Mortality and our fleeting legacy

A long time ago, in galaxy far away (when I realized that I wasn't going to be a rockstar), I came to conclusion that all I really wanted to do was make some recordings that I could be proud of. Much like a photograph (and even better in some ways), something that my children, their children and, hopefully, beyond cound or would appreciate later on in time. Not that all of them would, but maybe some of them, who themselves would become musicians, would appreciate. Maybe even get some inspiration in the fact that this runs in the family to some degree. We never know. In some cases it takes someone like you, Polly, to take the time to preserve this for future generations to enjoy. It is not up to us to determine what level of "enjoyment" will be be had of it, but the hope that it will be appreciated by some.
Now, when I say 'recordings that I can be proud of", I am a long way off from that. But, I know me well enough to know that I'll probably never really be "proud'. It's a never ending search for for satisfaction. I think this is what plagues most artists. You shouldn't sell yourself so short when it comes to your own recordings.
I look at it this way, if someone were to give me an old, scratchy musical recording from one of my great- great grandfathers (or mothers) it would be charished by me no matter the quality of talent, but because I would have comfort in knowing that musicainship runs in my family and there is a heritage there.
I commend you for cataloging your mother's legacy and I hope you and your dad are doing well this holiday season.
 
I watched one of your video the other day, and girl, I was scared, not by the music, the video started with the face of a girl upside down with horrible make up and green hair, scary nightmare stuff.. ;-))

That was Who Is That Calling Me Now by my weird old early 80s band. The silly visual kind of suited the song, though, didn't it? :)


People search their family trees to trace their roots all the time using genealogy sites. I just mean that anyone interested in my family lineage could find more about me online in a few minutes than our parents' generation could with months of painstaking research.

That's true. We can leave breadcrumbs. However, mum's work was used in plenty of high profile publications but now her work is historical and largely forgotten. Grains of sand on a beach. Thing is, she always eschewed the literary scene and had few contacts and friends in her field. So when she passed away, few literary people knew or were strongly impacted by her passing and her work sunk under the weight of new works.

If you're not the creme de la creme then hardly anyone (sometimes no one) gives a damn - apart from people who like you.


Recordings won't delete themselves from the net when I die

No (though they may be archived) but who's going to play them?


Were you bored cataloging your Mom's writings? Even if they do get bored, at least they can actually see what I was like, how I moved, my expressions, and a hundred other nuances

Have to say it was a chore. Her grandson has never read her stories and he's not interested. He's not much keen on books per se - he prefers music, girls, movies and games.

We get obsolete pretty fast these days.


Disagree here too, I play for the music and the others. Being happy is a side effect

But that's why you want to make others happy - it makes you happy to make them happy. You play music to be happy - be instant happiness or extended happiness via recordings (despite the cringe moments).

I hope you don't ask me what my point is because I'm getting lost now :)
 
My intention is not to have the world appreciate my stuff, I couldn't care less. My impetus is to leave breadcrumbs (love that term) for my descendants who are interested. I want what I love to be able to be shared after I'm gone with anyone who is interested enough in me to look. If no one looks, whatever, but I am going to make sure I leave something to find for the ones who are interested. I think my descendants would be mad that I didn't leave them anything, when it's so easy to. That's selfish in a way. To live your entire life and to have nothing to show for all the time you spent on the thing you love the most...is a pity. Recordings are like fossils, they tell a story. I've loved listening to and making recordings as long as I can remember. The recordings of my sons voice when he was 2 and my grandfathers voice before he died are precious to me. My recordings are the most valuable aspect of my music. Because they last, unlike my own memories.

In my mind, being a musician and having no recordings is like being a fine artist who paints with a paint that disappears as soon as it's finished. It's like it never happened. All that work with nothing to show. What a pity.
 
In my mind, being a musician and having no recordings is like being a fine artist who paints with a paint that disappears as soon as it's finished. It's like it never happened. All that work with nothing to show. What a pity.

