Hum along!
/When you get to be my age, you begin to wonder what kind of “legacy” you’re about to leave behind. It’s not as if I’ve ever wanted to be famous famous, but I think I would like to be remembered.
That’s universal, of course, but in artists it becomes more intense: Will people know my art, my music, my books, my cocktails, in the years to come? Will people remember me? And for 95% of us, the answer is “not really.”
Here’s why that doesn’t bother me.
Do you know who Émile Waldteufel is?
How about David Rose?
Or how about this piece of music?
Or this one?
It turns out you do know who Waldteufel and Rose are/were. You just didn’t know their names. But you knew their work. Waldteufel wrote “The Skater’s Waltz,” and Rose wrote the immortal “The Stripper.”
Likewise, for at least a while after I’m gone, there will be people who will hear a melody and immediately think, “Hey, boy, what day is today?” or “Fire, you handsome creature shine…” Given the small circle in which I operate, those people will probably remember my name or even remember me, but it’s a small number of people after all, and eventually they too will be gone.
But as I say in my Parable of Light, what counts is that you pass it on. So I think I’m good here.
And now, hum along:
