The Summer the Music Died, and All Was Silent

Many, too many, legends of music, especially, ones who have framed the very way I think and feel and understand life have ... are dying this summer. And people such as those on Entertainment Tonight, TV Guide, and other venues have let them pass unsung. For shame. Just spit on your grandparents when they die, why don't you. Ignore those whose steps came before and made this horrid place more beautiful for all of us.

Bill Randle taught me the range and focus of the can-do spirit, of the selflessness of true genius. Jerry Goldsmith and Elmer Bernstein made me see that music was more than something to dance to and hum, but something that could enhance a movie, a TV story, or just stand on its own as a universal classic, whether it was the themes from "Magnificent Seven," "To Kill A Mockingbird," "Walk on the Wild Side," "The Ten Commandments," "The Great Escape," "National Lampoon's Animal House," "Star Trek," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "The Omen," "Chinatown," and the classic "Olympics Theme." And so much more....