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Why do "the good die young" when there are so many dirty rotten
scoundrels who seem to prosper forever in comfort and wealth? THIS IS
NOT FAIR!" to paraphrase the modern Job's lament... no relation to Steve Jobs,
for sure.
...unfair... or is it?
In Jewish theology, the ritual of Kaddish; or in Irish theology, the ritual
of the wake, we find the mourner's public (confused and bemused)
acknowledgement that, even if untimely death does seem unfair, it is THE way,
and probably is expiation at least... in some mysterious and remediating
'weigh'. As such, we usually just lump too-soon-departures into that large
file of things we cannot understand now. And then try to drown our sorrow in
whatever solace is permissible, before dealing with the next unknowable...
...Born with a broken heart
Seems it was over, before it began Music is tied into creative mentality at such a basic and controversial
level, that it is mind-boggling to even consider one surprising implication of
its influence... that being that music might actually be able to stimulate
important mental concepts that are otherwise inaccessible... to loosen a
particular mindset, for instance... for whatever reason, there seems to be an
arms-length mutual parasitism of shared-gain going-on between art and the
art-appreciator.
Few in science seem to believe that this could be the case, and
few express (publicly at least) much interest in popular music, but they
sometimes "sense" that its importance is deeper than their rationality will
begrudge. Scientists may pay homage to classical art - one researcher, whose
name escapes me, did his best work while listening to Carmina Burana. That would
seem a bit tiresome to me, but to-each-his-own. Maybe a more scientific analysis
of this subject of art-influence will someday be taken-on, but there seems to be
so little in the way of a common denominator between the young demisees, so to
speak - whether it be Jesus, Janis, JFK, Jimi, Jim (Morrison), etc.
that a single rationale for prematurity is hard to imagine. In most
cases, the end-result is a lingering cult-appeal, or even martyrdom, even when
irrational excess is the proximate cause.
Before the more modern tragedies (of the artists who die young) there were
the romantics, like Byron, Keats, and Shelley, and going back a long way beyond
them, the heroes of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles (those "whom the god's love die
young"). Romantics, especially creative geniuses, combine in an odd-couple
pairing with "brave heroes" none of whom are expected to live much
beyond their prime age of ~30 something. Especially if they are
involved in both extreme creativity and "reckless behavior"... tempting fate
with personal overindulgence, war, or affront to authority.
The broader inference of the die-young phenomenon being that if
age is renewed-opportunity, it is also continuing-obligation. Consequently, one
might be best advised to live fast, die young and leave a beautiful legacy... to
the extent that one's "job is done" by age `30, why prolong the agony of a
downhill slide into feebleness? Die with your boots-on, as the oaters like to
say.
Being no shrinking ultraviolet in adding confusion to disarray, here
is a new name and candidate for inspirational musical talent who died
way-too-young... ta da... perhaps the best female voice of modern times, the
late Eva Cassidy. Eva is my inspiration du jour, but "Le poète meurt de
l'inspiration comme le vieillard de la vieillesse," and being no poet, the
aging-cure will have to wait for a next sweet chanteuse...or was that a suite
chantrelle? When the French have two words for anything, that is a sign of
esteem.
If there has ever been a reason to curse the affliction known as melanoma,
Eva is that reason. According to a BBC jury, Eva was possessed of one of the
best singing voices of all time, even though many had never heard of her and she
was not English. IMHO they should have left out the "one of". Can we combine her
untimely demise with a "hidden message" about resource allocation? Would the
half-trillion we are unleashing in the middle East to buy peace (i.e. move WMD
into hiding somewhere else while reducing a sovereign nation to shambles), have
led to a cure for melanoma and other cancers?
Too late for Eva, sadly. But maybe this belated tribute will open up her
art to a slightly wider audience. A musical poll put her rendition of "Over the
Rainbow" near the top of the list of the most memorable songs ever performed.
Eva Cassidy’s version received more votes than did Judy
Garland’s. Living near a local landmark known as the rainbow tunnel,
and often infatuated with the Oz story for reasons going beyond the
gold-standard, latching onto Eva's songs was kind of a fortuitous
accident, never having heard her sad story in advance. Google says that
during her short and mostly un-noticed lifetime she hardly ever
performed outside her home area of Maryland/DC. Yet Eva is/was not like any
other singer, in inspiration-potential, at lest to my ear. Not a songwriter, but
an interpreter extraordinaire of other people’s songs, the picture that emerges
is also that of an insecure and shy woman - there is more than a hint of
internal conflict, reminiscent of another extraordinary bitter-sweet voice of
inspiration, Karen Carpenter.
Some other premature deaths:
Alexander the Great age 33
Rudolph Valantino,
Marilyn Monroe,
James Dean,
A lesser artist may mislead youth :
"Dawg... They say the good die young, That's why I think that you
should have fun (when your young)"
when the reality is that most of the artists who die young were so terribly
conflicted with the immensity of their talent, that fun was hardly a genuine
option.
The least we can do, in tribute to them all, is to try to regain
our lost national sense of true morality and "redeem" some of our wasted
warbucks for the benefit of longer-life, rather than promoting senseless
suffering.
Jones |
