Good grief – what an odd expression; coming, surely, only at the end of a good life. Such is my state of the doldrums. If it’s not enough to confront, and daily, one’s own mortality and those near, there are those more distant who have somehow been there on life’s journey.
The death of two Melbourne girls made good – very good – and only days apart, moves one (such as I) for whom they were omnipresent from childhood through teenage years, then fading into the background as time passed and life got messy – but always sort of there. Essential accompaniments to the sound track of this one life.
Until she came to my mind last year in an unusual context, I hadn’t thought of Judith Durham for a long, long time, and I was initially quite taken aback at how familiar she remained, and the ease with which she transported me back to my childhood – suddenly I was there (in front of the TV) watching The Seekers farewell concert in Melbourne in 1967 – and how thrilled I was to hear her distinctive voice again.
As fate would have it, in a Guardian piece reporting Judith Durham’s death on 5th August, Olivia Newton-John is mentioned as one, after The Seekers played at her Melbourne school, inspired by Durham, and is quoted as once having said: “She was one of the first Aussie girls to make it overseas.” Olivia Newton-John died on 8th August, just three days after Judith Durham.
Not everyone’s music to be sure – too folksy, too poppy, whatever – but, even when not, in and about Melbourne, at different times, everyone’s darlings, both. In retrospect, it is clear that the trajectory of their careers and how that effected their lives says a lot about the demands of the music business and the pitfalls of celebrity. Especially when that celebrity is catapulted outside the provincialism of home-shores and played out in the international arena. For Judith Durham, her relatively modest star shined only for a relatively short time; the end of which she alone determined. For Livvy (everybody in Melbourne called her Livvy), it was a fame, that was greater, lasted longer but took its tribute. Two women, two talented artists – both driven and confined by the dictates and the expectations of an industry, both visited by serious illness, but nevertheless bravely making the (very different) decisions that each could live with. Until they couldn’t anymore.
Following are a pair of videos as tribute. Chosen at random from You Tube, they are sentimental for sure, some would say overly so, but they are songs I remember vividly. Firstly, coming to my notice because it was embedded in The New York Times obituary and is wonderfully remastered, is a video from The Seekers’ 1965 hit “I’ll Never Find Another You” and, secondly, and it’s harder to find free stuff for Olivia, this (available for the moment at least) 1978 performance in Amsterdam of “Hopelessly Devoted to You” from the mega-film Grease released that year, in which she starred with John Travolta – and which, as I remember it, made her a superstar.
In both songs, You sing of some idealized other You. By the many who, in one way or another, grew up with You both, You are remembered. Not just because You were so exceptional, but rather because, during those heady days of youth when everything or nothing seemed possible, we could imagine – with just a little bit of good fortune – being just a little bit like You.