Morphine | Plough and Stars | March 11, 1991
By PHOENIX STAFF | October 26, 2006
The late Mark Sandman of Morphine
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It could have been March 11 or just about any other Monday night at the Plough in ’91. That’s where a two-year-old trio called Morphine, the sonorous low-rocking trio dreamed up by singer/bassist Mark Sandman, had settled in for one of the most memorable ongoing residencies in Boston rock history. “For a while, I was there five nights a week, playing Mondays with Mark, a night with Morphine, a night with Kevin Connolly,” says Morphine/Twinemen saxist Dana Colley. It was here, in this impossibly intimate setting, that Sandman, Colley, and drummer Billy Conway (with original drummer Jerome Deupree on medical leave) developed their unique sound, punctuated by Colley’s baritone-sax solos and Sandman’s unique two-string slide-bass breaks — a sound that would bring them international fame. “I played those gigs for the same reason I still play spaces like that,” says Colley. “It’s much better to work out material and ideas in front of a live audience, instead of in a rehearsal space.” He also remembers having to play under the name “Prophecy 3” because the owners of the Plough weren’t so sure about having the name “Morphine” on their chalkboard. “They felt it might offend their clientele,” Colley recalls. |
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