And One By One, They Disappear
When I was in elementary school, my neighbor got me into bands like The Clash and The Ramones. That was my claim to fame at that age; I was the guy into punk rock. It sure as hell wasn't my athletic prowess, my looks or my abilities in the class room. And yet I grew up without any self-esteem issues! Imagine that. At any rate, guys like Joey Ramone and Joe Strummer were people I identified with, people whose music got me through the day and through that hellish period known as your teenage years. Well, their music, acne medication and in the later years, cheap beer.
Lately, these guys have been dying off. We've also lost musicians like Johnny Cash and Warren Zevon. I mention this today because I've learned that Syd Barret, the founder of Pink Floyd, died recently. In all honesty I like about two Floyd songs and could do without the rest, but I know millions of people, (one of whom I'm sleeping with), (yes my wife you pervert), did love the band and will feel the same shot to the gut that I felt when Joe Strummer died. It doesn't seem real. The people you grew up dancing to aren't supposed to die. In a sense I guess they don't, as just this morning I drove into work blaring "Blitzkrieg Bop" out the windows, and I'll continue to do so for, hopefully, quite some time to come.
So, to all you Pink Floyd fans out there, my sympathies. The music will live on.
Lately, these guys have been dying off. We've also lost musicians like Johnny Cash and Warren Zevon. I mention this today because I've learned that Syd Barret, the founder of Pink Floyd, died recently. In all honesty I like about two Floyd songs and could do without the rest, but I know millions of people, (one of whom I'm sleeping with), (yes my wife you pervert), did love the band and will feel the same shot to the gut that I felt when Joe Strummer died. It doesn't seem real. The people you grew up dancing to aren't supposed to die. In a sense I guess they don't, as just this morning I drove into work blaring "Blitzkrieg Bop" out the windows, and I'll continue to do so for, hopefully, quite some time to come.
So, to all you Pink Floyd fans out there, my sympathies. The music will live on.
posted by limpy99 at 8:34 AM
10 Comments:
Long live great music!
Personally, I have become comfortably numb.
I'm a big Floyd fan and the Ramones are my all-time favorite band so I've had lead singers dying all over the place the last few years. So it goes.
I wasn't really into Pink Floyd but their music does bring back some nice memories.
I had a friend in high school who was totally, TOTALLY loved them and I remember once he took me to the city (San Francisco) where they had some musical light show going on. It was their music, but a bunch of laser lights or some shit.
To this day, if I hear their music I think of sweet, nerdy, cool car driving Pat and smile...and then I frown.
There's more to this story but I'm going to write about it on MY site instead of hogging up your comments section.
Let's see... Sam Cooke died when I was 12 or 13; Brian Jones, when I was 17; Hendrix and Joplin when I was 19; John Lennon when I was 28; Stevie Ray Vaughan when I was 37. Interspersed among them were names like Jim Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Kurt Cobain, George Harrison, Strummer, Zevon, Orbison, Cash, and now Barrett. Seems too many have disappeared to me.
I remember the day Joe Strummer died. I put on The Clash green album and drove around my subdivision crying.
Joey Ramone's version of What a Wonderful World from his final solo CD is on my top 10 song list of all time.
My only reference to Syd Barret is that critics have compared his songwriting style and penchant for psychedelics to Robyn Hitchcock, of whom I'm a huge fan.
Do you watch "Rock Star-Supernova"? Tommy looks really bad. He's not even that old. I know he did some hard livin but Damn.
This is kind of off the subject,but I had nothing else to add.
That guy Lukas kinda scares me.
I loved that freaky chick's rendition of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire.
TLee is so jittery he makes me nervous just watching him.
Yeah, if Tommt Lee were to drop dead tomorrow that wouldn't exactly alter my list of dead musicians whose work I respoect.
And JDR, not knowing who Pink Floyd is doesn't make you young or old, but it does make me suspect you need to get out more.
It makes me suspect you need to stop by my house at 4:20 once or twice.
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