>>>>>>>>We had to know this was going to happen.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/27/michael.jackson/index.html
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I am pretty sure The King was assassinated by a cabal that wanted to prevent the Comeback. Probably the same group that got Princess Di ( the People's Princess - a Candle in the Wind if you will. )
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I find this tragedy too much to bare and I'm not sure if I can go on. Some how I'll try. Michael would have wanted me to (Billie Jean was about me) ... for the children ...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I think I saw The princess, Elvis and MJ in a restaurant yesterday. They are still alive.
>>>>>
>>>>>And always will be as long as there is Love, and Belief, and Magic, and Rainbows and Unicorns and fetal alcohol syndrome ...
>>>>
>>>>The man could sing. One of my favorite biographies is Peter Guralnick's first volume about Elvis, the rise to fame. He and his band drove all night from gig to gig throughout the south, the bass guitar strapped to the hood. He never shut up, keeping them all awake. He was a young man on fire. So sad that fame turned him into a recluse.
>>>
>>>Exactly the point. Elvis was dead by 1962. MJ by 1986.
>>>
>>>I saw Vladimir Horowitz perform when he was 74 and Stephane Grapelli when he must have been 80. Dave Brubeck played here in Cleveland last month.
>>>
>>>MJ - not impressed.
>>
>>Mentioning Grapelli reminded me that Joe Venuti died when he was 75 and in his last year, he was still performing. Imagine. He played with Eddie Lang and in Paul Whiteman's orchestra and was still performing in 1973.
>>
>>Doc Cheatham was still playing in his 90s and Eubie Blake until he was just a tad short of 100 years old.
>
>And Papa John Creach is on the Red Octopus album ( saw him play with them when Jeff airplane did the Red Octopus concert at Winterland - he looked to be about 90 then.)
>
>Grapelli was god-like. He was playing at Great American Music hall - a couple times actually - with David Grisman, Toni Rice, Mike Marshall, Daryl Anger, Rob Wasserman and Mark O'Connell and you could see it would just kind of wash over them in waves and sometimes in great flashes that "Holy crap, I'm on stage playing with Stephan Grapelli." Very cool.

Yeah. I also loved the album he did with Toots Thielemans. Talk about music!

Not to mention the fact that a friend of mine (a female friend) thought Grapelli was "damned cute".