Remembering two great men.

The Christmas season is in full swing and I'm sorry I haven't been posting as much but I promise I will post some stellar outfit posts in the next week and I have big things planned for 2014! I've been super busy with the end of the semester and Christmas shopping but as of yesterday I'm finally finished and I have some free time!

I use a lot of my time at the end of the year for reflection and for the past decade or so to reflect upon the passing of two men that have had a tremendous impact on my life and are two of my biggest role models. Today marks the 40th year that Bobby Darin has been gone and Sunday the 22nd will mark the 11th year since the death of Joe Strummer. These two men have affected my life and yet I've never even met them! However, I believe that these two men left an impression on the world and they definitely left a big impression on my life and therefore should be honored.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time than you will know that I am a Bobby Darin super fan. I had always been a fan of his hits but it was just last year that I started delving into his vast catalogue and reading about his life. In 37 years the man accomplished so much and reinvented himself many times. I can't get over how much ambition the man had and if that's not reason alone to consider the man a role model than I don't know what is! Whenever I feel like packing in my blog or anything else I have an ambition for I think about Bobby Darin and the impact he had on the world and I'm inspired.

(courtesy of Bobbydarin.net)

To my knowledge, I've heard everything that Bobby Darin has ever recorded and I haven't heard one bad tune. His voice has such power and he can convey all kinds of emotions through his music that it has the power to move me to extreme highs or lows.

Here is the first song that came to mind for extreme highs

and here is extreme low

I can't help to identify with both of these men since they both spent most of their lives on a quest to find themselves. Bobby Darin spent about a year living in a trailer in Big Sur writing beautiful songs and figuring out who he really was, this song was written during that time

This is one of my favorites

When I was 12 years old, in 2002, I heard my first Clash song and that was in September. When I heard the song "London Calling" I was hooked and had to listen to the entire album and I was an instant fan. That same year, on the 22nd of December, Joe Strummer died. I knew he was a member of my new favorite band but that's about all I knew, so I started to buy every book about The Clash that 

I could get my hands on. 

I've heard this countless times now and I still get chills. 

I was going into my 13th year and The Clash, specifically Joe Strummer, really helped shape me. The Clash really expanded my 12 year old mind, I had never imagined that music could be so passionate and have an actual message. It wasn't just the music that inspired me it was the way that Joe Strummer lived his life. Just like Bobby Darin, Joe Strummer spent a lot of his life discovering himself. He spent a couple of years in Spain after the Clash broke up which were called his "wilderness years". After he surfaced he started making music again.

From his second album with the Mescaleros "Global a Go Go"

If this song doesn't get you up and dancing than there may be no hope...

Bobby Darin and Joe Strummer, in my mind, could have been good friends. I was alive when Joe Strummer died but not to experience the death of Bobby Darin. Even though I never met them they have left such a mark on the way I live my life. I've learned it is never too late to change your path, there is always time to step back and find out what you really want. If you're not happy find out why and change it. I've learned to always keep trying and that people can change anything they want to. If you aren't familiar with either of these men than I urge you to learn everything you can about them.

I'm sure you all have a role model in your lives and my biggest two just happen to be very talented and passionate musicians. I realize that I've never met these men and they were not perfect but to me they are so inspirational. Their views on life, their bodies of work are both things to take inspiration from. I like to reflect on their music and their lives this time of year. If you're a fan of either Bobby Darin or Joe Strummer feel free to add a comment.

"If you don't try, if you don't do something for yourself, you're not going to get anywhere"

                                 -Bobby Darin

"And so now I'd like to say - people can change anything they want to. And that means everything in the world. People are running about following their little tracks - I am one of them. But we've all got to stop just following our own little mouse trail. People can do anything - this is something that I'm beginning to learn. People are out there doing bad things to each other. That's because they've been dehumanised. It's time to take the humanity back into the center of the ring and follow that for a time. Greed, it ain't going anywhere. They should have that in a big billboard across Times Square. Without people you're nothing. That's my spiel." 

                   -Joe Strummer