RIP Lemmy Kilmeister, who was inexplicably left out of this piece.
3
More amazing than Keith Richards is Jerry Lee Lewis who at 80 has somehow survived amazing abuses of his body. One can only hope he leaves his body to science.
And regarding Pete Seeger. He may have been clean living but he survived stresses that drove others to suicide or drug abuse. He was blacklisted and faced jail time and the end of his career for his political beliefs. And if the only thing he had done was bring attention to the campaign to clean up the Hudson, he would have had more of an impact on world than all the others mentioned in the article combined.
And regarding Pete Seeger. He may have been clean living but he survived stresses that drove others to suicide or drug abuse. He was blacklisted and faced jail time and the end of his career for his political beliefs. And if the only thing he had done was bring attention to the campaign to clean up the Hudson, he would have had more of an impact on world than all the others mentioned in the article combined.
37
There was a time when musicians died of substance abuse: heroin, alcohol. I think of Charlie Parker in that bebop era of new and wonderful jazz and Janis Joplin of the achingly rough Texas voice. Then they began to go down while on the road like Otis Redding, Patsy Cline, Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens. And they were killed by family or friends like Marvin Gaye and Tupac Shakur. Or by inept doctors caving to spoiled but brilliant kings like Michael Jackson. In those times, we lost James Brown to mere mortality but Tina Turner is still with us. Now that we and they are older and perhaps wiser, it is that inexorable mortality that takes them as it does us all eventually. R.I.P. for those that gave their innermost secrets, heart and soul to us.
9
The ageism, is a bit much. Imagine, all people, if lucky , will live to be in their 60's, 70's, 80's. All will be the same people, they were in their 20's, 30's, 40's, and 50's.
3
elvis died at age 42
but that was elvis years
which is like 500 regular guy years
but that was elvis years
which is like 500 regular guy years
9
David Bowie died of liver cancer. High probability this is related to heavy drug use, alcohol or sexually transmitted hepatitis. I'm told he was a heavy drinker and even a heroin addict at one point in his life. Victims afflicted with the HIV virus or AIDS have a five times higher risk of contracting liver cancer. So the thesis of the article is false.
8
Mr. Egan,
Your column seems uncharacteristically snippy in relation to Pete Seeger. Whether or not you like his music or lyrics, he stood taller in more difficult times and in more trying circumstances to keep certain values alive than most or all of the musicians you mention and impliedly praise.
Referring to a "clean-living Pete Seeger" seems to be dwelling upon a characteristic, real or imagined, for which Seeger is unlikely to be remembered and which does not rise to the level of irrelevant in any serious consideration of his contributions, musical, political, environmental, or otherwise, which consideration, in any event, you were by no means seeking to provide.
In a none too serious column on rock star obituaries, you wandered off your bicycle path and onto a frozen pond on which I see you obfuscating on thin ice.
Regrets & regards, CRA
Your column seems uncharacteristically snippy in relation to Pete Seeger. Whether or not you like his music or lyrics, he stood taller in more difficult times and in more trying circumstances to keep certain values alive than most or all of the musicians you mention and impliedly praise.
Referring to a "clean-living Pete Seeger" seems to be dwelling upon a characteristic, real or imagined, for which Seeger is unlikely to be remembered and which does not rise to the level of irrelevant in any serious consideration of his contributions, musical, political, environmental, or otherwise, which consideration, in any event, you were by no means seeking to provide.
In a none too serious column on rock star obituaries, you wandered off your bicycle path and onto a frozen pond on which I see you obfuscating on thin ice.
Regrets & regards, CRA
20
I appreciate Glenn Frey and what he added. I saw him in Sacramento in 2002 (the California Tour) and they were amazing. Worth every penny, especially Joe Walsh doing his helmet cam
Having said that I think we tend to over inflate their music or who they are as people. I was fortunate enough to be able to watch several craniotomy's when I worked in a hospital. Standing there for 12-20 hours without a break and maintaining that level of concentration is amazing. And to be allowed to see what they were doing was incredible. But you never hear about these people who save lives. You don't hear about first responders like my son in law who is a firefighter/paramedic. Because of his skill and knowledge I am alive today (which I am sure disappoints Egan greatly)
I have seen great groups. ELO, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, Rod Stewart twice, REO Speedwagon, Kansas, Billy Joel and Elton John together (played 3:45 in Sacramento without a break and 3:20 in Oakland without a break. Worth every penny and then some.) But in 20 years? They will be some 30 minute informercial where you can buy their music for 3 easy payments of. We forget But to me, having worked in hospitals and in law enforcement for 36 years I am impressed by the better who came to work every day and did it without the enormous paychecks. the mansions, et. They are doing it for themselves. The people I worked with? Didn't do it for the paycheck and what they did had a far more lasting impression
But it's musis. Nothing more.
Having said that I think we tend to over inflate their music or who they are as people. I was fortunate enough to be able to watch several craniotomy's when I worked in a hospital. Standing there for 12-20 hours without a break and maintaining that level of concentration is amazing. And to be allowed to see what they were doing was incredible. But you never hear about these people who save lives. You don't hear about first responders like my son in law who is a firefighter/paramedic. Because of his skill and knowledge I am alive today (which I am sure disappoints Egan greatly)
I have seen great groups. ELO, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, Rod Stewart twice, REO Speedwagon, Kansas, Billy Joel and Elton John together (played 3:45 in Sacramento without a break and 3:20 in Oakland without a break. Worth every penny and then some.) But in 20 years? They will be some 30 minute informercial where you can buy their music for 3 easy payments of. We forget But to me, having worked in hospitals and in law enforcement for 36 years I am impressed by the better who came to work every day and did it without the enormous paychecks. the mansions, et. They are doing it for themselves. The people I worked with? Didn't do it for the paycheck and what they did had a far more lasting impression
But it's musis. Nothing more.
1
All youth lives in the delusion that all youth is immortal, eternal. This is what is invested in rock stars, and when they are divested of this earth, we scratch our heads, befuddled.
Too late for press time, I suppose, but the news of Maurice White's death ought not go unmentioned. Wonderful talent, timeless music, both youthful and eternal.
Too late for press time, I suppose, but the news of Maurice White's death ought not go unmentioned. Wonderful talent, timeless music, both youthful and eternal.
7
"He was so much older, then."
You're a fine writer, Mr. Egan! I look forward to your novel with this first sentence.
You're a fine writer, Mr. Egan! I look forward to your novel with this first sentence.
4
Wonderful piece. Nice the way you wove in two Dylan songs into the ending.
1
Rock stars are people too.
Being a teenager in the 60's and going to college in the 70's was unlike any other time in this country. The music, the culture, the drugs, peace not war, rock concerts......
I enjoyed the article below as it reminded me of my mortality - I suspect the abuse I put my body through may have some detrimental effect.
However, if I had to do it all over again.......pass that joint please!
I enjoyed the article below as it reminded me of my mortality - I suspect the abuse I put my body through may have some detrimental effect.
However, if I had to do it all over again.......pass that joint please!
17
I heard John Lennon signing "Girl" from Rubber Soul on the radio this morning.
I, too, miss his music nearly every day. His politics, not so much.
I, too, miss his music nearly every day. His politics, not so much.
For me, on the cusp of 64, ("When I'm 64."), a nice chunk of the music was able to take me places that on my own, I don't know if I would have ever gotten there.
"I am who I am" (Popeye), in a large part because of the visions afforded me by some of these artists....what could be.
For that I am eternally grateful but eternally dismayed that even more was not achieved.
"I am who I am" (Popeye), in a large part because of the visions afforded me by some of these artists....what could be.
For that I am eternally grateful but eternally dismayed that even more was not achieved.
6
Maybe he didn't sing Satisfaction when he was 45. Anybody check?
2
Glad to be around still and more glad to be around in 1969, the best music year ever.
11
Wrong. Paul Kantner's unhealthy lifestyle was the reason he developed organ failure and sepsis. Another thing you fail to see is many of these rock stars are lifelong smokers, which also catches up to them. But the cause of death on the death certificate is never listed as smoking. How many years did David Bowie smoke?
4
Lovely, lovely, lovely!
1
Funny--I remember thinking during my latest Bruce concert that I would be devastated if/when he passes. Very much looking forward to The River tour next month...
1
Exactly two women mentioned in this - both dead. At 57, I can still hold a crowd for a 4-set night in a bar in front of a classic rock band. Where's the girls' parade?
7
If you call them rockers, then dying young or succumbing to a life of unhealthy habits, or just getting old is a story.If you call them musicians, the same variables equal no story. Is it boomer self regard that keeps this in play? I think so, I'll have to ask Bix ,Bird and Wolfgang someday.
Joe Strummer is sorely missed.
5
A previous comment referenced this lyric: "Don't worry too much, it'll happen to you/We were children once, playing with toys." That reminded me that I saw the 20-year-old Lilly Winwood perform at a music festival in Florida last month. A certain Chris Stills was also on the program. I guess that is another indication of the passage of time.
3
The day that John Lennon died, I cried. Of all the musicians about whom you wrote and of the many others you did not mention, he is the only one whose passing actually broke my heart. Imagine.
27
We mourn them because we enjoyed their music and thought of them as friends.
18
What is going on?! Natalie Cole, Pierre Boulez, David Bowie (a personal favorite), Glenn Frey, Signe Toly Anderson & Paul Kantner (on the same day!) and now Maurice White? They were my parents' age. When rock & rollers used to die young, I could say well, they were rock & rollers. Now they are dying of near-old-age. It must mean that my parents are old & I'm getting older too. Mortality ultimately has the last say.
What strikes me about these artists is that while they were young, their songs said so much about the trials & tribulations of life that most of us can only understand after living a little. How did they do it? It couldn't just have been the drugs.
I'm reminded of Neil Young's song "Old Man." Here are a few verses:
Old man, look at my life
I'm a lot like you were
.
.
Old man, look at my life
Twenty-four and there's so much more
.
.
Love lost, such a cost
Give me things that don't get lost
Like a coin that won't get tossed
Rolling home to you
Old man, take a look at my life. I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes and you can tell that's true
.
.
.
.
I've been first and last
Look at how the time goes past
But I'm all alone at last
Rolling home to you
Old man, take a look at my life. I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes and you can tell that's true
.
.
.
.
What strikes me about these artists is that while they were young, their songs said so much about the trials & tribulations of life that most of us can only understand after living a little. How did they do it? It couldn't just have been the drugs.
I'm reminded of Neil Young's song "Old Man." Here are a few verses:
Old man, look at my life
I'm a lot like you were
.
.
Old man, look at my life
Twenty-four and there's so much more
.
.
Love lost, such a cost
Give me things that don't get lost
Like a coin that won't get tossed
Rolling home to you
Old man, take a look at my life. I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes and you can tell that's true
.
.
.
.
I've been first and last
Look at how the time goes past
But I'm all alone at last
Rolling home to you
Old man, take a look at my life. I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes and you can tell that's true
.
.
.
.
6
Beautiful. Gifted.
A salve for the soul.
The average life span is 79 years, but the awareness of life is always the experience of the unexpected. As my own life nears 79, it does make me wonder why I continue to be surprised by the unexpected at the speed of light. The unexpected marvel of our species that we can be transformed by sound, the vibrating string, lips, epithelium folds, reeds, stretched skin over a hollow kettle compressed with wooden sticks. Wow! What a surprise to hear your own heart beat out a sound, reminding us of the comfort of our own Mother's heart rhythm while swimming in her womb. Music is home.
A salve for the soul.
The average life span is 79 years, but the awareness of life is always the experience of the unexpected. As my own life nears 79, it does make me wonder why I continue to be surprised by the unexpected at the speed of light. The unexpected marvel of our species that we can be transformed by sound, the vibrating string, lips, epithelium folds, reeds, stretched skin over a hollow kettle compressed with wooden sticks. Wow! What a surprise to hear your own heart beat out a sound, reminding us of the comfort of our own Mother's heart rhythm while swimming in her womb. Music is home.
9
I certainly did not expect to be alive, and healthier than I deserve to be, the same age at which David Bowie took his last breath. I remember my maternal grandfather gathering his 8 children to tell them, at he age of 45 or so that he wanted to divide his land among them before he died and sold them each 40 acres for the princely sum of $10.00, on the condition he could live on his estate in the meantime. He did so for 50 years.
It is a bittersweet privilege to have lived through the years of this generation of musicians. Sweet because I have; bitter because, when each one of them dies, I will never hear their music in quite the same way again.
Joplin, Hendrix, Morrison... I should have known on the morning of Dec. 26, 1974, I might as well accept my fate. Still alive at the age of 28. How much longer will I have to put up with this? I'm still waiting to find out.
It is a bittersweet privilege to have lived through the years of this generation of musicians. Sweet because I have; bitter because, when each one of them dies, I will never hear their music in quite the same way again.
Joplin, Hendrix, Morrison... I should have known on the morning of Dec. 26, 1974, I might as well accept my fate. Still alive at the age of 28. How much longer will I have to put up with this? I'm still waiting to find out.
5
Mr. Egan's assertion that aging rockers are passing from our midst due to predictable diseases of the aged doesn't quite pass muster. Mr. Bowie died of liver cancer which is strongly linked to Hepatitis B&C and less strongly alcohol addiction. Hepatitis could stem from a number of sources but several aspects of the "rock and roll life style" have the potential to increase that risk.
While not noted here, many mourned the death of Ian Fraser Kilmister known popularly as Lemmy. His years of drug and alcohol abuse almost certainly contributed d to his developing congestive heart failure and diabetes. While his ultimate cause of death was cancer, tobacco use along with the rest of his high risk behaviors certainly did him no favors.
It might be nice to believe that our past lifestyle choices have no effect on our future health but the reality is quite different. I say this not out of prudery or puritanism but rather that the truth should be known to help younger generations avoid making the same mistakes.
While not noted here, many mourned the death of Ian Fraser Kilmister known popularly as Lemmy. His years of drug and alcohol abuse almost certainly contributed d to his developing congestive heart failure and diabetes. While his ultimate cause of death was cancer, tobacco use along with the rest of his high risk behaviors certainly did him no favors.
It might be nice to believe that our past lifestyle choices have no effect on our future health but the reality is quite different. I say this not out of prudery or puritanism but rather that the truth should be known to help younger generations avoid making the same mistakes.
4
I didn't do any of those things. still I got a cancer which is related to bowel cancer, which is what Mr. Bowie had. it is something like the fourth most common cause of death. Cancer that metastasizes ends up in your liver.
You can try your magic think, (and blame game) but age will catch up with you, sorry to say. And going in for the checkup (been four years,and they rate you on five) I put on Ziggy Stardust and David Bowie sang "You have Five Years". wonderfully transporting. He was really young when he sang it. Sigh.
You can try your magic think, (and blame game) but age will catch up with you, sorry to say. And going in for the checkup (been four years,and they rate you on five) I put on Ziggy Stardust and David Bowie sang "You have Five Years". wonderfully transporting. He was really young when he sang it. Sigh.
12
Hearing of the death of any musician that I loved or enjoyed is a sad event, to be sure. Watching some of the performers now can make me feel quite old, unless they're making some effort to stay vital and healthy. Then it can indeed feel rejuvenating. Watching Mick Jagger's boundless energy is still thrilling.
But John Lennon's death was the saddest of all. When I heard that he had been shot, I took a subway uptown to the Dakota. But shortly after I arrived, listening to people singing "Give Peace a Change," seemed utterly inappropriate, even offensive to me at the time. Here was Lennon assassinated by a deranged killer, and I thought that the last thing he would be thinking at that moment was to give peace a chance. To my mind, he would have been very angry, raging about the brutality of someone who could so randomly, and so easily, kill another person. That was the John Lennon I believed in, too. Yes, he advocated for peace, but at the very time he was killed? Unlikely.
Paul Kantner's death is sad, too. I've always been a big fan of the Jefferson Airplane, but Kantner did not seem to be in such good health for some time...endlessly smoking cigarettes, etc. Ultimately, thought, the fact is that making it to 74 in this world is not so bad.
