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...it's not "The Day the Music Died".....it's "The Days" anymore....
...of all the thoughtful and cogent posts you have brought us, this is a thing of beauty like none other ...thank you for this...I don't know if some notable deaths are affecting me because I'm old and weak now, or if some people who have been really important to me have gone away in a group.
No celebrity death really affected me, and by that I mean personally and profoundly, until August of 2014. Robin Williams. He had made me laugh more than any other human on the planet. How can one not be affected by that?
And then last year. Leonard Nimoy. Star Trek, as cheesy as it now looks, had a big impact on me a a kid, and Leonard Nimoy as Spock had an effect that transcended the series itself. In that silly show, in that fantastical character, I saw an avenue for life improvement.
And now.
Keith Emerson has died. Yeah, just another rock musician. Sorry, but there's more to it than that.
Emerson was a transcendent keyboard player, classically trained, nontraditional, brilliantly creative. It was Emerson who broke me out of my top-40 rock-and-roll mindset and made me appreciate that other forms of music could be appreciated. It was through Emerson's work that I learned to appreciate such people as Mussorgsky and Copeland, and from there, yeah, the great classical composers.
And still, that wasn't all.
Watching Emerson in concert was an exercise in, "How does he do that?" A true savant. To watch him play different tunes on two keyboards, one with each hand, to see him strapped to the piano on an axis and playing madly while it goes end-over-end, or (amazingly enough) to climb around and play on the keyboard upside down/backwards - well, it just makes you scratch your head and realize some people come in with a genius-laden talent that is not to be equaled, only to be left in awe of.
It was the album "Tarkus" that first drew me to Keith Emerson and his supporting cast - because let's face it, as good as his supporting cast might be, they were always in his virtuosity shadow - and I'm happy to read that another keyboardist, the guy from Dream Theater, has many of the same thoughts I do, and he's a musician and I'm not.
As Robin made me laugh like no other, as Leonard's Spock character changed my life attitude like no other, so Keith changed my perception and appreciation of music for life. For that, I am entirely grateful.
Thank you, Keith Emerson. I don't know how quickly you may be forgotten by others, but as for me, never.
Dream Theater's Jordan Rudess on Keith Emerson: 'He Was My Idol' | Rolling Stone
...I understand, I read a bit more today-apparently the neurological condition was affecting both hands, and was irreversible.....he chose to exit the stage one last time, his own way.....Thank you for the update GNTLGNT. I cannot "like" that post.
...of all the thoughtful and cogent posts you have brought us, this is a thing of beauty like none other ...thank you for this...
....sadly, the story has been updated.....he took his own life.....apparently due to depression from the fact that he had nerve trouble in his right hand which was making it nearly impossible for him to do what he loved and did best.....