Written for me ..

/ MR

Today’s online The Guardian includes this article.

It’s something I’ve thought about many times .. not the death of Robbie Robertson, but of all of them – rockstars, exemplification of my youth.

“Robbie Robertson is gone and our world – once again – is diminished.”

To me that sub-heading is not overly dramatic, it’s simply a fact; something that hits home on an almost regular basis, these days. I’ve reached that age when the death of my contemporaries has to be dealt with far, far too often; and that I never actually met or even saw Robbie on TV has no significance .. I heard him a thousand and one times, so I knew him.

Just like I knew them all, the members of the dozens of groups who created the musical joy of my 20s and 30s – Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, Three Dog Night, The Who, The Doors, CCR, Fleetwood Mac, The Animals .. At this moment my brain won’t furnish any more of those evocative names, but there are dozens of them. Any of you of my generation are shouting at me the names that meant most to you – maybe The Mamas and the Papas, or The Lovin’ Spoonful, or Supertramp ..

I fear that there may be group members whose deaths I haven’t read of because the editors of online content are too young to know who they were. I’m not sure why I feel as if I need to know of their ‘passing’ – a description I loathe that’s become the accepted norm – but it could be to do with that aspect of my character that has me arrange my now tiny book collection in author order and my DVDs by title (yes, I’ve kept the DVDs I really love). OCD, possibly ..

I appreciate the writer’s assumption that we of the ’60s and ’70s take in the reference of her article’s title without having to think about it. She knows we know.

And the beat goes on ..

 

19 thoughts on “Written for me ..”

  2. As someone once said (paraphrasing badly) these groups were the soundtracks of our lives. In a way I can’t describe, it hurts to see them go. They take a bit of us with them.

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  3. We are true kindred spirits here, M-R, and I couldn’t possibly express myself any more sensitively than you have here. I, too, feel the loss each time we lose another musical artist, and I know that somewhere in all the feelings attached to the memory of the music comes a piece of nostalgia tied to my youth. I think almost all teens and young people identify with their musical heroes, and in my case, I kept the admiration alive across all these decades! I haven’t yet moved on from grieving Christine McVie.

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  4. I find it hard to believe Art Garfunkel is in his 80’s M-R – I remember seeing him and Paul Simon live in Sydney, when we were all so young! There is something about special about the music of our youth. Thanks for the lovely article.

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    • Isn’t it a ripper ? – I seldom come across journos, these days, writing stuff I can relate to.
      If you haven’t seen a recent photo of Paul Simon, don’t go looking, Sue: he’s a curmudgeonly old man – looks like a caricature. 😦 And even more so after his face-lift !!

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  7. When I saw them live long ago now in Sydney – I think that was at the SCG – my friends and I were sitting where we could also see backstage. At the end of the show Paul and Art ran out to two limos that were waiting with open doors and engines running. There were security guards everywhere. They piled into the separate cars and were whisked away. I remember thinking at the time, what strange life it must be. I wasn’t aware they needed so much security.

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  8. I doubt very much that they actually did, Sue: but the pattern was established back in the Good Ol’, and they followed it wherever they performed. How stupid is it to be security conscious and yet travel in limos ? – when travelling in ordinary vehicles would be so much safer ?!

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