I think I know what’s going on here. Some stellar names from the entertainment world are leaving us in a sudden storm. Alan Rickman, Terry Wogan, David Bowie, Lemmy to name a but a few. I don’t think I have ever known anything like it. Perhaps there hasn’t been anything like it.
Rock and roll started in the 1950s and pop/rock music as we know it took in the 1960s, as did the explosion of TV watching. Many artists and performers started out within the same decade and now we are losing an unhealthy number of them.
How many of the bands I love are intact? Two Beatles have long gone, as have two Beach Boys. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are, somehow, still here, but we have lost so many other giants, two of the Who, a Special, the man who, to many, was the Clash, Joe Strummer.
I was shocked when Bowie passed, less so when Lemmy left us, but it was nonetheless sad. Wogan and Rickman shocked me too. Look at any TV, shuffle an iPod, pass your DVD collection and someone will no longer be with us. Backing musicians, co-stars. They’re all there, but they’re no longer with us.
So many huge stars are now in their seventies and eighties. I never thought rock stars would still be playing after three score and ten, but Dylan, CSNY, Brian Wilson, half of the Who, Ian Hunter and so many more are still out there.
I’m afraid this is not the end of the bad news. Before this year is out we will be shocked and upset by more losses. I am not in the business of preparing death lists, a fad enjoyed by some who think that it’s funny and anyway think they will never die, so I will not suggest names on this website, but keep those tissues handy.
Loss is of course not confined to the rich and famous. All of us of a certain age have experienced loss at various stages of our life, the loss of family members and friends. All irreplaceable, each leaving a trunk of memories behind and never forgotten. A piece of us dies when we lose someone close.
More than ever, I am aware of my own mortality, for I know I am not exempt from the end of life. I used to believe, as young people do, that life would go on forever, that somehow I alone would survive forever; I would always be here. Now my whole existence is based on the knowledge that time is not infinite and, given that I am sure I will not survive my own death to meet up once again with much loved family and friends, my time is now.
We must carry on if only for those who follow us, those who dream of the future and aim for the stars. That is why I do the things I most like to do; like write, play music, play golf, travel, spend time with family and friends, try to be good to people. I have the memories for as long as I am alive; memories of my mother, my father and numerous other older relatives who have all passed on. I am now the oldest in the family line and how scary is that?
Remember the past, look forward to the future but above all live for today. You just never know what’s round the corner.
