The media say it was a heart attack that felled Dick Clark in the end. And already tributes far and near are pouring in. He deserves them.
Everyone my age has his or her own Dick Clark remembrance or two. Me? I remember watching “American Bandstand” as an early teenager and learning about modern pop music in the deal. Clark must have been in his twenties then, but he seemed like a wise old music sage to me.
Over the years, he and I morphed into senior citizens. He eventually left “American Bandstand” and invented “Rockin’ New Year’s Eve.” In recent years, Earl and I spent New Year’s Eve with close friends; and we always watched Dick Clark count down the seconds to the New Year.
This past December 31, we watched and commented on how Clark seemed to have reached a plateau in terms of his physical health. We all knew he’d had a stroke a few years back, but he still wanted to recover enough to be on the New Year’s Eve show he created. This time he was in the studio commenting as the ball dropped on Times Square while his sidekick, Ryan Seacrest, was live in the streets.
Who knew it would be his last rockin’ New Year’s Eve? Certainly not me. And yet, as I mourn the passing of an icon from my youth, I am consoled by the fact that Dick Clark is remembered as a pioneer in the music world. He never made a record; he never won a music award; he never sold a million copies.
Still, he shaped music as we know it today. RIP.
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