shadow never seems to fade away
(or: april 20’s honey from the hive)
posted at 5:13 am by brandon in sweet you rock and sweet you roll
The Band — “It Makes No Difference” (from Greatest Hits) —
I was writing a “best wishes” post for rock legend Levon Helm on Wednesday afternoon when the news that the peerless Mr. Dick Clark has passed away came down and blew my concentration all to hell. (More cogent thoughts on Clark and the immense imprimatur he stamped on my entire existence are forthcoming once I’m not so verklempt that he’s no longer with us.) And I was working again yesterday afternoon on that same post when word broke that Mr. Helm himself had passed, just a few days after his family announced that he was in the final stages of a devastating battle with throat cancer. (I’m still agog over the too-soon passing of Miss Whitney, to say nothing of the senseless murder of One Life to Live at the start of this year, so suffice to say, all these needless deaths are really playing hell with my typically cheery take on life.) So I s’pose I should simply say: fare thee well, Levon. Your golden voice was silenced in such an abominably cruel way, but not without shaking loose some astonishing aural debris that generations to come will take great pleasure stumbling over for eons henceforth. (By the by, it dawned on me late in the afternoon that yesterday marked the Buzz’s fourth birthday. It again bears noting that I have had the time of my whole life creating this website for whomever of you have taken the time to read these words over the past four years, and I once more thank you for your time and toil.)