Time to shed some tears for those who’ve left us, as Day 25 in the 30 Day Music Challenge calls for ‘A Song By An Artist No Longer Living.’
I planned this post before the sad passing of Tom Petty and I opted not to change it up to feature him. His loss is too recent to be acknowledged in this one-off blog post. He deserves a proper tribute, and I plan to give him one soon.
That said, I didn’t want to go with an artist who’s been dead for a long time.
David Bowie and Prince fell right in the sweet spot, having both died in early 2016. And I like Bowie better, so here he is.
“You know who I am,” he said
The speaker was an angel
He coughed and shook his crumpled wings
Closed his eyes and moved his lips
“It’s time we should be going”
[Chorus]
(Waiting so long, I’ve been waiting so, waiting so)
Look back in anger, driven by the night
Til you come
(Waiting so long, I’ve been waiting so, waiting so)
Look back in anger, see it in my eyes
Til you come
[Verse 2]
No one seemed to hear him
So he leafed through a magazine
And, yawning, rubbed the sleep away
Very sane he seemed to me
[Chorus]
(Waiting so long, I’ve been waiting so, waiting so)
Look back in anger, driven by the night
Til you come
(Waiting so long, I’ve been waiting so, waiting so)
Look back in anger, feel it in my voice
Til you come
[Outro]
(Waiting so long, ahhh…)
(Waiting so long, I’ve been waiting so, waiting so)
(Waiting so long, I’ve been waiting so, waiting so)
(Waiting so long)
Meet Me In Montauk 
As Petty has been much on my mind of late, I’ll take this opportunity to honor him. My song choice could arguably be an entry in your “dumped or dying” category. Though the lyrics tilt toward “dumped,” Petty’s sentiment here takes on particular poignancy when applied to a reflection of his own life and passing, particularly these lines:
Yeah and it’s over before you know it
It all goes by so fast
Yeah the bad nights take forever
And the good nights don’t ever seem to last
And man, we never had the real thing….
So Tom, “wherever you are tonight
I wish you the best of everything in the world
And I hope you found, whatever you were looking for”
Thanks for reminding me about this era of David Bowie’s creative life. I started listening to him when he released Heroes… which was recorded in Berlin before he went on a big tour and then recorded Lodger. It took me a while to catch up on all of his earlier output, and I bought almost everything he released for the rest of his career. Deep breath in. Deep breath out.
Like all of us, I could probably post dozens of songs in this category. It’s kind of hard to settle on just one. That said, I offer up George Harrison’s pop gem “What Is Life?” from “All Things Must Pass”. Practically any of the songs on this masterpiece could be included in today’s category. In the Beatles, George was permitted two tunes per album (if he had them), so by the time the band split up, he had stockpiled some gems. He even offered “All Things Must Pass”, a brilliant song, but they chose other material … what a tragedy. In my opinion, George Harrison was the better songwriter in the Beatles when they broke up.
My first thought was to choose “Here Comes the Sun” or “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
I’ll represent the Prince side of things.
I’m opting to go with the artist whose death was ultimately eclipsed when it fell in the same year Prince and Bowie died. Still, he was an artist I always loved. While I considered going with one of his ballads, I decided to go with the song (and video) I always loved most.
https://youtu.be/lu3VTngm1F0