Saturday, March 3, 2012

Remembering Whitney Houston - A Metal-Head's Perspective

Sometimes I wonder how will metal-heads remember Whitney Houston in the wake of her untimely passing on the eve of this year’s Grammy Awards – should I ask myself?

By: Ringo Bones

As an unabashed metal-head weaned on 1980s heavy metal back when Ronald Reagan still ruled the free world, I only became familiar of Whitney Houston’s breakthrough single, Saving All My Love, only because it is often played before Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer on mainstream FM back then; Though Whitney was first discovered by famed record producer Clive Davis as an 18-year-old choirgirl from New Jersey back in 1981. By 1987, Whitney gained fame by having more Billboard Number Ones than The Beatles – though Beatlemaniacs were not amused. And I even managed to see The Bodyguard – Whitney Houston’s iconic movie with Kevin Costner back in 1992 back when the mainstream FM stations in my neck of the woods were handing out movie passes like its going out of fashion.

As with almost all of Whitney’s fans, I also point the finger of blame on her marriage to former New Edition member Bobby Brown as the primary cause of her drug problems. Not to mention the well-documented incidents of domestic abuse and the crack cocaine binges that never would have intruded Whitney Houston’s rather cloistered choirgirl lifestyle prior to hooking up with the former New Edition member.

Though the official coroner’s toxicology report is still a few weeks away, many find it disconcerting the timing of Whitney Houston’s untimely passing in a Los Angeles hotel on the eve of the 2012 Grammys. Nonetheless, the Grammy tribute remembering Whitney’s achievements in the music world and the 4 hour long service on the New Hope Baptist Church is by no means the last of what we’ll hear of Whitney Houston’s iconic music career.