The End of a Era?

I know the death of Glenn Frey caught many off guard, including me.  So many great songs, so many memories that he helped create.  I never personally got to see Eagles live, sounds funny, just saying Eagles, but for some reason puttin "The" in front of them wasn't what the band wanted, or so I've heard.  I had been a fan of the band for many years, but sometime during the nineties, with the oversaturation of classic rock on radio, I kind of got sick of hearing "Hotel California" or "Life in the Fast Lane".  Great songs none the less, but they were (still) in heavy rotation on classic rock stations.  It wasn't until last year when I was on a "sicker than I have ever been" three day camp out in my bathroom, that I discovered " The History of the Eagles" documentary.  It clicked that I was still a fan, I just hadn't really listened to the band in years.  Seeing the doc, reminded me of all the great songs that they had.  It's not that I had forgot, just really hadn't paid attention to them.  Being the youngest with three older brothers and a sister, I really can't remember ever not knowing who the Eagles were.  It seemed there was always an 8 track or a cassete laying around.  Glenn Frey's contributions will live on which is something all his fans should be grateful for.


We also lost David Bowie this year.  I will admit I'm not that much of a fan of Bowie.  Some songs I like, but just was never that into his songs.  The one thing about Bowie that I look at as a great contribution to music is that he introduced a little known Texas blues guitarist to the world.  Bowie had met Stevie Ray Vaughan after the Montreaux Jazz Festival and tapped him to play guitar on six of the eight tracks on his "Let's Dance" album.  Soon Stevie Ray and Double Trouble became a known entity on their own.  Although not much of an influence on me and my style of music, Bowie is a great loss to millions.

We also lost Lemmy, Paul Kantner, and just today it was announced that Singe Anderson, original singer of the Jefferson Airplane died the same day as Kantner.  2016 sure has not been a good year for classic rock artists so far.  Death is apart of life, but when heroes and influences that you have known all your life starts leaving us, it makes you realize that youth is just a part of everyone's past.