ART: DEATH: LIFE: LEGACY

Mortality and art. The mortality of artists. The immortality of their art. Old story, new songs. Especially lately.

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the deaths of David Bowie and of Prince and how some people want me to believe that Prince's artistic life was comparable to Bowie's and how we really shouldn't try to make these quantitive judgements and yet we still do

Both men died too early, irregardless of their age. Bowie was still an actively creative musician, releasing a new album at the time of his death. I don't think Prince was creative, he seems to be mostly remembered for music created in the 90's but he was a relentless performer.

Bowie's death was not sudden but the news of it was sudden to us and while he was still a young man, the length and breadth of his incredible career made us think him as old, as having been around a long time. His death was sad but it was from an illness that we all, unfortunately, understand.

Prince's death was indeed sudden. Unexpected. The circumstances of which are not as easily as understood as Bowie's. I think the shock of it has inspired some of the statements about his greatness and influence, of the comparison of his creative legacy to that of Bowie, statements that may eventually wane in time but it's easy to understand. For his fans, it was a shock.

Now we come to the sad and strange story of Gord Downie. I am writing this post on the day we learned that he has been diagnosed with a form of brain cancer that is generally considered terminal. Some people have been known to live with this cancer for a long time, others not so much. He could be with us for a long time still, or he could be gone far too soon.

It's rather a strange thing. The Hip have announced that they will launch a summer tour, to be Gord's last. A farewell tour I suppose. The one that Bowie and Prince never got to engage upon. I'm already thinking of Downie in the past tense yet the man is still alive, at this time stable, at this time planning to continue to perform and hopefully create.

If you go to see the Hip on this tour will it be the last time you will see Gord? If you have tickets towards the end or the tour will you get to see him at all? And what if, hopefully, he continues to survive. Will there be another tour, another Hip recording, another Gord Downie solo project

It's just an odd thing. Bowie and Prince are gone but their art will live on for a long time. Gord Downie is still alive but I listen to Fully, Completely as if that is part of his legacy, as if it is a Bowie or Prince recording, as if there will be no more. But there may be.

It's too early to evaluate Gord's and the Hip's legacy. Yet one is inclined to do so. Just thinking of them, that music, what it all meant.

David Bowie was one of the greatest musicians of modern times. Simple. You can't convince me otherwise. Relentlessly creative, fearless, eclectic, trend setting, chimerical, at once profane and eloquent, technical and organic, audacious and reticent. When you look at his body of work you good be looking at the music of several musicians but that was Bowie: Ziggy, The Thin White Duke, Commander Tom

In a five year period Bowie made recordings like Ziggy Stardust, Young Americans, The Thin White Duke, Low, Heroes, Let's Dance ... records that spanned the precursor of punk to electronic, to blue eyed soul and beyond. It's really a remarkable achievement

For me, Prince peaked with Purple Rain. When the Doves Cry really is a remarkable song that still resonates with me to this day. There were others of course but I kind of part ways with him soon after that. The falsetto affection of Kiss and beyond really did little for me. When people wrote about Bowie they wrote about those remarkable albums, the variety of them. When people remember Prince he comes across as a 90's icon

But Prince was a truly talented musician. He could play a huge array of instruments and play them well. He was a talented and technical producer. He was an amazing guitarist, you have to put him high on any list of under rated guitar players. And his fans loved him. He did not have the breadth and vision of Bowie's work but clearly, he impacted people

Gord Downie is a poet. Really. More than most other songwriters who have to at least be lyrical. And he is a prototypical Canadian poet, not just because he writes about Canada (more frequently and more ferociously than a lot of other Canadian artists) but because he finds poetry in the every day, the mundane. He is a perfect counterpart to the other great poet of Canadian music, Leonard Cohen

At this point Downie is a living legacy. We think about what he has done but, he is not done. I am excited to see him perform again but really, I hope he continues to write, to create, to give us that vision of his that is truly unique.

Art and mortality. One remains forever. The other is a certainty. But in the odd case of Gord Downie, they are both existing right now, in this moment, together

With both excitement and trepidation, I want to see what they will do together