But John Lennon's death was the saddest of all. When I heard that he had been shot, I took a subway uptown to the Dakota. But shortly after I arrived, listening to people singing "Give Peace a Change," seemed utterly inappropriate, even offensive to me at the time. Here was Lennon assassinated by a deranged killer, and I thought that the last thing he would be thinking at that moment was to give peace a chance. To my mind, he would have been very angry, raging about the brutality of someone who could so randomly, and so easily, kill another person. That was the John Lennon I believed in, too. Yes, he advocated for peace, but at the very time he was killed? Unlikely.
Paul Kantner's death is sad, too. I've always been a big fan of the Jefferson Airplane, but Kantner did not seem to be in such good health for some time...endlessly smoking cigarettes, etc. Ultimately, thought, the fact is that making it to 74 in this world is not so bad.
5
The depth of our methods of mechanical and mass reproduction have allowed artists gifted in mass performance -- this article is not about, for example, the strange mortality of painters or poets and other artists who do not regularly avail themselves of 100,000 watt PA systems -- to become increasingly larger than life.
The strangeness of the rock star belongs to a moment in time, when such artists could be much larger than life because they were thousands of times louder than life. Actors too surprise us when they die, for surely such behemoths of ten thousand giant screens must be indestructible, forever giants?
20th century technology and its spectacular mass powers underlie why these figures seem beyond matters of age. But it's only rock and roll, and it's only just really big and loud -- and whose stamp is nearly omnipresent in everything from elevators to sports arenas and the record collections of 3/4 of anyone over 40.
What occurs to me, in these passings, is that the era when this particular kind of larger than life persona is not really novel anymore. The revolution that brought us electrified music only will happen once; these kinds of artists are not capable of being so much larger than life anymore for this reason, not because they are less talented.
Even though I would like to make that argument, too.
The strangeness of the rock star belongs to a moment in time, when such artists could be much larger than life because they were thousands of times louder than life. Actors too surprise us when they die, for surely such behemoths of ten thousand giant screens must be indestructible, forever giants?
20th century technology and its spectacular mass powers underlie why these figures seem beyond matters of age. But it's only rock and roll, and it's only just really big and loud -- and whose stamp is nearly omnipresent in everything from elevators to sports arenas and the record collections of 3/4 of anyone over 40.
What occurs to me, in these passings, is that the era when this particular kind of larger than life persona is not really novel anymore. The revolution that brought us electrified music only will happen once; these kinds of artists are not capable of being so much larger than life anymore for this reason, not because they are less talented.
Even though I would like to make that argument, too.
2
Curious why you left out Leonard Cohen in your list?
Because he's still alive?
2
Because he's not dead?
1
Uhm, perhaps because he still lives.
2
Perhaps the rampant assertions of youth and immortality that Timothy Egan writes so well about were conditioned in part by the horrifying assassination of John Kennedy. Beatlemania has often been characterized as a response to that depressing day, and it was afterward that rock'n'roll began to think about death and reject old age. Kennedy's death deified him. That day, his present and future became unimaginable, and his past -- his youth -- became glorious. No wonder we shrank from the former and found ecstasy in the latter. Yes, Tim, I will never stop mourning John Lennon either. He led us to the promised land, and also saw through it, and shared that with us. David Bowie enlarged this schema; I don't yet understand quite how, but I don't think I will ever stop mourning him either.
13
it is the rolling over of the generations. I, born at the very end of WWII, am NOT a baby boomer. Neither was Lou Reed or Paul Kantner. I consider myself of an age with them, as well a part of my youth. so when they go, a part of me goes also, oddly.
What is really scary is the deaths of people a few years younger, like Mr.Bowie (Smith)and Mr. Frey. As my son (in his thirties) said, if there is a headline every time a boomer passes on, there will be nothing else in the news.
As my father said, at a certain point you realize people your age are not dying unfairly young, but you are old and approaching what he called the wall, yourself. Reading the obits for reasons is part of it.
What is really scary is the deaths of people a few years younger, like Mr.Bowie (Smith)and Mr. Frey. As my son (in his thirties) said, if there is a headline every time a boomer passes on, there will be nothing else in the news.
As my father said, at a certain point you realize people your age are not dying unfairly young, but you are old and approaching what he called the wall, yourself. Reading the obits for reasons is part of it.
5
For millions of people, myself included, things have never been the same since the day Jerry Garcia died.
14
It's demographics. People die more frequently as they get older. We just notice this group because they're famous and we grew up with them. And then we look in the mirror...
3
Many of the recent rock star obituaries strike a tone of condescending pity for the dead rock star, as if death will never come to the writer. Ask not for whom the bell tolls...
3
...Pete Seeger gave lessons in living a fulfilling, meaningful life for 94 years and beyond. Having met John Belushi in the early 70's I don't think he would have disrespected Pete Seeger in any way. Where Have All The Flowers gone is the most appropriate song Egan quoted.
19
But Bluto from "Animal House" might have...
1
Paul Kanter, Lemmie, Glenn Frey, David Bowie and others of that era all had one thing in common - they were excellent musicians who could play a difficult instrument (or multiple instruments) well. The idea of splicing auto-tune vocals over a drum machine beat (as J-Lo and Beyoncé do) and calling it "music" just did not occur to any of these guys. There was an internet meme going around a few years ago with the lyrics of "Bohemian Rhapsody" next to one of Beyoncé's songs and also showing the number of writers and producers credited (hint: for Queen it was one each while with Queen Bey it was something like six each). Look it up if you want a good laugh and then go out and buy a copy of "A Night at the Opera", "Exile on Main Street", "Dark Side of the Moon" or "Ziggy Stardust" and enjoy real music which my great grand children will be listening to after I am long gone.
15
One of my favorite Harry Nilsson songs/lyrics from the "Son of Schmilsson" album is "I'd Rather Be Dead" as sung with the Senior Citizens of the Stepney & Pinner Choir, London and are excerpted as follows:
"I'd rather be dead than wet my bed
I'd rather keep my health and dress myself
But you're better off dead than sitting on a shelf
I'll tie my tie 'til the day I die
But if I have to be fed then I'd rather be dead
And when he takes my hand on the very last day
I will understand because it's better that way
Oh! It's nice to be alive, when the dream comes true
You'll be better off dead, it could happen to you"
A bad heart took Harry from us January 1994 - he was 52.
"I'd rather be dead than wet my bed
I'd rather keep my health and dress myself
But you're better off dead than sitting on a shelf
I'll tie my tie 'til the day I die
But if I have to be fed then I'd rather be dead
And when he takes my hand on the very last day
I will understand because it's better that way
Oh! It's nice to be alive, when the dream comes true
You'll be better off dead, it could happen to you"
A bad heart took Harry from us January 1994 - he was 52.
11
A great American songwriter. Right up there with Randy Newman.
5
Gee, and I thought this op-ed was going to be about the gushing excesses of rock star eulogizing.
4
Ahhh but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now.
Bob Dylan
I'm younger than that now.
Bob Dylan
9
Quite true that aging male rockers --- Neil Young, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bob Dylan et.al. --- get all crinkled and grumpy but still draw crowds, still evoke critical acclaim. But female rockers and performers of the same vintage, like Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Carly Simon, et.al.? I can't tell you how many times I've heard comments like: oh, she got fat/man, she hasn't aged well/oof, those wrinkles/she looks OLD.
Seems the women have to be pretty and young forever.
Argh.
Seems the women have to be pretty and young forever.
Argh.
6
______ isn't dead. S/He's just on vinyl or in bits...
1
With apologies to Pete Townsend: Hope I get old before I die.
Bowie, Frey, Kantner, Lemmy and Maurice White all did, and we are all the richer for it.
Bowie, Frey, Kantner, Lemmy and Maurice White all did, and we are all the richer for it.
3
Yes, rock stars too put on their spangled, skinny pants (or bell bottom jeans), one leg at a time.
4
I saw Buddy Holly when I was seven on a bill with Jerry Lee Lewis and Bill Haley and the Comets among others. That was 1958 and I've seen a lot of rock since then as the cliche goes, just about everyone but the Beatles.
The most upsetting rock god death in my life to date was that of Jimi in 1970 when I was nineteen.
I remember, if I cried, and I did.
The most upsetting rock god death in my life to date was that of Jimi in 1970 when I was nineteen.
I remember, if I cried, and I did.
6
Inauguration Day 2008 Bruce Springteen introduces Pete Seegar to lead in the singing of our second National Anthem, Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land". White, brown and black voices take up this song with Woody's friend, the song reassuring all of us that we are all included in this incredible and audacious experiment. Pete's voice, older and weaker rings out. It took my breath away.
30
Perhaps the fact that now being 70ish doesn't mean having to take on the look and feel of old age has altered our perspective of what is appropriate for one's age. Statistically, if one makes it through one's 60s, living another decade or two or even three is likely, although obviously not guaranteed as can be noted in this piece. And, many who said they wouldn't be singing the same songs when older didn't realize how young they would feel decades later. Within the last year or so we've gone to concerts by Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac and Heart, all close to the ages of those noted here, and they were all very good.
Eclectic Pragmatist — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
Eclectic Pragmatist — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
4
No generation is immune to the shock and grief at the loss, premature or not, of a cultural icon.
Beethoven died at 56, likely partially due to alcoholic cirrhosis. Twenty Thousand Viennese attended his funeral.
I'm sure we've all seen the old newsreels showing the throngs at Valentino's funeral. His death prompted suicides and a riot.
I still recall the day my mother commented that she was sad because Tommy Dorsey died. He choked to death in his sleep, overly-sedated on sleeping pills. How Hendrix-esque, or Jackson-esque, take your pick. On the other hand, I know it didn't occur to me to think, "Gee, that's how Tommy Dorsey died," when I heard about Hendrix.
We all think it's all new.
It seems that coal miners aren't the only people whose deaths are caused by the side effects of their profession.
Beethoven died at 56, likely partially due to alcoholic cirrhosis. Twenty Thousand Viennese attended his funeral.
I'm sure we've all seen the old newsreels showing the throngs at Valentino's funeral. His death prompted suicides and a riot.
I still recall the day my mother commented that she was sad because Tommy Dorsey died. He choked to death in his sleep, overly-sedated on sleeping pills. How Hendrix-esque, or Jackson-esque, take your pick. On the other hand, I know it didn't occur to me to think, "Gee, that's how Tommy Dorsey died," when I heard about Hendrix.
We all think it's all new.
It seems that coal miners aren't the only people whose deaths are caused by the side effects of their profession.
17
There is of course no immunity to grief. However, there is a sad difference between the old masters like Beethoven and the popular music stars of our time. Beethoven will be played as long as there are orchestras or even just a piano or violin. His music is just as glorious as it was 200 years ago. My deep sadness watching the passing of these and other musicians of our time is that we will never attend another one of their concerts. Their music won't be performed much - who really would go and listen to a Bowie cover act? So, it is just us old geezers with our vinyl and CD's, some videos...but their music largely dies with them. I most miss Elliot Smith...
3
Actually, the lyric you're looking for from Bowie's Changes is "pretty soon, now, you're gonna get *older*."
But the more telling lyric is:
"Time may change me
But I can't trace time."
I also think there's two levels of mourning for rock stars (including Maurice White, whom we lost this week as well). One is the nature of their death. Sam Cooke, John Lennon, Patsy Cline and Otis Redding's deaths hurt not just because they were young, but because murder and plane crashes just seem senseless and random. When people die of drug overdoses or suicide, the mourning discussion veers to the medical/psychological aspects of their personality, overshadowing the musical impact piece. When they die of a high-profile disease (such as Parkinson's in Maurice White's case), the death becomes an opportunity to educate people about the disease and how it impacted the performer's career as well.
The other is the nature of their influence. Glenn Frey, as a member of the Eagles, was a progenitor of the hybridization of country, rock and soul that many 70s artists followed. Allen Toussaint's passing gets less airtime, since he was a musician's musician rather than a popular artist, despite his undeniable influence as a producer/songwriter of songs made famous by others. Mr. Jones had influence not only on music, but on film, fashion, gender and sexual identity--and as a white ally. The more influential figure will create a bigger ripple in the collective consciousness.
But the more telling lyric is:
"Time may change me
But I can't trace time."
I also think there's two levels of mourning for rock stars (including Maurice White, whom we lost this week as well). One is the nature of their death. Sam Cooke, John Lennon, Patsy Cline and Otis Redding's deaths hurt not just because they were young, but because murder and plane crashes just seem senseless and random. When people die of drug overdoses or suicide, the mourning discussion veers to the medical/psychological aspects of their personality, overshadowing the musical impact piece. When they die of a high-profile disease (such as Parkinson's in Maurice White's case), the death becomes an opportunity to educate people about the disease and how it impacted the performer's career as well.
The other is the nature of their influence. Glenn Frey, as a member of the Eagles, was a progenitor of the hybridization of country, rock and soul that many 70s artists followed. Allen Toussaint's passing gets less airtime, since he was a musician's musician rather than a popular artist, despite his undeniable influence as a producer/songwriter of songs made famous by others. Mr. Jones had influence not only on music, but on film, fashion, gender and sexual identity--and as a white ally. The more influential figure will create a bigger ripple in the collective consciousness.
12
Egan: "Rarely a day goes by when I don’t miss John Lennon."
I think this is a sentiment shared by many of us. However, I also believe that his music continues to make him present to us years after his death, and, in many ways, imperishable.
I think this is a sentiment shared by many of us. However, I also believe that his music continues to make him present to us years after his death, and, in many ways, imperishable.
25
"Imagine" has become an anthem that will have meaning long after we're gone as long as there are humans who have hope and feel loss.
8
At least any self inflicted damage to these rock stars was voluntary on their part. Not like the dying and demented football players.
1
Not unless the football players partied like rock stars.
2
If there's any beauty in the passing of these icons, it's that they've gained immortality through their song. Unlike so many others on this planet, they lived the lives they chose with passion, without fear. Can't get no satisfaction? Sorry, Mick and Keith, but I have to believe they did. And so did we who must remain. Our lives are so much richer because of their music, which will resonate long after we pass, enriching the lives of generations to come.
41
The true tragedy of Rock and Roll has always been the kids so captivated by the Rock Gods that they also pursued dreams of rock stardom to the detriment of everything else. Emulating their role models these kids did not realize that in Rock and Roll much like in business it always pays to be the first rather then a follower. As these wannabe rock legends continue to toil in their parent's basement, trying to write the next hit they act much like college sports stars who do not make it to the pros by constantly looking back at their youth as the high point of their life.
1
Great column, Tim, and thanks for the lines from "Volunteers." But the next lines that follow your quote are just as fresh and important as ever: "Pick up the cry/Hey, now it's time for you and me/Got a revolution (got to revolution)" with the bit in parenthesis was the response by Grace Slick. Some of us aren't done yet by a long shot and the deaths of rock n' roll icons spur some of us to keep making a difference with the reminder that human existence is short and it collective impacts long lasting.
4
My high school years were pretty much defined by, among a few others, David Bowie, The Eagles, and Earth, Wind & Fire. So far, 2016 has not been good for my mid-life crisis.
19
But let's be honest, the ones dying now are all past their sell by date. Their best music way behind them and well their live shows a bit disappointing. Not sure what the psychology is to hang on to musicians, possibly the passing of our youth, and when they die, putting us in touch with our own mortality.
Me? I'm thankful for UTube to watch them in their prime.
Me? I'm thankful for UTube to watch them in their prime.
I usually look forward to Egan's columns. He is a fine writer and, yes, I've read his books. But, Timothy, you are out of line today with your snide treatment of Pete Seeger. Pete tried to make the world a better place. He fought for the forgotten, the less fortunate, the oppressed, the violated. He never tried to be a rock star and he never sought the glamour of superstar status. He tried only to use his talent and his music to inspire us to a better place. You should give him a break.
50
I agree completely. Egan's remarks about Pete Seeger reflect poorly on the columnist.
17
Seeger was the real deal. Plenty of phony folkies to sneer at, not so Seeger.
