Where Did You Come From...

Well, wouldn't you know it - we made it one whole week without a famous musical artist dying. But, this week we once again return the musical interlude into the "Guess who died this week?" space, as disco queen Donna Summer passed away. Admittedly, disco was never my thing, since I came along after the fad had passed and paid no attention when it had its alleged resurgence in the late 90s as DJs started making techno remixes of previous hits. So, I guess the fact I knew about four of her songs without having to do any research is a testament to Summer's career. Since Summer was born in Boston and raised in Dorchester, the coverage has been even heavier around here and I have seen repeated stories on the local news about her all week long. I have to be honest, I might have heard before that Summer was from around here, but for some reason that fact seemed to come and go from my brain.

I'm always fascinated to see just who steps up to claim famous people. It seems that by the time most artist become famous they have been living in either Los Angeles or New York for a few years, but those are not usually the kind of cities where people are actually from. The majority of their residents arrive there in their early 20s trying to pursue dreams of fame and fortune and until they hit it big the city has no use for them. Not to mention, when you have as many star residents as those locations do, it isn't such a big deal as they are just one fish in a very full pond. As such, their deaths are a bigger deal back in their hometown, where most of them haven't lived in decades. For example, just a few months ago New Jersey lowered the flags to half-staff when Whitney Houston died. While I saw some flags lowered this weekend, I do not think that was because of Donna Summer.