Now your a has been at 20

Thankfully, having never been, I can never be a has been.  I have no plummeting sales, or decline in venue size to worry about.  All these years at the bottom have been the happiest of my life, and as it's all up from here, as my old friend Alfred E Newman would say "what me worry".

But what about the instant celebs of our youtube global internet culture.  Today I came across Desiree Bassett,  who at 13

 year of age was already being touted as the worlds greatest female guitarist.  While I doubt the veracity of that claim, being pals with Ms Carmen Getit, who plays with far more verve and pinache (cause shredding isn't everything my dears), Ms Bassett by age 15 was sharing the stage of the MGM Grand with Sammy Hagar. What peaks will she have left to climb by the time she reaches voting age.   Or will this be a case of arrested development, as a merciless industry pumps up the volume on this smiling goddess of the guitar.  Flaming out early from the grind necessitated by building a career large enough to satisfy the gatekeepers of the "professional music business".  

No doubt Mom and Pop Bassett are sane people, socking away the concert and CD dough. Making sure Desiree keeps her grades up, and has plenty of time for a teenage life.  Looking out for their kid like all good parents would by supplying the guidance for a more varied life than onstage adulation, and back stage emotional taxation. 

Perhaps my cant is just one of sour grapes.  having never reached the stage of the 

MGM Grand, or been sponsored by Fletcher Limousines.  After all at 15 I was not much of a musician, spending my time pursuing other interests.  So here is a poem about a life lived.

In my 20's I thought I was the greatest

But I can now see that my ideas were just the latest.  

Clues, hadn't the vaguest.   

By my 30's I was starting to really cook. 

But couldn't get the public to give me a look.  

In my 40's I didn't give a dam.

Played for myself, thought the business a scam.  

Now that I hit 50.

I think my music's uplifting. 

With a bit of depth.

Not too much riffing.

I'd like to have had an easier life.

But then I should not have made music my wife.

Thats all for now

XXOO

Bobo