Breakups

I'm lucky, in that I've never had a band I love break up while I'm a fan.  I've had a couple of close calls, though - when Ross Childress quit Collective Soul in 2001, I thought they were done; then Youth came out.  Also, Neutral Milk Hotel never really broke up (as it's all basically Jeff Mangum) but it's gradually become apparent that they will never record another album.

For some reason, we think of band breakups like we think of romantic ones - every one of them seems tragic, despite the fact that clearly for bands, breaking up is normal.  Think of your three best friends, think of working with them every day, being with them twenty-four hours for months at a time, and having serious disagreements about something you love, all the time.  Of course bands break up.  I'm amazed as many as do make second albums.

Still, I remember when I was seven and my dad told me about the Beatles breaking up, and how they could never get back together because John was dead.  I don't know if I cried, because I didn't really know the Beatles at that point.  But how many people did, for either event?  I can't really blame them.

I don't know where the expectation of permanence comes from - there are so few bands that last for any significant period of time, and so many fewer do so without lineup changes.  The Rolling Stones have three of the original members; Jethro Tull has one.  Clearly we need to change our expectations, see bands as an entity in the now without any expectation of permanence.  Adopt a Zen Rock and Roll mindset, maybe.

When I heard about the Beatles, I didn't really differentiate between what happened to the band, and what happened to John.  Clearly the gulf between the two events is vast, but to me (at seven) they meant the same thing - there would never be any more of this music.  When bands break up, it feels like something dying, which is ridiculous, but still true.  I don't know why that is.