This is not my favorite column to write. In my youth, death was death, something which happened to everyone else. As a young man, I looked upon it as simply draining the talent pool because by then I was consumed with music— immersed in it to the point that life beyond it was a blur. In middle-age, it began becoming personal— friends and favorites taking the dive either stunningly quick or in dire circumstances.
I find myself immersed in the fascinating and informative Ken Burns opus The Roosevelts, an intimate study of Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt, that proves, among other things, that not much has changed in the last 100 years. The good fights we fight now, are the same ones we were fighting then. The names change, the sides switch, and the issues grow and evolve, but basically, we continue to learn nothing from the past, and are doomed to repeat our mistakes again and again. That said, we are also blessed with repeating a lot of good things too…we just forget that some things shouldn’t change. We abandon the good with the bad, the baby with the bathwater, and the positive lessons learned are as quickly and easily forgotten as the mistakes we make. Nowhere is that more evident than in music, and the entertainment business in general. The good news is, eventually, the pendulum swings back, and the ideas and mindset that have always held true are re-embraced.
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Bullseye Records of Canada
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 