Michael Hutchence January 22, 1960-November 22, 1997
“Story to story. Building to building. Street to street. We pass each other on the stairs.” –”The Stairs”
The end of an era has come. Michael Hutchence, lead singer of INXS, is dead.
They weren’t the most important or even the best band of the 80s, but there was something inherently cool about them. Michael had a sort of Jim Morrison-like quality about him. His leather clothes and snake-like dancing exuded the classic rock and roll sensabilities. Their music was near-pop/near-alternative but always INXS.
I’ll have to admit, when I first heard “Devil Inside” and “Need You Tonight” I didn’t think too much of the band. It’s only been in the last couple of years that I’ve really begun to appreciate what they meant to my generation. They weren’t as intellectual as U2 and R.E.M., but they weren’t as “pretty boy-ish” as Duran Duran. They were the hard rockers that will always be young at heart. They were the fun boys. They wrote the music for the masses that Depeche Mode warned us about. Who can deny that they are forced to move to songs like “What You Need” and “New Sensation”? Every single one of us has the devil inside and INXS tried to bring it out. Their devil was upbeat, though, not the dark, evil devil the Stones wrote about. This was the devil of dancing, the devil of rock music. Remember slow dancing to “Never Tear Us Apart”? The rhythm felt good. “Need You Tonight” was like legal public sex. “Disappear” was throwing out all the bad stuff we saw on tv when the love of our life (or at least right now) walked in the room. Who needs that stuff when you can have love? It’s the eternal message of the 60s all over again in a time that needed it more than ever.
INXS were on their way to a comeback. Elegantly Wasted was their first album in years that actually sounded like. On Welcome To Wherever You Are and Full Moon Dirty Hearts they were trying to be something that they weren’t. This twenty year old band had realized that people wanted INXS, not a new band that they couldn’t be. (That’s something that their smarter and older brothers, U2, need to come to terms with.)
Why would the lead singer of a once great band on their way to a new era take his own life? We may never know. Personally, I think it sounds pretty strange. The police say that it’s suicide, but would a man who has a meeting with a friend in a little while kill himself just before it? There have been so many different reports now that we’re getting confused on what’s important. Some say he hanged himself with his belt. Some say he was hanging naked. Others say he was fully clothed. Some say it was an accident and that he was playing a twisted sex game.
When it all comes down to it the only thing that’s important is the music. Kick will always endure. It’s their zenith. It’s not The Joshua Tree by any means, but they never claimed to be U2. They just wanted to be a good old rock and roll band. In that they succeeded. Michael wanted to write lyrics that meant something. Sometimes he did. Sometimes they were just lyrics to sing along to.
Let’s not remember him for what happened on Saturday night. Let’s remember him for the music. The way he was. Dancing on the stage and signing his good time songs. Making people happy. It’s what we all strive to do and he did it. For a while, anyway.
Want some real INXS? Check these out:
