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“Just Thinking"
Happy Friday! The weather’s still cool, the days are getting shorter, and we’re charging headlong into Christmas. Hard to believe that it is just two weeks from yesterday. Something to look forward to as we juggle the prep and the stress that always seems to sneak in this time of year. Christmas isn’t just about celebrating the birth of Jesus, it’s about family, friends, traditions, and remembering those we’ve loved and lost. It’s a season that brings all kinds of emotions: the joy of the holiday, the melancholy for those who aren’t with us, the letdown when, after all of the anticipation, the big day comes and goes, the relief of pulling it off for another year and the gratitude for the people and blessings around you. Take a deep breath and soak it in, because ready or not, here it comes!
I read a couple articles that got me thinking about music this week, how so many artists who changed and enhanced the musical backdrop of our time have died early and what impact they may have had going forward. On December 10th in 1964 Sam Cooke (You Send Me) was shot and killed at the Hacienda Hotel in Los Angeles Hotel, Cooke was just 33 years old. On December 10th in 1967 Otis Redding (Sitting on the Dock of the Bay) along with his band the Bar-Kays died in a plane crash near Madison Wisconsin, one of the Bar-Kays survived the accident, Redding was just 26 years old.
This got me thinking about not only the impact that these talented artists had, but what a legacy they would have left had they lived longer. When you think about so many impact players that died before their time and how they may have changed the world, perhaps that is why they were taken, perhaps we weren’t ready for the change that they would have brought. Top of my head, Michael Jackson, Prince and Elvis, I’m not a Hip-Hopper, but Biggie and Tupac and Rockers Buddy Holly, Bradley Nowell, Kurt Cobain, Tom Petty and Stevie Ray Vaughn.
This lead down a rabbit hole regarding the large number of singers that died in plane crashes. Of course, “The Day That The Music Died”, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper, died when a Beechcraft Bonanza crashed on February 3, 1959, near Clear Lake Iowa. Country Music legend Patsy Cline was killed in a Piper Comanche crash on March 5, 1963, near Camden, Tennessee. Jim Reeves, a famous country singer, died at age 40 in a plane crash on July 31, 1964. He was piloting his own Beechcraft Debonair aircraft when it went down in Brentwood, Tennessee. Big Band leader Glenn Miller disappeared over the English Channel in December 1944 while on a military flight.
On October 20th, 1977, we lost Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines when the chartered Convair CV‑240 that transported Lynyrd Skynyrd ran out of fuel in a remote wooded area near Gillsburg, Mississippi. If you get a chance, there is a very good movie about Lynyrd Skynyrd - If I Leave Here Tomorrow, about their 10-year journey to become an overnight success. I believe that it is still on Netflix.
Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash on August 27, 1990, leaving a concert near East Troy, Wisconsin. Jim Croce died in a charter plane crash after a concert in Louisiana in September 1973. John Denver crashed his experimental Rutan Long-EZ on October 12, 1997, into Monterey Bay. Ricky Nelson died on December 31, 1985 (New Year’s Eve) when his Douglas DC-3 aircraft caught fire and crashed during an emergency landing near De Kalb, Texas. Otis Redding – His Beechcraft crashed into Lake Monona on December 10, 1967. Aaliyah was killed in a twin-engine Cessna 402 crash after a music video shoot in the Bahamas, on August 25, 2001.
Several more musicians who performed or sang also lost their lives in aviation accidents. The list includes Chris Austin, Cowboy Copas, David Box, Dinho, Gabriel Diniz, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Marília Mendonça, Maury Muehleisen, Randy Rhoads, Jenni River plus others.
That is a lot of tragedy and a lot of loss, next week we will work on being more upbeat. Hopefully the Feds dropping the interest rate will translate into improved mortgage rates.
Let me know what you think.
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