Thing is, it's only relatively recently that musicians could record. Until then it all went into the air (or, later, on paper). That suggests that the main point of music is not to leave evidence but the feelings while it's happening. The recording is just a bonus.
 
I dont know what became of Paul Nye or what his legacy was, but I know for sure that I am a part of it.
And he doesnt know that.

...
Yesterday, I crouched down between the adjacent graves of my parents. I placed both hands directly over their heads to connect them together through me, & I watched my tears absorb into the earth below me. I smiled, as for the first time since their deaths, I remembered their smiles, rather than the horror of the time prior to their demise. My parents are buried in a woodland, with no headstones or anything to mark their presence. They wanted to be there as a part of the landscape, & only the ones who's lives they touched would identify with the location. My mother said, "when I'm in the ground, look to the sky". I did.

The point I'm making is that it's often the small things that last in the consciousness of others, not the things we believe will be our legacy. My mother's legacy to me is her smile, & behind that smile, all the values that she held as dear. If we strive to leave a legacy, especially something we regard as special or unique in some way, it's more likely to be the tiny things, a moment, a smile, that stays with the ones we've touched along the way.

As for my music, it's future is inconsequential to those I care about, & even if I was lucky enough to leave some fantastic piece of music that was appreciated by millions, it wouldn't be the music itself that touched the individual, it would be the memories evoked by association. Very few people in life really touch you, & by the same mechanism, you truly touch only a handful yourself. Let your music be a joy of the moment. A joy for you, a joy for those you are entertaining. It's really nothing more than that, but if you're lucky, your music will be the catalyst for something that really touches someone else, & that will most likely be the memory of a smile.
 
Yesterday, I crouched down between the adjacent graves of my parents. I placed both hands directly over their heads to connect them together through me, & I watched my tears absorb into the earth below me. I smiled, as for the first time since their deaths, I remembered their smiles, rather than the horror of the time prior to their demise. My parents are buried in a woodland, with no headstones or anything to mark their presence. They wanted to be there as a part of the landscape, & only the ones who's lives they touched would identify with the location. My mother said, "when I'm in the ground, look to the sky". I did.

The point I'm making is that it's often the small things that last in the consciousness of others, not the things we believe will be our legacy. My mother's legacy to me is her smile, & behind that smile, all the values that she held as dear. If we strive to leave a legacy, especially something we regard as special or unique in some way, it's more likely to be the tiny things, a moment, a smile, that stays with the ones we've touched along the way.

As for my music, it's future is inconsequential to those I care about, & even if I was lucky enough to leave some fantastic piece of music that was appreciated by millions, it wouldn't be the music itself that touched the individual, it would be the memories evoked by association. Very few people in life really touch you, & by the same mechanism, you truly touch only a handful yourself. Let your music be a joy of the moment. A joy for you, a joy for those you are entertaining. It's really nothing more than that, but if you're lucky, your music will be the catalyst for something that really touches someone else, & that will most likely be the memory of a smile.

I get what your parents felt, Andy.

Conversely,

.... my mother was a writer and a singer. She performed and recorded a fair amount. She also had hundreds of tapes of some well known opera singers, and classical musicians, in conversation-performance, rehearsals... valueable stuff- she thought. Given my interest in music, she wanted to make sure I inherited her collection. The passage of time and my lack of interest in the years following her death destroyed and de- oxidized all the tapes, and today theres is nothing.
Similarly, my father collected antique furniture for 20 years, not because he loved it, but because he thought he would bequeath something of value & wondferful to the homes of his 2 sons. Lo and behold when the time came, both his sons prefer not to have that furniture in their homes, and all of it today is rotting in our basements.

All the plans on mice and men...


....
 
I get what your parents felt, Andy.

