Rock and Roll may go on for ever but the artists must die. Hearing their music makes one feel sad about their passing.



I use to like like Gene Pitney and felt rather sad when I'd heard he'd died. Unlike Elvis, the Beatles and Rolling stones I knew absolutely nothing about him. His was just another sound that frequented the places I went when there was a Radio turned on.

I decided to have a peek at Wikipedia - the great net resource for all kinds of trivial information and discovered that he died at 65, was born in Hartford Connecticut and went to a school called Rockville (no its not a joke). He backed the Rolling Stones, wrote songs for other artists and had hit records in the 60’s.

Then he spent the rest of his life travelling around the clubs of the world doing those same 20 or so songs that made him famous. In fact he died on tour in Wales not long after getting a standing ovation from lots of aging baby boomers like myself.

I have to confess that a certain sadness overcomes me occasionally when I hear some of the old songs on the radio. It is especially poignant when I hear something like a Gene Pitney record which hasn’t been played much in the intervening period, so its only connection in my memory is to the times when it was on the hit parade. I find that I can often remember where I was and who I was with when I first heard the song. I’m even embarrassed to admit that I can still remember most of the lyrics.

I occasionally find in me a melancholy yearning for those years as I am confronted with the relentlessness of passing time. It’s a bit like
watching the open fields around Camden being eaten up by the spreading suburbia for those who have been here for many years.

I sometimes allow myself to slip into the melancholy. When I am down about as deep as I can stand, I try to consider how the non-believer of my age must feel as he sees his life and the icons of his past slip away, knowing that the only way he can bring back those times is in his imagination.

It’s in those moments I find reasons to be thankful that God has rescued me and given me eternity. I am also thankful that my future is going to be so much better than the past. Once I am with the Lord I will have no cause to want to remember the former days.

The reminiscences that come about through hearing old songs, smelling old smells and telling old tales are, in reality quite dangerous delusions if you have nothing waiting for in you the future.

It may seem to be a bit of harmless sentimentality but in fact it’s often one of the many things humans use to avoid thinking seriously about eternity. We can be so locked up in our reminiscences that we have no time or inclination for the future.

Death is a reality in this world and no amount of memories, good or bad will help you avoid it. Jesus suffered death to pay your debts so that you could have a wonderful future. He didn’t do it so you could crawl back into the world that has gone. There’s no future in the past.