8
Two little points of fact:
(1) It's
Ooh, look out, you rock and rollers
Pretty soon now you're going to get older
Too early to be misquoting the great man.
(2) Why have you, like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, neglected to mention the devastating loss of Lemmy Kilmister? The stadiums will never own that guy. I feel like rock & roll died with him, him in particular, its purest exponent.
(1) It's
Ooh, look out, you rock and rollers
Pretty soon now you're going to get older
Too early to be misquoting the great man.
(2) Why have you, like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, neglected to mention the devastating loss of Lemmy Kilmister? The stadiums will never own that guy. I feel like rock & roll died with him, him in particular, its purest exponent.
1
Several years ago Grace Slick stated in an interview that singing "Got to revolution!" at her age would be more than a little ridiculous.
2
But the even sadder thing is that there are so many teenagers and college-age "kids" out there today who feel the same way. Then again, why should anyone be angry and shouting for revolution in this modern Panglossian age of perfection we live in? Better to collectively chase the almighty buck then work together toward a more equitable society.
1
What is poignant here is what one feels when a well know voice of our generation dies, our youth. We are old, we are going to die before long. Looking mortality in the eye is profound, stirring, and sorrowful. But mostly most of us felt and still feel that we were of one voice, we wanted to change the world, and we did, just not enough. Many of us saw what was coming, we tried to switch tracks but it was not enough. We can only hope that the twenty somethings of today realize what a crucial place humanity is right now.
8
Yeah, it was official. When Tommy Ramone passed, that was it. Party over.
But it was ever more gutting for me when Joe Strummer went. I was the quintessential teenage deadbeat when London Calling suddenly appeared in the local shop's record bin. It was the cover: nothing else had to be said. In an era before internets, it needed no explanation; no thumbing through music mags for info about this beast called The Clash. With all due urgency Joe transported me to Spain and its puzzling civil war; to brownshirts and blackshirts; to Brixton and its urban travesties; into Koka Kola's lunatic boardroom and the dreary promise of the supermarket. Joe kicked me in the ass and I'm still feeling it today. Life got really interesting from that double-album moment forward.
I'm so glad that I lived it. It was heroic and embarrassing and nuts all at the time. The Clash, the Pistols, Ramones, Thunders. Crazy times.
"Revolution rock! I am in a state of shock ... So bad bad rock, this here revolution rock ..."
I love you with all my life Joe.
But it was ever more gutting for me when Joe Strummer went. I was the quintessential teenage deadbeat when London Calling suddenly appeared in the local shop's record bin. It was the cover: nothing else had to be said. In an era before internets, it needed no explanation; no thumbing through music mags for info about this beast called The Clash. With all due urgency Joe transported me to Spain and its puzzling civil war; to brownshirts and blackshirts; to Brixton and its urban travesties; into Koka Kola's lunatic boardroom and the dreary promise of the supermarket. Joe kicked me in the ass and I'm still feeling it today. Life got really interesting from that double-album moment forward.
I'm so glad that I lived it. It was heroic and embarrassing and nuts all at the time. The Clash, the Pistols, Ramones, Thunders. Crazy times.
"Revolution rock! I am in a state of shock ... So bad bad rock, this here revolution rock ..."
I love you with all my life Joe.
9
Joe was having a great post-Clash career when he passed, too. Love those albums with the Mescaleros. Would love to hear what he - and Lennon - had to say about world events since they've been gone.
2
With all the great ones who have recently passed, it just makes me appreciate all the more, the ones we still have. I often think, when one of these brilliant musicians dies too young, "Imagine all of the great music we will never get a chance to here." Then I just put on some Dylan and thnak the stars that some of them somehow manage to survive and keep blessing us with their creations.
Go to the gym, Bob, we need you.
Go to the gym, Bob, we need you.
2
Well written, deeply felt - thank you. My thoughts on David Bowie, written for another publication: https://shootonline.com/column/rebel-rebel-reflections-david-bowie Hope you enjoy.
2
Pete Seeger wrote a multitude of tremendous songs, including many rock classics, Turn! Turn! Turn! being the obvious example. His longevity as an artist and human also gives lie to your thesis, as his long life and poignant passing were anything but ordinary. Lame that you would take the occasion to slam him.
32
His 'The Bells Of Rhymney', in the hands of The Byrds, is sublime.
15
I have seen David Bowie, Glenn Frey (The Eagles) and Paul Kanter (Jefferson Starship) perform live. Unfortunately, we have reached a point in time that will be "critical mass" for lots of older rock stars to pass away in the next 10 to 20 years. Back in the 1970's and 1980's, WPLJ, a New York City radio station used to periodically have what they called "Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Who Day" when they would only play songs from these four of the biggest British rock bands of the 60's. Most, if not all, of the members of the "big four" will probably be gone, sadly, by 2036. I am a very big music fan and have seen almost 700 concerts. My personal Rock & Roll Hall of Fame would be the following list of classic rock artists that I have seen over the years: The Who 1979, Queen 1980, The Rolling Stones 1981, Rod Stewart 1981, The Police 1982, Blondie 1982, Elton John 1982, David Bowie 1983, The Ramones 1983, Billy Joel 1984, U2 1985, Madonna 1985, Tina Turner 1987, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant 1995, Aerosmith 1997 Paul McCartney 2002 and Ringo Starr 2003 as among some of the best shows. And although there certainly are some very good modern contemporary musical artists / bands today, I don't think they will be remembered, or loved as much, as these older rock stars 100 years into the future, when people will still be listening to The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and The Who.
9
The music heroes of the baby boomers were the last of the major rock stars. The last group that held sway over the culture and the youth. Demographics were a huge benefit. Through the 60's and 70's music was only available on th e radio, at a show, or on vinyl. There was mystery surrounding these stars even as they were filling arenas. Lots of money and icons were made...but then greed kicked in, music became more ubiquitous and the experience became a little more transactional. Because the boomer era was the apex of music as a business it will always have it,s share of support, but I don,t think that means the music of the era is "better" than any other. Marketed better, for sure.
1
It is a cautionary tale to all of those who celebrate their youth. Dylan once said that he didn't trust anyone over the age of thirty. He never imagined that 30 would come in the blink of an eye and then 40, 50, 60 and 70. Eddie Vedder wrote that "everything sacred comes from youth". It is easy to view that in a way that makes it folly, but if you think about the word sacred it actually can be viewed as wise. We tend to venerate our youthful selves. There are a million stories in the lexicon of "loss of innocence" or "compromised dreams". Our sacred ideal of ourselves is our youthful selves and nothing celebrates that more than rock music.
25
I can't vouch for Eddie Vedder, but I guarantee Bob Dylan never said anything about not trusting anyone over 30. That line was by Abbie Hoffman, probably the worst one coined by that good-hearted huckster.
What Dylan said about trust was: "If you want somebody you can trust, trust yourself". And what he said about youth versus age was "Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command". Anyone care to argue with either of those?
What Dylan said about trust was: "If you want somebody you can trust, trust yourself". And what he said about youth versus age was "Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command". Anyone care to argue with either of those?
3
The author of this opinion piece heard the lyrics of Jefferson Airplane's "Volunteers" wrong. It goes "One generation got old, one generation got sold" (not "soul").
25
Pete Seeger or Michael Jackson. Take your pick.
2
We just lost Maurice White also. And a couple of weeks ago, Dale Griffin (aka Buffin) of Mott the Hoople.
5
Okay. At 70 I am feeling the pain. For some reason I admire old rockers but feel embarassed. The music is great but the moves look painful and remind me of mortality. I must learn to appreciate my life from a historical perspective without the screams and mindless devotion. Let's have some fun!
3
I always liked that scene in Top Secret! (Val Kilmer) where elderly men perform a rock song, futilely attempting to smash their instruments at the finale. I used to Identify with the Val Kilmer character, but now, sadly......
4
Tim, Nice essay. Wasn't Brian Jones in the 27 Club as well? We can't forget him--I think he was seminal to the Stones, probably more than the surviving Stones would care to admit.
7
You're leaving out Little Richard (now 83) and Jerry Lee Lewis (performing at 80). Also Ringo (75), Ginger Baker (76) and Charley Watts (74) - you need drummers.
5
It's amazing how the music of one's youth has such emotional staying power. Keith Richards had it right when he said Rock and Roll is heard from the neck down.
I may be biased, but I think that Rock and Roll has a symbolic message of freedom, youth, rebellion and spontaneity that resonates around the world. That's why we love these artists.
"You've thrown it away for a song, boy you've sure come a long way from home." - Kristofferson
I may be biased, but I think that Rock and Roll has a symbolic message of freedom, youth, rebellion and spontaneity that resonates around the world. That's why we love these artists.
"You've thrown it away for a song, boy you've sure come a long way from home." - Kristofferson
3
Tim Egan has written a beautiful, if mournful, meditation on life's eternal verities. Yes, for some of us, at least, it is jolting to hear of the passing of the icons of our youth. It seems abrupt, premature, unfair. Hey, he wasn't old! He was just a couple of years older than me - and I'm not old, am I?! But it's not just hard-driving rockers who are dropping like flies. Though scientists are telling us that those of our generation who are healthy in our 60s can expect to live long lives, I personally can count half a dozen or more contemporaries who have died of various illnesses in recent years, some even before reaching the age of 60. Their parents, meanwhile, are still alive in their 80s and 90s. Why is this? Could it be that the baby boomer generation has been exposed to toxic chemicals in the air, water and food (which did not become commonplace until after World War II) for a greater proportion of our lives than our parents have? Perhaps it is telling that Pete Seeger - a member of our parents' generation - lived to be 94 despite a hard-charging life of performing and political activism.
1
I was 27 when John Lennon was shot. I remember going into the office in shock and thinking, shouldn't we all be taking the day off? How can anybody work after this?
My father hadn't died of cancer yet. My brother hadn't taken his own life yet. It was the first experience I remember of having something from my childhood ripped away. Until that moment, I thought that was something only old people talked about.
Now it's like they're falling off the end of a conveyor belt one at a time.
My father hadn't died of cancer yet. My brother hadn't taken his own life yet. It was the first experience I remember of having something from my childhood ripped away. Until that moment, I thought that was something only old people talked about.
Now it's like they're falling off the end of a conveyor belt one at a time.
133
I think Egan can be forgiven for the nits and nats. Pete would not have cared. He knew who he was. The message rings true. We boomers have more behind than we do ahead. The mosh pit is thinning. I ordered a Rhino re-issue of Woodstock recently, listened to it once and doubt that I will go there again. I heard the "Fish Cheer" (crowd response dubbed) and wondered how many tossed the beads and went luxury class. Don't get carried away. It's only Rock and roll and we loved it. Case closed.
3
I, too, have noticed the passing of these folks and am saddened by the realization we might as well get used to it. But as for memories of a time when anything was possible, what I remember is the draft, a string of assassinations and Watergate. As you say, the music was a palliative.
4
On a cold December evening
I was walking through the Christmas tide
When a stranger came up and asked me
If I'd heard John Lennon had died
And the two of us went to this bar
And we stayed to close the place
And every song we played
Was for the late great Johnny Ace, yeah, yeah, yeah
Paul Simon
I was walking through the Christmas tide
When a stranger came up and asked me
If I'd heard John Lennon had died
And the two of us went to this bar
And we stayed to close the place
And every song we played
Was for the late great Johnny Ace, yeah, yeah, yeah
Paul Simon
22
You forgot to mention the great Iggy Pop who didn't want to reach 21. Long Live Iggy!
6
No doubt about the passage of time. As one who narrowly escaped death in Vietnam it has remained true for me that each day is a supreme gift. No doubt though that the music of that era was a gift then and now. Especially Seeger and The Clearwater, Dylan, Young and Mitchel lifted me up, made me resolute that I could live life in a way that made sense to me. Along came Springsteen and so many others I could lean on to help maintain my heading. It is I suppose about growing old. I like to say no not really but it is about growing older.
7
I always heard the lyrics as "One generation got old, one generation got SOLD, this generation, etc." referring to the Greatest Generation, the Silent Generation, and us.
8
Lovely. Simply lovely. Thank you...
1
The "clean-living" Pete Seeger did more good on this planet than any of the other musicians you mention. He fought for workers' rights, for civil rights, for political rights when it was dangerous to do so. He was threatened with violence and black-listed by corporate TV for his efforts. The Eagles and The Who and the Stones did nothing for the average person except entertain them and make a fortune doing so.
36
Yeah, I'm not sure why Seeger's name was brought up at all in a commentary about 'rock stars'.
6
Pete Seeger's influence on popular music, including rock, may not be obvious, but it was HUGE. He and his fellow Weavers, Earl Robinson and Paul Robeson were mentors to the whole folk movement of the early 60s. PPM, Dylan, Tom Paxton, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Phil Ochs and all the rest looked up to them. Mary Travers was a back up singer for Seeger even before she met Peter Yarrow and Noel Stookey. PPM were friends and mentors to the Mama&Papas. The Byrds, The Animals, The Beach Boys, 3 Dog Night, and even (would you believe?) Frank Sinatra all were students of Seeger & company.
Seeger's baby sister, Peggy, married Ewan MacColl and was influential in the British Folk Revival, which influenced bands like Fairport Convention, Donovan, and Steeleye Span, to name a few.
And I haven't even touched on all his musical influences. Pete Seeger was a unique force of nature and will, who, when told something was impossible, did it anyway. I was lucky enough to hear him play a number of times, including once by the side of the road!
Seeger's baby sister, Peggy, married Ewan MacColl and was influential in the British Folk Revival, which influenced bands like Fairport Convention, Donovan, and Steeleye Span, to name a few.
And I haven't even touched on all his musical influences. Pete Seeger was a unique force of nature and will, who, when told something was impossible, did it anyway. I was lucky enough to hear him play a number of times, including once by the side of the road!
12
jahtez,
perhaps because he tried to unplug Bob Dylan's electric guitar, thus cementing his position in the older generation. He thought. perhaps that Dylan was taking orders from him.
perhaps because he tried to unplug Bob Dylan's electric guitar, thus cementing his position in the older generation. He thought. perhaps that Dylan was taking orders from him.
no love for Lemmy, huh?
7
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!” --Hunter S. Thompson
In my youth, this quote always sounded so romantic. I always imagined the rock stars reaching the end with a smile and a loud WOW! As I approach my 6th decade, however, (and one who is lucky enough to be in great health), I now see that being "thoroughly used up" is far from romantic. It hurts, and no one--not even the most incandescent rock star--seems to slide in sideways with a smile. Sigh.
In my youth, this quote always sounded so romantic. I always imagined the rock stars reaching the end with a smile and a loud WOW! As I approach my 6th decade, however, (and one who is lucky enough to be in great health), I now see that being "thoroughly used up" is far from romantic. It hurts, and no one--not even the most incandescent rock star--seems to slide in sideways with a smile. Sigh.
56
I am a boomer who grew older and wiser, thus I stopped treating these "legends" mythically many years ago. They are just fellow humans locked into a dying genre, and they are all probably lusting to escape the identity that has been foisted upon them by their fans. I think we should congratulate them upon their demise because reality, in its most obvious form, has granted them surcease.
3
He not busy being born is busy dying.
8
As a boomer it is spooky to see the rockers of my youth passing away one by one. I do think that the bigger the star the more intense the lifestyle that would contribute to an earlier death. As for rock stars leaving us too soon, let us not forget the great George Harrison who died of cancer. One of the rock Gods who is still standing and still playing though retiring soon is Eric Clapton. Rock on.
6
The "at least" two unnamed members of the E Street Band were Clarence Clemons & Danny Federici, who passed away at 69 & 58, respectively. Egan seems to suggest there might be others but most certainly & thankfully not.
5
He's younger than that now.
9
Seeger actually worked at changing the world for the better. He also understood American music at a deep level. Egan's snark is just embarrassing to Egan.
19
Clever working in the lyric lines in the last paragraph from Dylan/Baez and Don McLean. Brings it all back.
