Artistic Differences - Contrasts

I wanted to write this week because of the fuss made recently over a rock singer named Chris Cornell who died tragically at apparently a very young age.  I am not personally into that type of music, but due to the fact this guy was a human being, his family does have my sympathy for their loss.   Have you ever noticed how many of these rock stars die so young?   Many of them have led tragic lives (not saying Cornell necessarily did - I don't know enough about the guy to make that judgement) and they die young.  It of course is not endemic to just rock stars though - great big band musicians have also died young (Bix Beiderbecke, Bunny Berigan, Orville Knapp, Fats Waller, to name a few) as well as legendary actors (Marilyn Monroe, James Dean).   But, it does seem as if the lion's share of premature celebrity deaths involve rock stars for some weird reason.   I was sort of inspired to write this because of two things.  First, there is an author who posts these amusing videos I love to watch every week on Facebook by the name of Susannah Lewis (otherwise known as "Whoa Susannah").  Susannah is mountain folk like myself - she is a native of Tennessee - and she has that homespun sense of humor which is enhanced by that Southern accent that just makes her endearing to so many of us.  If you get the chance, you should really check her out sometime on social media (she has also written a number of books, and although I haven't had the opportunity to read any of those myself yet, if they are as good as her videos then she is one hell of an author!).  This week for instance, she was talking about this dog of hers named Pepper, who apparently has a stomach that could rival the exterior of a Sherman tank, and this dog eats everything.  This week, she was talking about something concerning this dog eating a Bible, and the gist of the conversation on that one was that her dog "ate the Word of God and is spreading the Gospel across the back yard."  It takes a special talent to come up with that stuff impromptu, and that is why I say she must be one hell of an author!   Any rate, Susannah, who is in her mid-30's I would estimate (if you are reading this Susannah, I apologize for trying to pinpoint your age, as you do look amazing - it is relevant reference point to what I am doing here though), is apparently a big fan of '80's rock, which would have been popular at around the time I was actually in high school (to make Susannah feel better, I am actually much older than she is obviously!).  I never got into any of that stuff, and to this day I still don't like it at all, but for those that do enjoy it, that's your thing and by all means enjoy.  My music, since I was at least 10 years old, is vintage big band, and I said all of that because just a week or two before this Chris Cornell guy passed away, another music legend celebrated her 100th birthday on April 30th.   The person I am speaking of is Bea Wain, who in the late 1930's and early 1940's was a much sought-after girl vocalist with many great orchestras - notably Larry Clinton's, with whom she made the record that put his band on the map as well as defining her career, that being a 1939 recording of the standard ballad Deep Purple.   She also sang with some other great orchestras - I have video footage in my music library of a 1942 "Soundie" she was in with Johnny Long's orchestra in which she did an excellent recording of the Judy Garland standard You Made Me Love You.  I also believe, if memory serves me correctly (I had better consult Mr. George T. Simon's The Big Bands to be sure though!) she sang with Artie Shaw as well.  For a great legend like that to still be alive is amazing in itself, as very few of those legends from that great era of quality music are still with us.

The legendary Bea Wain today

Bea in her heyday as a girl band vocalist

A couple of years back, the legendary bandleader Orrin Tucker also joined the "100-Year Club" as well, although he passed away a year or two later.  Bea Wain's centenarian birthday celebration and Chris Cornell's tragic death are cause for reflection - as I wrote a couple of weeks ago, having an appreciation for great music is a gift God gave us, and the quality of the music as well as its timelessness are life-enhancing.   As callous as it may sound, I would rather rejoice over this great lady making it to 100 - and still in good health! - rather than lament a premature passing of a rock star I didn't even know anything about until he popped up in the news last week.  For one thing, I was listening to Bea Wain's records back when most of my Gen-X peers were into Prince or Michael Jackson, and when my classmates in high school were into Guns and Roses (is that how to properly punctuate that group's name?  I really don't know!) I was collecting Guy Lombardo and Freddy Martin records.  I remember those Sunday nights in Kirby, WV, when I would lay on my bed listening to WBT-AM in Charlotte, NC, listening first to Henry Boggen for many years, and then later to the great Chuck Cecil's "Swingin' Years" program - when I started collecting records, I would actually sit there and count on my fingers which one's Henry or Chuck played that I had - today, with a CD collection of over 1200 and an LP collection of almost a thousand, I could probably count on one hand what I lack.   It was fun, those days - many a night too, I would sit at the kitchen table in our mobile home there in Kirby, with just the stove light on, listening to that great music on the radio while either creating drawings or later journaling my own thoughts.  The cool West Virginia summer nights, with the breeze drifting in the open windows while I would actually sit at the table sipping sugar-laden instant coffee or nibbling a bag of Utz Chips, made life so simple - it was a neat little respite from the poverty that surrounded us in those days.  I listened to those shows well up into my early college years, but then life took over and the responsibilities with it sort of made me forget those simpler times for many years, until I took up journaling again and remembered them.  Then, you listen to the reflections of others, such as Susannah, and it makes you really come back to that.   One other stimulus is that after living in Florida for over 27 years, we have recently moved back to my home turf, and as I am sitting here typing this on a Friday night in Hagerstown, MD, in my living room, I am enjoying that nice summer breeze again - going through my mind now are those great songs I used to love to listen to on the radio which I now have in my own library - Count Basie's April in Paris, Charlie Barnet's Skyliner, Freddy Martin's stellar rendition of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto, and Les Brown's great theme song Leap Frog (interesting enough composed by the same guy who wrote In The Mood, the definitive big band iconic anthem made famous by Glenn Miller's 1939 recording).  With the neighborhood ducks quacking in the background (along with my mother's more annoying quacking every few minutes to look at them eating bread - when you see a waterfowl eat bread once, you pretty much know how it works, so certain people need to get their own hobby), it makes for a nice evening as May begins to transition to June - man, it's good to be back home again!

Those are just a few reflections I wanted to share before the weekend makes its debut in a few hours, and hope you all have a good holiday weekend as we commemorate our armed forces, in particular those who gave their lives for our freedom - there are not many World War II vets left, but if Chuck Cecil's show were still on the air, I am sure he would be playing Glenn Miller's American Patrol this weekend in honor of them.   May we never take that for granted, even if we see this weekend as an extended holiday after a long work month and are looking forward to the burgers, dogs, kabobs, and steaks that will be sizzling on outdoor barbecues around the country this weekend.  Take care, and we'll see you again soon when you stop by my virtual "front porch" to "sit a spell" with me and indulge my personal recollections or philosophical pontifications.