Looking toward the New Year
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend… If you didn’t get a chance to take a peek at the gifts I left under your tree (virtual), drop by the “Free Reads” section of this blog and enjoy!
Now, as we look forward to the New Year, I often find myself sliding into reflections and memories… As with my own religious New Year (the end of October), the secular New Year brings on fond memories of those who have gone before, who were important to me in some manner or another, whether they directly touched my life or not. Again this year, I reflect with sadness on the death of one of the greatest inspirations in my life - Stuart Adamson.
No, I never met him, and I didn’t know him personally. But his music touched my life from a very young age (I was all of seven years old when I heard Big Country for the first time, and Stuart Adamson’s haunting lyrics stay with me even today), and a very large part of my life and writing career is formed around the imagery I drew from listening to that music. This time of year brings a sadness to me, that I never did have the chance to meet the man himself, to tell him what an impact his music had (and continues to have) on my life and writing.
This year, as I look toward the future with hope and a renewed sense of purpose, I also reflect on my past, and those who have made it richer, even when they might not have realized just how great a part they played.
December 27th, 2007 at 6:31 am
I too am haunted by Stuart’s death as he would have been fifity this year two months before my 50th. I’m deciding if I should stop exploring his music and life the way I have in 07 since it has bordered on obsession.
The fact that I missed out on so much of his music while he was alive and that I never got to see him live pains me greatly. I was on Bruce Watson’s blog site tonight looking for more insight into Stuarts life. I found your blog on a Big Country Google alert. It’s good to know there is someone else who misses Stuart as much as I do.
If he only knew how much people cared and how he touched so many souls. Take care.
December 27th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
There are a great many things I regret in my life, and not getting to see Big Country in concert when I had the chance (I was too young for concerts when I lived in England, and missed my chance to see them in Berlin when I was a teenager) is definitely one of them. I quite literally grew up on their music, and the deep, soulful lyrics Stuart wrote. Even today, I still listen to my Big Country CDs when I’m writing, because the powerful emotion within the songs is a definite inspiration.
While I never got to meet Stuart, I do still feel as if we all lost a great friend in his tragic death.