4
I mourn Janis and Jimi, whom I met at Fillmore East, and also Bill Graham, who brought so many great musicians to the public; if not for his promotion, B.B. King might have slogged away at bus-and-truck tours till he died of exhaustion; instead B.B got the recognition he deserved. And I mourn Garcia. But I think I miss Pete Seeger most of all. Not only did he change music, by his role in the folk-music revival and by spurring the revival of the five-string banjo, he also, by his activism and his life, made us better. He changed the world.
95
"When I feel sad, as Keats felt sad, that my life is so nearly done,
I fiind it useful to dwell upon remembered friends who are dead and gone
and the jokes we had, and the fun.
How happy they are I cannot know,
but happy am I who loved them so."
Noel Coward
I fiind it useful to dwell upon remembered friends who are dead and gone
and the jokes we had, and the fun.
How happy they are I cannot know,
but happy am I who loved them so."
Noel Coward
6
And let's not forget the original Rock Star, the All American Demigod - Elvis Presley !! The life you mention when these Rock Stars were young, all lead to a premature death, ordinary deaths, deaths felled by the same reasons afflicting their common, adulating fans.
2
Mozart died at 35.
6
Elvis left the building when he was 42. Today the rock stars still live on YouTube.
I suppose it's better than nothing.
I suppose it's better than nothing.
3
Bruce and I are practically the same age, and while I've never had his level of success I have been able to play music most of my life. It is a joy at any age.
I've lost several old and dear friends this last year, I will be mourning them more than Bowie or Frey.
Yesterday I got to play some music for some very young children at an affordable housing complex, we got them going with a drum circle and had them experiment with percussion toys while we played...it was great.
We all live till we die, if we are lucky.
I've lost several old and dear friends this last year, I will be mourning them more than Bowie or Frey.
Yesterday I got to play some music for some very young children at an affordable housing complex, we got them going with a drum circle and had them experiment with percussion toys while we played...it was great.
We all live till we die, if we are lucky.
5
Timothy,
When you're on route 66 as Springsteen and I are, let's see how palliative you think a song can be. How about looking BACKWARDS at "When I'm 64"? (If I'm going to have a pity party may as well go all in.)
When you're on route 66 as Springsteen and I are, let's see how palliative you think a song can be. How about looking BACKWARDS at "When I'm 64"? (If I'm going to have a pity party may as well go all in.)
It was Malvina Reynolds, not Pete Seeger, that wrote "Where Have All the Flowers Gone." You may dismiss Seeger as a folky, but he was more political than everyone else you cite put together. Springsteen did an acoustic album that was a tribute to Seeger. As a writer with an interest in politics, you owe Seeger more respect.
4
You're wrong. Pete Seeger wrote "Where Have All The Flowers Gone."
Malvina Reynolds wrote "Little Boxes" which was best known in a version sung by Seeger and "What Have They Done To The Rain" which can be heard on the album "Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1"
Here's a clip of Malvina Reynolds singing "Little Boxes"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBaRUZGT9II
Malvina Reynolds wrote "Little Boxes" which was best known in a version sung by Seeger and "What Have They Done To The Rain" which can be heard on the album "Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1"
Here's a clip of Malvina Reynolds singing "Little Boxes"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBaRUZGT9II
3
not the first time, certainly not the last. thanks for the correction
3
thank you-- I realized my error right after pushing 'submit' but didn't want to cloud the airwaves.
1
Would have been nice had you mentioned rocker Clarence Clemons by name rather than the dismissive "Springsteen has lost at least two members of his E Street Band." Aside from the brief inclusion of Jimi, the article is whitewashed of performers of color. I was going to snark about BLM, but...
Rock on, Big Man.
Rock on, Big Man.
8
The other E. Street member who died, Danny Federici, was a red-head. I guess you can make an Op-Ed about 70's rock icons, into a piece about racism. However, it's undeniable that black performers overwhelmingly have put their talents into Motown, Funk, Blues, Pop, Jazz, Hip Hop, Disco and Rap. Black Rock icons, from that era, were unfortunately a rarity.
1
And Otis Redding
2
@ Stella: Chuck Berry all but invented rock and roll, so get off your sensitivity high horse and research some music history before accusing me of introducing racism to Mr. Egan's essay. Ever hear of Bo Diddley? Little Richard? Tina Turner? Slash? Prince? Ryuichi Sakamoto? I wasn't aware of the artists' being limited to those of the 70s seeing as how Amy Winehouse was included.
3
Egan has a great gift. His arena is not full of reefer smoke and fans with
Bic lighters howling for an encore but his eulogizing today and his writing
in general is every bit as good as that of the deceased stars in today's
column.
Encore, Mr. Egan, encore!
Bic lighters howling for an encore but his eulogizing today and his writing
in general is every bit as good as that of the deceased stars in today's
column.
Encore, Mr. Egan, encore!
3
Music is a strange drug.
With just a small 'hit', just a few notes, it can transport you
back in time, induce mood changes, make you see people people
you haven't thought of in decades.
And some of the folks who create this wonderful stuff manage to live forever, relatively speaking.
With just a small 'hit', just a few notes, it can transport you
back in time, induce mood changes, make you see people people
you haven't thought of in decades.
And some of the folks who create this wonderful stuff manage to live forever, relatively speaking.
11
I love my generation's music, but I don't really take my bearings by its creators and performers, except once. I was surprised by the effect of Roy Orbison's death on me. It was personal--I had always so wanted to see him perform, and now I never would.
Even now I watch the Black and White concert DVD and mourn what we lost.
Even now I watch the Black and White concert DVD and mourn what we lost.
11
Amen. One of the greats.
5
I think that all of these passings are a reminder that the age of the rock star is essentially over, and was really just a boomer phenomenon. Almost everyone mentioned in the article rose to stardom within about a ten-year period and were essentially the only cohort in pop music history to reap the full financial rewards of the music business (they were mostly able to take ownership of their work in ways that previous generations of performers were unable to, at the same time that recorded music became a mass commodity; now that that business model is over and playing live is where all the money is at they are able to tour consistently and sell tickets at some of the highest prices in the industry).
5
On the flip side, (early boomer here), I suspect that fans expected that the wilder guys would perish young in some flamboyant, spectacular, smoke and laser enhanced way. It would have seemed appropriate.
That many of them survived, performing or not, disabled and deaf or not, is not particularly exciting.
A wise person advised: celebrate the living while they can appreciate it.
That many of them survived, performing or not, disabled and deaf or not, is not particularly exciting.
A wise person advised: celebrate the living while they can appreciate it.
7
BB King died at a ripe old age of 89 last year. He made a direct path from the chitlin circuit to the Rock and Roll world , and was at least as influential as anyone mentioned in this article.
18
BB was wonderful, and I miss him, but was surely not as influential as the Beatles, Stones, or for goodness sakes Dylan, all mentioned in this piece. Not even close. Sorry.
1
John Lennon: " I wish I could play like BB King, but I can't"
Bill Wyman: "“He just influenced so many guitarists because of that style he played, particularly Eric [Clapton] and many others… he was unique in that way. If you think of BB King, he was a giant in the 20th century, a giant – like Ray Charles, like Louis Armstrong, like Duke Ellington and people like that.”
See here:http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/10-legendary-acts-that-wouldnt-e...
Bill Wyman: "“He just influenced so many guitarists because of that style he played, particularly Eric [Clapton] and many others… he was unique in that way. If you think of BB King, he was a giant in the 20th century, a giant – like Ray Charles, like Louis Armstrong, like Duke Ellington and people like that.”
See here:http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/10-legendary-acts-that-wouldnt-e...
4
Snidely dismissing Pete Seeger? "Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth"
36
What exactly is the point of this op-ed? That famous rockers get old and die? Or some just get old? Or some die young? And that this is sad?
Okay, whatever.
Okay, whatever.
13
Why so grumpy? Everything needs a "point"?
10
I'm sure the Romans had some great visionary musicians.
4
The deaths of the musicians I grew up with is really beginning to bother me this year. We lose a Bowie, a Kanter, A Frey, a Maurice White. Yet Cheney,Rumsfeld,Putin, still walk the earth. I daresay many people would gladly trade Shkreli the drug profiteer, or the 2 little Virginia Tech monsters who murdered that little girl for Bowie or even Alan Rickman. The sadness is only being compounded by the feeling that America is once again copying 1968,1972, & 2000, with apparently nothing being learned from those events.
23
Indeed,
History's teachings are always ignored due to politics, greed and most of all hubris.
An obvious example of this is the Mideast...despite all the history concerning Iraq and the Mideast we eventually became embedded and stuck in this never ending sectarian war....W ignored it and now this is what we have. I would say that his father was smart enough to try and disengage but the son was not smart enough to see the history.
Now the Republicans will tell us we have to deal with the here and now rather then rehash old history....military solutions never work....they seemed to have not learned that let alone acknowledge it...and they continue to think that they can win the mideast....what is the definition of insanity?
History's teachings are always ignored due to politics, greed and most of all hubris.
An obvious example of this is the Mideast...despite all the history concerning Iraq and the Mideast we eventually became embedded and stuck in this never ending sectarian war....W ignored it and now this is what we have. I would say that his father was smart enough to try and disengage but the son was not smart enough to see the history.
Now the Republicans will tell us we have to deal with the here and now rather then rehash old history....military solutions never work....they seemed to have not learned that let alone acknowledge it...and they continue to think that they can win the mideast....what is the definition of insanity?
3
I'd agree, but what's the deal with Alan Rickman? Why on earth put him in such horrible company? He was a good guy.
Finally someon's mentioned Maurice White.
Thank you.
Him and his band were supernaturally great. Far greater and more far reaching than Jefferson Airplane or the regrettable Eagles if you ask me.
White and Bowie: peers.
Thank you.
Him and his band were supernaturally great. Far greater and more far reaching than Jefferson Airplane or the regrettable Eagles if you ask me.
White and Bowie: peers.
2
You forgot to mention the metal legend, Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead,
who passed away recently.
who passed away recently.
15
I don't think he forgot Lemmy. He just didn't put him in the company of those mentioned. I don't disagree with that call.
1
C'mon boomers, get over yourselves.
Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Fats Domino still walk this earth and they helped kick the whole thing off.
Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Fats Domino still walk this earth and they helped kick the whole thing off.
13
As are Chuck Berry & Buddy Guy
4
speaking in general terms, " He was so much older then." was captured by Dylan as a bumble bee is caught in a jar, for all to see. ' I'm younger than that now...'
3
Not to quibble but Don Henley sang Hotel California
7
Sorry, meant Freddie Mercury.. I wept
5
Or Lemmy Kilmister (December 28) who famously switched from drinking whiskey to vodka "for health reasons". Lived hard ('til 70) and ended up succumbing to prostate cancer. It wasn't the lifestyle that killed Lemmy.
6
Another member of the 27 club that no one ever mentions is Brad Nowell of Sublime. If you never listened to their music, give it a try it will be a real treat.
Nowell died just as their self titled album (their third overall) which I consider a masterpiece, came out. It still gives me chills when I listen to it over how good it is.
Funny though All four original members of both Black Sabbath, and Motley Crue are still alive. Go figure.
Nowell died just as their self titled album (their third overall) which I consider a masterpiece, came out. It still gives me chills when I listen to it over how good it is.
Funny though All four original members of both Black Sabbath, and Motley Crue are still alive. Go figure.
3
I was only 14 when Jimi Hendrix died. Although the deaths of each of the musicians I've enjoyed listening to for decades saddens me, Hendrix's death still saddens me the most. I've still never heard anything like him and probably never will.
10
Lay off Pete Seeger who never was, or desired to be, a rock star. He aimed a bit higher, no pun intended.
41
We all have our trip scheduled to Belize, to borrow a metaphor from "Breaking Bad". We just don't know when. So, as somebody said "And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make".
1
Or, as Dylan put it: It's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there...
37
This article is absurd. Frey himself claimed that his lifestyle took years off his life. The ones that have passed recently have died well before the average age of their generation. And while some will live longer as you note, many others have died very, very young -- Joplin comes to mind first. Glorifying the lifestyle is a big mistake. And then we shake our fists at the opiod crisis. Oh yea, that's the prescribing doctors at fault. Ugh....
1
You forgot Lemmy who lived rock and roll, lifestyle included, his whole life. His was a more authentic existence than some of the others you mention - and for those of you wondering he did have a message: "we're Motörhead and we play rock and roll", nothing more.
5
Where have all the women gone? How about some Tina Turner?
3
Tina is still alive and therefore not relevant to the story? Did you read it?
6
Thanks for this, Tim. I'm in my mid-60's and very clearly remember getting the sad news about the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. Maybe it's just me but I get comfort from seeing the gods of my youth aging, just like me (except of course, probably with thicker wallets) and I wonder if we're experiencing similar things? Ordinary stuff - does Eric Clapton need bifocals? What did Bruce say to his oldest kid the first time he (or she) came home from sneaking beer or a joint after a Friday night with friends? How did Steve Stills feel when he heard that his old high school pal dropped dead from a heart attack while walking his dog? In 1969, we obsessed over what our rock heroes would do when they turned 30 (the age at which we couldn't trust anyone!) and here we are watching them closing in on 70, 75 and up.
7
i was born in 1950 and grew up with these rockers--plus i'm old enough to have known and enjoyed cole, como and others.
I went to see bowie in concert at the skydome in Toronto in 1990 and enjoyed seeing the david bowie is.....exhibition in paris last april.
bowie's death affected me than I thought it would. my main thought was all that fame, all that money, all that talent......and none of 'em made a difference.
I went to see bowie in concert at the skydome in Toronto in 1990 and enjoyed seeing the david bowie is.....exhibition in paris last april.
bowie's death affected me than I thought it would. my main thought was all that fame, all that money, all that talent......and none of 'em made a difference.
4
Also, back in April 2015, Jack Ely, 71, of the Kingsmen and "Louie, Louie" fame. After singing "me gotta go" so long ago, he eventually went.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/arts/music/jack-ely-who-sang-the-kings...
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/arts/music/jack-ely-who-sang-the-kings...
8
This must be the first column by Mr. Egan that left me cold. I grew up before the era he writes about and that music never appealed to me - at all!! Try that on for getting old!
3
Here is the thing. Back in the schoolyard in the mid 1950s or so, when Little Richard and Chuck Berry hit the airwaves, then Elvis, Bill Haley and everyone, It was momentous. A new music that happened as we (I was 10, 12 or so) could see adulthood coming. As we developed, so did the music. It was important to us back then, and part of our self awareness.
so if you, older did not understand, so be it. that was perhaps the point. (Neither did Pete Seeger, thus the reference that concerns so many commenters. we kids were pretty sick of tin pan alley controlled cutesy songs. Pete was a bit lecturing and sentimental, though well meaning. we liked raucous and maybe honest.)
so if you, older did not understand, so be it. that was perhaps the point. (Neither did Pete Seeger, thus the reference that concerns so many commenters. we kids were pretty sick of tin pan alley controlled cutesy songs. Pete was a bit lecturing and sentimental, though well meaning. we liked raucous and maybe honest.)
2
We are all of us timeless. Only the body dies away from us. We remain.
In this life words can live on for hundreds of years. Who doesn't know the English phrase "To be, or not to be...?"
Being, it turns out, is the answer to that question so wonderfully put by the bard.
That is the eternal part. Within each and every one of us.
So how do we uncover it, live it, and "be" it.
First turn off the intellectual noise. The mental chatter that is incessantly going on inside your head. That is the frightened, always gnawing ego that virtually all of us live with. By turning off the endless spigot we kill the ego.
Turning your attention inside is how you do that. If you pay no further attention to it it withers and dies. While it's dying look inside and you will find Being.
The best part? If you do this now, long before your moment of death, you no longer fear that natural part of life. Why? Because you know it is only the body passing away, which is illusion in the first place.
"When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in any way...."
In this life words can live on for hundreds of years. Who doesn't know the English phrase "To be, or not to be...?"
Being, it turns out, is the answer to that question so wonderfully put by the bard.
That is the eternal part. Within each and every one of us.
So how do we uncover it, live it, and "be" it.
First turn off the intellectual noise. The mental chatter that is incessantly going on inside your head. That is the frightened, always gnawing ego that virtually all of us live with. By turning off the endless spigot we kill the ego.
Turning your attention inside is how you do that. If you pay no further attention to it it withers and dies. While it's dying look inside and you will find Being.
The best part? If you do this now, long before your moment of death, you no longer fear that natural part of life. Why? Because you know it is only the body passing away, which is illusion in the first place.
"When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in any way...."
5
This is getting to be an awkward time for me, at least as far as memories are concerned. The teenaged icons of my early childhood - not terribly far removed from me in terms of age - are beginning to fade into eternity. When I was a little boy they seemed eternally youthful and indestructible. They weren't, of course. They were (and are) as vulnerable as any of us in their grip on that brittle thread that binds us to this earth. Time keeps flowing like a river into the sea....Has anybody here seen my old friend Lennon?
For every one who goes before me I fear it less and less.
http://tomdegan.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-8-1980.html
Tom Degan
For every one who goes before me I fear it less and less.
http://tomdegan.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-8-1980.html
Tom Degan
4
hey mr egan i am in tears. dang these are tears of life and love and of course music. thanks. i have been missing miles davis jerry garcia and janis for years. yeah this has been a rough few weeks with the rock star obits. i remember 30 years ago hearing my father lament the passing of some of his jazzers. yeah it seeks us all. but the music love of and feelings for never diminish. music is the best.
5
I must echo the sentiments of those who find the remark about Pete Seeger to be gratuitous and inappropriate. It saddens me every time I read of the passing of any musician who, even if only once, wrote or performed a song that affected me in a profound way. Some of those mentioned in Timothy Egan's column are among those whose deaths serve as reminders of the deep feelings that a well written song can still provoke.
"Where Have All The Flowers Gone", and "Turn, Turn, Turn" are among the songs Mr. Seeger is responsible for that still can inspire those feelings and perhaps even social change. His life is one to be emulated, and his work should not be ridiculed.
"Where Have All The Flowers Gone", and "Turn, Turn, Turn" are among the songs Mr. Seeger is responsible for that still can inspire those feelings and perhaps even social change. His life is one to be emulated, and his work should not be ridiculed.
89
Thank you idlacrom. I had the same reaction to that snark. Not sure why that was necessary. Turn Turn Turn - at least the version by The Byrds - still gives me goosebumps some 50 years after it was released. I tend to doubt I will be saying the same thing about this or any Op Ed!
24
Freddy Mercury?
7
I'd give a lot to have Janis Joplin back. I imagined at the time before her death that she would explore American music and bring us along with her into our old age. Obviously, it didn't happen.
She was a child when she died. See her in the documentary "Janis" and you'll see what I mean.
She was a child when she died. See her in the documentary "Janis" and you'll see what I mean.
13
It was a sobering day when I woke up older than Duane Allman was when he died.
27
Kurt Cobain's final words were said to borrow from Neil Young: "It's better to burn out than to fade away." His daughter, Frances Bean, remarked that our society loves the idea of artists immortalized as young people, even when that kind of adulation means they died early.
I'm in my 30s and have seen too many musicians taken from a live-fast-die-young-mentality to list here. But I often wonder what might have been.
And I love seeing so many of the 'aging rockers' who still can put so much into their performances, like Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and others. Like Bob Seger sang, "You can come back baby/Rock& Roll never forgets."
I'm in my 30s and have seen too many musicians taken from a live-fast-die-young-mentality to list here. But I often wonder what might have been.
And I love seeing so many of the 'aging rockers' who still can put so much into their performances, like Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and others. Like Bob Seger sang, "You can come back baby/Rock& Roll never forgets."
3
I was thinking the same thing just last night, after seeing news of the latest death, this time Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire - guess we have a lot of this to look forward to (with sadness).
All Boomers understand how fortunate we were to have grown up with this music as the soundtrack of our lives. Each passing makes me remember how my first glimpses of romantic love and rebellion came from those songs.
All Boomers understand how fortunate we were to have grown up with this music as the soundtrack of our lives. Each passing makes me remember how my first glimpses of romantic love and rebellion came from those songs.
8
Describing a person as "cadaverous" is in extremely poor taste and gratuitously unkind.
9
A beautiful elegy. Thank you.
2
Tim....nice column for a generation....I think boomers still think we are young and will not die for ages....our hope seems to change are perception of reality and aging....getting old does suck but all of us have great memories to keep us young.
3
We were the generation that 'didn't trust anybody over 30'. Those were our musicians, some of them lucky enough to make it past their youth. Now my husband says 'don't trust anybody under 60'. I thought we were all supposed to live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse. It's too late for that now. We're getting old, looking the part and nobody wants to die anyway, at any age. Here's hoping for a few more healthy years before it all comes to an end, as it must.
4
Like most people my age, I too have been struck by the recent passings of the titans of my youth and middle age. As an ardent devotee of the Jefferson Airplane, I thought I would have been more gut checked by the recent passing of Kantner than I have been. When I learned a few days later that Signe Anderson had passed, I thought more of the odd quirks of chance, of what might have been, than of what had been. My ardor has always been more intense for Grace Slick because, as Auden said of Yeats, she was silly like us.
But let's not get too carried away fetishizing the idols of our own time. On reading this column, I thought of Mozart, dead at 35; of Chatterton, gone at 17 by his own hand; of Shelley and Edward Williams tossed by a storm into the Bay of Spezia; of Byron, the first rock star done in by his own excesses. And I think of Keats, dying four months after his 25th birthday. A few years before he had written his great odes and in them confronted the questions raised by this column. We too often forget that Keats penned the phrase "forever young" a long time before Dylan became what he would become. Keats realized that "forever young" exists only on clay burial urns that, with time, will themselves crumble.
And lastly, I think of Wordsworth and Coleridge, who spent most of their adult years mired in the depths of regressive thought. Oh, how like many of my fellow baby boomers they were. I imagine in 40 years the Sanders kids will be much the same.
But let's not get too carried away fetishizing the idols of our own time. On reading this column, I thought of Mozart, dead at 35; of Chatterton, gone at 17 by his own hand; of Shelley and Edward Williams tossed by a storm into the Bay of Spezia; of Byron, the first rock star done in by his own excesses. And I think of Keats, dying four months after his 25th birthday. A few years before he had written his great odes and in them confronted the questions raised by this column. We too often forget that Keats penned the phrase "forever young" a long time before Dylan became what he would become. Keats realized that "forever young" exists only on clay burial urns that, with time, will themselves crumble.
And lastly, I think of Wordsworth and Coleridge, who spent most of their adult years mired in the depths of regressive thought. Oh, how like many of my fellow baby boomers they were. I imagine in 40 years the Sanders kids will be much the same.
2
John Donne penned his Meditation XVII in the 17th century, yet the words are as apropos in 2016 as they were in the 1600's.
"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."
- John Donne, 1572 - 1631
"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."
- John Donne, 1572 - 1631
72
Rock stars serve as a mixed metaphor for a culture that worships youth and treats aging as an avoidable option. In their prime these artists channeled the alienation from authority and society's sins that define the philosophy of youth in Western culture. At their best, they encouraged movements that sought to remake society in a more humane image. At their worst, they modeled a lifestyle that courted death in an effort to escape mundane reality.
Those who survived to the old age they once dreaded have evolved into symbols of nostalgia for a generation that yearns for a revival of the passion and idealism they remember from their youth. A barely intelligible Bob Dylan may even inspire a current generation whose members read about his protest songs in history class.
The aura of rebellion that surrounded these icons in their youth masked the optimism that drove the protest movements of the 60s. Racism and militarism may have deformed the society that nurtured the Baby Boomers, but America's leadership role also fostered the belief that concerted efforts could destroy these evils.
Can the current generation of musicians, raised in a more pessimistic environment, play the same inspirational role as the singers who transformed Woodstock into a symbol of protest against a deeply flawed society? Today's problems present challenges equal to those of the 60s, but a national mood that nourishes paranoia and buoys the candidacy of a Trump or Cruz, may stifle a new Dylan.
Those who survived to the old age they once dreaded have evolved into symbols of nostalgia for a generation that yearns for a revival of the passion and idealism they remember from their youth. A barely intelligible Bob Dylan may even inspire a current generation whose members read about his protest songs in history class.
The aura of rebellion that surrounded these icons in their youth masked the optimism that drove the protest movements of the 60s. Racism and militarism may have deformed the society that nurtured the Baby Boomers, but America's leadership role also fostered the belief that concerted efforts could destroy these evils.
Can the current generation of musicians, raised in a more pessimistic environment, play the same inspirational role as the singers who transformed Woodstock into a symbol of protest against a deeply flawed society? Today's problems present challenges equal to those of the 60s, but a national mood that nourishes paranoia and buoys the candidacy of a Trump or Cruz, may stifle a new Dylan.
6
When I was younger, music was probably the most important thing in my life as those artists mentioned seemed to affirm and guide my own personal discovery and growth. It was more than just the soundtrack of my life, but rather an intimate emotional companion
As such, the music and those artists were as important to me as anything else, and as I grew older those songs took on an almost mystical and nostalgic meaning as they were so integrated into the past me, a past that slips away further away every day.
So when I read of these artists passing, it hits more on a more personal and emotional level than say an astronaut or politician or actor from that era. They were my companions, advisers, affirmation, and helped build the construct that I am today.
These next years are gonna be rough.
As such, the music and those artists were as important to me as anything else, and as I grew older those songs took on an almost mystical and nostalgic meaning as they were so integrated into the past me, a past that slips away further away every day.
So when I read of these artists passing, it hits more on a more personal and emotional level than say an astronaut or politician or actor from that era. They were my companions, advisers, affirmation, and helped build the construct that I am today.
These next years are gonna be rough.
15
Evhttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/opinion/giving-obama-his-due.htmler since the Bluesmen (ex-slaves or their descendants) and imported European folksongs (known in communities and then solo players and singers), America has been a culture dominated by popular song. Radio, recorded 3 1/2 minute tunes, entertainers, business run music industry and all the rest deepened attachment to the singers voices and messages throughout the 20th century until the present. Song writers (Foster, Berlin, Porter, Tin Pan Alley, Brill Building, 50s' Philly Rockers, etc.) allowed for individual voices (Crosby, Sinatra, Charles), then R&B, R&R stars and bands, to capture and convey experience and emotion on a deeply personal level (as literature once did), as the Egan and commentators note. It is easy to understand the passion returned to rock and other singers upon their death for the passion they communicated to the sense of youth within us and the times in which they and we lived. Pop music is of its time (as Bowie well knew); its the definition of popular! And the idols of one generation (Elvis, Lennon, Bowie - as well as Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Tupac) seem not to speak to the next. It makes me wonder about the psychological power of songs by and for adolescence and the young as it does about how much we invest in entertainment, stardom and celebrity. As well as how much popular music itself can actually effect us as we grow up.
1
Rock star obituaries?
In this year 2016 we had better get used to it. The years 1955-95 were pretty much the sweep of rock with '65 to '75 the hard core. The artists born between 1935--50, the much beloved of the hard core of rock, are lining up to great gig in sky. Basically all the Fender and Gibson and Martin acoustic guys.
I want to thank those guys from the bottom of my heart. When I was a kid there was no communication of heart and soul of literature or much of anything else I can remember. It was only music that seemed to have integrity. I liked films, but I was always aware that actors were, well, actors, while musicians gave something actual, individual, from depth of being.
Thankfully in later years I found literature could do all of that too, but to this day to hear a b*lls to the wall Fender Strat or Gibson Les Paul Standard played by a master puts a chill down my spine. And there were so many great players, an entire generation which in music more than any other place in life you could get a clear picture of development of personal style.
What an embarrassment to the educational system that almost any boy could recognize difference in style between, say, Hendrix and Page but not know about style in literature or painting or anything else. It makes me ask if anyone in democratic societies really cared about individuality all those years...Rock stars, especially great rock guitarists, showed me more than any other people what it meant to be an actual person.
In this year 2016 we had better get used to it. The years 1955-95 were pretty much the sweep of rock with '65 to '75 the hard core. The artists born between 1935--50, the much beloved of the hard core of rock, are lining up to great gig in sky. Basically all the Fender and Gibson and Martin acoustic guys.
I want to thank those guys from the bottom of my heart. When I was a kid there was no communication of heart and soul of literature or much of anything else I can remember. It was only music that seemed to have integrity. I liked films, but I was always aware that actors were, well, actors, while musicians gave something actual, individual, from depth of being.
Thankfully in later years I found literature could do all of that too, but to this day to hear a b*lls to the wall Fender Strat or Gibson Les Paul Standard played by a master puts a chill down my spine. And there were so many great players, an entire generation which in music more than any other place in life you could get a clear picture of development of personal style.
What an embarrassment to the educational system that almost any boy could recognize difference in style between, say, Hendrix and Page but not know about style in literature or painting or anything else. It makes me ask if anyone in democratic societies really cared about individuality all those years...Rock stars, especially great rock guitarists, showed me more than any other people what it meant to be an actual person.
7
'What an embarrassment to the educational system that almost any boy could recognize difference in style between, say, Hendrix and Page but not know about style in literature or painting or anything else. '
I can't help wondering if the puerility of our politics and the paucity of our philosophy stems from the fact that most people apparently get their 'big thinks' from rock music. I cringe whenever someone quotes John Lennon as a great philosopher or, God save the mark!, asserts Bob Dylan should be nominated for the Nobel in Literature. I mean, they're good in their place. I like some rock music, really I do. And some rock musicians did and do have both musicianship and intellectual chops - Warren Zevon, Frank Zappa, Sting, Van Morrison, for a very incomplete list. But for every Van Morrison who's actually read Rimbaud, there is a Jim Morrison spouting druggy pretentious junque, and a hundred wannabes who couldn't rub two brain cells together to get a knee jerk.
I can't help wondering if the puerility of our politics and the paucity of our philosophy stems from the fact that most people apparently get their 'big thinks' from rock music. I cringe whenever someone quotes John Lennon as a great philosopher or, God save the mark!, asserts Bob Dylan should be nominated for the Nobel in Literature. I mean, they're good in their place. I like some rock music, really I do. And some rock musicians did and do have both musicianship and intellectual chops - Warren Zevon, Frank Zappa, Sting, Van Morrison, for a very incomplete list. But for every Van Morrison who's actually read Rimbaud, there is a Jim Morrison spouting druggy pretentious junque, and a hundred wannabes who couldn't rub two brain cells together to get a knee jerk.
1
Each time I learn of the death of a rock star dies of whom I had a personal memory, it gives me an opportunity to recall not just that memory but who I was at that time and how that experience contributed to who I am at this moment. And, of course, to re-appreciate the music.
For some reason, I'll figure out why, the death of Amy Winehouse haunts me.
The death of Signe Anderson evoked a memory of a transition in eras - from the happy Motown, Beach Boys, early Beatles, early Stones to the anti-war, street drug anti-establishment - a tone that seemed symbolized by Signe Anderson moving on and Gracie Slick stepping in.
For some reason, I'll figure out why, the death of Amy Winehouse haunts me.
The death of Signe Anderson evoked a memory of a transition in eras - from the happy Motown, Beach Boys, early Beatles, early Stones to the anti-war, street drug anti-establishment - a tone that seemed symbolized by Signe Anderson moving on and Gracie Slick stepping in.
5
In re Amy Winehouse - because she had a beautiful female voice.. and there is no sweeter sound on Earth.
2
I, at age 60, am right in the middle of the baby-boom generation. I seem to remember that most of my rock heroes were about a decade older than me. Older, wiser(so I thought) men. And they were all men, at that time. So, a lot of them have already died young from the usual excesses. Now they are starting to die of natural causes. Still a bit premature, since the life of a touring rock band doesn't lend itself to a healthy lifestyle. I followed their example of hedonism, and ended up as an underachiever with a lifelong drug-related disability. Such is life, and unlike school, the lesson comes after the experience.
