A Rather Old Pete Doherty Post

[apolla]

This was intended to have been posted quite some time ago and I found it today while sorting through my Gmail account.

It is absolutely no secret that I can't stand Pete Doherty of Babyshambles, late of the Libertines. If you don't already know then either you haven't been listening or I've not been making myself heard. That or I've become more restrained.

It's also no secret that most of my heroes had their own well-documented troubles with drugs. Philip Lynott died of it, while the Magic 27-year-olds Jim, Jimi, Janis and Brian had their drug issues but really died from the demon drink. Hell, Jim once took chloroform to see what it was like. Even Errol Flynn, notorious drinker & shagger had his narcotic moments, although in My Wicked Wicked Ways, he passes it off as Diego Rivera duping him or as a scientific experiment.

So it might seem quite hypocritical for me to call Pete a thieving junkie fool with no talent but self-destruction, but it really isn't. You see, these people I love, these amazingly flawed people weren't just about the drugs. They did not romanticise it. In fact, John Lennon's song 'Cold Turkey' is a stark, horrendous portrait of a man trying to give up drugs.

"Temperature's rising, fever is high. Can't see no future, can't see no sky."

Thin Lizzy's song 'Got To Give It Up' is as stark and depressing but slightly less honest- Philip tries to cover up the self-portait by narrating a man who appeals to his father, brother and sister- none things he had.

"Tell my mother I tried to write/I put pen to paper but I was frightened/Couldn't seem to get the words out right."

When it comes to the Doors, it's harder to see because Jim always had to couch everything in poetic flourishes and it always seemed pretty dark anyway. Except on their final studio album, there's this blues song:

"Been down so very damn long/That it looks like up to me."

These aren't stories of fabulous excess, although these men happily lived the high life at times. These aren't "Oh my God, how cool am I!" stories. These are stories of men in absolute agony as they attempt to get out from the clutches of an awful drug.

Pete, on the other hand, wears his addictions like a badge of honour. Tales of breaking into friends' homes to steal things to buy drugs, or having to give a signed photo instead of money in a curtain shop because he's so broke aren't told with regret or even apologetically. They're told in the same way 14 year old boys brag about having nicked dodgy magazines from the corner shop. He tells stories about his dealer and brags about how he left a Thai buddhist rehab centre within two days. He sells his story to the tabloid press, when surely he knows that the last thing he needs is attention/notoriety?

And somehow, he gets voted Coolest Person of 2004 by NME magazine. Let's just pause to think that he might not be around to be in the running for Coolest Person of 2005. Was this really how it was for Jim Morrison- being voted things like that while everyone really sat and waited for him to destroy himself? I don't really believe that.

Jim didn't have Kate Moss hanging off him, either... although he did have a co-dependent smack whore, which may be the same thing if the Popbitch rumours about Croydon Kate are true.

Like the name of his former band, Pete Doherty seems to see himself as some sort of romantic figure (yes, literally a libertine), beautifully slumped against a pile of velvet cushions as opium seeps into his mind. Dorian Gray, if you will. I won't. I don't see him as elegantly wasted or Dorian, Coleridge or Byron. I don't think of him as some damaged angel, sent to do things so we don't have to, because he doesn't strike me as the sort of bloke to do that.

People talk about his way with words and his poetry, but I don't see it. I see a sad little man desperately trying to be someone else, but picking the wrong bits of Jim to aspire to- I'm not the only one who has labelled Pete a Morrison wannabe. He should take Marilyn Manson's advice: "If you want to be like Jim Morrison, you can't be like Jim Morrison. It's about doing your own thing."

If Pete Doherty does die, it won't be for lack of other people trying to help him- it will be down to his own desire to die, and his own inability or unwillingness to help himself. Unlike the Magic 27s, he won't have left behind an undying body of music to keep him going. To become immortal in this business, you do have to do a little bit more than just die.

Brian Jones has the sitar sound on 'Paint It, Black'. Jim Morrison has 'The End'. Jimi has 'Purple Haze' and the 'Star Spangled Banner'. Janis has her Mercedes-Benz. What does Pete have?

Comments

[no-remorse.livejournal.com]

I think there is a difference between wanting to be a rockstar and wanting to be a musician. I don't know the Libertines too well, but from your description one would think that Doherty wants to be a rockstar. The last rockstar who so desperately believed in the whole "Live fast, love hard, die young" thing was Sid Vicious, who succeeded on a level that is of epic proportions. Vicious wasn't a good bassist, his one-time gig as a drummer is well-documented and not bad, but really "one-time gig" says it all and his "My Way" is fun, but ultimately only interesting because it's ironic and iconic when looking at his biography. Vicious is a legend, because he lived faster, loved harder and died younger than any other rock star out there. And because he became post-mortem the proverbial punk.

From that point of view Pete Doherty has the chance to become immortal, even though the Libertines aren't the Sex Pistols.

[apolla.livejournal.com]

The thing is, the state of music is such that Pete is being lauded as the Great White Hope, a great poet etc blah blah, because there's nothing else. At least with Sid, everyone accepted that he was shit.

[no-remorse.livejournal.com]

Hey he invented the Pogo!