Legacies and Comebacks

The Pixies are coming to my home town, which precipitated the predictable conversations about 'the integrity of the legacy of an artist who once truly mattered', versus the desire of many people to a) experience a legendary artist for the first time, or b) relive their youth.

It's rather uncontroversial, albeit impolite, to say that legacy-wise Chapman did Lennon a favour. An old guitar magazine I once owned included an offhand remark that, had Jimi Hendrix survived to middle age, he'd be doing Prince covers for five dollar door-charge at Seattle bars. Dying young is a great career move for artists.

Voluntary retirement, unlike death, is easily reversed. Comebacks, for money (Kim Deal said she agreed to participate in an earlier Pixies reunion so Joey Santiago could move to a better neighbourhood) or attention or merely something to do, are always at least a little bit of a letdown, Michael Jordan's first one excepted.

I don't begrudge the rappers, rockers, politicians and boxers who get back in the ring post-prime. I'm sure I would (or, hopefully, I will) do the same. While self-awareness mitigates some of the legacy conservation problems – the Sex Pistols called their reunion the “Filthy Lucre Tour” and a previous Pixies reunion was called “The Pixies Sell Out” - I have a romantic side that wants tidy legacies and careers with no decline.

A man whose contributions rival Shakesphere's, Bill Watterson, justified retiring and staying retired thusly:

It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now "grieving" for "Calvin and Hobbes" would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them.

I'm still buying Pixies tickets. They're playing Doolittle in its entirety!

Watterson quote via the Daily Dish.