11
Bonnie Raitt? Linda Ronstadt?
2
I was talking about the ones who died back in the day. And forgive me, I forgot to list Janis Joplin.
1
Having grown up listening to the voices of Mick, Bruce, Roger, Jimi, Bob (Seger), Geddy (Lee), Mark (Knopfler), and most of all, Robert (Plant), I feel like I almost know all of them on a first name basis because although I've never met any of them, and probably wouldn't want to, they were all there in all the most memorable times of my life. It'll be sad indeed when they too pass away.
3
The second-to-last paragraph about Pete Seeger and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone"...John Belushi, smashing his guitar...The tone of it is so weirdly out of sync with the rest of the piece. Does Mr Egan completely dismiss both the indomitable, essential Pete Seeger and this incredibly beautiful, haunting, heartbreaking Dylan song? I'm mystified. Someone -- please illuminate. I have believed Egan to be a sensitive and useful voice in the Times and wonder if I am missing something. Maybe he is testing, for a moment, foolishly, his inner rock star. If so, let's be very grateful he himself has, as far as we know, never picked up a guitar or written a song and enjoyed the imprimatur of the Times to promote it.
43
My thought exactly. Jarring and kind of mean.
3
Dylan song? Dylan had nothing to do with it.
2
Galls me as well.
4
I love those old rockers - and the ones that died young, too. But don't pick on Pete Seeger! I first saw Pete in person when my husband and I were thinking of moving to Beacon; he was playing and singing at one of Beacon's seasonal festivals, his amp solar-powered. Pete was a fixture at most town events, always picking and singing, always friendly to everyone, always promoting a cause that helped everyday people. When our school district ran out of money to keep up an annual music event, Pete gave money for a fund to keep it going. I can't tell all the other things he did for us here - not enough space. But he kept working - for music and for people - and living his life until the day he died. Pete also wrote "We Shall Overcome".
195
Pete Seeger's copyright for We Shall Overcome is as a derivative work. The song's origins are unclear, but other writers, including Louise Shropshire, contributed to it. Seeger himself always acknowledged that fact. Nevertheless, it is Seeger's version that became the anthem the world has known since the 1950's. It is noteworthy that Seeger, and the other copyright holders, gave away their right to royalties to charitable causes. http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/05/we-shall-overco...
9
Ramblin' Jack Elliot tells the story of playing at the Madison Sq Garden event to honor Pete. Springsteen and the other rockers spent all their time in his dressing room getting stories of Pete and Woody and Cisco, and the rest.
Tim, you are being a little hard on Seeger. "Seeger Sessions" is probably my favorite Springsteen album and he is the greatest rocker of them all, in my humble opinion.
Tim, you are being a little hard on Seeger. "Seeger Sessions" is probably my favorite Springsteen album and he is the greatest rocker of them all, in my humble opinion.
6
Thank you!!!
"... life chips away at hope and ambition."
Sigh.
Sigh.
4
Thanks again Tim, for taking me somewhere these pages don't commonly lead me. I guess I've gotten over the early deaths -- though I'd add Gram (just a few weeks from 27) or Hank (a month or a bit beyond) -- but each of the new additions, old though they may be, add to the cumulative sense of loss. Maybe it's a geezer thing -- and I certainly resemble that description -- but somehow I feel that there are very few tunes these days that folks will still be singing along with or to ourselves when years go by (even if I'm not around to sing them). I cling to the old tunes, back when words actually meant something or told a story worth telling, back when real instruments were played -- musicians who could make a guitar speak or a keyboard rock the room. It's only Rock and Roll, but I love it!
1
Yes; this goes along with Jon Pareles's recent piece in the NYRB about contemporary "music." As a friend said, echoing Michael Pollan about food, the newer "hit machine" resembles processed music product...not music.:(
3
Not to suggest these rock stars didn't earn a proper obituary but do all of these folks require boldface headlines? Even Medal of Honor winners and astronauts are relegated to the routine roster on the obit page. Dead former rock stars are just that - nothing more and nothing less. These folks creative juices for the most part dried up decades ago and they just rehash old tunes on progressively smaller stages squeezing out a paycheck. Try that in the real world when you are required to learn new processes daily to stay competitive at your job.
How many of us mourn our school teachers, much less remember their names?
How many of us mourn our school teachers, much less remember their names?
6
Well-written and oh-so-depressing.
4
I don't understand Egan's point. I'm 60, and rock stars, and movie stars and other celebrities, like everyone else, have died regularly from all kinds of causes my entire life. Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, John Lennon, George Harrison, Warren Zevon, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Marilyn Monroe, Janis Joplin, David Bowie ... a couple, Zevon, Harrison, I wept over; others caused me to pause pensively; still others I shrugged, 'hm,' recognising the name, and plodded on another day toward the end of my own life.
People die, is all. Some of them kill themselves quickly, some slowly; some die of natural causes, some by accident, some taken out violently. It's really just that simple. Camus' Caligula was driven mad by the implacability and inanity of this truth: Men die, and they are not happy.
I guess Egan's point, if he has one, is summed up in the Jefferson Airplane song 'Lather':
Lather was thirty years old today,
And Lather came foam from his tongue.
He looked at me eyes wide and plainly said,
Is it true that I'm no longer young?
And the children call him famous,
what the old men call insane,
And sometimes he's so nameless,
That he hardly knows which game to play...
Which words to say...
And I should have told him, "No, you're not old."
And I should have let him go on...smiling...babywide.'
Everyone around Lather grew up. Memento mori.
People die, is all. Some of them kill themselves quickly, some slowly; some die of natural causes, some by accident, some taken out violently. It's really just that simple. Camus' Caligula was driven mad by the implacability and inanity of this truth: Men die, and they are not happy.
I guess Egan's point, if he has one, is summed up in the Jefferson Airplane song 'Lather':
Lather was thirty years old today,
And Lather came foam from his tongue.
He looked at me eyes wide and plainly said,
Is it true that I'm no longer young?
And the children call him famous,
what the old men call insane,
And sometimes he's so nameless,
That he hardly knows which game to play...
Which words to say...
And I should have told him, "No, you're not old."
And I should have let him go on...smiling...babywide.'
Everyone around Lather grew up. Memento mori.
5
Personally, as a baby boomer, I take a certain comfort is seeing the rock stars of my youth now dying of natural causes rather than drug overdoses, or driving a motorcycle into the back of a truck.
Also, 3 out of 4 of the original Ramones died of forms of cancer, and all 4 made it at least to "middle age".
Also, 3 out of 4 of the original Ramones died of forms of cancer, and all 4 made it at least to "middle age".
5
Please don't forget Lou Reed. And while we're talking Beatles, George Harrison.
20
Thank you for not forgetting the ones that died way too young. I often wonder what Jimi would be doing these days. Probably still setting the world on fire with his guitar playing (if not setting the actual guitar on fire). And Janis? My word, how her music and singing would have grown as she grew older and experienced even more of life's ups and downs.
As for John? I can't even think about that December evening without getting misty-eyed. I think of John often and wonder what great music he would have made about our current Age of Greed.
As for John? I can't even think about that December evening without getting misty-eyed. I think of John often and wonder what great music he would have made about our current Age of Greed.
6
I saw Paul McCartney play in Chicago a couple of summers ago. I went mainly because I'd never seen any of the Beatles play live before. He was surprisingly energetic and the backup singers and musicians did an artful job of covering up the deterioration in his own voice. It was more fun than I'd expected.
I'm in my 50's and I'd say I was younger than the median age in the crowd. I think McCartney on stage and just about everybody in the audience got to spend a couple of hours revisiting their youths. I think I'll go to more concerts; when does Springsteen come to Chicago?
I'm in my 50's and I'd say I was younger than the median age in the crowd. I think McCartney on stage and just about everybody in the audience got to spend a couple of hours revisiting their youths. I think I'll go to more concerts; when does Springsteen come to Chicago?
4
The baby boom generation, 77 million strong, is aging, and the oldest boomers turn 70 this year. David Bowie and Glenn Frey were born in the early years of the boom; Paul Kantner just before. We all like to think we'll live forever, but older people die. Also, Springsteen has been doing that Thunder Road microphone thing for at least 35 years now, since the last time I saw him, when he was in his 30s and I was in my 20s.
3
I am so grateful to have been the right age to experience these great artists at their peaks.
13
David Bowie and George Harrison died of smoking. I heard it's bad for you, let me check the Surgeon General's report from, um, 1964. Pete Seeger fought for social justice and gave the finger to the HUAC witch hunters and I have no doubt is in heaven based on those alone.
I would not wish cancer on my worst enemy. It is very gratifying to me as a musician that many clubs are now smoke-free and I don't exit them smelling like an ashtray. I wish Mr. Jones/Bowie and Mr. Harrison and so many other talented musicians had given up cigs and booze and drugs.
Therapy good. Medicating bad.
I would not wish cancer on my worst enemy. It is very gratifying to me as a musician that many clubs are now smoke-free and I don't exit them smelling like an ashtray. I wish Mr. Jones/Bowie and Mr. Harrison and so many other talented musicians had given up cigs and booze and drugs.
Therapy good. Medicating bad.
15
Pete also refused to have Lucky Strike as a sponsor on the Weaver's Radio program.
5
Let's not forget Duane Allman and Berry Oakley, founding members of the Allman Brothers Band, and who died before seeing age 25.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are the survivors -- the "core four" of the Grateful Dead, whose Fare Thee Well concerts in California and Chicago proved that The Music Never Stopped.
Or Warren Haynes, who, with Government Mule, paid tribute to the Dead, the Allman Brothers and The Band (we miss you, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Levon Helm).
But once in a while, tune into our satellite radio (or other music service). Listen to the creativity still happening in music, inspired by the likes of all the artists, named and unnamed, in Mr. Egan's column. Go do the local clubs where musicians born a quarter century ago put their own interpretations into the music of all the above bands, or Stevie Ray Vaughn, or the legendary blues masters that inspired him.
The fact that the music is preserved and that its influence keeps growing keeps the flame lit by rock, rhythm and blues pioneers.
Did I mention that Chuck Berry is still alive?
Hail, Hail Rock & Roll.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are the survivors -- the "core four" of the Grateful Dead, whose Fare Thee Well concerts in California and Chicago proved that The Music Never Stopped.
Or Warren Haynes, who, with Government Mule, paid tribute to the Dead, the Allman Brothers and The Band (we miss you, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Levon Helm).
But once in a while, tune into our satellite radio (or other music service). Listen to the creativity still happening in music, inspired by the likes of all the artists, named and unnamed, in Mr. Egan's column. Go do the local clubs where musicians born a quarter century ago put their own interpretations into the music of all the above bands, or Stevie Ray Vaughn, or the legendary blues masters that inspired him.
The fact that the music is preserved and that its influence keeps growing keeps the flame lit by rock, rhythm and blues pioneers.
Did I mention that Chuck Berry is still alive?
Hail, Hail Rock & Roll.
10
Excellent comment. There are still many alive. The ones mentioned are the other ones that had a deep and lasting epistemological impact on the rock genre and the general culture as well. Their ideas have impact!
1
As I began reading this piece, an old friend I hadn't seen or heard from but once in 30 years, called to inform me that a mutual acquaintance died last night. My old friend described our mutual acquaintance as being of the "Woodstock Generation".
Honestly, I miss them all, starting with Brian Jones and Kieth Relf, the first of my demigods to die. I still cry at the thought of Jimi and Lennon's deaths, and now Bowie's......all three musical geniuses.
Honestly, I miss them all, starting with Brian Jones and Kieth Relf, the first of my demigods to die. I still cry at the thought of Jimi and Lennon's deaths, and now Bowie's......all three musical geniuses.
8
What I'm enjoying about the still living legends of the 60s and 70s is how they can now be so frank about what happened back then. What seems to be a common motif is their amazement in having even survived that era of unbridled sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, and the feeling of wonder that here they are, in their late 60s and 70s, still alive and generally kicking. For me Keith and Mick still have a wonderful, youthful, charm: as long as they keep that twinkle in their eye, we know that life is good. And geez, what Aretha did at the Kennedy Honors this winter is flat out otherworldly sublime, it was just as powerful as anything she had ever done in her storied career.
15
Just to add
Maurice White, Earth, Wind and Fire.
Maurice White, Earth, Wind and Fire.
10
Thank you for this. John Lennon. Rest in peace.
3
We might think about adding Gram Parson (d. 1973) to the 27 Club. He passed from the usual excesses just a few weeks short of turning 27. He, too, was a monster talent, with so much to give. In many ways his pioneering work in country rock made the Eagles possible. Very nice piece, Timothy.
4
isnt it amazing the power of music! thanks to all of them for not listening to their parents and going for that 9-5 job at the factory! hope that train keepsa rolling a little longer down the tracks for all of us to appreciate!
5
Pete Seeger knew that "cool" was a myth and chose to simply live an exceedingly meaningful life intent on making things better for people, especially the powerless. Most rock stars are not quite as motivated. In their hearts, they know that "cool" is a myth but choose to live out their mythically cool life in the way normal people live their lives: as a accident of circumstance. And then they die. They used to say today's obits are tomorrow's birdcage liner. Still true today, but it's mostly gone digital.
14
Many rock stars were slightly older than the baby boomers. The peak of the baby boom was about 1955, so the average baby boomer is now about 60.
However, in order to be able to sing to audiences of teenagers and college students in the golden era of 1967-75, you had to be in at least in your twenties, born between 1940 and 1950, if not earlier.
However, in order to be able to sing to audiences of teenagers and college students in the golden era of 1967-75, you had to be in at least in your twenties, born between 1940 and 1950, if not earlier.
8
I agree with 1940 1950 birthdates. In my post before yours I goofed and wrote 1935-40 when it should have been 1935-50.
I believe that we deeply mourn the passing of these rockers for the mostl part because we are mourning our own youth. Their music was the soundtrack to a time, maybe the last time, we felt truly free and anything was still possible.
246
Molly, your comment nailed it for me. When we lost Glenn Frey it really hit me. The Eagles permeated my existence during my 1972-1978 junior high and high school days. We were coincidental on the calendar, right down to the last day.
When Frey, Bowie, or any of the others leave us, it's another piece chipped off of the foundation of our past. And while the music always remains, and we know we can never go back in time, the losses of these wonderfully talented individuals serves as *confirmation* that we can never, ever go back again.
When Frey, Bowie, or any of the others leave us, it's another piece chipped off of the foundation of our past. And while the music always remains, and we know we can never go back in time, the losses of these wonderfully talented individuals serves as *confirmation* that we can never, ever go back again.
5
Although I have many regrets about my conduct while coming of age, I would do it all again - but only if the soundtrack is the same.
2
"Don't worry too much, it'll happen to you.
We were children once, playing with toys."
Ars longa, vita brevis est.
We were children once, playing with toys."
Ars longa, vita brevis est.
8
I dread not only the front page these days for the Harrison, Lennon, Bowie, Garcia, Jones, Cash, white, fry, kantner, et al bold face inspirations , but almost worse , the small , almost unnoticed obits in the back about Jack Bruce, Syd Barrett, Marc Bolan, Levon Helm, Cippolina, Spencer Dryden, And too many more
24
Ahh, Jack Bruce..Yes Yes Yes
1
Death is the great equalizer
1
Thank you Timothy. I loved your piece. I was not a real David Bowie or Eagles fan, although every once in awhile something happens and Changes or Hotel California go through my mind. Their passing has saddened my baby boomer heart. But Paul Kantner, wow! I spent an inordinate amount of time my first year away at college listening to the Airplane. Surrealistic Pillow, After Bathing at Baxters and later Volunteers. What a time that was. The Airplane was so much a part of it for me. I'm glad Neil Young continues to rock on.
4
In heaven they got a hell of a band.
12
"..everything is fine..."
1
...I'm older than that now.
Thanks Roger
Thanks Roger
4
Lovely last paragraph. Thank you.
1
Musicians have always walked on the wold side. The Bluesmen of days gonna by were not Choir Boys, either.
