention at the end of the broadcast, or on a-26.

did you ever hear 'the one thing?' it is the first inxs song i ever heard and i remember thinking michael hutchence just oozed sex appeal. i thought whatever that singer had, i wanted it. i wanted to possess that quality he possessed.

[lyrics: 'the one thing' inxs) "well you know just what you do to me, the way you move soft and slippery, cut the night just like a razor, rarely talk and that's the danger..."

'the one thing,' was the first inxs song i ever heard as well as their first video whch i saw. if sexuality is a large part of our lives as human beings, inxs was the band that spoke to that part of me, more accurately, michael hutchence spoke to me as i came out of adolescence. if at times u2 spoke to my heart and radiohead spoke to my brain and pearl jam spoke to my gut, inxs always spoke to my groin.

[lyrics: 'burn for you" - inxs] "It's no use pretending, That I understand, The hide and seek we play with facts, It changes our demand, Tilt my hat at the sun, And the shadows they burn dark, Light me and I'll burn for you, And the love song never stops, I like the look in your eyes, When you talk that certain way, I love the day in the life, When you know that lover's way, Minding my own business, When you came along, Temperature's been running hot, The fever was so strong, It's always an adventure, The fantasies we make a fact, You're the secret I desire I can't keep that to myself ..."

have you ever heard 'the swing,' 'devil inside,' 'i need you tonight,' or 'don't change?' if you check out that video for 'devil inside,' you will see an '80s dated video wherein all the members of inxs look like silly b-boy wannabees and everyone else looks like a caricature prop but michael hutchence, with his white shirt sleeves hanging out, singing behind a microphone, is a buoy of cool amidst a sea of dorkiness.

years ago i read a biography of hutchence by his sister; tina. learning how michael grew up travelling between indonesia and australia much of the time to live intermittently with each of his divorced parents seemed to partially explain his huge reservoir of charm. i got the impression he was one who was compelled to win the love of his parents and eventually, virtually everyone else. i think i can relate to this behavior to some degree and perhaps this is why i am and was so fond of michael hutchence.

the variation of living environs also seemed to help hutchence to become the thoughtful artist he was. the exposure he experienced to differing cultures seemed to enlighten his art.

it is a funny thing about rock stars who die prematurely. their demise seems to increase their legend. jimi hendrix and janis joplin and kurt cobain became instant icons. i remember when jeff buckley died in the wolf creek of the mississippi river. suddenly in the pages of rolling stone and spin and people magazines, he was everybody's favorite musician, a guitar god and vocal master dead before his time.

none of that happened when michael hutchence died and i was always remiss about that. he trumped cobain and buckley on charisma any day of the week which is not to say i prefer hutchence to those guys but rather just to say he was in that league, deserved that kind of company.

anyway, i remember michael hutchence on this, (nov. 22nd,) the 11th anniversary of his death.

last year on the 10th anniversary of hutchence's death, it seems u2 remembered him with the song 'one,' played live in australia.