Conversely,

.... my mother was a writer and a singer. She performed and recorded a fair amount. She also had hundreds of tapes of some well known opera singers, and classical musicians, in conversation-performance, rehearsals... valueable stuff- she thought. Given my interest in music, she wanted to make sure I inherited her collection. The passage of time and my lack of interest in the years following her death destroyed and de- oxidized all the tapes, and today theres is nothing.
Similarly, my father collected antique furniture for 20 years, not because he loved it, but because he thought he would bequeath something of value & wondferful to the homes of his 2 sons. Lo and behold when the time came, both his sons prefer not to have that furniture in their homes, and all of it today is rotting in our basements.

All the plans on mice and men...


....
Such a shame Abe. Makes me think if I should leave my prototype kit to my son. Even though he appreciates the sound of the kit, I think the aesthetic is way off the mark for him. I'd hate to think of it rotting in a basement. Guess I'll just have to give it to Larry :)
 
.... my mother was a writer and a singer. She performed and recorded a fair amount. She also had hundreds of tapes of some well known opera singers, and classical musicians, in conversation-performance, rehearsals... valueable stuff- she thought. Given my interest in music, she wanted to make sure I inherited her collection. The passage of time and my lack of interest in the years following her death destroyed and de- oxidized all the tapes, and today theres is nothing.
Similarly, my father collected antique furniture for 20 years, not because he loved it, but because he thought he would bequeath something of value & wondferful to the homes of his 2 sons. Lo and behold when the time came, both his sons prefer not to have that furniture in their homes, and all of it today is rotting in our basements.

All the plans on mice and men

Makes me think if I should leave my prototype kit to my son. Even though he appreciates the sound of the kit, I think the aesthetic is way off the mark for him. I'd hate to think of it rotting in a basement. Guess I'll just have to give it to Larry :)

Yep yep yep. I look at the things my parents see of value and most of it I see as old, dirty, worn out and, well, a bit icky lol (apart from the old record players).

My nephew will feel exactly the same way about my stuff. When I was cleaning out dad's place before moving in I must have put 100s of bottles and little containers that he'd kept for decades in the recycle bin ... I'm hoping not to leave a similar legacy with my earthly remains.

I think the trick is to train your beneficiaries from an early age to be heavily interested in history / vintage things :) There's probably millions of young people (and maybe some not so young) who think the iPhone 3 is old hat ...
 
Guess I'll just have to give it to Larry :)

No, no, not Larry! .... me, me, me..... ;-)

That was Who Is That Calling Me Now by my weird old early 80s band. The silly visual kind of suited the song, though, didn't it? :)

Yep, it sure did... :)

You play music to be happy - be instant happiness or extended happiness via recordings (despite the cringe moments).

How so true, I have dozens of tapes that I hate to listen to nowadays... :)
 
Henri, hopefully, I won't have to give it to anyone any time soon :) It's also probably the nearest I'll get to a physical manifestation of my legacy, for what it's worth.

Ditto for me, and the inheritance of my drumset is already planned, it goes to the son of of the Godfather of my daughter. He's so much in love with it. :)
 
I do get a sense of what you are feeling because I've experienced some of what you are going through.

Its easier to be philosophical as we get older but ultimately it is about 'playing your music' ( read metaphor for life ) .. So what is our legacy, then?

I wear an old T-shirt very proudly which has a man and his dog walking into the horizon and it says Don't Leave a Trace . Its an axiom that I'm getting more and more comfortable with. Ashes to ashes dust to dust.

I have come to believe that the living moment, the here and the now, is the only truth that I can old on to, and everything else is just notes in the air. People who believe otherwise are chasing life's many shaggy dogs, including the desperate need to be relevant, meaningful, impactful, rich whatever...
Perhaps I say this is with the advantage of some hindsight, having some 50 odd years under my belt and after one has fought many of life's battles, some won, some lost and some drawn.

As Bo said, creating a home that feels warm and inviting always, is Nobel Prize- worthy in my silly opinion too. I know you are an admirer of George Carlin and his take on who we are as a species and our role on this planet is highly self indulgent and arrogant.

Accomplishment is what it is in the end. The need to evaluate ourselves. But by what rule do we measure? Paul McCartney, Steve Jobs or Bo's parents. They all created something that someone else drew inspiration and strength from. Who judges?

