What Are Words For? (8/11)-For The Professor :'(

[Railyn]

I swore I was going off the sad songs, but I saw the post about the Professor tonight, and I felt obligated to my friend to give him a tribute.

Taken away from us way too soon, he was a good friend to me, and to a lot of us. He was a dear person, smart, and genuine.

This may not be the absolute ideal song for him - the ends of the first and second verse really does not fit him (although I suppose it depends on how you look at it), but it's still a very pretty song, and overall worthy. (and a special thanks to my husband for suggesting it)

We are all better for having known him.

RIP Kurt Smith

GOODBYE TO ROMANCE
By: Ozzy Osbourne
Album: Blizzard Of Oz
Author: Daisley/Osbourne/Rhoades

Yesterday has been and gone
Tommorow will I find the sun
Or will it rain
Everybody's having fun
Except me, I'm the lonely one
I live in shame

I say goodbye to romance, yeah
Goodbye to friends, I tell you
Goodbye to all the past
I guess that we'll meet
We'll meet in the end

I've been the king, I've been the clown
Now broken wings can't hold me down
I'm free again
The jester with the broken crown
It won't be me this time around
To love in vain

I say goodbye to romance, yeah
Goodbye to friends, I tell you
Goodbye to all the past
I guess that we'll meet
We'll meet in the end

And I feel the time is right
Although I know that you just might say to me
What'cha gonna do
What'cha gonna do
But I have to take this chance goodbye
To friends and to romance
And to all of you
And to all of you
Come on now

I say goodbye to romance, yeah
Goodbye to friends, I tell you
Goodbye to all the past
I guess that we'll meet
We'll meet in the end

And the weather's looking fine
And I think the sun will shine again
And I feel I've cleared my mind
All the past is left behind again

I say goodbye to romance, yeah
Goodbye to friends, I tell you
Goodbye to all the past
I guess that we'll meet
We'll meet in the end

My Opinion In A Nutshell: As I said, this may not be the most ideal song for him, but he was a good friend to many, and I know he would have wanted to say goodbye if he only could have.

Favorite Line: "I've been the king, I've been the clown
Now broken wings can't hold me down
I'm free again" - a great sense of humor and one of YL's most prolific posters, this just conjures images in my head of him finally being free of Cancer, and flying away......

[kathyb]

Just now saw this post, which is why I didn't reply sooner.

I'm not sure I ever heard this song before--not a big Ozzy fan I guess.
Overall, I think this is a good choice in honor of Kurt. I'm still finding it hard to believe that it's been a whole year already since he has passed. Thanks for doing this, Railyn. Kurt was a fine man. He is missed.

[Railyn]

kathyb said:

Just now saw this post, which is why I didn't reply sooner.

I'm not sure I ever heard this song before--not a big Ozzy fan I guess.
Overall, I think this is a good choice in honor of Kurt. I'm still finding it hard to believe that it's been a whole year already since he has passed. Thanks for doing this, Railyn. Kurt was a fine man. He is missed.

Thanks Kathy. I could never bring myself to take him off my buddy list. The last time I heard from him, he sent me one of those little chain e-mails about friendship, and how you're supposed to send it to x amount of people and back to the person who sent it. I sent it back to him. Never knew he was ill. He never told me.

When things began to get ugly the first time at YL (about early to mid 2001), he asked why I wasn't around as much as I had been. Then he e-mailed me and said a bunch of people were sick of what was going on, and were starting a new website, and he wanted me to come along. It was called The Sunny Daze Cafe. Problem was, there was only a handful of us, and things moved very slow, and ultimately I couldn't get back on the site, so I guessed they gave up. I missed hearing from him and went back to YL in January looking for him. Saw he hadn't posted in a long time and saw the title of his last listed post and figured that he chucked it all. Then I read it, and bawled all night long.

I didn't want to pick the obligatory song for him like "Long And Winding Road" or something similar. I feel that he would have wanted to say goodbye to everyone, and when I hear the song, it's almost like I can hear him (even though I don't know what he sounded or looked like) saying essentially that he's sorry, but he has to go, and he'll see us someday again, and not to be sad because he's going to a better place, where there's no illness, and he can be happy forever.

[kathyb]

Railyn said:

Thanks Kathy. I could never bring myself to take him off my buddy list. The last time I heard from him, he sent me one of those little chain e-mails about friendship, and how you're supposed to send it to x amount of people and back to the person who sent it. I sent it back to him. Never knew he was ill. He never told me.

When things began to get ugly the first time at YL (about early to mid 2001), he asked why I wasn't around as much as I had been. Then he e-mailed me and said a bunch of people were sick of what was going on, and were starting a new website, and he wanted me to come along. It was called The Sunny Daze Cafe. Problem was, there was only a handful of us, and things moved very slow, and ultimately I couldn't get back on the site, so I guessed they gave up. I missed hearing from him and went back to YL in January looking for him. Saw he hadn't posted in a long time and saw the title of his last listed post and figured that he chucked it all. Then I read it, and bawled all night long.

I didn't want to pick the obligatory song for him like "Long And Winding Road" or something similar. I feel that he would have wanted to say goodbye to everyone, and when I hear the song, it's almost like I can hear him (even though I don't know what he sounded or looked like) saying essentially that he's sorry, but he has to go, and he'll see us someday again, and not to be sad because he's going to a better place, where there's no illness, and he can be happy forever.

I totally agree with how he'd feel about saying goodbye to everyone in an "unconventional" way, and I'm sure he would be happy with that choice of song.

Kurt was such a nice man. I'm glad I got the opportunity to know him--for however brief a time it was.

[Rali]

Railyn said:

I could never bring myself to take him off my buddy list.

Same here!

His name is one VERY important reason I am SO happy I happened to have saved a copy of my YL Buddy List.

If you're anything like me (And my guess is you are) You also can't bare to think of taking him out of your e-address book, either.

Every so often I find myself looking at his name there, thinking about him....

[Railyn]

kathyb said:

I totally agree with how he'd feel about saying goodbye to everyone in an "unconventional" way, and I'm sure he would be happy with that choice of song.

Kurt was such a nice man. I'm glad I got the opportunity to know him--for however brief a time it was.

Thanks, Kathy. I kind of went back and forth over what to pick for him, and kept coming back to this one. I'm glad others think I made the right choice.

[Railyn]

Rali said:

Same here!

His name is one VERY important reason I am SO happy I happened to have saved a copy of my YL Buddy List.

If you're anything like me (And my guess is you are) You also can't bare to think of taking him out of your e-address book, either.

Every so often I find myself looking at his name there, thinking about him....

I lost it in a system crash. That is one reason why I went looking for him only to find the bad news.

I still have his brother's e-mail address, though.

It was weird that I picked the easter egg hunt. His brother told me easter was his favorite holiday.