She died.
And she's not the only one. Not a week goes by that someone from rock history doesn't pass over to the other side, and it's so weird. It's not like they were cut down in their prime, but it's the end of an era. And it's only going to get worse.
The household names? I used to be convinced that the Beatles would last for at least another hundred and fifty more years, but Steve Jobs is unknown to the younger generation and I don't see anything happening to make him a latter day hero. And I always cite W.C. Fields, who was an icon in the sixties, we saw his movies, imitated his voice, I don't think anybody under fifty even knows who he is.
And when I grew up, we could see the beginning of the enterprise, i.e. movie-making, now not only are there decades of movies, almost like books, but there's footage of events and little is left to the mind to picture.
Now Libby Titus is famous for one thing, she co-wrote "Love Has No Pride" with Eric Kaz. Originally appearing on Bonnie Raitt's second album "Give It Up," the song was then covered by Linda Ronstadt and ultimately became a standard.
But Titus was also involved with Levon Helm. And was Donald Fagen's long time spouse when she died. And there was that physical altercation that made the news, funny that Paul Simon had a similar situation, but if these people weren't famous no one would know. And although I've never been so angered as to touch a woman, and I don't approve of it, it's not only musicians who do it, and sometimes women do it too.
What I mean is the story would be average, if the people involved weren't celebrities.
Not that we really knew who Libby Titus was. I bought her Columbia album, there was an indie LP years before that that was completely unavailable. I needed to go deeper, after all she wrote that song! And I'm not going to sit here and tell you the album is one of my favorites, but I did lay down cash and I did play it and...
It's completely different today. If you're interested in someone who wrote the song... You go online, you check out their version, probably don't make it all the way through, and then you never go back to it ever again.
And that person is wholly available. Not only on Spotify and YouTube, but Instagram, TikTok, X... Although there are aged punters proud of being offline, they're the exception, and they're fading away, everybody else is known and accessible, there's no mystery, and even the biggest acts are cults.
Taylor Swift? Donald Trump? Cults. Trump selling merch is no different from Swift and the rest of the acts doing the same thing. And I can't seem to find anybody who hasn't been to the Eras tour who can name, never mind sing, two of Swift's songs. Ditto on Trump. Who bought stock in Truth Social? Never mind the Bibles and the rest of the chozzerai, but that's stardom today. Let me be clear, everybody needs something to believe in to get through life. Otherwise you're dislocated. And since so much happens virtually, you need to tie yourself in, you need to make an effort to belong, otherwise you're alone and depressed. You're not a pariah, because no one cares about the left out. There's just too much going on to be concerned with those outside the game. The classic example here is when someone didn't know about a record pre-internet, musos would make fun of them. If you make fun of someone for not knowing a song or a movie or a TV series today...I'm laughing at YOU! Is your world so circumscribed, so tiny, that you're deep into one thing to the exclusion of others? Or are you just one of those pricks who is always jockeying for position...
So this was not breaking news, Libby's death. It didn't merit a red headline atop the CNN homepage. I stumbled on it.
Used to be the death of those from the classic era was a big story, a shock, that we all needed to be made aware of, that put us in a bad mood as we testified how great they were.
Now it's just news.
The one I can't get over is Christine McVie. 79?? I mean she was not cut down in her prime, but she sat out the Fleetwood Mac reunions, got back together with the band, was as great as ever, and then PFFFT! Gone! And who is going to follow her?
So thinking about Libby Titus, I was reminded of "Give It Up" and I pulled it up on Qobuz, the best-sounding streaming service. You have to wait for the track to spin up, it's not instant, the service is not the tweaked to perfection Spotify, but the sound...
Is oftentimes better than CD.
But "Give It Up" was not in Hi-Res, 24 Bit/96kHz, but it sounded...
Clear as day, yet primitive.
This is one of my favorite albums. Was the best Raitt until "Luck of the Draw." Yes, Bonnie is one of the few artists who peaked again, like Bob Dylan with "Blood on the Tracks."
And for some reason I wanted to hear the jangly opening cut, "Give It Up or Let Me Go." And it made sense, but then I changed to my absolute favorite, her Joel Zoss cover, "Too Long at the Fair":
"Jesus cried, he wept and died
I guess he went up to heaven"
Wow, Freebo's bass.
And then "You Told Me Baby," which Bonnie actually wrote, along with "Nothing Seems to Matter," an absolute killer on the first side.
And all this led me to Jackson Browne, actually, the two are buddies.
I needed to hear the piece-de-resistance, "Late For the Sky," and in this case, it was in Hi-Res.
"All the words had all been spoken
And somehow the feeling still wasn't right"
This was the song you listened to, the album you listened to after a breakup, even though it's not considered a classic breakup album.
And Jackson earns his stripes with these words:
"You never knew what I loved in you
I don't know what you loved in me
Maybe the picture of somebody you were hoping I might be"
Genius. Right up there with Don Henley's "Wasted Time":
"So you can get on with your search baby
And I can get on with mine
And maybe someday we will find
That it wasn't really wasted time"
And of course I played "For A Dancer," and there was Freebo's tuba on "Walking Slow" and...
I needed more.
But it had to be in Hi-Res. I wanted to hear "For Everyman," yet it was not.
But the debut was, and I pulled up my favorite song from the LP, "Something Fine," and Jackson sounded completely different. His voice was higher and thinner. And Crosby sounded great in the background, and the production was good, and after "Rock Me on the Water" and "Song For Adam" I needed more.
But when it came to Hi-Res...
I ended up playing "Looking East" from the recent live album, "The Road East - Live in Japan."
And this was a completely different Jackson. He was comfortable with his voice, it was deeper and...
I was stunned how great the lyrics in these songs were. Because that was what Jackson was selling, songs, not his vocals. He was one step above. And very few are. And if you are, people take notice.
And I thought to myself, is anybody writing songs this good today?
And while I'm contemplating this, I'm thinking about Jackson's age. I remember talking to him about his 70th birthday at the side door of the Orpheum, when was that?
I checked on Wikipedia. Jackson Browne is 76, as a matter of fact, he just had a birthday on October 9th.
Does anybody under twenty know who Jackson Browne is?
And how many only know him from "Somebody's Baby," from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Or "Doctor My Eyes." Both of which don't even get to the heart of the matter.
He could die any minute.
Or live to a hundred, I don't know.
But what I do know is time keeps on slippin,' slippin', slippin' away.
I heard Steve Miller's "Rock'n Me " the other day, pushing through Spotify. It was next, next, next, next, I couldn't find a song that satiated me, but then this...
"Rock'n Me" was a comeback. Miller was considered done.
And the stunning thing is "Rock'n Me" is only 3:09, from an era when everybody was stretching out, this hearkened back to the sixties.
And maybe more youngsters know Steve Miller more than Jackson Browne...
But if you're a boomer, chances are both are part of your DNA... And they're fading in the rearview mirror as I write this.
Did you see that the Robbie Robertson tribute hasn't sold out? I keep seeing ads on social media. Impossible. But then a promoter told me...how many people want to see 75 year old guys? And Eric Clapton and Van Morrison are pushing 80, just one year away.
Time marches on.
But we didn't expect it to be this way. We thought we'd rule until we died. Everything we deemed important would remain so. But then they kept making more people and along came the internet and despite so many trying so hard to hang on, the conveyor belt keeps humming along, ready to push us all over the edge.
Icons!
But when they come to town, the whole burg doesn't know about it, like we did in the seventies. There's just too much information.
And younger acts that can't hold a candle to the legends are selling tickets. More commerce than music. Closer to Trump than Libby Titus.
And life is too hard to be a songwriter. You may never make it. And then you won't be able to afford health insurance, and when your car breaks down you'll be SOL and then you'll be on your deathbed and someone will start a GoFundMe...
It's just plain weird.
I know who Libby Titus is. And I'm stunned reading the obits that she had a whole life. They all do/did. But we didn't think so. We thought they made records, performed live and were rich and lived a much better life than the rest of us, that we could aspire to but never reach.
But this didn't turn out to be true. The more time that goes by the more they're like me and you. They couldn't go to the grocery store, and now no one even bugs them if they do.
All I'm saying is it's positively strange.
I didn't anticipate this phase of life.
But here we are.
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