As for your music, I think it lives in you, the person and not on your disk drive, or your recordings. Its the people you touch through any medium.

As a kid, my world was transformed forever, not only because I heard the Beatles, Zeppelin, or any of the big 'game changers'. It changed because I heard Paul Nye play a major 7th arpeggio in a cheap dive I'd snuck into in NYC.

I don't know what became of Paul Nye or what his legacy was, but I know for sure that I am a part of it.
And he doesn't know that.

Sorry, I missed this fabulous post earlier. An Abe special :)

Don't Leave a Trace ... well, like the man's dog walking into the horizon, we can't help but to leave few, um ... traces behind us, eh?

It's a romantic notion (Abe, a romantic? Perish the thought :) to whisk through life as lightly as a ghost but we human enjoy doing things that leave "traces" for others to "sniff". Whether anyone does sniff them, well, that's their business ...

So true about little things having the biggest impact and that we can unwittingly transform each other's lives with the simplest things.
 
...

and I thought I was the one with all the wierd zen threads.. ; )

I do get a sense of what you are feeling because I've experienced some of what you are going through.

Its easier to be philosophical as we get older but ultimately it is about 'playing your music' ( read metaphor for life ) .. So what is our legacy, then?

I wear an old Tshirt very proudly which has a man and his dog walking into the horizon and it says Dont Leave a Trace . Its an axiom that I'm getting more and more comfortable with. Ashes to ashes dust to dust.

I have come to believe that the living moment, the here and the now, is the only truth that I can old on to, and everything else is just notes in the air. People who believe otherwise are chasing life's many shaggy dogs, including the desperate need to be relevant, meaningful, impactful, rich whatever...
Perhaps I say this is with the advatage of some hindsight, having some 50 odd years under my belt and after one has fought many of lifes battles, some won, some lost and some drawn.

As Bo said, creating a home that feels warm and inviting always, is Nobel Prize- worthy in my silly opinion too. I know you are an admirer of Geoge Carlin and his take on who we are as a species and our role on this planet is highly self indulgent and arrogant.

Accomplishment is what it is in the end. The need to evaluate ourselves. But by what rule do we measure? Paul McCartney, Steve Jobbs or Bo's parents. They all created something that someone else drew inspiration and strength from. Who judges?

As for your music, I think it lives in you, the person and not on your disk drive, or your recordings. Its the people you touch through any medium.

As a kid, my world was transformed forever, not only beause I heard the Beatles, Zepplin, or any of the big 'game changers'. It changed because I heard Paul Nye play a major 7th arpeggio in a cheap dive I'd snuck into in NYC.

I dont know what became of Paul Nye or what his legacy was, but I know for sure that I am a part of it.
And he doesnt know that.

...

So much truth here.

It must be Christmas/Holiday time as we're getting all philosophical about mortality and loved-ones lost.
 
Now, I'm really considering that love fest.... ;-))

If you enjoy deep ...

phil_cosmology-for-beginners.jpg
 
I think that was the case a decade ago but now there's so much material out there that each unknown item fades into increasing anonymity. If I wasn't on this site the number of hits for each of my YouTube vids would be under 10.

I certainly like your bands version of It's a Man's (Man's) World. That really is some soulful drumming. I didn't make that comment on YouTube, but I certainly agree.

As far as the whole philosophy thing, I'm not going to try to say something meaningful because I'll probably just say something stupid. All I can do is try to leave the best impression I can on everyone I think deserves it. To me, life is all about living a life worth living. I'm not going to spend my life being miserable just so that i can live another 20 miserable years. I just hope I am remembered as a good person and a good drummer. That's all I care about.

My dad is remembered in the Folk music, specifically as an Autoharp player and luthier. He is as important to those circles as any drummer on the home page of Drummerworld is to drumming. He never got rich or anything, but he made his mark. I'll probably never measure up to him musically, nevertheless I can enjoy playing music just the same.
 
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