Mark Sandman // Morphine & Treat Her Right
While I was compiling the Christmas mix I ran across some rare Morphine songs. I also found some of deceased lead-singer Mark Sandman’s solo work and tracks from his first band Treat Her Right. Treat Her Right was a unique blues-rock foursome from Boston consisting of David Champagne (guitar & vocals), Billy Conway (drums), Jim Fitting (harmonica and vocals), and Sandman, playing only the bass strings of a guitar and singing. Treat Her Right is often credited with helping to spawn the punk-blues hybrid that achieved prominence in the early 2000s. After the demise of Treat Her Right, Sandman and Conway hooked up with baritone saxophonist Dana Colley to form Morphine.
Sadly, on July 3, 1999, Sandman collapsed on stage at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Latium, Italy (near Rome) while performing with Morphine. He was soon pronounced dead of a heart attack at the age of 46. His last words were “Thank you Palestrina. It’s a wonderful evening, it’s great to be here and I wanna dedicate you a super sexy song.”
Download:
Morphine – Cure for Pain (iTunes)
Morphine – Good (iTunes)
Treat Her Right – What's Good for You (iTunes)
Mark Sandman – Sandbox – Mark Sandman Original Music (iTunes)
December 5th, 2008 at 4:58 am
I love the song “Whisper” of of the Yes album. I heard it on a jukebox and went over to find out what it was. The amazing thing is they used no guitar in their music. Their music is so haunting, beautiful…and unique.
December 5th, 2008 at 6:08 am
One of a kind band. I’ve been listening to Sandbox non-stop.
December 6th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Well, now, isn’t this a weird coincidence. Last night I was re-reading an old favorite book (”Loving Little Egypt” by Thomas McMahon) and inside the jacket was the program from a live show Treat Her Right put on at (I think) the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, where they performed on stage with some very interesting visuals. (One of a couple dancing between a screen I still really recall). The program had song listings and several of them did not appear to be released by Treat Her Right.
Including one called Providence, which just might be the same track you have here.
Boy, I sure would love to get the video that was made of that stage show.
Great band.
Ace K. bglobe313@yahoo.com (don’t bother spamming it’s just an address I use for blog postings)
December 7th, 2008 at 4:31 am
Ace:
I bet that was a special show. I’m sure that it was the same ‘Providence’. Good luck on the video hunt.
Take Care,
R&G
February 12th, 2011 at 3:20 am
I have a few nice live shots of Mark, taken for Melody Maker in the early 90s, at http://www.flickr.com/photos/36425903@N00/
Please take a look!