Friday, October 15, 2010

On Enduring Fame

With all the talk this week of Maz's big home run in 1960, I happened upon this quote when reading another article online about Joe Carter's World Series winning HR for the Blue Jays. What is it like to do something and be remembered for it, and seemingly ONLY for it, for the rest of your life? I'm not sure who wrote this (it might be Joe Posnanski of SI.com, or maybe he is quoting someone else), and it relates to music, not sports, but I think it is a terrific summation. I wonder if Bill Mazeroski feels this way.....

"I think about this with musicians. You write a song, and you work on the words (“Wait, what else rhymes with heaven?”) until it’s exactly what you want it to sound like. You bring it to the band, and maybe they collaborate, add a guitar thing here, a drum thing there. You record it, then record it again, and again, and maybe again. And when you finally get it down, through production, you really like it. You think it might become a hit.

"Does it occur to you while you are doing it that it really might become a hit? And if it does, yes, of course, it will make you a lot of money. But you might have to play this song FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? Does it occur to you that you may end up traveling city to city, for years and years, and every time you start this song people will go crazy and they will sing along, and after a while the song may become used up for you, but it will NEVER become used up for them? They will never get tired of it, not ever. When you are old and retired, and you show up somewhere, they may STILL want you to sing that song. In fact, for them this song actually IS you.

"Every time Bruce Springsteen pours his heart into Born To Run, my admiration for him doubles."

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