When I read a tweet in the late afternoon that said he'd passed, I thought it might be another hoax - but I checked around and the news was everywhere. A wave of emotion washed over me and I shed tears. That has never happened before. Why now? I didn't know Glenn and, while I'd always wanted to attend an Eagles concert and expected to, I haven't...and now I never will.
Glenn Frey left us within a short period of early 2016 that's been marked by the loss of a number of high profile people in the arts. David Bowie, another musician, but better known as a person who lived life his own unique way and taught us all that this was a good thing, died of cancer at 69. Rene Angelil, the man who discovered Celine Dion, bet everything on her, married her, and with her, created an entertainment phenomenon has also gone. So too the well known British actor of distinctive voice, Alan Rickman.
In each case, a body of work lives on. In each instance, I have no personal connection. But, I've paid attention...seen, heard, and known of these people for much or most of my adult life. With Glenn Frey, there was a lifetime relationship through his music. I posted on Facebook (and I have never done this) that his music had been a major part of the soundtrack of my life. Who, in this generation, cannot understand that? I once visited a place called Winslow Arizona...the first thing I did as I strolled through the centre of town was to say to people with me "I was standing on a corner, in Winslow Arizona...what a fine sight to see! There's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowed down to take a look at me". Right out of The Eagles song book! Even now, I am learning to play guitar (guitar for seniors??) and one of the pieces I practice and play is "Peaceful Easy Feeling".
So, losing Glenn Frey is losing a piece of my youth. And losing that is a reminder that the clock only runs one way. One friend of many years responded to my Facebook post by saying "I'm starting to get up there in years. I keep looking at the clock every time I see another of these death notices." Another began ominously too but ended with an upbeat thought."Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee. John Donne had it right. So, we may as well get on with the business of living."
I asked someone I know if it was a silly thing to feel emotional about losing one of our contemporaries, even one so influential in our lives through his artistic ability. He said no, that as time wears on, he finds himself occasionally tearing up over a Hallmark card because that's what people do!
I hope this is not coming across as corny or maudlin...I do not mean it to be. This is simply the downside of generational change and the routine side of adjusting to the fact that none of us actually is immortal, regardless of the fact we felt we were not so very long ago.
I recently wrote a book, "Millennials: Boom'er Bust". It's about turning things over to a new group of people who, as surely as we once did, now outnumber their parents in the work force and in the population too. I did the research and so I know the numbers and I have faced the naked reality. But, as it turns out, that's not enough. You have to actually lose some of the icons of your time and watch beacons along your own road fade away before you truly realize that the train of life never stops and that you may just be staring at the caboose!
Oh Peter, some readers must be saying...were you going to take the gas pipe now or, at least, have a good dinner first? Fear not. I am planning to have many more good dinners and never go willingly. Still much too much to do! But that doesn't stop me from tipping my imaginary hat to contemporaries who have preceded me to the exit and those who yet will. The forces that shape us are both harsh and subtle. Harsh is the demanding professor or the strict parent or the business that failed, no matter how devoted and hard-working we may have been. Subtle are the wonderful places we've visited, friends we've made, movies and plays and (of course) music that have all contributed to our character...who we are and how we think.
To Glenn Frey, thank you...I do have that Peaceful, Easy Feeling and I try always to Take It Easy. I am well aware that Love Will Keep Us Alive. Your work, to which we've all been exposed for about 45 years, will ensure it and ensure that you live on with us.
Peter
