Celluloid Montage of Fame and Mortality

"Celluloid Heroes" riff
Goes something like this.... ;)

I've always thought this song
Melodic and sweet...
As many of the non-pulsating
Kinks' songs are.

Listening to it again
In a different phase of life
A number of things come to mind.

Bittersweet

Ray Davies of the Kinks
Was only in Hollywood for 2 weeks
When he wrote this song:

Everyone is a star in their own life.

Success goes hand in hand with failure.

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages."
As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139–143


Lonely lives can come from
Fame and its opposite as well
It's just that you can see it on
Hollywood Boulevard ~
The names in concrete
That are gone and gradually
Forgotten ~
By most.

I could see that from some of
The photographs.

It was a sort of like a
Rorschach test - the associations
I felt when I saw each face
In this montage

In this culture, where fame
And temporary parts on the world stage
As films are one of the U.S.'s major exports
These days...
Representation of Story
Carry human souls behind the
Roles they play.

J.D. and I don't feel the same way
When most famous people pass away.

To me, they play out aspects of my very own
Journey and become bittersweet mortals
That live on a while past our own spans.
So, there's a grief and loss and then
It's down to Memory.

I remember when I saw Groucho's star.
I was a teenager when he died,
He was the first and only celebrity for which
I ever wore a black arm band.