An almost universal story is that boys become musicians to attract girls where one presumes debauchery begins. If you had a nickel for every musician that has owned up to that you would be well off if not rich.
Rock and Roll as a style of music will never die, but as a movement died long ago. When we started hearing the anthems of our youth in advertising to sell to mow middle aged Boomers the writing was on the wall. When bands of old started the nostalgia tours with one or two original members the mortician was summoned. When the last Paul McCartney hit 70 it was all over.
I am from the tail end of the Baby Boom and am 54- not old, but well into Middle Age. The oldest Boomers are now 71 years old. The old men I see wearing the Black Baseball Caps with military logos on them no longer say World War II- they say Vietnam.
As Bob Seger sang:
"Rock And Roll Never Forgets"
So you're a little bit older and a lot less bolder
Than you used to be...
An almost universal story is that boys become musicians to attract girls where one presumes debauchery begins. If you had a nickel for every musician that has owned up to that you would be well off if not rich.
Rock and Roll as a style of music will never die, but as a movement died long ago. When we started hearing the anthems of our youth in advertising to sell to mow middle aged Boomers the writing was on the wall. When bands of old started the nostalgia tours with one or two original members the mortician was summoned. When the last Paul McCartney hit 70 it was all over.
I am from the tail end of the Baby Boom and am 54- not old, but well into Middle Age. The oldest Boomers are now 71 years old. The old men I see wearing the Black Baseball Caps with military logos on them no longer say World War II- they say Vietnam.
As Bob Seger sang:
"Rock And Roll Never Forgets"
So you're a little bit older and a lot less bolder
Than you used to be...
6
Just to clarify your comment, its the three R's that will survive a nuclear apocalypse: rats, roaches and Keith Richards.
8
I heard it was cockroaches and Cher.
Lovely column - thank you so much!
1
They die young, they die old. You're right about John Lennon. What's going to happen when it's Mick Jaggers time? That will mark the end of an era
4
Why did you bring all this up? Haven't I cried enough?
3
There are times that Timothy has a poetry and moral force of a Pete Seeger. How great it would be if he could tap into his inner Pete more often than he does.
19
Rock icons enjoy a "revenant" status amongst many Baby Boomers; they seem to live on forever after their deaths. Unlike famed industrialists, politicians, writers, academics, actors or even the great philosophers, rock icons retain a very special place in the hearts of their fans that is resolute and endearing. Heck, even today people swear they just saw Elvis or John Lennon hailing a cab in Manhattan. Of course so much of it has to do with the depth and quality of the music these performers created, but there's also our infatuation with the debauchery and shenanigans of their "sex, drugs and rock n roll" lifestyles, that certain je ne sais quoi flair inherent with their devil-may-care rebelliousness that really adheres their spirit with us long after their passing. In a music world now dominated by synthesized "American Idol" pop sludge, the rock icons of the 60's and 70's will live on forever as "Masters of the Universe". RIP one and all.
13
Glen Frey. Fairly ordinary disease! So I've heard.
It's true that Rheumatoid Arthritis gets little respect for its outcomes - and there are many who prefer Rheumatoid Disease as the because deforming arthritis is only a symptom- in my case, it is far from the most significant.
Rheumatoid Arthritis is fairly unusual! only estimated 1.5 million case in the United States, more women than men.
RA is a serious immune system disease, with other issued common. Sjogren's is related and other conditions.
In my early 60s. I had osteo Arthitic damage. I discovered 10 years I had a Addison's disease, a result of an Addisonian crisis. More immune issues followed. RA, diabetes, neuropathy, etc.
I had difficulty coming down stairs, couldn't hold glasses or cups, close a fist, hold a book. It was the debilitating weakness of some RA cases.
My endocrinologist referred me to an excellent Rheumatologist. I I take an injected biologic weekly, DMARDS, etc. Others for hypothyroidism, etc. Cervical fusions Three vertebra damaged by osteoarthritis AND RA.
I've broken ribs more than once, Warfarin makes falls riskier. Sjogrens makes it worse.
Flares are debilitating. infections dangerous. Pneumonia is always close. Kids with infections are worrisome.mbalance is affected. Symptoms Go untreated because of drug conflicts.
I don't sit around thinking about it. I sometimes pick up a "cold" traveling that stays with me and keeps coming back. You live a normal life until you can'.
It's true that Rheumatoid Arthritis gets little respect for its outcomes - and there are many who prefer Rheumatoid Disease as the because deforming arthritis is only a symptom- in my case, it is far from the most significant.
Rheumatoid Arthritis is fairly unusual! only estimated 1.5 million case in the United States, more women than men.
RA is a serious immune system disease, with other issued common. Sjogren's is related and other conditions.
In my early 60s. I had osteo Arthitic damage. I discovered 10 years I had a Addison's disease, a result of an Addisonian crisis. More immune issues followed. RA, diabetes, neuropathy, etc.
I had difficulty coming down stairs, couldn't hold glasses or cups, close a fist, hold a book. It was the debilitating weakness of some RA cases.
My endocrinologist referred me to an excellent Rheumatologist. I I take an injected biologic weekly, DMARDS, etc. Others for hypothyroidism, etc. Cervical fusions Three vertebra damaged by osteoarthritis AND RA.
I've broken ribs more than once, Warfarin makes falls riskier. Sjogrens makes it worse.
Flares are debilitating. infections dangerous. Pneumonia is always close. Kids with infections are worrisome.mbalance is affected. Symptoms Go untreated because of drug conflicts.
I don't sit around thinking about it. I sometimes pick up a "cold" traveling that stays with me and keeps coming back. You live a normal life until you can'.
8
I was walking through the fog and snow at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island when I found out John Lennon had been shot. I was visiting a friend who was sick. He told me and I walked to Main Street to pick him up some orange juice and something to eat and had a long think about John Lennon. When I returned to my friend's apartment we listened to the radio and then turned it off and talked about John Lennon. Then I left and returned to my own apartment where, on the turntable was John Lennon's Mind Games – a record I'd been listening to the entire month. Only that. I was 20 at the time and I realized that the world and my life had changed. I'd gotten a lot older a lot quicker than I'd ever thought. The things we learn from art and the artists who made their mark define us as much as our own deaths will.
38
David Bowie's "Lazarus" informed us explicitly and powerfully of his dying. Amazing talent and a good man.
But why so snarky to Pete Seeger? Our world could use more of his activist ilk...
But why so snarky to Pete Seeger? Our world could use more of his activist ilk...
96
Fairly ordinary disease! It's true
Is there any such thing? The reality is that Rheumatoid Arthritis is fairly unusual I.e There were an estimated 1.5 million case in the United States, far more of them women than men. Most have relatively early onset.
About 2006 Obviously
Is there any such thing? The reality is that Rheumatoid Arthritis is fairly unusual I.e There were an estimated 1.5 million case in the United States, far more of them women than men. Most have relatively early onset.
About 2006 Obviously
Lovely column. I'm still mourning Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Patsy Cline . . .
10
Audiophiles will argue endlessly about which sound system was the best for delivering the highest level of pure fidelity.
For me, it was the AM radio that came with my '66 VW bug as I rode up and down the West Coast listening to the music of the late 60's and early 70's. It was the best music I have ever heard, as it went directly to my inner being. And something new was coming out every week --- a new album of songs, not just one song!
The people who made this music are getting old, as am I. I'm 68. But think of what they produced. All men must die. But think of what they produced. The best music I have ever heard...
For me, it was the AM radio that came with my '66 VW bug as I rode up and down the West Coast listening to the music of the late 60's and early 70's. It was the best music I have ever heard, as it went directly to my inner being. And something new was coming out every week --- a new album of songs, not just one song!
The people who made this music are getting old, as am I. I'm 68. But think of what they produced. All men must die. But think of what they produced. The best music I have ever heard...
67
Not to mention early FM album format stations. When pre-Clear Channel, the DJ's could play whatever they wished. I recall many evenings turning out the lights and mellowing out listening to DJs play whole album sides uninterrupted. That allowed me to be fully in the moment and one with the music itself, to really appreciate the artistry with zero hype involved. I think aside from touring, that type of free form radio programming was responsible for an incredible number album sales.
6
Where are the women rock stars? Missing are women who are still performing, who have been important voices for many generations.
75
I agree. Pat. they deserve a place of respect, as well. While not a "rocker" Joni Mitchell (whose passing will hit me as hard as Bowie's) was an innovative tuner, developing more than 50 of her own, that makes her music distinct and immediately recognizable. Bonnie Raitt has been an amazing talent, earning respect from the males in the industry from a very young age. And what of Nancy Wilson whose artistry is as much the backbone of Heart as her sister Anne's incredible vocals? Susan Tedeschi often wins respect, sometimes in the form of facial kudos on stage from her own husband, Derek Trucks, when they play together.
These four are my standout favorites, but there are so many more throughout the history of music, and still today, who shred with the best of them, whose talent, innovation and artistry absolutely shine through in this mostly male dominated field.
These four are my standout favorites, but there are so many more throughout the history of music, and still today, who shred with the best of them, whose talent, innovation and artistry absolutely shine through in this mostly male dominated field.
41
Janis Joplin. Shame on younTim.
2
Does anyone have any up-to-date information on Joni Mitchell and her medical condition? I will cry a river when I hear the news.
5
The expected narrative for the deaths of rock and rollers from the era of sex, drugs and wild excess is to die too young from self-destructive behavior. It's built into our brains alongside the lyrics and long-ago concerts that were messy and chaotic, but from which memorable music emerged.
So, when a David Bowie or Glen Frey passes away (that's the right euphemism), the pain for us is felt more deeply because the narrative breaks down and we are left with the bitter realization that rockers, no less than insurance agents and wheat farmers, are all in this together.
So, when a David Bowie or Glen Frey passes away (that's the right euphemism), the pain for us is felt more deeply because the narrative breaks down and we are left with the bitter realization that rockers, no less than insurance agents and wheat farmers, are all in this together.
31
Bowie and Springsteen actually grew in their careers. Bowie released another terrific album just before his death and Springsteen continues to write good songs as well as killing it in concert like a 20 year old.
Most of the others, not so much. The Stones are an oldies act, albeit a good one. Same with The Who. At 74, Bob Dylan hasn't been a vital performer for many years. After a series of appearances in the past decade proving he has no voice left, Dylan has shrunk into a gnarly, conspiracy obsessed parody of his former self, busily touring small venues where he's plagued by mass walkouts when they see what's in store.
Some memories are better left alone.
Most of the others, not so much. The Stones are an oldies act, albeit a good one. Same with The Who. At 74, Bob Dylan hasn't been a vital performer for many years. After a series of appearances in the past decade proving he has no voice left, Dylan has shrunk into a gnarly, conspiracy obsessed parody of his former self, busily touring small venues where he's plagued by mass walkouts when they see what's in store.
Some memories are better left alone.
12
The latter-day Dylan you're describing may be the one that exists on the Bizarro World. Here on planet Earth, however, he's not remotely how you've characterized him.
11
Really, are you that bitter about Dylan? Evidently, you have not listened to his later material-while not as good as it could be-it is better than you might think. As for his voice...you sing at his age-if you can.
7
When, exactly, did Bob have a singing voice?
6
That other song called "Changes" (the one by Phil Ochs) actually treats the theme of becoming and desisting. Ochs, too, died young.
17
Sit by my side, come as close as the air
Share in a memory of gray
Wander in my words, dream about the pictures
That I play of changes
Green leaves of summer turn red in the fall
To brown and to yellow they fade
And then they have to die, trapped within
The circle time parade of changes
Share in a memory of gray
Wander in my words, dream about the pictures
That I play of changes
Green leaves of summer turn red in the fall
To brown and to yellow they fade
And then they have to die, trapped within
The circle time parade of changes
15
Very appropriate indeed, Diana.
2
Phil Ochs. Sigh. If only...
4
Thank you for your piece on reading rock star obituaries, Tim. Rock star or unsung old and young women and men all have our appointment with "The Inevitable" - Atropos - "The Inexorable" of the Three Fates, the Moirai, Anake - human destiny. From aeons in the ancient past we humans have all been allotted a length of life like a string - that is spun by Clotho, measured by Lachesis and then cut by Atropos. An ancient and beautiful way to look at the brief length of our human lives. Mourning the deaths of rock stars and the rest of us is fitting, as we make way for the next generation, Plato and Socrates and the early Greeks and the ancient Egyptian pharoahs, queens and kings and their slaves, made way for their descendants, today's people. Rock stars aren't gods, but they're demi-gods in our Golden Age of today. Rock stars are the ones who fell to earth for their appointments in Samarra.
6
I have heard classical musicians as a group have an ambivalent view of rock and roll. They see it as simple and lacking musical virtuosity. It's not about the musicianship. As one devotee opined; "It's about words and music." In regards to the hypocrisy of rockers continuing to perform as they age despite decrying that prospect in their youth I believe they quickly switched gears as years went by and modeled themselves after the great blues artists such as; Muddy Waters, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Koko Taylor, BB King etc. who were still hip in their 60s,70s and 80s.
7
In some cases it is about the musicianship. While I love moving pieces of classical music, I also love and am excited by the many guitar masters that rock brought to the fore, some of whom were also innovators of the technology that was also evolving at the time to expand their artistry.
1
Rarely a day goes by that I don't think of Brian Jones, the main man of the Rolling Stones. Brian was the best musician by far, other than Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman. He picked every one of the musicians that became the Stones and was the original member of the 27 club. The Stones have always made good music, but Brian brought an originality that flowed naturally from a gifted musician who was always first chair. Brian was a killer slide player who played at least seventeen different instruments during his time with the Stones.
For a good look at Brian on appalachian dulcimer, check out the 1966 version of "Lady Jane" on the Ed Sullivan show.
For a good look at Brian on appalachian dulcimer, check out the 1966 version of "Lady Jane" on the Ed Sullivan show.
19
I think these rock stars are more important to people they were as people. They have great symbolic value. Most, however, are stories not necessarily of a life wasted but of potential wasted. To a man, yes there are essentially no women mentioned in this column, they all did by far their best work before they were thirty. The drugs, the partying and the money may not have killed them but it killed their inspiration and left them, at best, shells of their former creative selves, touring the country singing "Desperado" again and again.
Not to seem like a snob (I am a rock musician) but Mozart, Beethoven and Bach all wrote over 100 hours of deep inventive music in their lives. Rock stars are Andy Warhol soup cans. They bring us back to great times in our lives but fall short as artists.
Not to seem like a snob (I am a rock musician) but Mozart, Beethoven and Bach all wrote over 100 hours of deep inventive music in their lives. Rock stars are Andy Warhol soup cans. They bring us back to great times in our lives but fall short as artists.
5
Firstly, all musicians and artists tend to do their best work when they are young. It is very hard to recreate the imaginative spark that is true inspiration. It is like winning the lottery twice. Dylan might be the closest to being able to do this, but very few would deny that his best work was between 1962 and 1966.
As far as Mozart, Beethoven and Bach...I love all three but comparing them to contemporary artists is silly.
As far as Mozart, Beethoven and Bach...I love all three but comparing them to contemporary artists is silly.
2
I couldn't disagree more to your final paragraph. When I listen to the amazing guitar solos that came out of that era, I continue to be totally blown away with respect at the artistry and innovation of these groundbreaking musicians.
3
Cause and effect disconnect here. Scientists too, almost always do their best work when quite young, even though few of them live like dissipated rock stars, and they also keep working into old age. If they live long enough, a Nobel prize is the pop celebrity they achieve for works of their youth.
1
Feeling the need to trash Pete Seeger and leaving out George Harrison who died too young at 58. Go back to the drawing board.
82
To use an Old Rock Cliche - Right On ! RAC. As musician & entertainer for over 40 years, I learned early on how to appreciate the value in almost any music or tune. Granted- there are glaring exceptions for me personally ( Rap & Opera = intolerable), but I do recognize that many people love this stuff & try to refrain from trashing these genres.
So your Pete Seeger slag goes nowhere with me Mr Egan.
So your Pete Seeger slag goes nowhere with me Mr Egan.
6
Three things are guaranteed in life. Death, taxes, and that when journalists write about rock I will want to bash my own brains in with a drumstick.
12
Taxes, death and trouble.
Marvin Gaye, Trouble Man.
Marvin Gaye, Trouble Man.
4
5A's?
1
Actually Tim, it's Don Henley singing Hotel California ... but for my money, "Lyin' Eyes" is the song that will last on into the ages, as long as there are love affairs, and Glen's plaintive tenor carries that one forward forever ...
10
"Already Standing on the Ground" is the great one.
3
"Take it to the Limit" does it for me, and "Desperado" is just heartbreaking. Damn, those guys could write! And sing.
5
How could you leave out Lemmy? The man wrote Ozzy's Mama I'm coming home. It's one of rock and roll's greatest ballads.
8
Thanks for the Lemmy shout-out. I thought he was conspicuously absent in the opening paragraph.
1
It feels like 1970 all over again. Rock and Roll Heaven just got a little more crowded. I don't often see things the same way you do Timothy, but a great read this morning.
"I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all"
"I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all"
4
I guess Lemmy Kilmister isn't sufficiently boomerish to merit a mention.
9
Rock and roll is the music of our souls.
The right song on the radio, we are all 16 again.
It's what we've lived our lives by,and when when a musician whose songs flavored our life passes, we all feel the loss of a friend.
"Do you believe in rock 'n roll
Can music save your mortal soul
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?"
The right song on the radio, we are all 16 again.
It's what we've lived our lives by,and when when a musician whose songs flavored our life passes, we all feel the loss of a friend.
"Do you believe in rock 'n roll
Can music save your mortal soul
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?"
34
Ah, Timothy, when will you ever learn? When will you e-ever learn?
51
For those of us who grew up in the 60s, it was "sex, drugs and rock and roll," so we all thought we'd not live to be 30. And we protested and marched in the civil rights movement and against the war in Vietnam, so we all thought we'd die from the bigots or drugs. Most of us made it now to our 70s. I saw all the old rock and roll bands when they and I were young. We are all lucky to have made it this far!
42
Let's be clear: not all artists have the cultural impact of Bowie, whose death has left me still shaken. As a balm, I am a DJ at a local community radio station and got to do an impromptu three hour tribute the day he died, during which a number of fans called in to convey their grief. It helps, and isn't the same as pulling up a Bowie playlist on Spotify.
15
As opposed to "who" didn't have a cultural impact?
Bowie was a singer, songwriter, actor, artist and fashion icon of world renown. Some Belgian astronomers named a constellation after him after his death. I read far too many fan comments equating his death with that of Glen Frey. The implication of your comment is what? That the death of every musician reverberates in the same way?
2
How can all of the Ramones be gone? We grew up in Rego Park (and after almost 70 years I'm ready to drop the pretense that we lived in the far classier Forest Hills). As a Hungarian family ourselves, my Mom helped settle refugees from Hungary in our neighborhood including (Tommy) Erdelyi and his family. At Forest Hills High School Jeff Hyman (Joey) was acting up in gym causing the whole class to be detained, so my brother Neil punched him. John (Johnny) Cummings often jammed in our basement and once played a gig at FIT with Neil on second guitar. After the show John fantasized to my brother, "Wouldn't it be great if they tried not to pay us? Then we'd have an excuse to beat the heck out of everyone."
They were rock gods who lived in Birchwood Towers.
They were rock gods who lived in Birchwood Towers.
40
Thanks for that last line. I can hear it now.
2
I don't imagine Tim Egan as a Motorhead fan, but don't forget Lemmy Kilmister.
17
The "Heavy Metal" label can scare some away from the good stuff. But Lemmy was inspired by the MC5 and Motorhead's sound is very garage band/punk rock (the roots of Nirvana).
1
'You know people don't run out of dreams
People just run out of time."
Glenn Frey
People just run out of time."
Glenn Frey
104
All the aging rockers mentioned here and many not mentioned were and are still the Gods of my youth. The whole concept of Sex, Drugs, and Rock n Roll started in this era. I can't help but observe from my sixtieth decade in life that the generations coming up behind me have their own sets of God's and I'm sure that they will whimsically and with affection look back on their riotous youth just as we boomers do.
But in the back of my head I hear the words of the late Lowell George of Little Feet singing something about 'Old Folks Boogie' *sigh*
But in the back of my head I hear the words of the late Lowell George of Little Feet singing something about 'Old Folks Boogie' *sigh*
10
I do remember December 8, 1980. I was watching Monday Night Football with friends, when Howard Cosell interrupted the patter with the announcement that John Lennon had been shot. All of us, all men, did cry. Taken too young.
55
I was dozing during the game and woke-up just when Howard made the announcement.
1
I still cry.
3
Yes, I heard about Lennon's death that way too. It was like being punched, my head rocked back.
2
Patti Smith. When I saw her in concert three years ago (age 66) it was as if time had frozen. She was as dynamic as ever. She is a national treasure.
30
If Bernie makes it to the White House, I hope he'll make her poet laureate.
3
You are so right. I saw her here in Philadelphia, probably 2012. Can't find a good post of that, but she played Beneath the Southern Cross and had us in tears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzciPkF35Us
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzciPkF35Us
I think you just said
"I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride."
Showing your own age as that ricochets off the old noggin without even knowing it!
The day, the music...died
"I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride."
Showing your own age as that ricochets off the old noggin without even knowing it!
The day, the music...died
17
You've missed the most obvious lyrics to quote for this column:
"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
Bob Dylan, "My Back Pages"
"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
Bob Dylan, "My Back Pages"
44
Actually, the last line of the article implied that very lyric.
4
Read the last sentence.
5
Read the last sentence of the column again. It's called an allusion.
In some ways it is more shocking when a " rock star" dies from old age rather than from the excesses of youth since most are associated with our own period of youthful rebellion. We can age but they cannot for they are the soundtrack of our younger days. Neil Young will always sing "It's better to burn out than to fade away" even as we do just that.
10
A truly great piece Tim, as a boomer ending his 7th decade, and about to start his eighth, it's getting a little weird out there, especially when the soundtracks of my life began to experience mortality. Hunter S. used to say "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" I'm turning nostalgic. The summer backpacking days roaring across the canyon lands of Utah or up into the high Rockies with "Take It The Limit" or "Take It Easy " blaring from the stereo and my windshield as a movie screen, are indelible.
46
Mourn their passing but these days more and more the death of rock gods will make way for the hologram tour. Rock gods remaining should start seriously considering how they protect their legacy from the culture vultures responsible for the dead celebrity hologram "tour" phenomenon such as we have seen with Tupac, Elvis, Michael Jackson and even Redd Foxx. If it's not handled properly I can't imagine a more horrendous way to lose control of your legacy. Make the decision if you want one of these holograms bouncing around on a stage after you die and get your IP/copyright issues sorted out to your satisfaction. I can't imagine Bowie with his mastery of new media didn't spend some time getting this worked out.
31
Great piece, Tim. Just shared it with my baby boomer Dad, who was at the original Woodstock.
4
And as you share these thoughts with us Tim, we read elsewhere in The Times that Earth, Wind and Fire founder Maurice White has passed on at the not unrespectable age of 74. Time seems to pass more quickly as we grow older. In my mid-60s now I remember the 1960s very well. But now, old age ain't what it used to be. It's rapidly approaching and is no longer just a vaguely abstract concept. "Fugit inreparabile fugit," sayeth Virgil.
11
To correct my Virgil quote: "Fugit inreparabile tempus" or "It escapes, irretrievable time." Memento mori and Valar morghulis too.
1
How many beautiful deliberate pictures have you seen of David Bowie smoking? I think almost all these rockers who pass on a little before their time smoked. Not smoking is one of the easiest ways to tilt the odds of being old one day.
4
David Bowie had liver cancer. I'm not aware of that being associated with smoking.
3
It suddenly appears that there is no difference between burning out or rusting.
85
All things must pass. All things must pass away.
15
We came and took the place of others who went before. Our going is part of the deal. When I was young my parents would take us to the beach and we always wanted to linger for one more hour in the sun because the time there was so perfect. What a gift it is to approach the end of the day with that feeling about life. For many of us music has been one part of those gifted, golden days. We aren't happy about the going but how wonderful it is to have been there.
Everyone has their favorites, but for me the loss of Kantner particularly stings. Unlike other pop stars who adopted poses for effect and changed personas like costumes, Kantner was good and bad who he was from the Jefferson Airplane days to the end. Over the last year I've found myself more and more drawn to the Airplane's music and its soaring inspiration and occasional anger. It planted a flag, staked out territory, and loudly proclaimed "We are here, it is you who must adjust to us." The arrogance of youth is also bravery. He will be missed.
Everyone has their favorites, but for me the loss of Kantner particularly stings. Unlike other pop stars who adopted poses for effect and changed personas like costumes, Kantner was good and bad who he was from the Jefferson Airplane days to the end. Over the last year I've found myself more and more drawn to the Airplane's music and its soaring inspiration and occasional anger. It planted a flag, staked out territory, and loudly proclaimed "We are here, it is you who must adjust to us." The arrogance of youth is also bravery. He will be missed.
8
The only rock stars who pass away with a regularity that is noticeable are those who inspired a generation of boomers who find themselves bulging demographic timelines. People like me and Tim Egan. The entertainment firmament is full of musical stars very far away indeed from going gentle into that good night that I don’t even listen to – and whom Tim probably doesn’t listen to, either.
From time to time we read or write these wistful retrospectives, not for John Lennon, or David Bowie, or Glenn Frey, or Paul Kantner, or so many others; but for our own graying hair and our own inward-turning big toes. To me it’s saddest when I don’t read the obituary because I knew the life so well that I didn’t need to.
It’s easy to die forever young at 27, or at 40. The trick, as always, is to live forever young at 70 or 80.
From time to time we read or write these wistful retrospectives, not for John Lennon, or David Bowie, or Glenn Frey, or Paul Kantner, or so many others; but for our own graying hair and our own inward-turning big toes. To me it’s saddest when I don’t read the obituary because I knew the life so well that I didn’t need to.
It’s easy to die forever young at 27, or at 40. The trick, as always, is to live forever young at 70 or 80.
135
I cannot believe it! Mr. Luettgen has written something with which I can agree.
6
I agree with Mr. Bernstein who said to Mr. Thompson in Citizen Kane: "Old age. It's the only disease, Mr. Thompson, that you don't look forward to being cured of." Now when I am listening to The Doors and Jimmy Morrison is belting out: "Break on though to the other side" that anthem of the countculture for me as an aging baby boomer has acquired a poignant irony since I will be celebrating the Big Seven-Oh on my next birthday. But I was introduced to the third act of the play at an early age. I served as a medical corpsman in Vietnam. So I have no illusion about where life leads us.
165
Also from film, from "Rocky Balboa" in "Creed" -- "Time takes everybody out. Time's undefeated."
Also to be noted: remember how smoky those concert halls were? Imagine doing a lot of gigs in them, breathing all that smoke? Cancer, anyone? And David Bowie (R.I.P.) was a heavy smoker, had a heart attack -- on stage -- at age 50. Frey and Kanter (R.I.P.) have been photographed smoking .. and admitted to snorting -- a lot. Not healthy, obviously.
And in detail: Keith Moon (and fellow drummer John Bonham of Led Zepplin), alcohol poisoning; Jimi Hendrix, alcohol/drug interaction; Janis Joplin, heroin overdose; Amy Winehouse, alcohol/weaken immune system; and John Belushi, heroin/drug overdose.
Life, and death, are more complicated than it seems.
Also to be noted: remember how smoky those concert halls were? Imagine doing a lot of gigs in them, breathing all that smoke? Cancer, anyone? And David Bowie (R.I.P.) was a heavy smoker, had a heart attack -- on stage -- at age 50. Frey and Kanter (R.I.P.) have been photographed smoking .. and admitted to snorting -- a lot. Not healthy, obviously.
And in detail: Keith Moon (and fellow drummer John Bonham of Led Zepplin), alcohol poisoning; Jimi Hendrix, alcohol/drug interaction; Janis Joplin, heroin overdose; Amy Winehouse, alcohol/weaken immune system; and John Belushi, heroin/drug overdose.
Life, and death, are more complicated than it seems.
Tim, you turn back the pages of time on time. Just yesterday, we had the misfortune to recall February 3, 1959, 57 years gone, when the snow-laden sky over Mason City Iowa, dropped an airplane carrying three rock-and-rollers from one gig to Forever. The Big Bopper, J. P. Richardson, turned out to have become larger in death than he ever was in life. Young Ricardo Valenzuela, Ritchie Valens to the screaming teenies at the stage's lip, swayed to Donna and tried to shake their money-makers to La Bamba, or to Come On, Let's Go. The dagger in the heart was the curly-haired kid from Lubbock, Texas, the one with the bad teeth. He fronted The Crickets but everybody knew he was Charles Hardin Holley, Buddy to us. From the Mauldins' garage studio in New Mexico came the great contributions from white country to merge with the blues and dare to challenge Elvis's iron grip on the bubble gum charts: Maybe Baby, That'll Be The Day, It's Too Late, the astonishingly wonderful Heartbeat and, of course, Pa-heg-gy Soo-a-hoo. Don McLean got it right in American Pie, the last ode to out-of-favor rock-and-roll, its plaintive, final tribute. Buddy Holly's infectious country twang and sunny outlook were the early clues that, as Glenn Frey would later report, "you can check out any time you like...but you can never leave." I have since moved on to Wagner and Bruckner and Dvorak, but Buddy, you're in my iTunes library and on my iPod. As we speak. You were great before the others who became great.
83
Don Henley sang Hotel California
14
@kgeographer: Yes, he did; my error. Thank you for the correction.
2
But Frey wrote or co-wrote seven of the nine tracks on the album and sang lead on one; he presumably sang background on all the rest, where there were vocals. The reference is accurate.
1
Bowie. As Mick is still strutting Satisfaction across stages Bowie was creating Blackstar, communicating to us at once what having that diagnosis was like for him and showing us how to come to terms with death.
They're coming with regularity, but Janis and Jimi, Kurt, Amy then John Lennon--still hurts--now Bowie, some just hit harder than others. I realize it's subjective. When McCarney or the Stones pass on, they've had unusually long runs, it won't be shocking. Hearing about Janis I refused to believe it, then it was a rash of them, then a fairly long hiatus.
The bell tolls for us all. Bowie left a most conscious and startling requiem for himself in Blackstar and Lazarus, a genre not usually creatively explored in music/music vids. We learn how to live from art, we can thank him yet again for going where none fear to tread, teaching us about suffering, existential fear, death in a masterclass he was compelled to complete.
They're coming with regularity, but Janis and Jimi, Kurt, Amy then John Lennon--still hurts--now Bowie, some just hit harder than others. I realize it's subjective. When McCarney or the Stones pass on, they've had unusually long runs, it won't be shocking. Hearing about Janis I refused to believe it, then it was a rash of them, then a fairly long hiatus.
The bell tolls for us all. Bowie left a most conscious and startling requiem for himself in Blackstar and Lazarus, a genre not usually creatively explored in music/music vids. We learn how to live from art, we can thank him yet again for going where none fear to tread, teaching us about suffering, existential fear, death in a masterclass he was compelled to complete.
84
The video Bowie made was heartbreaking. Haunting. A huge ground breaking talent. And, a really decent man.
10
"When McCarney or the Stones pass on, they've had unusually long runs, it won't be shocking"... don't count on it. They are deeply loved. When they go it will be really and truly "over" (Oh, it's McCartney.)
2
Warron Zevon did the same thing on his last album. Beautiful.
It is pretty amazing that after all these years, Ringo is now the cute Beatle.
It is pretty amazing that after all these years, Ringo is now the cute Beatle.
5
One of Warren Zevon's last songs on the album he wrote while dying (with Bruce Springsteen backing him up)