Two personal chirps in a row. I promise to get back to my usual themes tomorrow.

There are celebrity deaths that one remembers where they were when they hear of it. I was watching Monday Night football, when Howard Cosell announced that John Lennon had been gunned down. I was in a car on the I-75, going through Michigan, on the way to university, when I heard that Elvis had died, August 16, 1977. Yesterday I was watching tv, when I heard that Cristine McVie, of Fleetwood Mac, had passed away at 79.

This one has affected me. Fleetwood Mac took off when McVie and Stevie Nicks came on board. I was at the University of Windsor, at the time. This is back in 1975. Over the next few years, they seemed to be always present, on the radio. They seemed to be coming up with hits every few months. They seemed to have the same “always around” presence that Tom Petty did back then. Another celebrity, gone, where I remembered where I was when I heard of his passing.

Their songs were songs to listen to, to enjoy, even if you did not know all the words. Even later in life, as I stasrted listening to classic rock stations, songs that I really did not appreciate earlier in life, became more meaningful. For me, that would be “Landslide”, where Stevie Nicks was the lead singer.

“Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changin’ ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Well, I’ve been afraid of changin’
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I’m getting older too”

As for McVie, her most-well known songs, to me, were “You Make Loving Fun” and, of course “Don’t Stop”. I remember hearing Don’t Stop constantly in the late 70’s and early 80’s. It became the theme song, of the Clinton campaign, in 1992, and Fleetwood Mac sang it at Clinton’s inauguration.

It’s an optimistic song, giving one hope. I will close this chirp, part of the lytics, to that song, that strikes a deep chord in me.

“If you wake up and don’t want to smile
If it takes just a little while
Open your eyes and look at the day
You’ll see things in a different way

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
It’ll be better than before
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone”