When The Music Dies

B Valley said:
John Lennon and George Harrison's deaths were hard to take. Stevie Ray Vaughan was a tough one too.
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Stevie for sure. I was at that final show with a date that night. When it was over, we were walking back to the parking area, and we remarked at how weird the fog was - it was hovering about 10 feet over our heads, and was really thick, yet you could see through to the sky...anyway, I overslept the next morning (which is something I never, ever did), and a sales guy called from the office, waking me up, asking where I was, then (knowing that I went to the show) said “did you hear Stevie died in a helicopter crash last night?”. I thought he was yanking my chain, as he was the kind of guy that would do that. I basically said “Yeah, fuck you. See you in a bit”. Then when I turned on the TV and saw the news, I called out sick.
 
Like others, Lennon's death was very hard for me. It was so strange to think that a guy with a gun just ended Lennon's life. At the time my second marriage was obviously moving to the end and that added to the sense of melancholy.

George Harrison was also tough. As much as I loved and respected Pete Seeger, his death was more expected and easier to process.
 
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Stevie Ray hit me like a punch in the gut. I literally wore a black armband with SRV on it for two weeks after he died.

Chris Cornell was awful because it was so out of the blue and he was just so incredibly good. And because my friends and I had tickets to see them here in Houston one week later.
 
John Prine was the shit, but when I saw him ten years ago or whenever it was he got the bad cancer that literally disfigured his face, I already thought of him as being dead. When he did die, I was already over it since Seeing him with his horrible cancer.

Same with Chuck Berry. I loved the man as a performer, but when I saw him in his dotage out on stage stumbling and bumbling, I began to think of him as already dead. Again, when he finally passed, I had already pre-grieved, as it were.

Much closer to home, I experienced this phenomenon with my own dad. Ten years prior to his death, he began having strokes and heart attacks. He was basically a vegetable for his last three years, and I was mega- melancholy, but I had really already grieved his death for three years.
 
I remember when Elvis died and lennon but i was too young and my folks were never rock n rollers they were mexican music, polka, crooners, traditional country...anyway Garcia obviously and also Cobain was a big one...Niel Peart too but really it's nothing more than a reminder how transientr life is...here one day and then gone....everything , ebveryone dies at some point
 
Lennon and Petty were probably the biggest ones for me. The Beatles were huge in my house when I was a kid. I just remember thinking, why would anyone want to kill a Beatle? I still get choked up when I hear Imagine.
 
For me, it was Lennon first. What happened to him was just a complete shock. Then, John Denver. That hit me very hard, because I'd seen him at Symphony Hall in Boston. Also because I'd been a fan since I was much younger. The last one for me was Brad Delp from Boston. I had seen him on a few occasions, both with Boston, and his own band Beatlejuice. Yea, he was a fan of the fab four too.
 
Johnny Cash was a heavy one.

Probably insignificant for most, but Lux Interior from The Cramps got to me.

I vividly remember when Elvis died, and sitting in front of my parents' big console stereo listening to the local station playing non-stop Elvis the whole day, interspersed with 'The King is dead' announcements. I was too young to feel sad as such, but the gravity of the situation really stuck with me ever since. It reminds me of when Princess Diana died.
 
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Lennon, Petty, Strummer. More I am sure, but those are the ones I particularly remember affecting me.
 
Id never really thought about who has affected me when they've passed.
I can tell you that Eddie Van Halen and Prince didn't bother me much but I have a 45 min drive to work and back so at times like this I play their music and remember...no real sadness though.

I was and still am a Queen fan but the day I got the news of Sir Frederick of Mercurys death I had just come off a patrol (ex soldier) and was so tired I didn't have time to mourn. It did affect me a few weeks later though.
I was extremely sad when George Michael died. I can't say why, I just was.
So Id say George Michael, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie dying made me question life etc.

Oh and both recent suicides from Chester Bennington and his buddy Chris Cornell made me both sad and very angry. I can't understand how you can hurt your family and especially your kids like that.
 
Bowie and Petty passing had surprisingly big impacts on me. EVH hasn't sunk in yet, the guy was just full of life up on stage and in a lot of ways for me, he personified rock n roll as well as the 80's. Weiland and Staley you could see coming but that made it all just so sad. Chris Cornell was another heart breaker, as is any suicide.

Johnny Cash sort of shared his "getting ready to go" with the world, which I think was a bold and inspiring act.
 
My birthday is February 3, the "day the music died". I wasn't born when it happened though...

To date the biggest hits were Lennon, SRV, Freddie, and Cornell. Chris actually hit me the hardest. There are plenty of other stellar musicians in many genres that I also mourned, but many had lived a long life and weren't a surprise. Lennon, SRV, and Cornell came out of nowhere and all equally (albeit differently) tragic. Dizzy, Miles, Motion, Harrison, B.B., Baker, Jack Bruce, and countless others got a chance to grow old and kept giving us music. It's the great talents that didn't get a chance to give us more that are the biggest gut punches. While all older, the four I mentioned are not unlike Jimi, Janis, Kurt, Morrison, Buckley, Drake, etc. in that they still had more to offer us AND they remain HUGE musical influences and enjoyment for me. Brecker was another one as I was really digging more into him the last few years before he passed.
 
GDSmithTX said:
Stevie Ray hit me like a punch in the gut. I literally wore a black armband with SRV on it for two weeks after he died.

Chris Cornell was awful because it was so out of the blue and he was just so incredibly good. And because my friends and I had tickets to see them here in Houston one week later.
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Likewise. I remember hearing the news of the helicopter crash in disbelief. He had just gotten sober too and was re-energized. It was very sad to see him go, but I'm glad I got to see him a few times live before he did.
 
Bones McHorror said:
I don't understand this unless you just never consume any art/entertainment anyone's ever heard of.
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life is a mystery i guess. people die. life moves on. its hard to feel attached to people I have never met. most celebrities aren't who they portray so you are just worshipping an image of a stranger.
 
I had just started at music school at Five Towns College when I went to the corner store and Stevie Ray's death was the headline on all the NY papers. I had just seen him that summer in Killington, VT and he was phenomenal. Listened to him and the Vaughan Brothers album a ton for the next few months, but also tons of others stuff. Like Jimi, I think he had a lot of growth coming...more evolution as a musician.
 
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